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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.

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.

The Scottish Executive has no such plans. The broad strategy for improving health in Scotland was set out in the White Paper Towards a Healthier Scotland, the principles of which were endorsed by the Scottish Parliament last September.

The information requested is as follows:

1996-97	88
1997-98	103
1998-99	80

In determining its future training requirements the Scottish Ambulance Service continues to have regard to its objective of having a paramedic on every front-line accident and emergency ambulance.

All aspects of training for complementary therapies such as herbal medicine, including the provision of premises and the remuneration of trainers and support staff, are matters for the professional bodies concerned and are generally expected to be self-financing from the fees paid by trainees. The Executive would not be likely to undertake direct sponsorship of a particular therapy.

The cost of installing full central heating in three-apartment local authority flats would be determined by a number of factors including floor space, type of central heating to be installed and the extent to which full or partial central heating already exists in the stock. This information is not held centrally and so no estimate can be made.

The Champions for Change have made themselves available for consultation by councils on an entirely voluntary basis, for which we are very grateful. We leave it to councils themselves to make their own contacts with the Champions, and to determine the role they can play in sharing discussion on how to manage change.

None.

Each council's expenditure guideline figure is calculated on the basis of its increase in Grant-Aided Expenditure and loan charge support. The distribution of GAE, as stated in my reply to Mr Gibson's earlier question (S1W-3398), is based on a formula assessment of councils' relative expenditure needs agreed with CoSLA. Although Glasgow City Council's increase in loan charges support for 2000-01 was above average, its increase in GAE was below average, largely because of 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. As Glasgow's GAE increase was the most significant component in the calculation of its guideline, this resulted in Glasgow having a correspondingly lower than average guideline increase.