Chamber and committees

Prior to the introduction ofStamp Duty Land Tax, there were discussions between the Inland Revenue, the JusticeDepartment and the Law Society of Scotland in relation to the implications for Scottishproperty transactions. Registers of Scotland were also consulted in respect of the impact Stamp DutyLand Tax would have on the two property Registers (the Land Register of Scotlandand the General Register of Sasines). Those discussions resulted in a special arrangementfor certain transactions where there may be a risk to the purchaser if the titledeed is not submitted quickly for registration in the appropriate property register.

It is not possible to anticipatewith any accuracy the annual cost to the board of cases presented to the SupremeCourt. The number of cases in any year is likely to be small and the costs willvary depending on the needs of each case. However, Scottish ministers do not expectthat the costs each year will be greater than that which would have arisen in theHouse of Lords and Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

We do not expect the changesin Stamp Taxes announced in the UK March Budget to have a significant impact oneither the Executive or local authority budgets.

The information requested forthe number of fine defaulters and the value of the fines written off due to theoffender receiving a prison sentence is given in tables 30, 30a, 30b, 33, 33a and33b of Prison Statistics Scotland, 2002, published by the Scottish Executive in 2003, copies of which are available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre(Bib. number 29169).

The available information onthe number of supervised attendance orders given to offenders who failed to paya fine is given in table 32 of Criminal Justice Social Work Statistics, 2002-03published by the Scottish Executive in 2003, copies of which are available in the Parliament’sReference Centre (Bib. number 30274). Information on the number and value of thefines involved is not held centrally.

The Executive is committed toand supports the principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Wewill continue to contribute to UK reports submitted to the UN Committee on the Rightsof the Child, which monitor implementation of the Convention. The Executive wouldexpect to have the opportunity to address any concerns on breaches of children’srights in the first instance, where these relate to devolved matters.

SinceMay 1998, the NHS in Scotland has had a policy of publishing full business cases forsigned projects. The Scottish Executive introduced a similar policy for all its PPP projectsin June 1999, and all public sector bodies are expected to follow suit. One of theconditions of funding for the schools PPP projects is that the full businesscase be made public.

The PPP procurement route mustshow value for money against a conventional procurement route before being selected.Value for money is assessed at outline business case stage and full businesscase stage. All PPP projects in Scotland have demonstrated value for money at full businesscase stage.

Responsibility for ensuring thatthe public purse receives value for money from property transactions rests withNHSScotland bodies

For every property transactiona NHSScotland Body must have a property adviser and in major or potentially complexdisposal cases must have in addition an independent valuer. It is the responsibilityof these professional advisers to confirm that the price at which the property isbeing sold represents the market value of the property having regard to its fullpotential. This is especially important when property is being sold without exposureon the open market as it ensures that in respect of these transactions value formoney is being achieved.

The role of the Scottish Executive is to monitor that transactions have been completed in accordance with proceduresdetailed in the NHS Scotland Property Transactions Handbook. This has beendone and no issues were raised by the trust’s auditors.

The public privatepartnership procurement route must show value for money against a conventional procurementroute before being selected. This involves consideration of whole life costs andbenefits, for example risk transfer, for the length of the contract. So, whilstcosts may initially seem higher, approved PPP projects present better value formoney than a conventional procurement route over the lifetime of the project.

I refer the member to the answergiven to question S2W-7194 on 20 April 2004. All answers to written PQs are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

Irefer the member to the answer given to question S2W-7193 on 20 April 2004. Allanswers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’swebsite, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

The estimated annual expenditureto service these projects on a sector basis since (a) 1997 to date, is shown inthe table below in both cash and real terms for each year of the life of the projects.Detailed information for individual projects is a matter for the public sector bodiesconcerned.

 

Existing Deals (Operational andSigned): Estimated Service Payments on a Sector Basis (£ Million)

	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03
Water and sewerage (cash)	0.0	2.5	16.3	20.3	54.0	67.4
Water and sewerage (real)	0.0	2.8	18.0	22.1	57.3	69.3
Further and Higher education (cash)	0.1	0.5	0.5	1.6	4.3	5.0
Further and Higher education (real)	0.1	0.6	0.6	1.7	4.6	5.1
Health (cash)	12.0	13.0	17.0	12.7	56.1	71.9
Health (real)	13.9	14.7	18.8	13.8	59.6	73.9
Justice (cash)	0.0	0.0	17.0	15.0	15.0	13.0
Justice (real)	0.0	0.0	18.8	16.3	15.9	13.4
National roads and transport (cash)	1.7	2.5	21.3	22.1	20.0	21.9
National roads and transport (real)	2.0	2.8	23.5	24.1	21.2	22.5
Social work (cash)	0.0	1.0	1.0	1.1	1.1	1.1
Social work (real)	0.0	1.1	1.1	1.2	1.2	1.1
Nationalised industries (cash)	0.0	0.0	1.2	1.2	1.3	1.3
Nationalised industries (real)	0.0	0.0	1.3	1.3	1.4	1.3
Local authorities (cash)	0.0	8.5	9.4	34.9	74.9	116.2
Local authorities (real)	0.0	9.6	10.4	38.0	79.5	119.4
Total (cash)	13.8	28.0	83.7	108.9	226.7	297.8
Total (real)	16.0	31.6	92.4	118.6	240.7	306.1

Notes:

1. Real prices to a base yearof 2003-04.

2. Data source March 2003 HMTreasury return.