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Whilst no specific funding is earmarked for arrest referral schemes, £5.9 million is set aside over these two years for priority programmes tackling the problem of drug offenders. These funds will enhance the provision of intensive probation and diversion from prosecution schemes and will invest £1.2 million and £1.5 million in 2000-01 and 2001-02 respectively in the piloting of Drug Treatment and Testing Orders.

I refer the member to my reply to question S1W-6164.

Draft regulations transposing the Drinking Water Directive into Scottish legislation will be the subject of a consultation exercise during the summer. The proposed draft requires water undertakers to submit programmes of work designed to secure compliance with the regulations to Scottish Ministers for their approval.

Due to the multiplicity of tasks performed by nurses, drug workers and others working in prisons, it is not possible to be precise. Scottish Prison Service estimate that they spent about £6.5 million on drug treatment and case services in 1999-2000.

Estimates of future Scottish Prison Service expenditure in this area are not yet available. However, they hope that the amount spent will increase over the period.

The Scottish Prison Service does not ring fence budgets in this area.

The tighter standards for lead prescribed in the EC Drinking Water Directive published in December 1998 are being transposed into Scottish legislation. The existing drinking water quality regulations set a maximum level for lead in drinking water of 50 microgrammes per litre. This level will be reduced to 25 microgrammes per litre in 2003 and then reduced further to 10 microgrammes per litre in 2013.

Failure to meet the lead standard in domestic water supplies is generally due to the presence of lead plumbing. Plumbosolvency control is already practised at many water treatment works but the water authorities have recently identified additional areas where treatment may help meet the new standards. The authorities should have additional plumbosolvency control measures in place by December 2001.

The only lead pipes owned by a water authority are lead communication pipes running between the water main in the street and the boundary of a property. The use of lead communication pipes stopped around 1960. Lead communication pipes are being replaced by water authorities as part of their mains rehabilitation programmes. If, despite the actions taken by a water authority, a domestic property fails to meet the new standard after the prescribed date, water authorities will provide consumers and property owners with advice on remedial action that they can take.

Discussions have taken place in the Tripartite Working Group which comprises officials from the Scottish Executive, the Law Society of Scotland and the Scottish Legal Aid Board on the question of an increase in legal aid fees. The society intend to make proposals to the group and these will be considered by my Department

The fees for civil legal aid work were last increased in 1995.

The Scottish Legal Aid Board has raised the issue of remuneration rates for solicitors who undertake civil and criminal legal aid work. Initial discussions have taken place within the Tripartite Working Group which comprises officials of the Scottish Executive, the Board and the Law Society of Scotland.