Chamber and committees

The results of the UK pesticidesmonitoring programme overseen by the independent Pesticides Residues Committeehave shown over the last five years that around 70% of food tested contained nodetectable residues among those sought, around 29% contained residues withinstatutory maximum residue levels (MRLs) and around 1% exceeded MRLs. Theprogramme covers 3,700 to 4,000 samples each year for around 40 commodities. Fulldetails are publicly available on the Committee’s website at www.prc-uk.org.

The decision on the amount offunding given to each Business Improvement District (BID) pilot project was madeon the basis of recommendations from a Steering Group comprising representativesfrom across the private and public sectors. The funding provided is to help thepilots meet the sort of start-up costs that all projects face, such as salary costsfor local project managers, as they prepare for ballots. The Steering Group will be asked to make recommendationsshortly on the allocation of uncommitted funds for 2006-07.

Applications for additionalfunding received from individual Business Improvement District (BID) pilotprojects will be considered by the BIDs Steering Group. The Steering Group willthen make recommendations to ministers.

The Business ImprovementDistricts (BIDs) Steering Group, comprising representatives from across theprivate and public sectors, will make recommendations to ministers on theallocation of uncommitted funds for 2006-07.

In addition to the initial£50,000 provided for each pilot project, expenditure has also been committed whichwill be of benefit to all BID projects, including the employment of a projectdirector, a study tour to existing BIDs in England, and a new Scottish BIDswebsite which will promulgate best practice.

The information requested isnot held centrally.

The information requested isnot held centrally.

The information requested isnot held centrally.

The amount of private sectorgrant approved by local authorities for carrying out improvements for people withdisabilities is shown in the following table.

Amount of Private SectorGrant Approved for Improvements for People with Disabilities: 2005-06

Scotland	17,745,000
Aberdeen City	405,000
Aberdeenshire	320,000
Angus	382,000
Argyll and Bute	530,000
Clackmannanshire	134,000
Dumfries and Galloway	649,000
Dundee City	246,000
East Ayrshire	286,000
East Dunbartonshire	201,000
East Lothian	155,000
East Renfrewshire	143,000
Edinburgh (City of)	2,388,000
Eilean Siar	592,000
Falkirk	196,000
Glasgow City	1,775,000
Highland	1,460,000
Inverclyde	297,000
Midlothian	211,000
Moray	300,000
North Ayrshire	941,000
North Lanarkshire	748,000
Orkney	148,000
Perth and Kinross	614,000
Renfrewshire	203,000
Scottish Borders	197,000
Shetland	292,000
South Ayrshire	539,000
South Lanarkshire	2,130,000
Stirling	289,000
West Dunbartonshire	422,000
West Lothian	554,000

Source: IMP1Breturns submitted by local authorities to the Scottish Executive Development DepartmentAnalytical Services Division (Housing Statistics)

Note: 1. Figureshave been rounded to the nearest thousand.

I have asked Dr. Paul Stollard,Chief Executive of the Scottish Building Standards Agency (SBSA), to answer. Hisresponse is as follows:

There are no proposals for compulsorytesting. The recent Scottish building regulations consultation did not involve areview of procedures, it was solely on the standards and technical guidance. A comprehensivereview of procedures was undertaken in 2003. However, the recent public consultationon energy standards in Scottish building regulations proposed guidance on airtightnesstesting of new buildings. Relatively few respondees objected to these proposals.Decisions still have to be made on whether or not these proposals are taken forwardwhen changes are made to the energy standards in 2007.

I have asked Dr. Paul Stollard,Chief Executive of the Scottish Building Standards Agency (SBSA), to answer. Hisresponse is as follows:

No. There is a recent reporton the English and Welsh energy regulations, carried out by Future Energy Solutionsentitled Compliance with Part L1 of the 2002 Building Regulations (Aninvestigation into the reasons for poor compliance) which was commissioned by‘The Energy Efficiency Partnership for Homes’. In this report it is stated “It isperceived that the Scottish system is far more successful than the England and Walessystem. There are two key differences:

the Building Warrant Certificateissues prior to building commencement, and

that all Building Control officersare still attached to the Local Authorities.”

The report then recommends thatthis approach is adopted for England and Wales.