Chamber and committees

Drawing up a plan of core pathsby February 2008 is a statutory obligation for local authorities under the LandReform (Scotland) Act 2003. Failure to meet statutory obligations is notan option for local authorities. This is a matter of prioritising within availablefunding consistent with the general principles of the local government funding arrangements.The top priority for local authorities must be to fulfil their statutory obligations.

Part 1 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act2003 gives access authorities the power to undertake the maintenance of core paths.Exercise of that power is a matter for the discretion of individual authoritiesand they will need to determine the extent of any such activity on the basis oftheir assessment of local needs and priorities and having regard to the availabilityof funds within their overall budget. Funding for work on paths is also availablefrom other sources, including land management contracts under the Scottish RuralDevelopment Programme. Decisions on funding for local government and other programmesbeyond 2007-08 are a matter for the next Spending Review which is due to take placenext year.

At the time of the introductionof the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, and with the agreement of COSLA, provisionof £7.4/£8.1 million was reallocated to the GAE line for the Remainder of Leisureand Recreation, to help fund access from 2004-05. These sums were intended to makeprovision for funding of core path planning as well as other access functions. Theyare not ring fenced but part of the block grant the Executive provides to localauthorities. Each local authority is responsible for deciding how best to allocatetheir share of the block grant based on their local needs and priorities.

These data are not collectedcentrally. However, work is in hand to improve local data and performancemanagement systems, following a review of indicators last year by the Care andRepair Working Group.

Demand for housingadaptations for older and disabled people, including owner-occupiers, isdetermined on the basis of the number of people with an assessed need. Assessmentis normally carried out by an occupational therapist, on behalf of the localauthority.

Details of the number ofclients assisted by Care and Repair projects in Scotland are published annuallyin Care and Repair in Scotland: National Indicators, copies of which areavailable from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 40258).

However, information on thenumber of owner-occupiers assessed as requiring some form of housing adaptationis not collected centrally.

We support the retention ofa sustainable and accessible network of fuel supply throughout rural Scotlandthrough the Executive’s Rural Petrol Stations Grants Scheme, which providesassistance towards essential capital expenditure on fuel supply infrastructureand involves regular assessments of local petrol retail services across Scotland.

We are aware of the researchquoted in The Scotsman on 13 May. The Energy Institute’s figures are,however, at variance with the latest data produced by the Office for NationalStatistics, which show that the number of petrol stations operating across Scotland fellfrom about 880 in November 1999 to approximately 700 in November 2004.

Since 1998-99, the Scottish Executive’sRural Transport Fund has spent £57.7m to improve transport services in ruralareas. In addition to providing grants to rural petrolstations to help with the capital costs of fuel supply infrastructure, the Fundis also helping to reduce people’s need for private transport by funding newand improved public and community transport services in rural areas.

Urban areas which have ahigher concentration of petrol stations also benefit from a wider and morefrequent range of bus and rail services which reduce the need to rely onprivate transport.

Independent research in 2004found that the Rural Petrol Stations Grants Scheme was a successful scheme that had providedsubstantial social, economic and environmental benefits to many ruralcommunities in Scotland. The research also found that the scheme wasresponsible for almost all rural LPG provision in Scotland.

Although the 2005-06 budget forthe scheme was £400,000, actual spend amounted to almost £483,000, with theexcess being funded from underspends elsewhere in the Transport budget. The2006-07 budget has been increased from the proposed £600,000 to £1 million tocope with the current high demand for the scheme.

The available information isgiven in the table.

 

Persons with a Charge Provedin Scottish Courts for Selected Offences⁽¹⁾, 2000-01 to 2004-05

Offence	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
	Number:
Egg Collecting(2)	2	1	-	3	-
Kill or Attempt to Kill Protected Species(3)	-	2	-	-	2
Illegal possession of Pesticides(4)	-	-	-	1(5)	1
	Average fine (£)
Egg Collecting(2)	550	800	-	933	-
Kill or Attempt to Kill Protected Species(3)	-	1250	-	-	975
Illegal Possession of Pesticides(4)	-	-	-	-	1200

1. Where main offence.

2. Sections 1(1)(c),1(2)(b), 3(1)(a)(iii) and 6 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981.

3. Sections 5(1), 9, 11 and12 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981.  Use of poison specifically isnot separately identifiable in the data. 

4. The Control of PesticidesRegulations R4(4)(a/b).

5. Offender admonished.

The Crown Office and ProcuratorFiscal Service does not and constitutionally can not provide advice on sentencing.Sentencing is entirely a matter for the sheriffor judge in court who hears all the circumstances of the offence and the offender.

The Lord Advocate does have aright of appeal against “unduly lenient” sentences under the Criminal Procedure(Scotland) Act 1995. The independent sentencing powers of judges have always beena cornerstone of our legal system and the Appeal Court has therefore set a hightest to be satisfied before a Crown appeal against sentence will be successful.