Chamber and committees

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), the Scottish GVA in 2005 was£86.3 billion, which is the equivalent of $157.1 billion at an exchange rate of1.8195.

The information required is setout as follows.

(i) Skye Bridge

(a) The total construction cost of the Skye Bridge projectwas £39 million, of which some £15 million was publicly funded. These figures areexpressed at 1991 prices.

(b) The final cost to end thetolls on Skye Bridge was £26.75 million, at 2005 prices.

(c) Total costs to the publicpurse are not held centrally. However, in addition to the above, the following costswere incurred by central government:

- compensation payments, totalling£7,564,517 in cash terms, in respect of the costs of increased frequent user discountsfrom 1998, the freeze on toll levels from 2000 and the imposition of VAT on tollsfrom February 2003.

- payments to external advisersin relation to the ending of the tolling regime, totalling £314,418 in cash terms.

(ii) Inverness Airport

(a) The total construction costof the Inverness Airport terminal was £9 million at 1998 prices or £11 millionat 2006 prices.

(b) The cost of the buy out was£27.6 million at 2006 prices.

(c) Total costs to the publicpurse are not held centrally

(iii) West Lothian College

Further education colleges areindependently constituted institutions and neither the Scottish Executive nor itspredecessor, the Scottish Office, is a party to the West Lothian College PFI contract.Ministers are aware, however, that the Final Business Case prepared by the Collegeindicated a construction cost of £14,076,000 (exclusive of fees and at 1997 prices).

The West Lothian College PFIcontract is currently operational so no buy-out cost is known. In December 2006,ministers authorised the Scottish Funding Council to review the contract with aview to the possibility of introducing alternative arrangements should these beshown to provide better value for money. The total cost to the public purse willbe known once any associated negotiations have been concluded.

The Scottish Executive has committed internalresources by way of policy and technical advice on all of these projects, however,detailed costs are not recorded separately.

The available information isgiven in the following table.

Persons Proceeded Against inScottish Courts for Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 Offences¹, 1991-92 to 2004-05

Financial Year	Number
1991-92	12
1992-93	35
1993-94	17
1994-95	14
1995-96	7
1996-97	3
1997-98	2
1998-99	1
1999-00	3
2000-01	2
2001-02	2
2002-03	1
2003-04	-
2004-05	-

Note: 1. Where main offence.

Data at the level of detail requestedis not available centrally.

As at the end of January2007, the total amount held back from trade contractors involved in theconstruction of the Parliament is circa £4 million, which amounts to just under1% of the projected final cost of the building. The SPCB has no directcontractual arrangements with sub-contractors. There are 27 trade contracts outof 60 with some form of payment still to be made. Some £425,000 remains to bepaid to the seven companies which are Scottish based. Final payments to tradecontractors will continue to be made when the client considers that conditionsfor doing so have been met. Most are expected to be released by the end ofMarch 2007.

Work on the assessment referredto in S2W-30630 continues, involving Executive Departments, Scottish Enterprise,Highlands and Islands Enterprise and a number of other public and private bodies.I expect some conclusions to emerge during this year, although follow up and connectedwork will continue.All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Estimates of the amount ofvacant and derelict land in Scotland, as reported by local authorities in the voluntaryScottish Vacant and Derelict Land Survey (SVDLS) 2006, are set out in the followingtable.

Area of Vacant and Derelict Land(hectares), Scotland, 2006^1,2,3

Derelict Land	7,480
Vacant Land	2,905

Notes:

1. Sites covering less than0.1 hectares are excluded.

2. The figure for Vacant Land covers vacant land that is located withinsettlements of over 2,000 in population (as defined in council local plans). Alimited number of councils surveyed  for vacant land within some or all oftheir settlements below 2,000 in population. Within this more limited survey, afurther 118 hectares of vacant land was identified across Scotland.

3. The SVDLS is not astatutory survey. For those councils that did not provide data for anyparticular year, data from the previous SVDLS has been used.

Information from the 2006survey was published on 31 January 2007. This can be viewed on the Scottish Executivewebsite at

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/01/30094119/0.

The following table shows thelatest estimates which are consistent with figures in the Government Expenditureand Revenue in Scotland (GERS) 2004-05 publication. Estimates for earlier yearsare available in earlier GERS publications, but these are not directly comparable.All estimates are subject to future revisions.

Estimates of Elements of GovernmentRevenue in Scotland 2000-01 to 2004-05 (£ Million)

	Income Tax	Corporation Tax	National Insurance Contributions	Value Added Tax	Business Rates	Council Tax	Fuel Duty1
2000-01	7,281	2,569	4,963	4,698	1,578	1,284	1,447
2001-02	7,671	2,380	5,179	5,022	1,671	1,387	1,328
2002-03	7,810	2,108	5,312	5,101	1,705	1,459	1,290
2003-04	8,265	2,062	5,972	5,647	1,706	1,532	1,323
2004-05	8,914	2,422	6,461	5,949	1,813	1,615	1,313

Note: 1. Petrol Duty is included as part of Fuel Duty in the table– separate estimates for Petrol Duty are not available.

The latest available estimatefrom the Scottish House Condition Survey, for the year from October 2003 to September2004, is that 328,000 households in Scotland (14.5%) were in fuel poverty. Estimates are availableonly for the years for which house condition surveys were conducted. In 1996, 738,000households (35%) were estimated to be in fuel poverty. In 2002, 286,000 households(13%) were estimated to be in fuel poverty.

These are estimates derived froma sample, so they have an associated confidence interval within which the true valuewill lie. The 95% confidence intervals for 2003-04 and 2002 are 14.5% +/- 2% and13% +/-0.5%. Given these ranges, the estimated increase in fuel poverty between2002 and 2003-04 is not statistically significant.

The SPCB is responsible onlyfor the budgetary provision of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, the Scottish Information Commissioner, the Commissioner for Children and YoungPeople in Scotland, the Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland andthe Scottish Parliamentary Standards Commissioner all of whom are required tolay reports before the Parliament. None of these bodies, however, report inrespect of inspections and audits of local authorities.

The member may find ithelpful to see the list of scrutiny bodies covered by Professor Lorne Crerar’sReview of Regulation, Audit, Inspection and Complaints Handling of PublicServices in Scotland which is attached to Professor Crerar’s letter of 13 June 2006 to thescrutiny bodies.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/PublicServiceReform/IndependentReviewofReg/review-info/letter-13-June-2006.

The member may also find ithelpful to see the latest cumulative list of papers laid (July 2006 to date)before the Parliament which is available on the Parliament's website:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/research/factsheets/documents/Laidpapers.pdf.