Chamber and committees

When determining enterprise area locations the Scottish Government, working closely with the enterprise agencies, identified and assessed a number of strategic sites across Scotland. These possible sites were not intended to include all potentially developable locations in Scotland, rather the key strategic sites across our growth sectors with a manufacturing focus and which offered clear, realisable opportunities in the short to medium term. Our aim in focusing on our most dynamic industries was to ensure we maximised the scope to create new sustainable employment opportunities, encourage private investment and boost economic growth.

The assessment did not identify any locations in West Dunbartonshire which demonstrated sufficiently clear growth sector opportunities which were well aligned with the enterprise area timeframe and in which the levers available could help deliver or accelerate those employment opportunities.

However, enterprise areas are only one element in the range of initiatives the Scottish Government has in place to create a supportive business environment, boost economic growth and stimulate job creation across Scotland. Existing measures like Regional Selective Assistance, as well as the business support and development services provided through Scottish Enterprise and Business Gateway, will continue to be available in West Dunbartonshire.

The Scottish Government, working closely with the enterprise agencies, and utilising their extensive knowledge of growth sectors and Scottish niche market opportunities, identified a list of key strategic sites offering the greatest potential to stimulate and deliver manufacturing opportunities across Scotland’s growth sectors within the enterprise area timeframe.

These sites were then rigorously and consistently assessed against the following criteria:

Evidence of market failure or barriers to growth which Enterprise Areas could help reduce.

Evidence of the opportunity to create additional economic growth and new jobs in Scotland.

Evidence of the need for improved local economic performance.

Development challenges which may constrain site opportunities in the short term.

In deciding upon the locations which may benefit most from Enterprise Area status, Ministers carefully considered the outputs of this assessment along with: (i) the need for a reasonable geographic spread of sites to ensure equity; (ii) the desire to support manufacturing opportunities in renewable energy but also in other growth sectors to help build our comparative advantage across a number of sectors; and (iii) complementing rather than overlapping with other initiatives, for example Tax Incremental Financing, to allow public sector resources to impact as widely as possible.

Information on the number of people unemployed is not available by local authority. Information from the claimant count is provided in the following table.

Table 1 shows the claimant count for claimants aged 16-24 years in each local authority in Scotland. Total claimants, claimants for over 6 months and claimants for over 12 months for April 2011 and April 2012 are shown.

Table 1 Claimant Count aged 16-24 years

Source: nomis.

The methodology used to identify the areas in receipt of the funding focussed on those areas with both the highest numbers of unemployed 16-24 year olds and the highest 16-24 year old unemployment rates.

West Dunbartonshire was not in the top 10 local authority areas on both measures, whereas the six areas allocated funding were.

The planning of services is a matter for the individual NHS board. While the Government provides the policies, frameworks and resources for high quality health care in Scotland, it is for each NHS board to decide how best to deliver those services to meet the needs of the population. This includes how best to utilise funding and staff, taking account of national and local priorities to meet local health needs.

The information requested is not centrally held. While the Scottish Government provides the policies, frameworks and resources for high quality health care in Scotland, it is for each NHS board to decide how best to deliver those services to meet the needs of the population. This includes how best to utilise funding and staff, taking account of national and local priorities to meet local health needs.

Each of the NHS boards participating in the national Inpatient Survey commission a contractor from the national framework contract locally. This process is conducted in accordance with board procurement processes and protocols. Therefore, information on the approved contractor and how much is spent by each board is not held centrally.

The following consortia and individual organisations are on the national framework contract of approved contractors. Some organisations are approved for only one type of work e.g. only quantitative surveys, whilst others are approved for more than one type of work.

OPM (with GFK NOP and Edinburgh University)

Ipsos-Mori

MRUK Research Ltd

Patient Dynamics Ltd

Patient Perspective

Picker Institute Europe

Quality Health Ltd

Queen Margaret University (with Dundee University).