Chamber and committees

This information is not recorded by the police and is not held centrally.

No guidelines were issued to police following the winter of 2009-10. Police forces, working in partnership with other agencies under local strategic co-ordination groups, agree the operational response according to local circumstances.

The following ministers are members of the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Scottish Government Resilience dealing with severe weather: First Minister; Cabinet Secretary for Justice (Chair); Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing; Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth; Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning; Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Environment; Lord Advocate; Minister for Environment and Climate Change, and Minister for Transport and Infrastructure.

Between 11 November and 8 December 2010, the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Scottish Government Resilience met on the following occasions and discussed the 2010-11 winter conditions. Each meeting lasted between one and two hours:

Date	Time
24 November 2010	10.45 am
25 November 2010	10.00 am
26 November 2010	2.30 pm
27 November 2010	11.00 am
29 November 2010	11.00 am
30 November 2010	1.00 pm
1 December 2010	12.30 pm
2 December 2010	1.00 pm
3 December 2010	3.00 pm
4 December 2010	11.00 am
5 December 2010	11.00 am
6 December 2010	3.00 pm
6 December 2010	8.30 pm
7 December 2010	10.00 am
7 December 2010	3.30 pm
8 December 2010	11.00 am

 

Since 8 December, meetings of the Cabinet Sub-Committee have continued on a daily basis.

In addition to meetings of the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Scottish Government Resilience, 15 other ministerial resilience meetings with external organisations took place during the period concerned to discuss the 2010-11 winter conditions.

Representatives of Amey plc and BEAR Scotland have not been present at the meetings of the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Scottish Government Resilience.

Transport Scotland officials have, however, attended all the meetings of the Cabinet Sub-Committee discussing the 2010-11 winter conditions. They have liaised closely with Amey plc, BEAR Scotland and other operating companies as required.

I am the standing chair of the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Scottish Government Resilience. Meetings of the Cabinet Sub-Committee which have taken place to discuss the 2010-11 winter conditions, the first of which took place on 24 November 2010, have also been chaired by the First Minister, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, the Minister for Environment and the Head of Scottish Resilience.

The meetings of the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Scottish Government Resilience to discuss severe winter weather have been attended by the following ministers: the First Minister; Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing; Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning; Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth; Cabinet Secretary for Justice; Minister for Environment and Climate Change, and Minister for Transport and Infrastructure.

Officials from Scottish Resilience, Transport Scotland, NHSScotland Resilience have also been in attendance, along with officials from the following Scottish Government Directorates: Children, Young People and Social Care; Energy; Health Delivery; Learning; Rural and Environment; Strategy, Ministerial Support and Communications, and Safer Communities.

In addition, representatives of the following external organisations have attended meetings of the Cabinet Sub-Committee: Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland; Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES); BAA, Edinburgh Airport; a Military Liaison Officer; COSLA; First ScotRail; the Met Office; Network Rail; Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland (SCOTS); SOLACE Scotland; Traveline Scotland; representatives of Scotland''s police forces and the Strategic Co-ordinating Groups established under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004.

The Scottish Government provided an extra £5 million, which was allocated to all 32 Scottish local authorities, to support the repair of potholes resulting from the severe weather last winter.

As was made clear in the parliamentary debate on the Scottish Variable Rate (SVR) on Wednesday 24 November, the Scottish Government has been in dialogue with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) since 2007 about the work required to re-establish the capability of HMRC''s systems to operate the SVR following the mothballing of the SVR from 2000, and about the costs and timescales associated with that work.

After providing, in 2007, initial cost estimates ranging from £1.2 million to £3.4 million, HMRC on 28 July 2010 sought a payment of £7 million from the Scottish Government in order for the work to be undertaken. HMRC indicated that if agreement to pay was reached by 21 August, work would go ahead to enable the Scottish Parliament returned in May 2011 to exercise the SVR powers in the Scotland Act 1998 with effect from the tax year beginning 5 April 2012. This timescale could be achieved provided that the decision to vary the tax rate was made and communicated to HMRC by the end of May 2011.

The Scottish Government''s response to HMRC drew attention to a number of legitimate concerns, including questions about value for money given the UK Government''s planned introduction of new income tax provisions set out in the report of the Calman Commission which would lead to the replacement of the SVR, and sought a meeting at which these concerns could be examined. Despite a reminder, no meeting was arranged. Since the Parliament debated this important issue on 24 November, HMRC and Scottish Government officials have met and further work is now in hand on costs and timescales associated with returning the SVR systems to an operable condition.

A Service Level Agreement (SLA) was in place between the then Scottish Executive and its predecessor organisations from 2000 to 2003, and from 2003 to 2007, when the agreement expired. Under the SLA that expired in 2007, an annual payment of £50,000 was made to HMRC in return for maintaining the database of Scottish taxpayers. The existence of an up to date list of Scottish taxpayers was a necessary but not a sufficient condition for operating the SVR. Operable IT systems were also required. The work required to return the IT systems to a fully operable condition was much more significant and many times more expensive than the annual cost of the SLA.

On 24 November I apologised for not informing or consulting Parliament about the unavailability of the SVR systems either in 2007, when the condition of the SVR systems first became known, or this summer, when it emerged that only by spending a substantial amount of public money could the capacity of the SVR systems be restored in time for use in 2012-13.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-37713 on 6 December 2010. The decision to continue in dialogue with HMRC and to seek adequate and reliable information about costs and timescales was mine.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.