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Self-help groups such as those involved with Neighbourhood Watch and crime prevention/community safety panels operate entirely on a voluntary basis, supported by local police forces. The Scottish Executive provides support in the form of publicity materials and in the case of panels has, since 1997, awarded £54,000 of funding for local crime prevention initiatives. I also announced last August the introduction of new challenge funding of £1.5 million for projects from community safety partnerships to run in tandem with the CCTV Challenge Competition which receives similar funding.

I refer the Member to the answer S1W-3560.

Health boards and NHS Trusts have to plan and deliver services which meet the needs of their local population within the resources allocated to them and taking account of national and local priorities. A patient may require an ultrasound examination or barium x-ray for various clinical reasons, and the priority attached to each case is a matter for the clinical judgement of the doctor concerned. The impact on patient outcomes from differing waiting times for these investigative/diagnostic procedures would depend on the nature of the patient's condition at the time of referral.The Scottish Executive is committed to improving waiting times, addressing all stages of a patient's care pathway through the Health Service, and to creating greater equity of access across the country. As I announced in Parliament on 16 December, we will be working with the NHS across Scotland over the coming months to establish national maximum waiting times, to be met by March 2000, in the three national clinical priorities of heart disease, cancer and mental illness.

North Glasgow University Hospitals NHS Trust has taken a number of steps to reduce waiting times for oncology patients both for diagnostic and therapeutic services, including extending its working week by 20 hours and the appointment of an extra half-time consultant radiologist. Further information is available on request from the Trust.The Scottish Executive is committed to improving waiting times, addressing all stages of each patient's care. Over the coming months we will be working with the NHS across Scotland to establish national maximum waiting times to be met by March 2001 in the three national priorities of heart disease, cancer and mental illness.

I refer the Member to the answer S1W-3560.

The Scottish Executive does not set specific efficiency savings targets for health boards or NHS Trusts. Boards and Trusts are expected to supplement the substantial real terms increase in resources they received this year by improving the efficiency with which they deliver services. All the savings generated in this way are re-invested locally in health service developments.

The Joint Ministerial Committee will bring together Ministers from the UK Government and the three devolved administrations. The remit and structure of the JMC are set out in Annex A of the Memorandum of Understanding.

JMC (Poverty) covers issues on child poverty and pensioner poverty and JMC (Knowledge Economy) will consider joint action on information technology in education and industry. Both will be chaired by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. JMC (EU) covers European Union issues and will be chaired by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth AffairsMinisters of the devolved administrations and the territorial Secretaries of State will be members of the Committees as well as relevant UK Ministers. It will be for the Committee members to decide where and how often the Committees will meet.Paragraph A1.11 of the Memorandum of Understanding provides that "the proceedings of each meeting of the JMC will be regarded as confidential by the participants, in order to permit free and candid discussion. However, the holding of JMC meetings will be made known publicly and there may be occasions on which the Committee will wish to issue a public statement on the outcome of its discussions."

The distribution of Grant-Aided Expenditure, which feeds into the distribution of Aggregate External Finance, is based on a formula assessment of councils' relative expenditure needs agreed with CoSLA. Glasgow City Council's below average increase in GAE this year was largely due to 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.

I announced the revised aggregate figures for this year's local government finance settlement and the general approach I would be taking to the distribution in my statement to Parliament on 8 December. The proposals for individual allocations which I announced in my reply to a Written Parliamentary Question (S1W-3294) on 15 December 1999 are still the subject of consultation with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. The Parliament will have the opportunity to consider the final allocations when the Local Government Finance Order 2000 is laid later this month.

The information requested is not available on a consistent basis. We are taking a range of initiatives which should reduce waiting times. Central to these is the drive for local agencies to work together to improve services as envisaged in Modernising Community Care: an Action Plan. Incentive funding to encourage implementation will increase from £5 million this year to £7.5 million in 2000-2001. The Joint Future Group, which I will chair, will aim to strengthen joint working.