Chamber and committees

Public Service Obligations are defined in the relevant EU legislation (Council Regulation No 3577/92) as “obligations which the Community shipowner in question, if he was considering his own commercial interest, would not assume or would not assume to the same extent or under the same conditions”.

We have in place a number of public service contracts for ferry services that apply public service obligations to the contracted operators. These obligations cover matters such as routes, frequencies, fares and discounts, performance standards and on-board services. We do not impose such obligations on commercial ferry operators.

Local authority debt is the sum of traditional borrowing (as recorded in the statutory loans fund) and credit arrangements (assets acquired under Private Finance Initiatives (PFI) or similar arrangements).

Prior to 2009-10 local authority debt did not include a number of credit arrangements, such as PFIs, as the assets associated with these arrangements were not recognised as local authority assets. The change in accounting rules from 2009-10 required a local authority to recognise these assets and the associated debt. The following table shows the latest information we have on debt outstanding by each Council at 31 March each year, with the change in accounting being reflected from 2010.

The data is taken from capital returns made by each council in each financial year.

Information from the local authority capital returns is published in an annual capital expenditure report which can be found on the Scottish Government website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/local-government/17999/LACapital/capitalmonitoring.

The total debt associated with capital investment is the sum of traditional borrowing and credit arrangements (assets acquired under Private Finance Initiatives (PFI) or similar arrangements).

Prior to 2009-10 local authority debt costs did not include a number of credit arrangements, such as PFIs, as the assets associated with these arrangements were not recognised as local authority assets. A change in the accounting rules in 2009-10 required a local authority to recognise these assets and associated debt costs. The following table shows the amount of interest paid by councils in the five years to 2010-11, with the change in accounting being reflected from 2009-10.

The data is taken from capital returns made by each council in each financial year. Data for 2011-12 has not yet been collected. Returns provided by some councils prior to 2008-09 did not include information on the amount of interest paid for that year.

Information from the local authority capital returns is published in an annual capital expenditure report which can be found on the Scottish Government website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/local-government/17999/LACapital/capitalmonitoring.

Scottish ministers have approved 11 section 36 wind farm applications since 2007. In six of these cases SNH, 1 case Historic Scotland and in no cases SEPA had lodged an objection to the proposed development. In relation to planning appeals, during this time Scottish ministers have issued five decisions, of which two were allowed and the Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals have issued 58 decisions on wind farm appeals, 21 of which have been allowed. Of these appeal decisions where permission was granted SNH and SEPA had objected to one and four of the proposed developments respectively. In another seven cases (SEPA) and eight cases (SNH) were satisfied that their objections could be dealt with by planning conditions.

The Controller of Audit does not have any powers to issue such enforcement directions. After considering a report to it by the Controller of Audit, the Accounts Commission may make recommendations to Scottish ministers that they make an enforcement direction. No such recommendations have been made in the last 10 years.

The Accounts Commission has not used these powers in the last 10 years.

The Accounts Commission has not imposed any such sanctions in the past 10 years.

From records available it is not possible to identify the number of councillors who object to a specific proposal. However, Scottish ministers have approved 11 section 36 wind farm applications since 2007. In seven of these cases the planning authority had made an objection to the proposed development. During this time Scottish ministers have issued five decisions on wind farm appeals, of which two have been allowed where they have made the final decision and the Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals have issued 58 decisions on wind farm appeals, 21 of which have been allowed.