Chamber and committees

The SPCB regards the amount of fees paid to individual consultants as commercially confidential. Publication of such information by the Parliament would generally be considered as something that might impede fair competition between them and their competitors and/or prejudice the consultants', or the Parliament's, future negotiating position. Disclosure would also be in breach of the individual tender agreements between the Parliament and the consultants, which were agreed on a commercially confidential basis and could not be made without the agreement of the firms involved. I understand from the Convener of the Holyrood Progress Group that the Auditor General was required to obtain the specific approval of the respective consultants before authority for publication of the figures was given under the particular circumstances. The Parliament would not normally release such information unilaterally and that is only proper. It is the case that certain elements of fee agreements are still under discussion, however, once outstanding negotiations have been concluded and subject to clearance with the Parliament's legal office, we would expect to secure the agreement of the consultants involved and make these details available.

To date, a total of 60 Trade Package contracts have been awarded. Other than a Performance Bond, the SPCB is entitled, under the terms of each contract, to request a Parent Company Guarantee as advised by the Construction Manager. In addition, there are a number of performance management tools in place throughout all Trade Packages which ensure that the client's interests are suitably protected. These are:1. The Construction Managers monitor on a daily basis that work is being carried out to the required standard set out in the detailed specification for materials and workmanship, and performance delivery is measured against the construction programme.2. Action is taken as necessary to ensure that no payment for sub-standard work is made and steps are taken to encourage improved levels of performance.3. Three per cent of the gross value of all payments due to contractors is retained and released only when the client is satisfied that the contract has been completed and any defects rectified to the required standard. To date, with the exception of the contract with Flour City Architectural Metals (UK) Ltd, no recovery has been sought against a Parent Company Guarantee in relation to any of the Trade Packages let. The value of the original contract with Flour City Architectural Metals (UK) package was £7,157,281.29.

Negotiations on Trade Contracts for the new Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood are carried out on a commercially confidential basis and it would not be appropriate to name publicly those contractors who have yet to provide a Performance Bond, particularly as most contracts in this category have only recently been awarded. The Convener of the Holyrood Progress Group has informed me that there are currently no claims under consideration relating to those Trade Contracts where a Performance Bond is no longer required.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-26945 on 4 July 2002. 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.

The office of the Water Industry Commissioner for Scotland is funded through a levy on Scottish Water. The levy from Scottish Water including establishment costs of the Water Industry Commissioner's office has been £5,170,599 covering the period from 1 November 1999 to March 2003.

The Scottish Executive has no immediate plans to revise the current interim movement regime. The present arrangements will be reviewed with industry stakeholders once the results of the detailed veterinary risk assessment and associated cost-benefit analysis, as recommended by the Lessons to be Learned Inquiry, are known. Findings from these studies will be available in the New Year.

This is an operational matter for sportscotland. However, I understand that sportscotland has arranged to meet Federation representatives tomorrow.

The Teacher Release Scheme operated by sportscotland is in the final year of a three year funding commitment. Sportscotland will be reviewing the scheme in consultation with interested parties over the next few months.

It is not part of sportscotland's responsibilities to seek to establish international sporting federations. Shinty/hurling is not a single sport: the annual shinty/hurling fixture is a one-off hybrid event played under composite rules. So far as shinty is concerned, it would be for the Camanachd Association to seek to identify other countries where shinty is played and then explore with interested parties there the formation of an international governing body for the sport.

I am advised by the Food Standards Agency that new research into the relationship between phytoplankton and algal toxin levels is due to run between January 2000 and September 2003, with costs of £450,275 spread over that period. On continuing funding to develop testing regimes, between August 2000 and August 2002, £266,779 was made available for assessment of new system for rapid detection of ASP and DSP (MIST AlertTM). In addition, the FSAS algal toxin shellfish monitoring programme was launched in January 2001 and is set to run until March 2005, at a total cost of £2,012,954 plus approximately £250,000 per annum for charter vessels required to collect samples. No new research has taken place into the alleged link between fish farms and outbreaks of ASP.