Questions and answers

Question reference: S2W-32685

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 30 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what level of funding was provided to each local authority in each of the last eight years, showing year-on-year percentage changes and change over the whole period, also expressed on a per capita basis and showing national averages in each case.

The information requested isshown in the following tables.

	1999-2000			2000-01
	Aggregate External Finance (£m)	Year-on-Year (%) Increase	Per Capita (£)	Aggregate External Finance (£m)	Year-On-Year (%) Increase	Per Capita (£)
Aberdeen City	192.480	3.5%	897	200.270	4.0%	939
Aberdeenshire	213.112	3.8%	938	216.820	1.7%	955
Angus	108.762	4.1%	993	110.527	1.6%	1,015
Argyll and Bute	110.884	2.9%	1,210	113.524	2.4%	1,247
Clackmannanshire	48.430	3.8%	1,004	49.425	2.1%	1,026
Dumfries and Galloway	159.723	4.8%	1,078	163.927	2.6%	1,111
Dundee City	174.018	3.9%	1,176	178.758	2.7%	1,219
East Ayrshire	126.160	2.7%	1,047	130.850	3.7%	1,089
East Dunbartonshire	97.122	7.1%	894	97.952	0.9%	902
East Lothian	83.321	5.5%	935	85.582	2.7%	952
East Renfrewshire	77.572	8.5%	876	80.293	3.5%	902
Edinburgh, City of	426.157	4.2%	953	431.036	1.1%	961
Eilean Siar	70.424	2.7%	2,588	72.050	2.3%	2,689
Falkirk	136.312	2.3%	943	145.057	6.4%	1,003
Fife	344.529	4.7%	993	352.670	2.4%	1,012
Glasgow City	813.291	3.1%	1,395	830.045	2.1%	1,439
Highland	249.883	4.9%	1,194	254.550	1.9%	1,217
Inverclyde	98.391	2.0%	1,153	101.017	2.7%	1,193
Midlothian	80.531	4.1%	999	81.803	1.6%	1,009
Moray	89.039	4.7%	1,026	90.225	1.3%	1,040
North Ayrshire	143.556	4.8%	1,047	149.208	3.9%	1,094
North Lanarkshire	333.935	4.4%	1,037	345.867	3.6%	1,076
Orkney	40.424	2.3%	2,082	40.306	-0.3%	2,089
Perth and Kinross	126.934	4.6%	939	130.046	2.5%	964
Renfrewshire	177.333	5.4%	1,017	185.696	4.7%	1,069
Scottish Borders	115.013	4.9%	1,087	118.491	3.0%	1,115
Shetland	57.130	2.0%	2,538	58.215	1.9%	2,625
South Ayrshire	112.248	6.3%	995	112.213	0.0%	999
South Lanarkshire	302.874	5.8%	1,001	313.719	3.6%	1,038
Stirling	88.856	6.0%	1,040	89.679	0.9%	1,041
West Dunbartonshire	110.152	4.3%	1,167	112.855	2.5%	1,201
West Lothian	156.250	4.7%	1,010	158.926	1.7%	1,012
Scotland	5,464.846	4.3%	1,077	5,601.602	2.5%	1,106

	2001-02			2002-03
	Aggregate External Finance (£m)	Year-on-Year (%) Increase	Per Capita (£)	Aggregate External Finance (£m)	Year-On-Year (%) Increase	Per Capita (£)
Aberdeen City	213.869	6.8%	1,009	240.846	12.6%	1,151
Aberdeenshire	234.900	8.3%	1,035	265.484	13.0%	1,168
Angus	118.103	6.9%	1,090	135.169	14.5%	1,250
Argyll and Bute	121.880	7.4%	1,335	136.675	12.1%	1,501
Clackmannanshire	53.767	8.8%	1,119	59.813	11.2%	1,248
Dumfries and Galloway	176.682	7.8%	1,196	197.415	11.7%	1,340
Dundee City	191.437	7.1%	1,316	211.987	10.7%	1,470
East Ayrshire	139.253	6.4%	1,157	155.264	11.5%	1,297
East Dunbartonshire	107.465	9.7%	993	120.776	12.4%	1,125
East Lothian	91.223	6.6%	1,012	103.433	13.4%	1,140
East Renfrewshire	88.622	10.4%	991	100.956	13.9%	1,126
Edinburgh, City of	458.071	6.3%	1,020	518.233	13.1%	1,157
Eilean Siar	76.023	5.5%	2,874	80.901	6.4%	3,088
Falkirk	159.543	10.0%	1,098	177.586	11.3%	1,220
Fife	379.529	7.6%	1,085	420.990	10.9%	1,200
Glasgow City	895.253	7.9%	1,547	975.334	8.9%	1,689
Highland	273.989	7.6%	1,311	309.338	12.9%	1,486
Inverclyde	107.371	6.3%	1,276	119.276	11.1%	1,427
Midlothian	90.030	10.1%	1,112	99.292	10.3%	1,233
Moray	97.450	8.0%	1,120	107.878	10.7%	1,244
North Ayrshire	161.061	7.9%	1,186	179.100	11.2%	1,320
North Lanarkshire	374.873	8.4%	1,167	413.116	10.2%	1,286
Orkney	43.119	7.0%	2,243	46.212	7.2%	2,406
Perth and Kinross	139.107	7.0%	1,031	159.048	14.3%	1,177
Renfrewshire	198.109	6.7%	1,146	220.044	11.1%	1,280
Scottish Borders	126.316	6.6%	1,181	143.418	13.5%	1,335
Shetland	62.219	6.9%	2,833	66.182	6.4%	3,017
South Ayrshire	119.803	6.8%	1,068	135.639	13.2%	1,215
South Lanarkshire	338.601	7.9%	1,120	377.272	11.4%	1,249
Stirling	98.083	9.4%	1,138	110.848	13.0%	1,287
West Dunbartonshire	123.778	9.7%	1,326	135.502	9.5%	1,460
West Lothian	170.496	7.3%	1,072	189.429	11.1%	1,184
Scotland	6,030.025	7.6%	1,191	6,712.456	11.3%	1,328

	2003-04			2004-05
	Aggregate External Finance (£m)	Year-on-Year (%) Increase	Per Capita (£)	Aggregate External Finance (£m)	Year-On-Year (%) Increase	Per Capita (£)
Aberdeen City	261.420	8.5%	1,265	273.693	4.7%	1,345
Aberdeenshire	290.109	9.3%	1,265	308.829	6.5%	1,326
Angus	147.438	9.1%	1,371	155.239	5.3%	1,430
Argyll and Bute	149.062	9.1%	1,633	159.031	6.7%	1,744
Clackmannanshire	65.453	9.4%	1,373	68.314	4.4%	1,416
Dumfries and Galloway	215.781	9.3%	1,466	229.650	6.4%	1,552
Dundee City	228.603	7.8%	1,598	238.342	4.3%	1,680
East Ayrshire	168.268	8.4%	1,408	176.798	5.1%	1,477
East Dunbartonshire	132.321	9.6%	1,237	141.700	7.1%	1,330
East Lothian	113.656	9.9%	1,248	121.127	6.6%	1,323
East Renfrewshire	109.869	8.8%	1,225	119.490	8.8%	1,333
Edinburgh, City of	564.873	9.0%	1,260	589.712	4.4%	1,300
Eilean Siar	85.978	6.3%	3,294	90.339	5.1%	3,440
Falkirk	193.405	8.9%	1,325	205.603	6.3%	1,394
Fife	462.736	9.9%	1,314	493.530	6.7%	1,392
Glasgow City	1,040.033	6.6%	1,802	1,075.587	3.4%	1,862
Highland	333.970	8.0%	1,597	354.305	6.1%	1,676
Inverclyde	129.746	8.8%	1,562	135.183	4.2%	1,640
Midlothian	109.905	10.7%	1,379	117.541	6.9%	1,476
Moray	117.972	9.4%	1,349	126.585	7.3%	1,443
North Ayrshire	194.586	8.6%	1,430	203.201	4.4%	1,494
North Lanarkshire	447.675	8.4%	1,391	467.360	4.4%	1,448
Orkney	49.410	6.9%	2,559	52.331	5.9%	2,684
Perth and Kinross	175.177	10.1%	1,288	186.234	6.3%	1,354
Renfrewshire	241.047	9.5%	1,410	252.413	4.7%	1,479
Scottish Borders	156.643	9.2%	1,447	165.242	5.5%	1,512
Shetland	70.741	6.9%	3,235	74.706	5.6%	3,405
South Ayrshire	147.434	8.7%	1,321	154.108	4.5%	1,378
South Lanarkshire	408.275	8.2%	1,347	430.034	5.3%	1,408
Stirling	120.915	9.1%	1,400	128.554	6.3%	1,488
West Dunbartonshire	146.596	8.2%	1,588	152.480	4.0%	1,658
West Lothian	206.727	9.1%	1,284	222.142	7.5%	1,364
Scotland	7,285.824	8.5%	1,441	7,669.403	5.3%	1,510

	2005-06			2006-07
	Aggregate External Finance (£m)	Year-on-Year (%) Increase	Per Capita (£)	Aggregate External Finance (£m)	Year-On-Year (%) Increase	Per Capita (£)
Aberdeen City	287.115	4.9%	1,419	291.033	1.4%	1,438
Aberdeenshire	324.749	5.2%	1,379	342.668	5.5%	1,455
Angus	165.794	6.8%	1,519	173.361	4.6%	1,588
Argyll and Bute	167.159	5.1%	1,840	175.107	4.8%	1,927
Clackmannanshire	71.934	5.3%	1,479	74.085	3.0%	1,523
Dumfries and Galloway	241.698	5.2%	1,629	251.025	3.9%	1,692
Dundee City	249.617	4.7%	1,756	253.072	1.4%	1,780
East Ayrshire	186.614	5.6%	1,563	193.039	3.4%	1,617
East Dunbartonshire	149.735	5.7%	1,413	152.338	1.7%	1,438
East Lothian	129.054	6.5%	1,406	134.791	4.4%	1,468
East Renfrewshire	130.366	9.1%	1,455	137.384	5.4%	1,533
Edinburgh, City of	619.047	5.0%	1,352	629.886	1.8%	1,376
Eilean Siar	94.304	4.4%	3,576	96.738	2.6%	3,668
Falkirk	218.389	6.2%	1,464	225.706	3.4%	1,513
Fife	522.454	5.9%	1,465	536.744	2.7%	1,505
Glasgow City	1,117.898	3.9%	1,931	1,137.561	1.8%	1,965
Highland	373.801	5.5%	1,750	390.058	4.3%	1,826
Inverclyde	141.843	4.9%	1,727	145.889	2.9%	1,776
Midlothian	124.598	6.0%	1,573	127.536	2.4%	1,611
Moray	133.281	5.3%	1,512	137.875	3.4%	1,565
North Ayrshire	215.964	6.3%	1,590	222.300	2.9%	1,637
North Lanarkshire	496.465	6.2%	1,535	513.147	3.4%	1,587
Orkney	54.836	4.8%	2,799	58.510	6.7%	2,987
Perth and Kinross	197.062	5.8%	1,424	206.198	4.6%	1,490
Renfrewshire	267.760	6.1%	1,575	272.644	1.8%	1,604
Scottish Borders	174.443	5.6%	1,590	181.825	4.2%	1,657
Shetland	77.608	3.9%	3,528	79.562	2.5%	3,616
South Ayrshire	164.550	6.8%	1,472	168.429	2.4%	1,507
South Lanarkshire	456.205	6.1%	1,490	466.130	2.2%	1,522
Stirling	135.881	5.7%	1,563	138.696	2.1%	1,595
West Dunbartonshire	161.193	5.7%	1,764	163.864	1.7%	1,793
West Lothian	235.231	5.9%	1,436	244.915	4.1%	1,495
Scotland	8,086.647	5.4%	1,587	8,322.115	2.9%	1,633

	1999-2007 Increase (£m)	1999-2007 (%) Increase
Aberdeen City	98.553	51.2%
Aberdeenshire	129.556	60.8%
Angus	64.599	59.4%
Argyll and Bute	64.223	57.9%
Clackmannanshire	25.655	53.0%
Dumfries and Galloway	91.302	57.2%
Dundee City	79.054	45.4%
East Ayrshire	66.879	53.0%
East Dunbartonshire	55.216	56.9%
East Lothian	51.470	61.8%
East Renfrewshire	59.812	77.1%
Edinburgh, City of	203.729	47.8%
Eilean Siar	26.314	37.4%
Falkirk	89.394	65.6%
Fife	192.215	55.8%
Glasgow City	324.270	39.9%
Highland	140.175	56.1%
Inverclyde	47.498	48.3%
Midlothian	47.005	58.4%
Moray	48.836	54.8%
North Ayrshire	78.744	54.9%
North Lanarkshire	179.212	53.7%
Orkney	18.086	44.7%
Perth and Kinross	79.264	62.4%
Renfrewshire	95.311	53.7%
Scottish Borders	66.812	58.1%
Shetland	22.432	39.3%
South Ayrshire	56.181	50.1%
South Lanarkshire	163.256	53.9%
Stirling	49.840	56.1%
West Dunbartonshire	53.712	48.8%
West Lothian	88.665	56.7%
Scotland	2,857.269	52.3%

Notes:

1. The Aggregate External Financefigures given above are as announced in the annual Local Government Finance settlementsand have not been adjusted for any subsequent transfers of responsibility. Therefore,comparison between individual years should be treated with caution. For example,in 2006-07 responsibility for the implementation of the national Concessionary Faresscheme transferred from local authorities to Transport Scotland. Thisresulted in £79.338 million being removed from the 2006-07 AEF total. Allowing forthis transfer, the adjusted all Scotland total increase would have been 3.9 per cent as opposedto the 2.9 per cent. Within these all-Scotland totals the grant floor mechanismguaranteed that all local authorities received an increase of at least 2 per centbetween 2005-06 and 2006-07.

2. The population figures usedto calculate the per capita figures are the General Register Office of Scotland’smid-year estimates for the year in question or the most recent available, in thecase of 2006-07.

Question reference: S2W-32696

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 29 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many fatalities there have been on open roads in each of the last five years, broken down by police force area and expressed as a percentage of total fatalities in each year.

Data about injury roadaccidents are collected by the police and reported to the Scottish Executiveusing the Stats 19 statistical report form. These returns include informationabout the normal speed limit for the road at the place where the accidentoccurred. Non built-up roads are those for which the normal speed limit is morethan 40 miles per hour. These roads are sometimes referred to as open roads. Thefollowing table gives the numbers and percentages of casualties who were killedin accidents on non-built-up roads. Figures for 2006 should become available inJune.

Deaths in Accidents on Non-Built-UpRoads by Police Force Area, 2001 to 2005

Police Force	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Police Force	Numbers					Percentages of All Road Deaths in Scotland
Northern	35	22	26	28	23	10.1	7.2	7.8	9.1	8.0
Grampian	40	40	44	38	44	11.5	13.2	13.1	12.3	15.4
Tayside	44	23	35	30	23	12.6	7.6	10.4	9.7	8.0
Fife	14	24	12	16	13	4.0	7.9	3.6	5.2	4.5
Lothian and Borders	21	20	30	23	27	6.0	6.6	9.0	7.5	9.4
Central	14	21	19	12	15	4.0	6.9	5.7	3.9	5.2
Strathclyde	71	63	72	57	46	20.4	20.7	21.5	18.5	16.1
Dumfries and Galloway	13	17	10	8	16	3.7	5.6	3.0	2.6	5.6
Scotland	252	230	248	212	207	72.4	75.7	74.0	68.8	72.4

Question reference: S2W-32693

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Des McNulty on 29 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many Central heating programme installations have been carried out by Scottish Gas, broken down by (a) postcode area and (b) fuel type.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

The number of central heating systemsinstalled by Scottish Gas to 18 March 2007 is shown by postcode and fuel type inthe following table:

Postcode	Gas	Electric	Oil	Solid Fuel	Total
AB	56	0	8	0	64
DD	192	0	4	0	196
DG	21	0	1	0	22
EH	693	5	0	0	698
FK	212	0	1	0	213
G	1,601	71	1	0	1,673
HS	0	0	0	0	0
IV	10	0	6	0	16
KA	282	2	2	0	286
KW	2	0	0	0	2
KY	212	0	0	1	213
ML	438	3	1	1	443
PA	139	0	0	0	139
PH	34	0	1	0	35
TD	14	0	0	0	14
ZE	0	3	0	0	3
Total	3,906	84	25	2	4,017

Question reference: S2W-32679

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 29 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much transport expenditure there was in each (a) regional transport partnership and (b) local authority area in each of the last five years, also expressed on a per capita basis.

The Regional Transport Partnershipswere established on 1December 2005 and therefore do not haveinformation for the last five years. The Regional Transport Partnerships have abudget in 2006-07 of £46.6 million. £46.0 million of this budget is currentlyallocated as follows:

RTP	(£000)	Population*	Per Capita
SPT	£25,228,000	2,142,399	£11.78
HITRANS	£3,530,000	410,731	£8.59
NESTRANS	£3,012,000	437,810	£6.88
Shetland	£176,000	22,000	£8.00
SESTRAN	£9,614,000	1,408,220	£6.83
South West TP	£1,112,000	148,340	£7.50
TACTRAN	£3,328,000	525,300	£6.34
	£46,000,000	5,094,800	£7.99

Note: *Population figuresfrom General Registers of Scotland (GROS) for mid-year 2005.

The Scottish Executive doesnot hold records of its own spending split by each local authority area. Thisis because much of the Executive’s transport expenditure (for example theScotRail franchise subsidy) cannot be readily allocated to individual localauthority areas. We do however provide information in the annual edition of theScottish Transport Statistics publication on total expenditure ontransport within the Scottish ministers’ responsibility and this informationcan be found in on page 229, table 1.11 of the publication.

Information on their own transportexpenditure is provided by each local authority in the same publication on page230, table 11.3. The following table shows each local authority’s actualexpenditure, as published in Scottish Transport Statistics, divided by thepopulation figures published by GROS (mid-year for the year in question). The ScottishTransport Statistics 2007 Edition, providing local authority transport spendingfor 2005-06, will not be published until the third quarter of 2007.

Local Authority	2001-02			2002-03			2003-04
Local Authority	(£000)	Pop.	Per Capita	(£000)	Pop.	Per Capita	(£000)	Pop.	Per Capita
Aberdeen City	£6,651	211,910	£31	£10,128	209,270	£48	£15,156	206,600	£73
Aberdeenshire	£20,167	226,940	£89	£23,826	227,280	£105	£26,766	229,330	£117
Angus	£8,864	108,370	£82	£11,115	108,130	£103	£11,396	107,520	£106
Argyll and Bute	£12,865	91,300	£141	£14,548	91,030	£160	£14,645	91,300	£160
Clackmannan-shire	£2,655	48,070	£55	£2,882	47,930	£60	£3,507	47,680	£74
Dumfries and Galloway	£13,128	147,780	£89	£15,249	147,310	£104	£17,419	147,210	£118
Dundee City	£7,872	145,460	£54	£9,120	144,180	£63	£10,832	143,090	£76
East Ayrshire	£8,858	120,310	£74	£10,662	119,740	£89	£11,402	119,530	£95
East Dunbartonshire	£9,033	108,250	£83	£11,474	107,310	£107	£11,661	106,970	£109
East Lothian	£5,435	90,180	£60	£7,086	90,750	£78	£8,064	91,090	£89
East Renfrewshire	£6,348	89,410	£71	£7,896	89,630	£88	£8,157	89,680	£91
Edinburgh, City of	£12,173	449,020	£27	£18,577	448,080	£41	£18,581	448,370	£41
Eilean Siar	£6,621	26,450	£250	£7,005	26,200	£267	£7,700	26,100	£295
Falkirk	£8,331	145,270	£57	£9,788	145,560	£67	£11,820	145,920	£81
Fife	£25,748	349,770	£74	£28,801	350,700	£82	£34,024	352,040	£97
Glasgow City	£31,824	578,710	£55	£42,439	577,350	£74	£39,614	577,090	£69
Highland	£18,987	208,920	£91	£26,937	208,140	£129	£25,880	209,080	£124
Inverclyde	£5,017	84,150	£60	£6,333	83,600	£76	£6,261	83,050	£75
Midlothian	£6,445	80,950	£80	£6,486	80,500	£81	£7,459	79,710	£94
Moray	£6,451	87,000	£74	£7,827	86,740	£90	£8,432	87,460	£96
North Ayrshire	£8,974	135,820	£66	£10,286	135,650	£76	£11,531	136,030	£85
North Lanarkshire	£22,436	321,180	£70	£30,621	321,350	£95	£28,843	321,820	£90
Orkney Islands	£8,318	19,220	£433	£9,569	19,210	£498	£9,970	19,310	£516
Perth and Kinross	£12,837	134,950	£95	£13,963	135,160	£103	£15,787	135,990	£116
Renfrewshire	£13,019	172,850	£75	£14,359	171,940	£84	£15,864	170,980	£93
Scottish Borders	£10,405	106,950	£97	£12,639	107,400	£118	£14,672	108,280	£136
Shetland Islands	£13,680	21,960	£623	£15,216	21,940	£694	£16,606	21,870	£759
South Ayrshire	£9,244	112,160	£82	£11,819	111,670	£106	£11,071	111,580	£99
South Lanarkshire	£25,178	302,340	£83	£31,911	302,110	£106	£34,356	303,010	£113
Stirling	£6,474	86,200	£75	£6,215	86,150	£72	£6,871	86,370	£80
West Dunbartonshire	£6,721	93,320	£72	£7,686	92,830	£83	£8,104	92,320	£88
West Lothian	£11,810	159,030	£74	£13,259	159,960	£83	£14,198	161,020	£88
Scotland	£372,569	5,064,200	£108	£455,722	5,054,800	£126	£486,649	5,057,400	£136

Local Authority	2004-05
Local Authority	(£000)	Pop.	Per Capita
Aberdeen City	£15,991	203,450	£79
Aberdeenshire	£25,920	232,850	£111
Angus	£12,395	108,560	£114
Argyll and Bute	£15,494	91,190	£170
Clackmannan-shire	£3,373	48,240	£70
Dumfries and Galloway	£19,559	147,930	£132
Dundee City	£11,470	141,870	£81
East Ayrshire	£11,838	119,720	£99
East Dunbartonshire	£12,593	106,550	£118
East Lothian	£7,003	91,580	£76
East Renfrewshire	£7,612	89,610	£85
Edinburgh, City of	£19,753	453,670	£44
Eilean Siar	£7,472	26,260	£285
Falkirk	£11,765	147,460	£80
Fife	£31,177	354,600	£88
Glasgow City	£43,951	577,670	£76
Highland	£27,546	211,340	£130
Inverclyde	£6,485	82,430	£79
Midlothian	£6,674	79,610	£84
Moray	£10,151	87,720	£116
North Ayrshire	£11,786	136,020	£87
North Lanarkshire	£29,068	322,790	£90
Orkney Islands	£10,616	19,500	£544
Perth and Kinross	£14,762	137,520	£107
Renfrewshire	£15,894	170,610	£93
Scottish Borders	£14,691	109,270	£134
Shetland Islands	£17,867	21,940	£814
South Ayrshire	£11,503	111,850	£103
South Lanarkshire	£35,365	305,410	£116
Stirling	£7,567	86,370	£88
West Dunbartonshire	£7,972	91,970	£87
West Lothian	£13,755	162,840	£84
Scotland	£499,068	5,078,400	£139

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/12/15135954/151.http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/12/15135954/153.http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/08/25100154/04337.http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/360/00360a-40.asp.http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2003/08/18053/25683#113.

Question reference: S2W-32684

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 29 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to reform the agriculture subsidy appeals system and whether it has made any representations to the European Union on this matter.

The EU Agricultural Subsidies appealsprocedure has been in operation since November 2000. It was set up to review decisionsin relation to the refusal, recovery and reduction of a producers EU subsidy andto ensure that my officials reached the correct decision by applying scheme rulescorrectly. It does not have the power to change or amend the tightly drawn EU ruleswithin which the schemes operate.

Against those legal constraints I am satisfied that the appealspanel operates fairly and objectively within its remit. I have made representationsto the EU about the current penalty structure for breaches in scheme regulationsand would be willing to review the appeals process in the light of any changes thatmight emerge.

Question reference: S2W-32694

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Des McNulty on 29 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many Warm Deal installations have been carried out by Scottish Gas, broken down by postcode area.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

The Warm Deal measures which had beeninstalled by Scottish Gas to 18 March 2007 are shown by postcode area in the followingtable:

Postcode	Number of Warm Deal Installations
AB	45
DD	22
DG	46
EH	120
FK	67
G	110
HS	2
IV	10
KA	106
KW	5
KY	79
ML	56
PA	48
PH	68
TD	45
ZE	0
Total	829

Question reference: S2W-32695

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 29 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken to promote Scottish beef abroad since the export ban was lifted.

I was delighted to attend each of the main European events lastyear to re-launch Scotch Beef into Europe. I am also pleased that the Executivehas awarded Quality Meat Scotland grant under the Marketing Development Scheme towardsthe cost of agents in both France and Italy to assist with the marketing of ScotchBeef and Scotch Lamb. We have also supported individual meat companies with bothcapital and marketing support under the food grant schemes. In addition, the Executivehas established a Working Group consisting of representatives from Scottish Enterprise,Scottish Development International, Food from Britain and industry bodies to ensurethat the industry is aware of what help is available and has a forum in which toraise any issues of concern.

Question reference: S2W-32387

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 29 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive to what extent the Crown Estate Commission submits regular reports to ministers and the Scottish Parliament on its Scottish operations, giving details of the number of any such reports and the dates on which they were submitted.

The Crown Estates publishes its annual report in July each yearand circulates it widely to a range of interests including Scottish ministers witha portfolio interest, and MSPs with a constituency interest. The Crown Estates alsomakes an important contribution to the consideration marine policy in Scotland,sitting on both the Advisory Group on Marine and Coastal Strategy and the MinisterialWorking Group on Aquaculture.

Question reference: S2W-32388

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 29 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what new powers it is seeking under the UK Government’s consideration of the forthcoming Marine Bill.

Question reference: S2W-32680

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Johann Lamont on 28 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) full-time and (b) retained firefighters there were in each fire board area in each of the last five years, also expressed as a ratio to the population and showing the number of current vacancies in each category.

Chamber and committees