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In July 2001, £24 million additional resources for child care were allocated through the child poverty package over 2001-04. The money was allocated as follows: £8.5 million was made available for child care grants for lone parents in full-time higher education to pay for child care. This grant is administered through the Students Awards Agency for Scotland. Figures for the 2001-02 allocation are not available, as payments were manual and not automated. The number of students receiving the £1,000 grant in 2002-03 is as follows:Argyll and Bute Council - 13West Dunbartonshire Council - 30£7.5 million was made available to further education colleges throughout Scotland to widen child care provision, based on locally identified needs. Responsibility for administering this money lies with the Scottish Further Education Funding Council. Information on awards made by this body is not held centrally. £8 million was made available to local authorities to help stabilise and sustain out-of-school care projects, especially in disadvantaged areas. The money was allocated over a three-year period as £2 million in 2001-02, £3 million in 2002-03 and £3 million in 2003-04. Of this, Argyll and Bute council was allocated £31,400 in 2001-02 and £47,500 in 2002-03 and 2003-04. West Dunbartonshire Council was allocated £22,800 in 2001-02 and £34,100 in 2002-03 and 2003-04.Allocation of this money within each local authority area is a matter for the individual council as they have responsibility for the allocation of funds at a local level. The information requested is not held centrally.

Within the framework of A Smart, Successful Scotland, the Executive is strongly committed to encouraging and supporting women in business. A range of new measures was introduced by Scottish Enterprise under its New Approach to Entrepreneurship strategy, launched last year. At a strategic level this includes specific targets for the number of start-ups by women supported by the network, together with practical promotional activity, for example the Executive and Scottish Enterprise jointly funding a brochure promoting successful women entrepreneurs last year.

The Executive plans to publish the feasibility study in March 2003.

The Executive is currently considering the case for a national centre for women's enterprise and I hope to announce a decision on the way forward in March.

While this is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise, I understand that there are currently 19 microcredit groups operating across the Scottish Enterprise area supporting some 149 clients. Approximately 92% of the clients are women.

The Scottish Executive has provided an input to the development of the Department of Trade and Industry's Women's Enterprise Strategic Framework. The Executive is currently considering the draft framework for Scottish interests.

In 2001, Scottish courts referred 562 offenders to the Drink Driving Rehabilitation Scheme as part of the sentencing procedure. In 2002, this number had increased to 1,487. The scheme itself is reserved under section 34A of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988, and it is the Department for Transport which monitors the provision of courses nationally, including the amount of referrals by courts in England, Scotland and Wales, the number of courses run and the total number of offenders completing a course.

The Scottish Police College has developed a National Equal Opportunities Training Strategy (NEOTS) which covers all aspects of equal opportunities. NEOTS training has been incorporated into the new Probationer Training Programme. In addition to this centrally delivered training, all police forces in Scotland are now running NEOTS courses. The college also delivers a two-day Diversity Awareness course.The Scottish Police College has recently appointed a Diversity Co-ordinator and is in the process of setting up a diversity panel, made up of officers from all police forces, whose remit will be to advise the college on diversity issues.

The Executive collates and publishes crime statistics from information recorded by the police. The police do not record either the level or type of hate crime against people with learning difficulties or any other disabilities. Only the nature of the offence is recorded.

The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS) has established a newly constituted Race and Community Relations Standing Committee to reflect the importance ACPOS gives to diversity issues. The new committee has several portfolios, one of which is disability/mental health. ACPOS is currently consulting with major stakeholders to ascertain which issues on disability/mental health the committee should consider addressing.