Chamber and committees

I last met with Angus Council representatives in October 2002. Angus Council has received additional capital consent of £2.8 million in 2001-02 and £1.4 million this year towards the cost of replacing the Montrose Bridge.

The Scottish Executive meets representatives of local authorities in the Tayside area on a regular basis to discuss a range of issues, including the Tay Estuary Rail Study.

Advertising expenditure for the years in question have been paid for by departments out of their programme budgets. In some cases projections for expenditure are known from the start of the financial year, for example the flu campaign which cost £806,646 in the current year. In other cases the need for a campaign may not be identified or agreed until sometime into the financial year. In such cases the projected expenditure will be estimated at the start, and finalised at the end of the planning and development phase. Some campaigns can take a considerable time to develop - an example is the Race campaign which spanned two financial years before it was run in autumn 2002. Once expenditure has been agreed it is closely monitored to ensure costs remain within the budget set.From 2003-04 control of advertising expenditure will be centralised and departments will make an application, supported by a business case, for funds allocated from a central budget.The figures requested for actual spending on advertising by departments are as follows:

1999-2000
Campaign	Total Advertising Expenditure
Development Department
Road Safety	£868,800
Education Department
Children's Hearings	£121,260
Teacher Recruitment	£96,422
Home and Health Department
Tobacco Campaign	£10,404
NHS Fraud	£100,000
Electoral Registration	£25,786
Fire Prevention	£390,900
European Elections	£32,029
Census	£9,993
Childcare Helpline	£73,675
Domestic Abuse	£550,197
Environment and Rural Affairs Department
Food Safety	£118,682
Environment	£11,667
Constitution Group
Scotland's Parliament	£533,151

2000-01
Campaign	Total Advertising Expenditure
Health Department
Alcohol Abuse	£471,970
Flu/winter campaign	£1,058,365
Organ Retention	£55,696
Organ Donor Filler	£48,465
NHS Helpline	£137,528
NHS Fraud	£121,942
NHS Public Appointments	£36,549
Development Department
Road Safety	£1,267,048
Justice Department
Safer Scotland	£162,826
Fire Prevention	£174,022
Drug Enforcement Agency	£54,735
Domestic Abuse	£507,464
Crime Prevention	£11,750
Fostering	£32,443
Education Department
Teacher Recruitment	£27,024
Children's Hearings	£122,993
Child Care	£132,530
Environment Department
Environment	£501,364
Lead in Water	£76,977
Development Department
Travel Awareness	£318,809
Rural Affairs Department
Food Safety	£32,480

2001-02
Campaign	Total Advertising Expenditure
Health Department
Drugs	£1,967,133
Flu	£630,043
NHS Helpline	£112,462
NHS Fraud	£29,920
Prevention of Suicide	£79,384
Alcohol Abuse	£513,176
Healthy Eating	£51,122
National Care Standards	£7,340
Education Department
Children's Hearings	£250,732
Teacher Recruitment	£322,799
Child Protection on the Internet	£186,303
Funding for Learners	£9,488
Digital Access	£33,882
Justice Department
Fire Prevention	£334,708
Racism	£14,394
Domestic Abuse	£650,553
Development Department
Road Safety	£1,537,994
Travel Awareness	£585,613
Environment Department
Environment	£767,497
Litter	£118,934
FCSD
Electoral Registration	£4,838
Performance Management Guide - Intranet	£8,706
Scotland Online21st Century Govt	£15,667

2002-date
Campaign	Total Advertising Expenditure
Health Department
Alcohol Abuse	£683,311
Drugs Campaign	£995,077
Flu Campaign	£923,503
Free Personal Care	£252,725
NHS Helpline	£124,876
Organ Donor	£24,440
Organ Retention	£85,142
Prevention of Suicide	£92,238
Healthy Eating	£495,386
Justice Department
Crime Braker	£23,093
Domestic Abuse	£601,602
Racism	£1,245,207
Safer Scotland	£165,060
Fire Prevention	£228,197
Education Department
Digital Access	£149,966
Children's Hearings	£537,986
Funding for Learners	£100,218
National Debate	£373,127
Teaching	£9,888
Home Reading	£14,554
Social Care	£525,588
UEFA	£7,030
Child Protection on the Internet	£102,641
Development Department
Concessionary Fares	£393,343
Travel Awareness	£555,150
Road Safety	£1,296,734
Glasgow Housing Association	£31,450
M74 Completion	£18,792
Environment Department
Environment	£561,385
Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Department
Regional Selective Assistance	£29,043
Finance and Central Services Department
Tartan Day	£37,554

The freight facilities and track access grant schemes, as administered by the Scottish Executive, will continue to be available in Scotland. We are in regular contact with the Strategic Rail Authority and with the Department for Transport about these schemes.

Work has been commissioned by the North East of Scotland Fisheries Development Partnership to look at the likely economic impact of the decisions arising from the December Council. The Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department and Sea Fish Industry Authority economists have also contributed to a socio-economic analysis and this will inform the decisions that ministers have to take over the next few days.

The purpose of the Farm Business Development Scheme (FBDS) is to provide financial support to farming families to create new income generating opportunities, or to expand or improve existing diversified activities, either within or outwith agriculture. As part of this, the FBDS can support diversification into "alternative agricultural production". The FBDS does not support mainstream investments in non-diversified agricultural activities.Organic egg production is not considered to be diversification into "alternative agricultural production". Eligible projects under this measure are required to be novel or aimed towards a niche markets e.g. worm farming, or an alpaca enterprise. Guidance on the approval of FBDS applications was clarified recently to ensure equity between the treatment of organic and non-organic projects, and this revised guidance is clear that organic egg production is not an eligible measure. Conversion of agricultural land to organic status is supported by the Executive's Organic Aid Scheme.

I met Angus Council in October to discuss the funding of the Montrose Bridge replacement project. Following that meeting we agreed to increase total Scottish Executive support for the project to £4.2 million. We have no immediate plans to meet Angus Council again in the near future to discuss this issue.

Co-ordination between local authorities and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is already an important part of the working arrangements in place for tackling flooding and flood risk. This will be further enhanced as a result of the amendment which the Executive introduced to the Water Environment and Water Services Bill and which was supported by all members of the committee without exception. This places a general obligation to promote sustainable flood management on ministers, SEPA and every responsible authority designated under the bill. Local authorities will be designated as responsible authorities. This represents a significant step forward but is only one part of the action we are taking in the Executive to deal with the flooding issue. An Ad Hoc Committee of Ministers is currently considering the arrangements for addressing flood risk more generally, and will provide advice to the Cabinet by the end of February 2003 on how these arrangements can be improved.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1F-2168 on 10 October 2002, which is available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at:http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/search.htm.

Proposals to run new services, including ScotRail services on the East Coast Main Line, are matters for the local transport authority or transport partnership to take forward. The Scottish Executive's powers to issue directions and guidance to the Strategic Rail Authority are set out in section 208 of the Transport Act 2000.