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The amount of capital receipts from the disposal of housing assets set aside by local authorities to repay debt in the years 1997-98 to 2001-02 are set out, in both actual and real terms, in the following tables. Amounts received as result of housing capital set aside rules £ million (Actual)

	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02
Aberdeen City	10.50	10.52	10.57	9.10	7.79
Aberdeenshire	6.73	4.26	5.25	6.58	5.113
Angus	3.79	2.59	2.84	3.25	2.316
Argyll and Bute	2.08	1.80	1.91	1.66	1.88
Clackmannanshire	1.53	1.48	1.47	1.39	1.957
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	0.43	0.54	0.35	0.40	0.34
Dumfries and Galloway	5.09	3.28	4.14	4.23	4.25
Dundee City	3.48	3.21	2.62	2.86	2.45
East Ayrshire	4.92	4.15	5.12	5.28	4.75
E. Dunbartonshire	1.85	2.46	2.64	2.33	2.28
East Lothian	3.78	2.17	3.57	5.65	4.87
East Renfrewshire	1.23	1.12	1.18	1.54	1.59
City of Edinburgh	8.71	8.46	7.97	8.48	8.43
Falkirk	6.50	5.13	5.08	6.44	6.78
Fife	10.02	8.59	10.10	8.87	10.42
Glasgow City	18.85	15.91	18.15	19.51	19.42
Highland	8.68	7.41	9.05	8.17	8.22
Inverclyde	4.50	3.19	3.38	3.56	2.30
Midlothian	2.89	2.45	3.19	3.08	3.45
Moray	2.82	1.88	2.44	1.89	2.02
North Ayrshire	3.93	3.33	4.67	4.20	4.48
North Lanarkshire	15.26	14.22	15.56	16.73	14.45
Orkney Islands	0.57	0.55	0.83	0.34	0.30
Perth and Kinross	3.38	2.53	3.26	2.37	2.84
Renfrewshire	5.63	5.24	4.81	5.13	6.73
Scottish Borders	3.85	2.97	2.55	3.58	2.64
Shetland	1.08	0.74	1.67	1.35	1.20
South Ayrshire	3.84	3.44	3.32	2.47	2.98
South Lanarkshire	13.57	14.09	13.39	12.14	10.20
Stirling	2.89	2.61	2.84	3.03	3.47
W. Dunbartonshire	2.53	2.75	1.07	2.10	2.10
West Lothian	7.05	5.32	6.05	5.02	6.81
Total	171.95	148.38	161.02	162.73	158.8

Source: For financial years 1996-97 to 2000-01: as reported by authorities on the Housing Revenue Account Certificate of Capital Payments and Receipts. Note:Figures for 2001-02 are estimates taken from quarterly Housing Capital Monitoring form.Amounts received as result of housing capital set aside rules £ million (Real Terms)

	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02
Aberdeen City	11.53	11.24	11.02	9.33	7.79
Aberdeenshire	7.39	4.55	5.48	6.74	5.113
Angus	4.16	2.76	2.96	3.33	2.316
Argyll and Bute	2.28	1.92	1.99	1.70	1.88
Clackmannanshire	1.68	1.58	1.53	1.42	1.957
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	0.47	0.58	0.37	0.41	0.34
Dumfries and Galloway	5.59	3.51	4.32	4.34	4.25
Dundee City	3.82	3.43	2.73	2.93	2.45
East Ayrshire	5.41	4.43	5.34	5.41	4.75
E. Dunbartonshire	2.03	2.62	2.75	2.39	2.28
East Lothian	4.15	2.32	3.72	5.79	4.87
East Renfrewshire	1.35	1.19	1.23	1.58	1.59
City of Edinburgh	9.57	9.04	8.31	8.69	8.43
Falkirk	7.14	5.48	5.30	6.61	6.78
Fife	11.00	9.18	10.54	9.10	10.42
Glasgow City	20.70	17.00	18.93	19.99	19.42
Highland	9.53	7.91	9.43	8.38	8.22
Inverclyde	4.94	3.41	3.52	3.65	2.30
Midlothian	3.18	2.61	3.33	3.16	3.45
Moray	3.09	2.01	2.54	1.94	2.02
North Ayrshire	4.31	3.56	4.87	4.30	4.48
North Lanarkshire	16.75	15.18	16.22	17.15	14.45
Orkney Islands	0.62	0.59	0.87	0.35	0.30
Perth and Kinross	3.71	2.70	3.40	2.42	2.84
Renfrewshire	6.18	5.60	5.02	5.26	6.73
Scottish Borders	4.23	3.17	2.65	3.67	2.64
Shetland	1.19	0.78	1.74	1.39	1.20
South Ayrshire	4.22	3.68	3.46	2.54	2.98
South Lanarkshire	14.90	15.05	13.96	12.45	10.20
Stirling	3.17	2.79	2.96	3.10	3.47
W. Dunbartonshire	2.78	2.94	1.11	2.15	2.10
West Lothian	7.74	5.68	6.31	5.15	6.81
Total	188.80	158.47	167.94	166.80	158.8

Source: For financial years 1996-97 to 2000-01 as reported by authorities on the Housing Revenue Account Certificate of Capital Payments and Receipts. Notes:Figures for 2001-02 are estimates taken from quarterly Housing Capital Monitoring form.Real terms calculated using HM Treasury GDP Deflators with 2001-02 as base year.

COSLA represents Scottish interests on the group.

The Scottish Executive took the first steps in 1999 to prepare its departments for the possibility of the UK adopting the euro. Finance staff visited key contacts within the Scottish Executive, in the NHS in Scotland, and in a selection of non-deparmental public bodies (NDPBs), to raise awareness of the consequences of any decision to switch from sterling to the euro. This exercise was updated in late 2001. One conclusion was that consistent with the Prime Minister's statement to the House of Commons when launching the first Outline National Changeover Plan in 1999, where computer systems are being upgraded, all Scottish Executive departments will build in euro compatibility where that represents value for money. The Scottish Executive has already taken action in this regard, in the recent exercise to replace the core finance system which now has dual currency functionality. This feature would help to ensure that any changeover to the euro was smooth and cost-effective.Further information on the Scottish Executive's preparations for the possibility of the UK joining Economic and Monetary Union can be found in the detailed response made by the Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning to the Convener of the Scottish Parliament European Committee on 11 January 2002. That response has been placed with the Parliament's Reference Centre and on the Scottish Executive website. Paragraph 21 of the reply refers to the Scottish Executive's own systems.

The information requested is given in the document PQ S1W-24395: Lottery Funds to Scottish Parliamentary Constituencies for Years - 1999/2000, 2000/2001, 2001/2002, a copy of which has been placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 20579).

The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with UK Government ministers and departments on a wide range of issues, including housing benefit. It is for the Department for Work and Pensions to assess the impact of any possible changes to the housing benefit taper.

Details of the UK Government's euro preparations work was set out in the Fifth Report on Euro Preparations, published in November 2001. The Scottish Executive has not established any pilot projects as part of that work. The government will continue to provide regular updates in future progress reports. Membership of the single european currency is a reserved issue.

The Scottish Executive's annual survey regarding the number of primary and secondary pupils excluded from local authority schools in Scotland commenced in 1998. The figures for the three years documented are as follows:

Year	Primary Pupils	Secondary Pupils	Total
1998-99	4,402	29,612	34,014
1998-99(Revised figure)*			37,200
1999-2000	4,652	32,954	37,606
2000-01	4,507	33,145	37,652

*In 1999 the overall figure for exclusions for 1998-99 was revised due to resubmission of data from local authorities, in light of additional guidance and discussions. The revised figure was not broken down between primary, secondary and special education pupils.

Capital resources are not specifically allocated to individual NHS boards for the provision or replacement of medical equipment.It is for individual NHS boards to determine annually the level of funding required for new and replacement medical equipment taking into account other local priorities. NHS boards can use both capital and revenue resources to meet equipment costs.

Finance Circulars for each year since 1996-97, detailing the Aggregate External Finance (AEF) allocations to local authorities, are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Finance Circulars and respective Bib. no's are listed).

Finance Circular	Title	Bib. No.
8/1996	1996-97 Grant Aided Expenditure Figures	20314
31/1996	1997-98 Aggregate External Finance Distribution Proposals	20051
20/1997	1998-99 Aggregate External Finance Distribution Proposals	20052
19/1998	1999-00 Local Government Finance Settlement	20053
9/1999	2000-01 Local Government Finance Settlement	8310
13/2000	Local Government Finance Settlement: 2001-02, 2002-03, 2003-04	20054
3/2001	Revised Local Government Settlements: 2001-02 to 2003-04	20316
8/2001	Local Government Finance Settlement: 2002-03, 2003-04	17961

The Scottish Executive has not, and does not, plan to make representation to the UK Government on this matter.