Chamber and committees

A breakdown of the cost of policing the event has been provided to the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 38309) and is available on the Scottish Executive’s website at:

www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/International-Relations/G8/costofpolicing

Mutual aid was provided by police forces across the UK as a result of an agreement between the Chief Constable of Tayside Police and Chief Constables/Chief Officers of other forces for those forces to provide assistance during the G8 summit. This was in recognition of the fact that policing an event of this magnitude was beyond the resources of Tayside Police alone.

This mutual aid comprised the additional staffing costs incurred by police forces - north and south of the border - who contributed to the operation. £21.495 million of the total spending on mutual aid went to English and Welsh forces (including the British Transport Police) with Scottish forces (including the SDEA) receiving £23.165 million.

No such figures are available. SPS calculate annually an average cost per prisoner place which is reported in our Annual Reports and Accounts. It would not be cost effective to attempt to disaggregate all cost elements to attempt to arrive at a total average cost for each prison.

The information requested is not available as it is not collected or collated.

Question S2W-21260 referred to S2W-20863 which relates to the contract between the Scottish Prison Service and Kilmarnock Prison Services Ltd. As the Chief Executive of SPS is responsible for contractual matters, it was appropriate for him to respond to this question.

The Executive have supplied the following corrected answer:

Cathy Jamieson: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

Question S2W-21260 referred to S2W-20863 which relates to the contract between the Scottish Prison Service and Kilmarnock Prison Services Ltd. As the Chief Executive of SPS is responsible for contractual matters, it was appropriate for me to respond to this question.

The SPS are content with the terms of our contract with Kilmarnock Prison Services Ltd, which has delivered excellent performance.

It has yet to be clarified howthis funding will be divided between the European Social Fund (ESF) and the EuropeanRegional Development Fund (ERDF). The Executive is currently proposing four futureprogrammes for Scotland: one ERDF and one ESF programme each for Highlands andIslands and for Lowland and Upland Scotland.

Despite the reduction in fundingit is important to remember that the vast majority of funding for economic developmentin Scotland comes from domestic sources. The Executive is committedto economic development in Scotland but is not reliant on Structural Funds to continue thisagenda.

Businesses are madeaware of BLAs through a number of means including direct targeting by LEC advisers,through general LEC marketing, through the Business Gateway, through talks givento organisations such as Chambers of Commerce and through discussions with learndirectScotland for Business.

BLAs are available to small businesseswith less than 50 employees which have not received previous support for trainingfrom the Enterprise Networks and which are not public sector organisations. Eligibletraining activities are limited to training that contributes to business growth.

Individual employees cannot applyfor a BLA, therefore there is no eligibility criteria for employees.

There were four BLA pilots, twosectoral and two geographic. The two geographic pilots covered the Ross andCromarty LEC area and the Clyde Valley area - including Renfrewshire, Glasgow andDunbartonshire LECs. The two sectoral pilots were open to businesses in the Manufacturingand Tourism industries and as such, were available across all LEC areas. InApril 2005 BLAs were extended to all LECs in the Highlands and Islands Enterprisearea.

Five hundred and seventysmall businesses have participated in BLAs by undergoing a Training NeedsAnalysis (TNA). Three hundred and forty-four have gone on to be approved forBLA funding. BLAs are only available to small businesses with less than 50employees.

The information requested onnumber of employees which have participated in BLAs is provided in thefollowing tables. It has not been possible to provide a breakdown by LEC area forScottish Enterprise (SE) pilots, however a breakdown by pilot has beenprovided. A breakdown by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) LEC area has been provided.

Number of IndividualEmployees Participating In Blas By HIE LEC Area

The information requested onthe total funding awarded by pilot and by LEC area is provided in the followingtables.

BLA Funding Awarded for OriginalFour BLA Pilots

Funding Awarded by HIE LEC Areasince April 2005

It is not been possible toprovide data on the return on investment at this stage.  A final independentevaluation is due to complete shortly which will identify benefits derived forthe businesses and individuals participating.

We have not had any formalcomplaints about the design or delivery of BLAs. The interim evaluation, whichreported in December 2004, identified some operational issues which may limitthe success of BLAs. These issues were addressed at the time of the evaluation.Informationon the number of contractors is provided in the following table.

Contractors Used in the Deliveryof BLAs by LEC

It has not been possible tobreakdown the cost of contractors by LEC area. However the following tableshows the totals spent in the Scottish Enterprise and Highlands andIslands areas.

Note: *2005-06 figures areestimated as final expenditure will not be known until April 2006.

The information requested onthe budget and actual spend by the Scottish Executive on BLAs is provided inthe following table.

Budget Allocated and Actual Spendby Scottish Executive on BLAs by financial year.

The Scottish Executive hasnot set aside any budget for BLAs in 2006-07.