- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 13 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the South of Scotland Pathfinder Group as referred to in Connecting Scotland: Our broadband future, (a) how many times the group has met, (b) when the group last met, (c) what the membership of the group is and (d) what funding it has made available to the group.
Answer
The South of Scotland Pathfinder Steering Group has met three times, most recently on 20 December 2001. In addition to formal meetings of the steering group, more frequent meetings have taken place at working level.The steering group consists of 12 members representing each of the local authorities, local enterprise companies and health bodies in the pathfinder area (Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders Councils). Higher and further education and the Scottish Executive are also represented. We are currently considering funding for the local project manager and his team.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 13 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S1O-3907 and S1W-20775 by Mr Jack McConnell and Nicol Stephen on 4 October 2001 and 7 January 2002 respectively, whether any account is taken of rurality in the bidding process for funding to improve school buildings.
Answer
Bids are being assessed against the assessment criteria set out in Scottish Executive Education Department circular 8/2001. These criteria apply equally to bids which include proposals for schools in rural or non-rural areas.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 13 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S1O-3907 and S1W-20775 by Mr Jack McConnell and Nicol Stephen on 4 October 2001 and 7 January 2002 respectively, what the total value is of bids received so far for funding to improve school buildings and what level of funding is being made available in response.
Answer
The capital value of the bids received in December 2001 is approximately £1.9 billion. Final decisions have still to be taken on the level of revenue support which will be available.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 13 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S1O-3907 and S1W-20775 by Mr Jack McConnell and Nicol Stephen on 4 October 2001 and 7 January 2002 respectively, whether the bidding process for funding to improve school buildings will give any incentive to local authorities which are reducing the si'e of their school estates.
Answer
All bids are subject to the same assessment criteria. In relation to any school building proposals, authorities should take a strategic view of their needs and take account of pupil number projections and the number and location of school places available.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 13 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S1O-3907 and S1W-20775 by Mr Jack McConnell and Nicol Stephen on 4 October 2001 and 7 January 2002 respectively, what criteria will be used in determining how funds to improve school buildings will be allocated among the competing bids.
Answer
The bid assessment criteria are set out in Scottish Executive Education Department circular 8/2001, copies of which are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 13 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S1O-3907 and S1W-20775 by Mr Jack McConnell and Nicol Stephen on 4 October 2001 and 7 January 2002 respectively, whether the bids submitted by local authorities for funding to improve school buildings require to be in respect of the whole of the school estate and, if not, whether such bids which only cover part of the school estate are less likely to succeed in attracting funding.
Answer
The nature of the bids is a matter for each authority in the light of their plans for the delivery of education and the management of their school stock. All bids will be assessed against the same criteria. They do not require to be for the whole of the school estate.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 13 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive when it last met Her Majesty's Government's e-Envoy and what issues were discussed.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the e-Envoy and with officials at all levels in the Office of the e-Envoy. In particular, the Executive is represented on the e-Champions Joint Collaborative Group, chaired by Andrew Pinder, the e-Envoy which brings together the devolved administrations and the e-Envoy quarterly to discuss the whole e-agenda.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 28 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 11 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what will happen to the original #5.5 million funding allocation for Individual Learning Accounts.
Answer
This funding was spread over three years and was to help improve IT skills. From April 2001, I extended the 80% discount being offered through ILAs up to Level 2 courses and I expect that the funding for the first year will be largely taken up by that decision.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 28 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 11 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what the expenditure on research and development in (a) business, (b) government and (c) higher education was in terms of gross domestic product in 2001 as referred to in section 5.5 of its report Knowledge Economy Cross-cutting Initiative.
Answer
1999 is the latest year for which figures on government and higher education expenditure on research and development have been published. Figures for business expenditure have been published for both 1999 and 2000. In 1999, expenditure on research and development by government accounted for 0.3% of GDP and expenditure by higher education institutions accounted for 0.6% of GDP. In 1999, expenditure on research and development by businesses accounted for 0.5% of GDP in Scotland. Total expenditure on research and development in 1999 accounted for 1.4% of GDP. In 2000, business expenditure on research and development in Scotland accounted for 0.6% of GDP. All figures are published by the Office for National Statistics.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 28 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 11 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it has taken, or plans to take, to improve aggregate performance on research and development as referred to in its report Knowledge Economy Cross-cutting Initiative.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-19144 on 14 November 2001. In addition, as part of the Scottish Economic Statistics Programme, the Executive is continuing to improve its understanding of the knowledge economy, innovation and research and development activity. Amongst other initiatives, the Executive is working on the development of a Knowledge Based Industries Index to measure growth in the Scottish knowledge economy, and recently published the results of a survey on Intellectual Property Commercialisation in Scottish Higher Education Institutions.
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/who/elld/reports/finalreport.asp.
The Executive is also working with Scottish Enterprise to commission from the Office of National Statistics further analysis of business research and development expenditure in Scotland. This will hopefully provide a more detailed and rigorous explanation of the reasons underlying Scotland's record in research and development expenditure.
