Chamber and committees

Under Section 2 of the Education (Graduate Endowment and Student Support) (Scotland) (No.2) Bill, the income arising from the graduate endowment means the full amount payable by each liable graduate in the Spring following the completion of their course. For those who start a degree in academic year 2001/02 the amount payable will be £2,000. Graduates may draw on the facility of the income-contingent student loan scheme to discharge this liability.

The Scottish Executive is currently considering the detail of the arrangements for collecting the Graduate Endowment. Those liable will be able to choose whether to take out an income contingent loan under the existing system or to pay by lump sum direct to the Executive. The costs likely to be involved in setting up these arrangements are currently under discussion with the Student Awards Agency for Scotland and the Student Loans Company. However, as the Executive’s plans will not require the establishment of any new machinery for tracking the income of graduates or affect the rates at which loan repayment will be collected from graduates, the costs associated with running the scheme are expected to be marginal.

We expect that EU nationals will be treated in the same way as graduates who were domiciled in Scotland at the time they studied.

Graduates who wish to take out an income contingent loan to discharge their liability for the Graduate Endowment will do so on the same terms and conditions as loans for living costs. The Inland Revenue pay quarterly in advance for collected student loans, based on an agreed projection for the year.

The decision to seek trunk road maintenance through contract was taken in 1995. No assessment has been made of the impact on Direct Labour Organisation employment in the event that they are unsuccessful in any competition for the work or on their ability to respond to emergency maintenance situations. Under EC procurement rules, such considerations relevant to the particular situation of tenderers cannot be taken into account in the procurement process.

The tenders for the trunk road contracts stood to be evaluated on the basis of the "most economically advantageous bid". The pre-determined assessment procedures is set out in the "Instructions for Tendering". Specimen copies of the Instructions for Tendering have been lodged in the Parliament's Reference Centre.

The decision to separate the maintenance of the trunk road network from the local road network was inherited by the Scottish Executive.

The statutory provisions of the Trunk Roads Act 1936 drew the distinction between trunk roads and local roads.Up until 1996 management and maintenance of trunk roads were undertaken by local authorities on behalf of the then Secretary of State under the terms of Agency Agreements. Thereafter contracts were let for the management and maintenance of the Central Belt (Premium) network and the management of the remaining (All Purpose) rural network following a decision taken in 1995 by Ministers in line with European Directives to seek competitive tenders on a contractual basis.

The Scottish Executive communicated with all of the tenderers for each of the competitions to seek clarification of the bids after tenders were lodged.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-13243.

As was indicated when the project was announced, an appropriate package of financial assistance was offered to Motorola with regard to implementing its proposed project at Dunfermline.As the assistance is drawn down, in line with the implementation of the project, the amounts paid will be reported in accordance with the usual procedures of Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Executive.As with all such packages of assistance, actual drawdown of grant is dependent on the company meeting milestones based on investment expenditure and number of jobs created or safeguarded. In addition, all grant payments are subject to appropriate clawback conditions.Under the terms of the financial assistance being offered for the project, Motorola is required to inform Scottish Enterprise of progress with, and any major changes to, the proposed project.