Chamber and committees

In order to improve the rights and security of park home residents I have launched a public consultation on proposals to update the terms in agreements between residents and park owners. The consultation will run until 18 March 2011 and includes a draft Scottish Statutory Instrument which will be progressed following the consultation. This will update Schedule 1 to the Mobile Homes Act 1983 which sets out the rights of mobile homes residents by way of a list of contractual terms that it implies into agreements.

The following table shows Modern Languages Qualification Entries (Presentations) from 2009 and 2010 in publicly-funded schools in Scotland for pupils in Secondary 4 and Secondary 5/6.

	2009	2010
Number of entries for: Access 3, Standard Grade, Intermediate 1 and 2	48,031	46,050
Entry rate for Access 3, Standard Grade and Intermediate 1 and 2 per 1,000 pupils in S4	822	804
Number of entries for Highers	6,233	6,262
Higher entry rate per 1,000 pupils in S5/6	91	87
Numbers of entries for Advanced Highers	762	824
Advanced Higher entry rate per 1,000 pupils in S6	27	27

 

Town Centre Regeneration Fund awards were made to the following towns in North Ayrshire:

Project Title	Project Lead	Award
Millport Town Centre Regeneration Business, Arts and Culture	Cumbrae Community Development Company	£397,678.24
Ardrossan Key Buildings Regeneration Scheme	Irvine Bay Developments Ltd	£800,000
Saltcoats Key Buildings Regeneration Scheme	Irvine Bay Developments Ltd	£650,000
Total		£1,847,678.24

 

This project, which is included within Intervention 22 of the Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR), will require many stages to be undertaken, including detailed design and development work before we can finalise the timescales for delivery.

A timetable for delivering the Dalry bypass will be set in the context of overall affordability and our commitments to other STPR proposals.

No.

The Scottish Government has regular discussions with the UK Government on the UK National Reform Programme, most recently at the Joint Ministerial Committee (Europe) on 14 March 2011. Scottish Government officials are in regular contact with their Whitehall equivalents on the drafting of the UK National Reform Programme document.

Data from UK Government indicates that, in total, 68 UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) applied for funding for eco-innovation projects under the European 2010 Competitiveness and Innovation Programme. No data on the number of Scottish SMEs is held as information is not broken down below EU member state level.

To encourage further engagement with the programme over the next few months Enterprise Europe Scotland plan to raise awareness of eco-innovation opportunities through information days and capacity building sessions to businesses across a range of sectors.

The Scottish Government is fully supportive of the EU Small Business Act, which complements our Government Economic Strategy and Purpose. The Scottish Government welcomes the European Commission''s intention to review the Small Business Act as a helpful opportunity to examine progress made to embed the principles and implement its specific measures.

While we have not undertaken any formal evaluation or assessment to quantify the cumulative impact of the range of measures under the Small Business Act, it is important to identity what more needs to be done to ensure momentum is maintained to further improve the EU business environment for SMEs. We will take account of any new ideas or approaches that emerge in due course from the review.

This is primarily a matter of contractual law and civil enforcement between those who own and those who use such private car parks. There is also significant case law that applies in Scotland. For example, the High Court concluded in 1992 that wheel clamping on private land amounted to theft and that the demand for payment of a release fee amounted to extortion. We therefore have no plans for further regulation.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-20652 on 24 February 2009. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.