§ Sir David SteelTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland who is responsible for the loan charges when a council makes a grant to a charitable trust, in order to house people under the care in the community iniatitive; how many grants of this nature have been made by Scottish local authorities since 1983; and what is the total amount of subsidy that has been given.
§ Mr. LangWhen a local authority incurs a capital debt as a consequence of making a capital grant to a charitable774W trust in such circumstances, each year the outstanding debt will be included in the calculation of the loan charges element of the annual distribution of aggregate external finance to that authority.
Information is not held centrally on the number of grants made by local authorities of the type identified by the right hon. Member, nor on the amounts involved. It is therefore not possible to estimate the amount of loan charges support which has been given for such grants.
§ Dr. GodmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the planned expenditure on care in the community in(a) Inverclyde, (b) Strathclyde and (c) Scotland as a whole in each of the next three years; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. StewartPlanned expenditure on community care services is entirely a matter for local authorities to determine.