Chamber and committees

The advisory forum is being convened on behalf of the Scottish Government by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC). The SFC has issued draft terms of reference and membership invitations to a broad range of stakeholder interests across the sector, including staff, unions and student representatives. The aim is to hold the first meeting of the advisory forum in May or June this year, subject to the availability of forum members.

The Scottish Government has not set electricity targets in terms of the output of specific technologies. We expect and want a wide range of renewable technologies to be developed to ensure we have a balanced electricity mix.

The Committee of Scottish Chairs is developing a Code of Good Governance for higher education institutions.

The Scottish Funding Council is convening a University Sector Advisory Forum with a membership covering the broad range of stakeholder interests across the sector, including staff, unions and student representatives. A key initial focus of the advisory forum will be the implementation of the recommendations of the Report of the Review of Higher Education Governance in Scotland.

Early discussions have also been held with the Scottish Funding Council in relation to the recommendation regarding avoiding the bureaucratisation of higher education.

We expect this recommendation to be addressed in the new Code of Good Governance currently being developed by Committee of Scottish Chairs. Discussions will be held with the Scottish Funding Council after the new Code is published to ensure this recommendation is appropriately addressed.

The amount of renewable energy purchased from Scottish generators in the event of a vote for independence will, as now, be determined by a regulated market which is aimed at ensuring secure and sustainable supplies of power at an affordable cost to consumers. There is no question that renewable energy generated in Scotland will continue to prove vital in meeting renewable obligations across the UK. By way of example, Scottish generators in 2011-12 produced almost four times as many Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) than would have been required to meet the size of the supplier obligations in Scotland. The majority of these Scottish ROCs will have been used to comply with the renewables obligation covering England and Wales.

Individual salary information is considered personal information and release would be considered a breach of data protection principles.

The current Special Adviser Pay Bands and Ranges and the number of Special Advisers within each Pay Band are:

As stated in the previous answer, the estimated cost of employing Special Advisers for the financial year 2012-13 is £922,678¹ – a real terms decrease of £60,389 from the 12-month cost of the 2006-07 Special Adviser team which, when up-rated to 2012-13 prices, cost £983,067². Costs for 2013-14 are estimated to fall further to £912,956 in nominal terms (£895,055³ in 2012-13 prices) – a real terms decrease of £88,012 below 2006-07 levels.

Notes:

1. Total costs include salary, ERNIC and employer pension contributions. The level of the employer ERNIC and pension contributions is not a matter for the Scottish Government. Estimate based on current team of 13 Special Advisers being in post for the remainder of 2012-13.

2. Salary, ERNIC, employer pension contributions and total costs figures have been converted into real terms (2012-13 prices) to adjust for inflation using HM Treasury deflators, published in December 2012. These were the latest available deflators at the time of calculation on 20 February 2013. It should be noted that the 2012-13 deflator is based on OBR forecast data from the UK Government Autumn Statement, December 2012.

3. See 2 for details on uprating.

Scotland has long been a net exporter of electricity, with net exports of between 14% and 26% of total generation in each year from 2000 to 2011. We would expect this to remain the case in the event of a vote for independence.

Scotland has long been a net exporter of electricity, with net exports of between 14% and 26% of total generation in each year from 2000 to 2011. We would expect this to remain the case in the event of a vote for independence.

We do not expect either Scotland’s energy needs or their provision to be affected in the event of a vote for independence. We intend that a single Great Britain market for energy will remain in place, and that this is an outcome which will best serve mutual interests across the UK.

The Scottish Government has announced its intention to use new powers in the Scotland Act 2012 to create a replacement tax on landfill when the UK system is disapplied in Scotland after the 1 April 2015. As mentioned in our consultation paper, “Protecting Our Resources-Consultation on a Scottish Landfill Tax”, we are proposing that the Landfill Tax Communities Fund be replaced with a new credit system that will retain the ability for communities and environmental organisations to access funds to offset the dis-amenity and negative impacts of landfill.

The distribution mechanism will be decided at a later stage following further consultation with stakeholders.