Chamber and committees

This matter has been considered.  As it is not foreseeable that the SPCB would ever be responsible for another project of this magnitude and significance it was thought unlikely that wider powers in this respect would be needed. This decision was intimated to the Convener of the Finance Committee in my letter of 24 February.

The SPCB has no plans to initiate a debate on this matter in the Parliament.

The RSA scheme is not evaluated on an annual basis as the nature of the scheme involves support for projects that create or safeguard jobs over a number of years. The employment benefits secured therefore are generated over the full duration of the project and not attributable to any one particular year. However, the effectiveness of the scheme is subject to periodic evaluation. Past evaluations have considered the employment impact of RSA over a number of years, allowing the effectiveness and economic benefit of the scheme to be assessed. The last formal UK wide evaluation, covering the period 1991-95, conducted by Arup, was published in September 2000. A full copy of this report can be found at www.dti.gov.uk/regional/evaluationRSA91-95.pdf. In addition, the Executive commissioned an external review of the RSA scheme in Scotland, whose report was published in February 2002, to examine the usefulness of the scheme at a Scottish level. A full copy of the report and a ministerial response to the findings is available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre, (Bib. number 19180).

Individual RSA projects are monitored against specific employment targets and other outcomes. Grant is released in instalments against the achievement of specific targets over the life of the project and information on jobs created or safeguarded is recorded as grant instalments are claimed.

All letters from MSPs on devolved matters are seen and replied to by ministers, except those about operational issues. Letters relating to operational issues are replied to by the Scottish Executive Agency concerned. Where appropriate, a copy of the response is forwarded to the relevant minister for information. Letters on reserved matters are sent to the relevant Whitehall Department for reply.

Since 1 January 2005 the Executive’starget for replying to all ministerial correspondence is 20 working days from thedate of receipt.

For the month of January 2005,73% of replies to ministerial correspondence were issued in 20 working days.  Separateinformation on performance in relation to correspondence from MSPs is not available.

Letters from MSPs, like all correspondence,are received and opened in the private office of the Minister to whom they are addressed.They are then sent to the Ministerial Correspondence Unit where they are scannedand recorded on an electronic tracking system. Where the letter is for a responsefrom a Scottish minister, a draft response is then prepared for consideration bythe minister concerned. 

If the letter is about an operationalmatter it is sent to the Scottish Executive Agency concerned for reply. If the issueis a reserved matter the letter is transferred to the relevant Whitehall departmentto reply.

The relationship between Scottishministers and the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) is set out in the Scottish PrisonService Framework Document, the text for which can be found on the SPS website atwww.sps.gov.uk/keydocs/framework/default.asp.

The total cost of producing anddistributing the Scotland Backs the Bid brochure was £15,340 plus VAT. Thesecosts were met jointly by sportscotland and EventScotland.

This information is not available.The proposed arrangementsfor the future supply of appliances (such as stoma and ostomy) were provided inthe answer to S2W-13447 on 28 January 2005. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility forwhich can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

At present my officials arestarting preliminary work with NHS boards to identify models of servicedelivery currently in use across Scotland. When that initial work has been completed, wepropose to involve other stakeholders, such as patient groups and otherrepresentative bodies. This will cover such issues as service and deliverystandards.

Direct expenditure incurred bythe Scottish Executive is £653.71 with no further commitments planned.

Sportscotland and EventScotland have jointly spent £25,853and committed, but not yet incurred, a further £9,405. EventScotland contributed£10,000 towards these costs. Further activityby the partner organisations will be discussed at a meeting on 23 March and we estimatethat costs totalling £50,000-60,000 will have been incurred by July.

These costs do not include VATor general staff costs.

Based on the latest data available from the Office for National Statistics for the value of ScottishGross Value Added (GVA or GDP at basic prices), if Scottish growth had matchedthe UK average (excluding extra-regio) between 1997 and 2003, the estimatedlevel of Scottish GVA in 2003 would have been £82.2 billion.

The revised GVA methodologydoes not apply to these estimates. Chainlinking methodology is used to producethe volume index in the Scottish Executive’s quarterly GVA series but is notapplicable to the ONS cash value estimates which are in current prices.