Chamber and committees

The introduction of the Review Regulatory Impact Assessment (Review RIA), or "regulatory MOT", represents a significant step forward in securing for Scottish businesses the most effective regulatory environment. The Review RIA will ensure all regulations introduced by the Scottish Executive which impact on business will remain "fit-for-purpose". Requiring review of the regulation within 10 years of its introduction, it commits the Executive to reconsidering options, including repeal. The Executive would not wish to prejudice the success of this work by forcing arbitrary "quotas" for repeal on individual departments.

There are 83 cars within the Scottish Executive vehicle fleet which can operate on either liquid petroleum gas or unleaded petrol. In addition, the Scottish Executive has two electric cars for use on short journeys in the Edinburgh area.

The purpose of the working group was to prepare good practice guidance on the administration of medicines in schools. Draft guidance was issued to interested parties including education authorities, health boards, Trusts and voluntary organisations. I have placed copies of the draft Guidance in SPICe. The closing date for responses was 29 December and the comments received are now being considered. Final guidance will be published in due course.

Research commissioned for the joint Scottish Executive and CoSLA It Pays to Pay report on council tax collection identified a range of factors which influence the collection rates in Scotland compared with England, including legislative differences. For 2001-02 we have introduced legislative changes to give councils in Scotland the same powers as those available to councils in England to bill earlier and to issue joint reminder and final notices. We are working with local government and other relevant organisations, through the It Pays to Pay Implementation Group, to assist and encourage councils to improve their council tax collection levels and efficiency.

The Scottish Executive has a number of proposed improvement schemes within the current three-year programme for the A90 trunk road north of Ellon at an estimated cost of £1,615,000.The estimated scheme costs are as follows:

Scheme Specific Details	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	Total
Hatton Bends Improvement scheme	£500,000	£515,000	£0	£1,015,000
Cortes Junction	£0	£0	£300,000	£300,000
Cruden Bay Junction	£0	£0	£100,000	£100,000
North of Ellon Roundabout to Fraserburgh Route Accident Reduction Plan	£200,000	£0	£0	£200,000
Total	£700,000	£515,000	£400,000	£1,615,000

In addition, any accident cluster sites that are identified on the trunk road network by the Scottish Executive Accident Investigation Unit will be investigated and any agreed remedial measures will be progressed subject to funding and competing priorities on the trunk road network.

The provision of such activities is a matter for each local authority to consider but the Executive recognises the significant contribution that sport has to make to various aspects of Scottish life.Detailed targets for taking forward the ambitions of sport in Scotland are set out within Sport 21: Nothing Left to Chance, the national strategy for sport. In particular, Sport 21 contains a target to increase the number of people who participate in sport from a number of groups including rural communities.sportscotland, through the Lottery Sports Fund, is leading the work in taking forward this target. It has invested some £98 million, over 21%, of Lottery capital grants for new facilities in deprived areas throughout Scotland.

A matt paint finish has been used to avoid any problems which might have arisen from glinting from wind turbine blades.

Annex A of the Scottish Executive Planning Advice Note "PAN 45. Renewable Energy Technologies" deals with planning implications for wind turbines in Scotland and includes consideration of various potential health and safety problems including "shadow flicker". It also provides indicative criteria on the need for an Environmental Impact Assessment under Schedule 2 of the Environmental Impact Assessment (Scotland) Regulations 1988, since replaced by the Electricity Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2000. Wind farms are making an increasingly important contribution to renewable energy production and reduction of greenhouse gas in Scotland, and the Executive is satisfied that adequate consideration of any possible health effects is provided by the current planning requirements.

No such investigations have been undertaken. However we commissioned a survey by System 3 of public attitudes to wind farms last year among over 400 people who live near Scotland's operational windfarms. None of the responses cited shadow flicker as a problem.Annex A of the Scottish Executive Planning Advice Note "PAN 45. Renewable Energy Technologies" deals with planning implications for wind turbines in Scotland and includes consideration of various potential health and safety issues including "glinting" and "shadow flicker". It also provides indicative criteria on the need for an Environmental Impact Assessment under Schedule 2 of the Environmental Impact Assessment (Scotland) Regulations 1988, since replaced by the Electricity Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2000.

Annex A of the Scottish Executive Planning Advice Note "PAN 45. Renewable Energy Technologies" deals with planning implications for wind turbines in Scotland and includes consideration of various potential health and safety issues including "glinting" and "shadow flicker". It also provides indicative criteria on the need for an Environmental Impact Assessment under Schedule 2 of the Environmental Impact Assessment (Scotland) Regulations 1988, since replaced by the Electricity Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2000.A System 3 Social Research study on "Public attitudes towards wind farms in Scotland" was commissioned recently by the Scottish Executive Central Research Unit. A total of 430 telephone interviews were conducted among residents living in closest proximity to existing Scottish wind farms and no problems with shadow flicker or glinting were reported.The British Epilepsy Association and the British Wind Energy Association have indicated that they have received no reports of epileptic seizures or other health effects that could reasonably be attributed to wind turbines.Wind turbines make important contributions to renewable energy production and reduction of greenhouse gas in Scotland, and the Executive is satisfied that adequate consideration of any possible health effects is provided by the current planning guidelines.

At almost £660 million, planned funding for 2001-02 is some 8% (5.6% in real terms) above this year's allocation and our spending plans for higher education. This is a significant investment and demonstrates our commitment to building a learning nation and our belief that a high quality, dynamic and diverse lifelong learning market will help to underpin the developing knowledge economy and secure Scotland's social, cultural and economic prosperity. By the FY2003-04 we will increase the amount available to SHEFC for distribution to the sector to almost £700 million. This results in an extra £108 million being invested in higher education over the next three financial years.