Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Joint Ministerial Committee will bring together Ministers from the UK Government and the three devolved administrations. The remit and structure of the JMC are set out in Annex A of the Memorandum of Understanding.

JMC (Poverty) covers issues on child poverty and pensioner poverty and JMC (Knowledge Economy) will consider joint action on information technology in education and industry. Both will be chaired by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. JMC (EU) covers European Union issues and will be chaired by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth AffairsMinisters of the devolved administrations and the territorial Secretaries of State will be members of the Committees as well as relevant UK Ministers. It will be for the Committee members to decide where and how often the Committees will meet.Paragraph A1.11 of the Memorandum of Understanding provides that "the proceedings of each meeting of the JMC will be regarded as confidential by the participants, in order to permit free and candid discussion. However, the holding of JMC meetings will be made known publicly and there may be occasions on which the Committee will wish to issue a public statement on the outcome of its discussions."

The Scottish Executive does not set specific efficiency savings targets for health boards or NHS Trusts. Boards and Trusts are expected to supplement the substantial real terms increase in resources they received this year by improving the efficiency with which they deliver services. All the savings generated in this way are re-invested locally in health service developments.

I announced the revised aggregate figures for this year's local government finance settlement and the general approach I would be taking to the distribution in my statement to Parliament on 8 December. The proposals for individual allocations which I announced in my reply to a Written Parliamentary Question (S1W-3294) on 15 December 1999 are still the subject of consultation with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. The Parliament will have the opportunity to consider the final allocations when the Local Government Finance Order 2000 is laid later this month.

The distribution of Grant-Aided Expenditure, which feeds into the distribution of Aggregate External Finance, is based on a formula assessment of councils' relative expenditure needs agreed with CoSLA. Glasgow City Council's below average increase in GAE this year was largely due to the continuing phasing in of revised Social Work GAE indicators and the normal redistributive effects on a number of other service assessments within the agreed formula approach.

The budget of the Scottish Executive is allocated fairly across Scotland. Financial plans for 2000-01 include:£914 million allocated to Glasgow Health Board;£830 million local authority grant to Glasgow City Council;£51 million for Glasgow Development Agency;£45 million local authority gross non housing capital allocation.

This is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise. I will ask the Chairman of that organisation to write to Mr Gibson.

The level of new business start-ups in Scotland is determined by a range of factors, including the overall state of the Scottish and UK economies. The quarterly GDP statistics indicate that the Scottish economy experienced a modest slowdown in the rates of GDP growth over the first half of 1999, along with UK and other European economies. However, the most recent economic indicators are favourable and the latest forecasts suggest that growth in Scotland will accelerate from 2000 in line with the UK.We also have a number of specific initiatives in hand to increase the number of start-up businesses assisted by the enterprise network, and to improve the quality and consistency of advice and support for small businesses across Scotland. We will announce details of these improvements shortly.

The information requested is not available on a consistent basis. We are taking a range of initiatives which should reduce waiting times. Central to these is the drive for local agencies to work together to improve services as envisaged in Modernising Community Care: an Action Plan. Incentive funding to encourage implementation will increase from £5 million this year to £7.5 million in 2000-2001. The Joint Future Group, which I will chair, will aim to strengthen joint working.

Local government spending is set to rise to £6,746 million, an increase of 3.7% over the comparable figure this year and higher than the forecast increase in the RPI. It is a matter for the local authorities themselves to determine their expenditure priorities and set their budgets and council tax levels accordingly.

The finance consultation document Spending Plans for Scotland invited views on our spending proposals for the next two years. Inevitably the spending plans for local government have to strike a balance between affordability and the requirements of other services for which the Scottish Executive is responsible. However, overall our spending plans provide for the most generous local government settlement for seven years, with spending set to rise by 4.8% this year, 3.7% in 2000-01 and 3.6% in 2001-02, higher than the forecast rate of inflation.