Chamber and committees

The legislative framework regulating road works in the Transport (Scotland) Bill concentrates on improving the co-ordination and reinstatement of road works carried out by all utility companies operating in Scotland. There will be no impact on utility companies involved in the roll-out of broadband if they work within the legislative framework.

No distinction has been made in the Transport (Scotland) Bill between different types of road works.

The introduction of broadband technology is a priority for the Executive and we are supporting its roll out to all communities in Scotland by the end of 2005.

Responsibility for the overallprovision of NHS dental services in the area rests with NHS Forth Valley. NHSboards are encouraged to apply to Scottish ministers for approval for salaried dentistposts where they consider that there is a gap in provision, which cannot be filledby other means.

Responsibility for the overallprovision of NHS dental services in the area rests with NHS Fife. NHS boards areencouraged to apply to Scottish ministers for approval for salaried dentist postswhere they consider that there is a gap in provision, which cannot be filled byother means.

The provision of local bus servicesis generally a matter for individual bus operators who use their commercial judgementas to the level and frequency of services to be provided. Beyond these commercialdecisions, it is the responsibility of the relevant local transport authority toidentify where there is a social need for a particular bus service and to make subsidyavailable, if it so chooses, so that appropriate additional services are provided.

TheExecutive gives considerable funding to local authorities through Grant Aided Expenditurearrangements to support socially necessary bus services. In this financial yearthis amounts to £25.5 million and will rise to £26.5 million in 2005-06. However,decisions about how and where to allocate resources from within a council’s budgetare ultimately for the council concerned.

Inaddition to the funding allocated to local authorities for the provision of subsidisedservices, the Executive has recently launched a new grant scheme aimed at developingunder-used and new local bus services. The Bus Route Development Grant Scheme willprovide short-term funding to kick-start existing and new bus services with thepotential to grow. Local authorities have been invited to develop bids in conjunctionwith local bus operators and around £20 million has been allocated over three yearsfor these projects. The deadline for receipt of bids for the first round of BusRoute Development Grant was 31 July 2004. Officials are now considering the bidsreceived and we hope to make an announcement on funding in the near future.

TheExecutive is also helping to improve rural transport services through its RuralTransport Fund. The largest part of this funding is allocated to local authoritiesto help provide new and improved rural public transport services in their area.Since the fund’s introduction in 1998, £30.6 million has been distributed to localauthorities. A further allocation of £6.1 million will be made in 2005-06. To date,over 400 new and enhanced rural services, mainly bus, have been introduced.

TheRural Transport Fund is also providing support through the Rural Community TransportInitiative for rural community transport projects which are of particular benefitin areas where there are no scheduled bus services or where services are very limited.So far, £10.5 million has been awarded to 149 projects. These include communityminibuses, dial-a-bus, taxi-buses and voluntary car schemes.

TheExecutive is also providing a further £1.5 million between 2003-06 to pilot a smallnumber of demand responsive transport projects in rural areas. 

I hope this is helpful.

The Scottish Executive has no plans to carry out such an appraisal. However, we fully appreciate the importance of local roads and their contribution to Scotland’s economic performance. This is reflected in our decision to allocate an additional £60 million per year from 2006-07 to help local authorities address the backlog of maintenance on the local road network.

We have no current plans to meet Stirling Council to discuss local roads issues.

An additional £60 million per year has been allocated in 2006-07 and 2007-08 to help local authorities address the backlog of maintenance on the local road network. Allocations to individual authorities will be announced in due course.

The local government grant distribution methodology has been agreed following extensive and collective consultation over a number of years with local authorities, through COSLA and takes account of a wide range of complex factors influencing local authority spend to ensure a fair distribution of grant. These factors include population, pupil numbers, road lane lengths and indicators of rurality and deprivation. COSLA has not requested any re-examination of the GAE calculation for local roads and in these circumstances the Executive has no current plans to review the funding formula.

The Scottish Executive provide drugs specific resources to NHS boards and local authorities for the provision of drug treatment and care services. In Fife for 2004-05 the NHS board received £829,244 for drug treatment services and the local authority £464,000 for drug rehabilitation services per annum. On 27 October 2004,the Minister for Justice announced that an additional £6 million per annumwill be available across Scotland to support drug treatment and rehabilitationservices from 2005-06.

Local drug action teams are responsible for the planning and delivery of drug treatment and care services in line with identified local need and in full collaboration with all partner agencies.

The Scottish Executive does not intervene directly in local planning, delivery and decision making.