Chamber and committees

The average gross hourly rates for the pay bands of staff working in the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service for financial year 2002-03 are given in the table:

Pay Band	Hourly Rate Based on Gross Average Pay*
B	£10.57
C	£14.64
D	£17.10
E	£23.94
F	£33.52
G	£38.34
SCS 1**	£65.32
SCS 1A	£72.95
SCS 2	£90.32
SCS 3	£111.93

Notes:*Gross average pay includes basic salary, employers' superannuation contributions and national insurance payments.**SCS= Senior Civil Service.

Whilst the national rail network does not run into or through the Banff and Buchan parliamentary constituency, travellers from that constituency do make use of the rail network from Aberdeen station. The announcement on 17 December 2002 will result in tightening Scotrail's performance targets for a more reliable service as well as new trains operating on the Aberdeen to Edinburgh and Glasgow routes, which will provide passengers with a better quality of journey experience.

Figures to show whether the targets of the National Cycling Strategy are being met in Scotland are not currently available. The Executive is promoting cycling by a number of means, including financial support for local authorities and the voluntary sector.

The cost of £29,000 was inclusive of VAT.

The following reports are available from the Parliament's Reference Centre. The cost of the project is given against each entry.Business-Related bankruptcies under the bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 1985, (Bib. number 24356) - contract cost £32,461.25 including VAT. Retained, auxiliary and volunteer firefighters in the Scottish Fire Service, (Bib. number 20422) - contract cost £13,915.37 plus VAT.A rural Community Gateway Website for Scotland - scoping study, (Bib. number 23333) - contract cost £29,022.50 including VAT.Feasibility Study for a victim and witness support services in Scotland, (Bib. number 25338) - contract cost £47,200 plus VAT.Audit of ICT Initiatives in Social Inclusion Partnerships and Working for Communities Pathfinders in Scotland, (Bib. number 6313) - contract cost £3,440 plus VAT.The following reports are not available from the Parliament Reference Centre:The Information Needs of Policy Makers in Civil Law research carried out by LAMBDA was not published. The total cost of this work was £32,750 plus VAT.Research on Dealing with Sex Offenders in Scotland was consultation work for the Expert Panel on Sex Offending chaired by the Honourable Lady Cosgrove and did not result in a formal report. This contract was with Douglas Maclean rather than with LAMBDA.The Crown Office commissioned Evaluation of Pilot Victim Liaison Service in Grampian and Hamilton is on-going. The total contract cost is £59,900.The Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary research into Family Liaison Officers is still in progress. This research was commissioned to inform the Thematic Inspection of Family Liaison Officers. The inspection report will be published in February 2003 and will be available from the Parliament's Reference Centre. The cost of the project is £10,935.

A copy of the Know the Score evaluation report was sent to the Parliament's Reference Centre in September 2002 (Bib. number 24390).

Faulds Advertising have already carried out their own research into the effectiveness of the campaign and System Three Social Research have recently been commissioned to follow up the baseline research on Public Awareness and Perceptions of Travel Awareness they carried out in 2001. As well as covering travel awareness generally, the System Three research will include a number of questions which relate specifically to the Learn to Let Go campaign. These are the only pieces of research into the effectiveness of the Learn to Let Go campaign which we have commissioned.

The distribution of general grant support to fire brigades is based on firefighter numbers (standardised establishment) and actual expenditure on pension costs. Brigades subsequently make their own decisions about the allocation of resources to meet their responsibilities within their areas. The FDR1 form plays no part in the process.

The Executive commissioned a study in 2000. It found that those living closest to wind farms were generally more positive about the developments than those who lived further away. However, we have recently been alerted to a flaw in the sample upon which part of the study was based. Despite a subsequent reanalysis which found that the overall results remain very close to those which were originally published, we have decided to commission a new study. The results are expected to be available in the spring of this year.

We have not undertaken any specific study, although we keep up to date in all important areas of wind power development.