Chamber and committees

The Executive is committed to closing the opportunity gap for the most disadvantaged communities in Scotland. The refreshed A Smart, Successful Scotland (SSS), which provides strategic direction to Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, makes clear that while their activities must have a primary economic rationale, they must also be carried out in a way that contributes to closing the opportunity gap.

As stated in SSS, a Memorandum of Understanding is being developed between Scottish Enterprise and Communities Scotland to ensure alignment of activities in respect of area regeneration projects. The proposed Employability Framework will agree the responsibilities of bodies involved in supporting people into employment, including Scottish Enterprise.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-11377 on 26 November 2004. 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/webapp/wa.search.

The “See Me…” anti-stigma campaign, funded by the Scottish Executive, seeks to challenge and eliminate the stigma and discrimination that can be associated with having a mental health problem, including where this relates to employment. The National Programme for Improving Mental Health and Well-Being funds activity to promote mental health and well-being in the workplace. Training to raise employers’ awareness of mental health and well-being is being developed in partnership between Scotland’s Health at Work and the Scottish Development Centrefor Mental Health.

In Scotland, Jobcentre Plus provides a service specialising in support for jobseekers with disabilities, including those with mental health illness, and also offers the voluntary New Deal for Disabled People programme to support peopleon incapacity benefits who want to work. Sustained support towards employment isalso available to Incapacity Benefit claimants in the Pathways to Work pilot inRenfrewshire, Inverclyde Argyll and Bute. The pilot will be extended from October 2005 to Glasgow, Lanarkshire and East Dunbartonshire.

Information on forthcoming spending plans is available in the Draft Budget 2005-06, which is available as a publication on the Scottish Executive website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/finance/db0506-00.asp.

Further announcements will be made in due course about detailed spending plans.

The Scottish Executive believes that all support, care and treatment services should be working to promote and support recovery.

To help enable and facilitate this, the Scottish Executive has established the Scottish Recovery Network, which will be formally launched on 16 December 2004. The Scottish Recovery Network is funded with an initial budget of £285,719 (2004 to 2006) of health improvement funds, through the National Programme for Improving Mental Health and Well-Being.

The Scottish Recovery Network will compliment the work of health boards and local authorities and voluntary agencies in promoting and supporting recovery.

In addition to core grants from health boards and local authorities, £20 million is allocated to local authorities under the Mental Health Specific grant arrangements to support nearly 400 community based projects nationally, many of these support and complement recovery.

In addition to support, care and treatment services, people’s recovery is also promoted and supported through improving employment and employment opportunities for people, access to social, arts, cultural and recreational activities, training and education opportunities, housing and transport. Sections 25 – 27 of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003, identify the importance of these wider social issues as helping to promote the well-being and social development of people with a mental disorder.

The information is not available in the form requested. A separate budget for renewable energy was not introduced until 2003-04, when direct spending from within the Executive’s energy budget amounted to £1.6 million. This compares to an estimated £0.4 million in 2002-03.

These figures do not take into account budget transfers to Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and the Energy Saving Trust (EST) to fund and operate our Scottish Community and Household Renewables Initiative (SCHRI). We estimate that Executive spending on the SCHRI between its introduction in 2002 until April 2005 will come to a further £5 million.

The Executive has also contributed funding of £2.2 million towards the establishment of the European Marine Energy Centre, and £3 million towards the Moray Firth offshore wind demonstrator.

We also fund a range of other renewables support measures through the activities of HIE, Scottish Enterprise, EST and the Carbon Trust, as well as offering direct business support and Regional Selective Assistance funding for small businesses and companies involved in renewable energy activities.

Renewables projects in Scotland have also benefited from a range of UK capital and research support schemes administered by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). Awards to Scottish companies from DTI renewable programmes since 2002 amount to an estimated £28 million.

Yes. The implementation date is as announced by my predecessor – April 2005.

I am, however, very aware that a successful roll-out of the act is essential if we are to build confidence in the new arrangements. Since taking up my portfolio I have been reviewing the state of readiness for implementation with my officials and also less formally during introductory meetings with key stakeholders. It is clear that while stakeholders are keen for the new act to come into force they are also want it to work effectively, particularly the tribunal. Significant progress has been made over the past twelve months with the implementation. But as with any large project there continue to be risks in some areas which have the potential to adversely affect a successful implementation. I am therefore keeping the state of readiness for the act under close review.

The latest data available are for the financial year 2002-03 and are set out in the table:

Expenditure on Basic and Applied Research Funded by the Scottish Executive Financial Year 2002-03

Department	Expenditure £ Millions
Basic Research	Applied Research	Total
Development	0.1	4.3	4.4
Education	0.3	1.2	1.5
Environment and Rural Affairs	15.8	40.5	56.3
Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning	0	7.3	7.3
Health	0	44.6	44.6
Justice	0	1.3	1.3
Total	16.2	99.2	115.4

 

These figures do not include the funding provided by the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council for research undertaken in Higher Education Institutions.

The information requested is not available. The Department of Trade and Industry collect and publish information on generation output, but not on the unit costs of generation.

The Scottish Executive will invest £12 million through its renewable energy budget over the next three years. We will also invest £22 million over the next three years through our Green Jobs fund, part of which will support opportunities for Scottish renewable energy businesses.

The Department for Trade and Industry have announced around £500 million funding between 2002 and 2008 for emerging renewable and low carbon technologies, from which Scotland will be eligible to benefit.