Chamber and committees

Scottish Water’s averagehousehold water and sewerage charge for 2006-07 is £287. The average householdcharge in England and Wales for 2006-07 is £294. The Executive does not hold themore detailed information sought.

The budget for Tartan Week in2006 is £660,000. This is made up of £560,000 in support for events around TartanWeek in Chicago, New York and Washington DC and £100,000 on marketing. This expenditure isallocated from the Finance and Central Services Department budget.

Professor Alan Alexander tendered his resignation as Chair of Scottish Water to the Minister for Environment and Rural Development on 20 February 2006. His reason for doing so was that he did not agree with the view of the Executive and Scottish Water’s regulators (the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, the Drinking Water Quality Regulator and the Water Industry Commission for Scotland), that Scottish Water’s delivery plan for 2006-10 fell short of their requirements for the plan in a number of material respects.

Professor Alexander resigned because of the disagreement between him and the Executive over Scottish Water’s 2006-10 delivery plan that is described in the answers to questions S2W-23461 and S2W-23462 on 8 March 2006. Given the importance to Scottish Water and its customers of the Executive and Scottish Water’s Chair having a shared view of how Scottish Water will achieve the Executive’s objectives for 2006‑10, Professor Alexander’s resignation was in the public interest. In these circumstances, the Scottish ministers decided to exercise their powers under paragraph 5(3) of schedule 3 to the Water Industry (Scotland) Act 2002 to require Scottish Water to make an ex-gratia payment to Professor Alexander in the sum of £26,975.

The Minister for Environment and Rural Development and the Deputy Minister for Environment and Rural Development met Professor Alan Alexander on 9 February. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the views of the Executive, supported by Scottish Water’s regulators (the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, the Drinking Water Quality Regulator and the Water Industry Commission for Scotland), that Scottish Water’s delivery plan for 2006-10 fell short of the Executive’s and regulators’ requirements for the plan in a number of material respects and the implications that these views had for Professor Alexander’s position as the Chair of Scottish Water. Professor Alexander responded that he believed the plan to be compliant with the requirements of the Executive and the regulators.

The Minister for Environment and Rural Development undertook to consider Professor Alexander’s response, which Professor Alexander amplified in a letter that he sent to the Minister on 10 February 2006.

The Minister for Environment and Rural Development met Professor Alexander on 16 February 2006 to inform Professor Alexander that the Executive and the regulators, who with the permission of Professor Alexander had been invited to comment on his letter of 10 February, had not changed their views of the delivery plan. Professor Alexander said he remained of the view that the plan was compliant. In light of the disagreement between him and the minister, he said that he intended to resign as Chair of Scottish Water. He requested that the announcement of his resignation should not be made until he had had time to inform his colleagues at Scottish Water of his decision. The Minister for Environment and Rural Development agreed to this request.

The Minister for Environment and Rural Development met Professor Alexander on 20 February 2006 to receive Professor Alexander’s resignation and to agree the terms in which it should be announced.

The Executive’s Tartan Weekactivity flows from our International Strategy. It has the following objectives:

building political ties;

attracting tourism to Scotland;

promoting economic growth, and

cementing cultural ties.

Tartan Week offers Scottish ministersand members of the Parliamentary delegation an opportunity to promote Scotland as anexcellent place to visit, study, live and do business.

The Tartan Week 2006 programmeincludes a large number of events and meetings that will showcase Scotland as aplace to visit, live, work, study and do business with. The Executive works withprivate, public and voluntary sector bodies in Scotland and in the USA to co-ordinatethe programme. An evaluation of the programme will be carried out.

The Scottish Executive supportfor Tartan Day/Week was -

(a) 2003 – £30,000;

(b) 2004 – £200,000, and

(c) 2005 - £480,000.

The first recorded notification of the car park leaking problem was in November 2004. Possible sources of the water causing the leaks are being investigated and the establishment of responsibility for the cost of repairs will form part of that investigation.

The doors in the MSP block are being replaced because they have been found to be defective. Twelve doors are being replaced. Currently, there is no requirement to replace any more doors and no such requirement is envisaged in the foreseeable future. It is not anticipated that there will be any additional cost to the taxpayer. The purchase price of the replacement doors is a commercial matter for the trade contractor.