Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-664 today. 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/webapp/search_wa.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-664 today. 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/webapp/search_wa.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-664 today. 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/webapp/search_wa.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-664 today. 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/webapp/search_wa.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-664 today. 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/webapp/search_wa.

Environmental justice is concerned with addressing those inequalities that affect the quality of people's lives, which is a central concern of social justice. The goals of environmental justice are reflected in many of the social justice commitments cited in A Partnership for a Better Scotland.

I can announce that the Scottish ministers have granted consent on this proposal in terms of section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989. This proposal was submitted in June 2002 and required a number of consents and licences from the Scottish ministers. The consultation on the section 36 consent ended in October 2002. The process revealed a range of environmental issues which required careful consideration. The consent carries conditions requiring a range of monitoring and mitigation measures designed to safeguard natural heritage and local interests.

We have allocated £15 million capital resources over the three years 2003-04 to 2005-06 to help local authorities carry out their statutory responsibilities under the contaminated land regime which came into force in July 2000.The funds will help local authorities to identify and investigate sites, take forward enforcement action and, in cases where they are unable to identify those responsible for the contamination, carry out remediation work at their own hand.Together with the resources we announced in February 2001 and April 2002, over the six years 2000-01 to 2005-06 the Executive has made capital allocations totalling £24.7 million available to local authorities for work associated with addressing the problem of contaminated land. In addition, a further £3.9 million was issued to 15 local authorities last November for specific projects aimed at cleaning up derelict and contaminated land that is causing public health risks or blighting communities.The distribution of capital allocations to local authorities is shown in the following table.

	Allocations for2003-04	Allocations for2004-05	Allocations for2005-06(Indicative)
	£000	£000	£000
Aberdeen City	69	69	69
Aberdeenshire	68	68	68
Angus	98	98	98
Argyll and Bute	72	72	72
Clackmannanshire	50	50	50
Dumfries and Galloway	163	163	163
Dundee City	142	142	142
East Ayrshire	181	181	181
East Dunbartonshire	61	61	61
East Lothian	57	57	57
East Renfrewshire	50	50	50
Edinburgh (City of)	181	181	181
Eilean Siar	72	72	72
Falkirk	126	126	126
Fife	325	325	325
Glasgow City	580	580	580
Highland	326	326	326
Inverclyde	57	57	57
Midlothian	133	133	133
Moray	50	50	50
North Ayrshire	194	194	194
North Lanarkshire	662	662	662
Orkney Islands	50	50	50
Perth and Kinross	77	77	77
Renfrewshire	300	300	300
Scottish Borders	53	53	53
Shetland	0	0	0
South Ayrshire	69	69	69
South Lanarkshire	281	281	281
Stirling	92	92	92
West Dunbartonshire	101	101	101
West Lothian	260	260	260
Scotland Total	5,000	5,000	5,000

Following a review of breakfast services, the Breakfast Services Grant has been increased from £250,000 to £300,000 and will be awarded through the Scottish Community Diet Project who will distribute the grant in deprived communities, working in partnership with local authorities.

The Scottish Community Renewables Initiative advisory service (SCRI), launched last summer in partnership with the Energy Saving Trust and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, provides a network of expert advisers across Scotland. This service has been augmented by the launch this month of an SCRI website and new Scottish Executive funding for household and community renewables projects. Consequently, information and advice about the availability of grants for solar/photovoltaic installations is now more widely available and easier to access.