Chamber and committees

I have asked Graeme Munro, Chief Executive of Historic Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:Historic Scotland operates its historic building repair grant scheme on the basis of establishing whether there is a need for support from the public purse and, if so, of providing the minimum level of grant support towards eligible costs that is necessary for a project to be completed successfully. Where the grant applicant is a private developer we also take account of the rate of return that a project is expected to achieve. The UK Treasury provides guidance to all government departments on acceptable rates of return where public monies are involved.During the implementation of projects all applicants are expected to comply with all relevant conditions of grant in order to receive staged payments of grant.After a project undertaken by a private developer is completed, a financial re-appraisal is carried out to ensure that the rate of return achieved was in accordance with that projected. If not, the level of grant can be adjusted. Certain conditions of grant concerning future public access, maintenance and insurance remain for the developer to comply with for a set period.

The Scottish Executive does not hold a central record of allegations of racism against organisations and individuals within Scotland.Bodies such as the Commission for Racial Equality, the police or offices of procurators fiscal can provide details of the numbers of cases reported to or dealt with by them, subject to the provisions of the Data Protection Act and other legislation.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-28855 today. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa

Highlands and Islands Enterprise have looked with interest at the Cornwall project and are discussing it with the telecoms industry. They are also supporting BT's trial of community broadband through mini-ADSL.However, ADSL is not the only solution for providing broadband. Our broadband strategy acknowledges this by being technology and supplier neutral. Nevertheless, the Scottish Executive does, of course, recognise the benefits of public/private collaboration for promoting broadband and we are, for instance, adopting this approach in the implementation of the Scottish programme of projects under the UK broadband fund.

No information on staff turnover within Social Inclusion Partnerships (SIPs) is currently held within either Communities Scotland or the Scottish Executive. Given the complexity of different support arrangements in SIPs across Scotland it would be difficult to obtain accurate comparative information on this subject.

Officials from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service are liaising with other departments within the Scottish Executive to ensure that Scottish ministers meet their statutory obligations under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, which includes the publication of a Race Equality Scheme by 30 November 2002.

I assume this is a reference to the investigative tribunals held under section 9 of the Bail, Judicial Appointments etc (Scotland) Act 2000. The Justice of the Peace (Tribunal) (Scotland) Regulations 2001 require these tribunals to sit in private for reasons of confidentiality. The tribunals are required to investigate whether a bench-sitting justice of the peace is unfit for office by reason of inability, neglect of duty or misbehaviour. Since such investigation might well extend to the private life of the justice it would not be appropriate to make the sittings of the tribunal public and the Executive has no plans to amend the regulations to that end.

Her Majesty's Government, working with the Broadband Stakeholder Group, has developed criteria to define competitiveness and extensiveness in line with the broadband target. In summary, competitiveness is defined as a composite measure of price, market regulation and consumer choice. Extensiveness is defined as a composite measure of addressable market and availability. As the target is for the UK as a whole, Scotland will not be considered separately from the rest of the UK market when judging whether it has been reached.

The final draft of the First Minister's opinion was passed to the European Committee directly it was finalised on Tuesday 3 September. It will be discussed by the Constitutional Affairs and European Governance Commission of the Committee of the Regions on Friday 4 October and by the Committee in Plenary on 20 or 21 November.

The number of vacancies in the support team for Inverclyde Regeneration Partnership at 30 June 2002 was seven.