Chamber and committees

The Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland (MACS) is an advisory non-departmental public body and is able to determine its own priorities. It is supported by a secretariat which is based within the Scottish Government''s Transport Strategy Team. I intend meeting with the convener to discuss the MACS work programme in due course.

The Scottish Government recently completed an appointment round, and announced the appointment of the new convener and six new members of the Mobility and Access Committee on 19 December 2008. The appointments will run for a three year period commencing on 1 January 2009. Further appointments are expected to be made early in 2009.

The budget for Transport Strategy and Innovation provides running cost support for the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland, Passengers'' View Scotland, the regional transport partnerships and support for innovative transport solutions. The budget for 2008-09 is £6.6 million.

A meeting is expected to be held in late January 2009 subject to members'' availability.

The new members of the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland have all been informed that an induction day will be held in due course. As well as initial training, they will be made aware of governance issues in relation to non-departmental public bodies At the first meeting they will take cognisance of the previous committee''s legacy.

Decisions on the 2009-10 Affordable Housing Investment Programme are still to be taken so we have not yet estimated the number of approvals likely between 1 December 2008 and 31 December 2009. For new build, VAT is payable only on professional fees and the saving due to the temporary VAT adjustment will vary depending on the proportion of professional fees incurred between the relevant dates. The maximum VAT saving per unit even assuming that all fees are incurred between 1 December 2008 and 31 December 2009 would be £259 or 0.2% of total cost.

There is no record of which special advisers spoke to the Communications Officer for Mr MacDonald''s company.

The correspondence and enclosures were not forwarded to or drawn to the attention of any special advisor, government official or other ministers.

The only officials to see the correspondence were the assistant private secretary with responsibility for ministerial correspondence within the First Minister''s office and the correspondence clerk within the First Minister''s office.

Guidance for ministers regarding their engagement with planning matters is set out at section 8 of the Scottish Ministerial Code. The code, which is available on the Scottish Government website, can be accessed through the following link:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/06/18120242/0.

The Climate Challenge Fund is administered on the Scottish Government''s behalf by Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB), which provides advice and support and acts as a single point of contact for community groups.

KSB supports community groups in developing applications for funding and directs groups to the relevant members of the Climate Challenge Fund Supporting Alliance for more specific advice. KSB also provides initial assessments of applications and presents these for consideration by the independent Climate Challenge Fund Grants Panel, which recommends to ministers which projects should be supported.

Members of the grants panel are chosen for their knowledge and expertise in community action and carbon reduction. The panel currently comprises:

Simon Pepper (Chair) - Environmental consultant;

Lloyd Austin - The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB);

Pauline Gallacher - Board member, Architecture and Design Scotland;

Karen Grant - Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations;

Councillor Alison Hay - Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA);

Roger Kelly - Convener of the Royal Town Planning Institute in Scotland;

Osbert Lancaster “ Footprint Consulting Limited;

Mike Robinson - Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, and

David Spaven - Deltix Transport Consulting.