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Scottish Enterprise is charged with pursing the strategic priorities for economic development contained in A Smart Successful Scotland. These priorities include improving productivity and competitiveness to enhance the long-term growth rate of the economy of East Lothian, to generate greater prosperity and employment and reduce poverty.

The following table shows business starts measured by VAT registrations in the East Lothian council area for 1999, 2000 and 2001. Figures for 2002 will not be available until October 2003.

VAT Registrations	1999	2000	2001
East Lothian	180	185	185

Source: Small Business Service at http://www.sbs.gov.uk/content/statistics/vat9401.xls.Data on the proportion of start-ups still in business after one, two and three years is not available by local authority.

I understand that there are no current plans for funding rail loops at Reston. The Strategic Rail Authority are the lead body for the enhancement of the east coast main line.

For capital infrastructure projects over 10 years, we have £3 billion of investment moneys, within which we have the necessary resources to implement a Borders railway project, subject to the appraisal being conducted under the Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance.

The Scottish Executive is supporting the work undertaken to prepare the business case and the private bill by awarding Scottish Borders Council over £2 million from the Public Transport Fund. The Scottish Executive will continue its support through the parliamentary process and will support the construction, including the provision of an appropriate funding contribution, subject to the project, as for all such projects, satisfying its business case objectives. The Scottish Executive has £3 billion of investment for capital infrastructure projects over the next 10 years, within which we have the necessary resources to implement the Borders railway.

The costs of educating children with special educational needs are met mainly from local authorities' general expenditure. However, the Scottish Executive has provided additional funding to support inclusion and staff development and training, as set out in the following tables.Table A: Inclusion Programme (w.e.f. April 2000)

Council	2000-01(£)	2001-02(£)	2002-03 (£)
Aberdeen City	235,081	559,728	789,565
Aberdeenshire	281,989	671,416	940,276
Angus	126,800	301,911	423,887
Argyll and Bute	99,131	236,030	325,925
Clackmannanshire	58,677	142,267	195,108
Dumfries and Galloway	166,497	396,428	553,058
Dundee City	169,239	402,958	558,378
East Ayrshire	144,593	344,276	481,870
East Dunbartonshire	127,702	304,058	423,835
East Lothian	102,474	243,992	347,795
East Renfrewshire	105,881	252,103	355,731
Edinburgh, City of	462,733	1,101,767	1,556,880
Eilean Siar	33,424	87,494	108,255
Falkirk	166,180	395,675	554,271
Fife	417,877	994,966	1,395,147
Glasgow City	718,370	1,710,438	2,376,008
Highland	250,276	595,908	830,808
Inverclyde	103,703	246,918	345,629
Midlothian	95,740	227,957	320,536
Moray	105,549	251,312	349,302
North Ayrshire	172,329	410,315	572,830
North Lanarkshire	404,989	964,279	1,351,617
Orkney Islands	30,000	66,399	79,021
Perth and Kinross	150,918	359,335	507,760
Renfrewshire	210,927	502,217	706,957
Scottish Borders	116,913	278,370	390,199
Shetland Islands	30,365	80,860	99,365
South Ayrshire	129,646	308,687	430,454
South Lanarkshire	372,467	886,845	1,246,360
Stirling	98,778	235,190	336,306
West Dunbartonshire	119,329	284,122	402,433
West Lothian	191,423	455,778	644,434
	6,000,000	14,300,000	20,000,000

Table B: Staff Development and Training

Council	Awarded in Each Year 1999-2000, 2000-01 and 2001-02(£)	Awarded in 2002-03 (£)
Aberdeen City	168,940	266,894
Aberdeenshire	218,337	344,004
Angus	92,601	146,028
Argyll and Bute	84,130	131,463
Clackmannanshire	60,746	95,845
Dumfries and Galloway	141,743	223,433
Dundee City	121,411	191,715
East Ayrshire	118,789	187,269
East Dunbartonshire	104,780	165,216
East Lothian	65,587	103,339
East Renfrewshire	82,928	130,660
Edinburgh	291,189	461,087
Eilean Siar	56,777	86,493
Falkirk	166,148	261,896
Fife	320,174	504,523
Glasgow	558,920	887,199
Highland	184,529	288,303
Inverclyde	85,875	135,357
Midlothian	64,810	102,180
Moray	78,829	124,251
North Ayrshire	136,632	215,399
North Lanarkshire	323,869	510,318
Orkney Islands	61,178	93,705
Perthshire and Kinross	105,863	166,786
Renfrewshire	166,777	262,761
Scottish Borders	68,569	108,110
Shetland Islands	47,606	72,125
South Ayrshire	100,580	158,606
South Lanarkshire	291,930	459,964
Stirling	93,077	146,782
West Dunbartonshire	95,434	150,498
West Lothian	125,793	198,289
	4,684,551	7,380,500

The Scottish Executive and COSLA school estate strategy, Building Our Future: Scotland's School Estate, sets out our vision and objectives to achieve improvements in the school estate over the long term. It emphasises the importance of good design and of taking account of the differing needs of all children and young people when improving the school environment. The Education (Disability Strategies and Pupils' Educational Records) (Scotland) Act 2002 places a duty on local education authorities in Scotland to plan progressively to improve access to education for pupils with disabilities. The Scottish Executive issued Guidance on Preparing Accessibility Strategies in September 2002, detailing how consultation with staff, pupils and parents should be undertaken, when improvements to the physical environment, to the curriculum, and to communications with pupils with disabilities are planned and implemented.

This information is not available since special educational needs therapist is not a recognised post.

The Executive sets the overall direction for community care policies. Local authorities must implement these, having regard to their statutory duties and to meeting the needs of their local residents. Central and local government work together to monitor the success of policy implementation through a variety of mechanisms and agencies. These include the collection of statistical information on inputs and outcomes; the establishment of Local Outcome Agreements for specific services; the Joint Performance Information and Assessment Framework, used to evaluate the implementation of the joint delivery of community care services by local authority/NHS Partnerships under the Joint Future Agenda; regulation and inspection of services against National Care Standards by the Care Commission; performance audits undertaken by Audit Scotland to ensure value for money, and assessment and review of services by the Social Work Services Inspectorate, either through the Chief Inspector's Annual Report or, where necessary, through a review of a particular local authority or service.

A consultation exercise on the proposals for mandatory licensing of houses in multiple occupation was undertaken by the Scottish Office from 4 June to 30 October 1998. Apart from local authorities, police and fire brigades consultees included landlords' organisations, higher education institutions and student bodies, health boards, tourism interests and voluntary organisations providing housing and support for a wide variety of client groups. The results of this exercise were announced by the Secretary of State for Scotland on 24 March 1999.A working group representing key interests was subsequently established to consider the detail of implementation and to draw up guidance on the scheme. Limited consultation was conducted on the draft order, and further comments were also sought before the guidance was finalised.