Chamber and committees

We expect the Social Economy Advisory Board to be operational by March 2006. The board will advise ministers on the future development of the social economy. This will include advising on the Social Enterprise Strategy and the future development of the Futurebuilders Scotland programme. I expect to announce membership of the board shortly.

The Improvement Service was officially launched in April 2005. The current Board members are:

Patrick Watters (COSLA)

Roderick Ian Douglas Mair (COSLA)

Tom McCabe (Minister for Finance and Public Services Reform)

Keith Dunckley Yates (SOLACE)

Colin Peter Caldwell Mair (Chief Executive, the Improvement Service for Scottish Local Government)

Douglas Sinclair (SOLACE) re-signed from the Improvement Service at the last board meeting on 21 November 2005 due to the completion of his term as chair of SOLACE. Gavin Whitefield (SOLACE) is the nominated replacement for Douglas Sinclair, however the legal appointment process for Mr Whitefield has still to be finalised.

Prior to the official launch of the Improvement Service, a Shadow Board was put in place in 2003 to pave the way for the establishment of the company. The Shadow Board Members were: -

Patrick Watters (COSLA)

Corrie McChord (COSLA)

Andy Kerr (then Minister for Finance and Public Services Reform)

Leslie Evans (Scottish Executive)

Douglas Sinclair (SOLACE)

Keith Dunckley Yates (SOLACE).

The quarterly and annualgrowth rates for the Scottish and UK manufacturing sectors for the four quarters leadingup to quarter 2, 2005 are as follows.

Table 1: Constant PriceGross Value Added for Manufacturing Sector: Quarterly Growth Rates, 2004 Q3 to2005 Q2

Quarter	Scotland	United Kingdom
2004 Q3	-1.2%	-0.7%
2004 Q4	+0.6%	+0.6%
2005 Q1	-0.4%	-0.9%
2005 Q2	-0.1%	-0.2%

 

Table 2: Constant PriceGross Value Added for Manufacturing Sector: Four Quarter on Four Quarter GrowthRates, 2004 Q3 to 2005 Q2

Quarter	Scotland	United Kingdom
2004 Q3	-0.3%	+2.1%
2004 Q4	+0.2%	+1.9%
2005 Q1	-0.1%	+1.4%
2005 Q2	-0.5%	+0.4%

Sources:

Scotland Data: Scottish Executive: Quarterly GDP Index.

United Kingdom Data: Office of National Statistics.

Scottish Executive Departments administer a wide range of grant schemes linked to specific objectives. In 2005-06, the value of these grants totalled over £1.8 billion. Grant schemes include, for example, the Cities Growth Fund, the Bellwin Scheme and measures to tackle anti social behaviour. A list of the grants is published at Annex I of Finance Circular No 8/2005 issued on 23 November 2005.

Each grant scheme has its own terms and conditions and responsibility for ensuring that councils adhere to these rests with the relevant Executive Department. In general, councils are required formally to assure the department that the funding has been spent in accordance with the grant offer. In a number of cases, there is a further requirement for councils to have the return audited as part of their annual accounts. Routine evaluation and monitoring is also carried out.

Data about personal injury road accidents are collected by the police and reported to the Scottish Executive using the STATS 19 statistical report form. The following table gives the numbers of road accidents which were identified in these returns as occurring on the specified sections of the A811 from 1995 to 2004, and the associated numbers of fatalities.

It should be noted that the statistics given below are based upon the data which are held in the Scottish Executive’s road accident statistics database and which were collected by the police at the time of the accident and subsequently reported to the Executive. They may differ from any figures which the local authorities would provide now, because they do not take account of any subsequent changes or corrections that local authorities may have made to the statistical information, for use at local level, about the location of each accident, based upon their knowledge of the roads and areas concerned.

Injury Road Accidents Occurring on Sections of the A811, and the Associated Numbers of Fatalities, as Reported in the “STATS 19” Statistical Returns

	Injury road accidents		Fatalities
Year	Stirling to Kippen*	Kippen* to Ballat**	Stirling to Kippen*	Kippen* to Ballat**
1995	6	11	1	1
1996	5	7	0	0
1997	7	10	0	0
1998	8	12	0	2
1999	7	8	0	0
2000	8	5	1	1
2001	9	5	0	1
2002	9	12	0	0
2003	8	9	0	3
2004	8	7	1	0

Notes:

*The junction of the A811 and the B822, near Kippen.

**The junction of the A811 and the A81, near Ballat.

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

The Scottish Executive guidance for community learning and development (CLD) Working and Learning Together to Build Stronger Communities, was published in January 2004, a copy of which is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre(Bib. number 38409). This guidance indicated that the overall responsibility for planning for CLD strategies rests with community planning partnerships, with local authorities expected to take responsibility for ensuring that arrangements are in place to set up and maintain partnership working at both strategic and operational levels.

On behalf of the Scottish Executive, Communities Scotland, through its Learning Connections team, has responsibility for supporting the establishment of strategies. The guidance was issued to local authority Chief Executives with the expectation that community planning partnerships would develop strategies in the most suitable manner taking into consideration local community planning processes. Whilst timescales of development and delivery have differed there has been no indication of non-compliance with the guidance request. Thirty partnerships have delivered final strategies to Communities Scotland with a further two strategies awaiting final endorsement by their council and/or Community Planning Partnership.

No. The numberof people who have been killed is unacceptably high. That is why we have undertakena full accident analysis to inform further improvements over and above the £40 millioninvestment over the next three years.

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

Operating on behalf of Scottish ministers, Communities Scotland engages with local authorities on a range of housing and community regeneration issues. The nature of this engagement includes: statutory regulation of local authority housing, homelessness and factoring functions; assisting local authorities with the production of relevant plans and strategies; assisting local authorities locally with the delivery of housing and community regeneration goals, and, the provision of funding streams to support investment in housing and community regeneration.

Ensuring compliance with obligations that arise from this engagement falls to Communities Scotland.

There is no obligation on local authorities to publish annual reports on their services for adult literacy and numeracy.

The rates liability for all businesses, including new ones, is determined by the Scottish Assessors, and is usually based on an estimate of the annual rent which a subject would command on the open market. New business start-ups do not receive any specific rates reductions, although, there are a wide range of rate reliefs available to all qualifying businesses, including new ones. We have no current plans to introduce a rates reduction for new business start-ups in the next spending review.