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I refer Mr Gibson to the answer to his question S1W-3003.

There is no recognised and quantifiable grouping or selection of cold-related illnesses. Many illnesses, including illnesses such as coronary heart disease, may be exacerbated by cold conditions, but it is impossible to say in what proportion of these cold had an impact on the final outcome. There are therefore no figures collected centrally which would provide a simple count of those who may die of cold related illness, or on which basis any estimates of risk of illness or death, or subsequent cost to the NHS could reliably be calculated.

Whatever the issues surrounding such calculation, it is clear that cold can exacerbate poor health and that many people on low incomes can have difficulty in heating their homes adequately. In order to address this issue, a new grant scheme, called the Warm Deal, was introduced in Scotland on 1 July this year. The purpose of the scheme is to provide a package of home insulation measures up to a value of £500 for low income families. The Warm Deal can lead to savings on current fuel bills of up to £170. People can reinvest this amount to provide the extra warmth they need when they need it.The UK government has also taken a number of other measures to address these issues.

I refer Mr Gibson to the answer to his question S1W-3003.

Age is not a barrier to treatment or health care from the NHS

The information available is given in the following tables:

Birth and death rates, by health board, Scotland, 1995 -1998
	Birth rate 1						Death rate 2
	1995	1996	1997	1998				1995	1996	1997	1998
Scotland	11.7	11.6	11.6	11.2				11.8	11.8	11.6	11.6
Argyll & Clyde	11.8	11.6	11.7	10.9				12.2	12.6	12.3	12.5
Ayrshire & Arran	11.1	11.0	11.1	10.8				12.3	12.0	12.7	12.1
Borders	11.0	10.7	10.7	9.8				13.2	12.8	12.9	12.6
Dumfries & Galloway	11.1	10.9	10.6	10.3				11.9	12.8	12.4	12.3
Fife	11.5	11.0	11.0	11.0				11.3	11.4	11.2	11.5
Forth Valley	11.6	11.6	11.5	11.5				11.1	11.7	11.0	11.0
Grampian	11.5	11.4	11.4	11.4				10.3	9.9	9.8	9.9
Greater Glasgow	12.2	12.1	12.1	11.3				13.1	13.0	12.7	12.5
Highland	11.6	11.4	11.7	11.8				11.7	11.4	11.5	11.5
Lanarkshire	12.0	12.2	12.1	11.8				11.0	10.9	10.9	10.7
Lothian	12.0	11.8	11.9	11.4				11.0	11.3	10.8	10.7
Orkney	11.6	10.9	11.3	9.9				11.9	11.6	12.0	12.5
Shetland	12.6	11.7	12.4	11.6				10.1	10.9	10.6	10.6
Tayside	11.1	11.0	11.2	10.8				12.7	12.9	12.4	12.7
Western Isles	10.4	9.7	8.9	9.8				14.8	14.9	14.8	14.1
1 Live births per 1,000 population2 Deaths per 1,000 population

Expectation of life at birth, by sex and health board, Scotland
	1994-1996			1995-1997			1996-1998
	Males	Females		Males	Females		Males	Females
Scotland	72.0	77.7		72.2	77.8		72.4	77.9
Argyll & Clyde	71.0	77.2		71.2	77.3		71.1	77.3
Ayrshire & Arran	72.5	77.8		72.6	77.4		72.8	78.0
Borders	75.0	79.4		74.7	79.6		74.9	79.7
Dumfries & Galloway	73.7	78.8		73.9	79.1		74.2	79.0
Fife	73.1	78.5		73.4	78.8		73.4	78.7
Forth Valley	72.8	77.6		73.1	78.0		73.1	78.3
Grampian	73.7	79.1		73.9	79.4		74.2	79.6
Greater Glasgow	69.8	76.1		69.9	76.2		70.2	76.4
Highland	72.5	78.7		72.6	78.6		72.8	78.9
Lanarkshire	71.1	76.8		71.7	76.8		71.9	77.0
Lothian	72.8	78.1		72.9	78.2		73.0	78.2
Orkney	73.9	80.5		74.1	79.6		74.1	79.3
Shetland	71.9	79.0		72.1	80.6		72.6	80.0
Tayside	72.6	78.1		73.0	78.3		73.4	78.3
Western Isles	71.5	79.1		70.7	79.0		70.9	79.7

The Structural Funds Regulations direct Objective 2 support towards areas undergoing socio-economic change. Assistance has to be concentrated on significant areas most affected, with due regard to national priorities. In this context the minor changes to the wards proposed in Glasgow I announced on 2 December were defined better to reflect these priorities, in the light of representations made to the Scottish Executive by Glasgow City Council.

Local authorities are expected to meet the cost of pay awards within the total provision for Government Supported Expenditure, which will be £6,746 million next year, an increase of 3.7% over the comparable figure this year, and higher than the forecast increase in the RPI.

Local authorities are expected to meet the cost of pay awards within the total provision for Government Supported Expenditure, which will be £6,746 million next year, an increase of 3.7% over the comparable figure this year, and higher than the forecast increase in the RPI.

I refer the member to the answer to S1W-2882 for the number of authorised absences among secondary school pupils in 1996-97, 1997-98 and 1998-99. More detailed information on categories of authorised absence is not collected by the Scottish Executive.

Authorised absence is defined as:

sickness;

medical and dental treatment;

bereavement;

domestic circumstances relating to exceptional hardship at home;

no school within walking distance and no transport arrangements;

study leave;

religious observance;

family holidays where attendance is otherwise satisfactory;

meetings prior to, and in, court;

attendance at, or in connection with, a Children's Hearing;

attendance at, or in connection with, a Child Care Review;

weddings of immediate family;

certified debates, sports, musical or theatrical productions not arranged by, or in conjunction with, the school;

extended visits overseas to relatives;sanctioned, extended absence in relation to children of travelling families.