Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-16746.

The information requested is given in Table 9, page 15 of the Statistical Bulletin "Recorded Crimes & Offences Involving Firearms, Scotland, 1999" published by the Scottish Executive in September 2000, a copy of which is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib 14877).

The number of police officers in Scotland reached an all time high in March 2001. The funding made available to the police service, which is more than a third higher in real terms than ten years ago, is intended to sustain this level. These resources, combined with the resources made available to improve intelligence-led policing, should significantly enhance the ability of the police to prevent crime and catch criminals.

On 5 October the Minister announced that an additional £25 million per annum had been set aside to provide free nursing care and that an additional £30 million, £36 million and £60 million would be provided to local authorities in the years 2001-02, 2002-03 and 2003-04 respectively. She also announced that £10 million per annum would be provided on a continuing basis to local authorities to reduce delays to discharge from hospital. The availability of none of these resources had previously been announced.

The Scottish Executive is currently working with local authorities and Scottish Homes to agree arrangements for the transfer of development funding to local authorities. We do not intend to set a target date for transfer.

There is evidence that children exposed to passive smoking are at increased risk of serious respiratory illness, asthma attacks, and middle ear disease. Infants are at an increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome.

The World Health Organisation have published evidence that children of smokers perform more poorly in school than children of non-smokers.

The recent independent review of the Business Birth Rate Strategy (BBRS) by the Fraser of Allander Institute indicates that the BBRS has had a positive effect-if not as much as was originally hoped. The report recognises that there have been improvements in many areas consistent with a positive contribution from the BBRS including, inter alia, raising interest and acceptance of entrepreneurship, access to finance and improved business support. We are of course reviewing the Strategy and will look to make such improvements as are considered necessary for the future.

The number of nurses and midwives who completed their training in Scotland in each of the last three years is shown in the following table. The number of nurses and midwives finding employment in NHSScotland is not collected centrally.Nursing and Midwifery Completions by Year of Completion

	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000
Nursing	2,005	2,243	2,277
Midwifery	204	185	191

Source: The National Board for Scotland Statistical Supplement to Annual Report

There is no information about investment under (b) or (c). As regards (a) details of the total number of properties in which local authorities have installed central heating over the last five years are given in my reply to S1W-16620. However there is no separate information on the number of pensioner households benefiting.

There will be sufficient investment to ensure that all dwellings in local authority and housing association ownership have central heating by April 2005 and a substantial number of those aged 60 or over in the private sector have it also.