Chamber and committees

There are currentlya number of funding streams which are contributing to the regeneration of the Clydebank riverside. These include the support that the ScottishGovernment and Scottish Enterprise are providing for Clydebank Re-built Urban RegenerationCompany, and the significant resources committed in the area by Communities Scotlandfor housing investment, Wider Role and the Community Regeneration Fund.

No statistics arecurrently available of the average peak hour rail journey time between Glasgow andEdinburgh.

In the period sinceMay 2007, 12 percent of all trains on the Edinburgh and Glasgow route have been delayed by five minutes ormore.

The call for commentson the international development policy closed on 31 October and 45 responses werereceived in total. Given the broad range of views expressed in those responses,Scottish Government analytical staff are carrying out an initial analysis and, oncethis is done, international development officials will prepare detailed recommendationsfor ministers’ consideration. An announcement remains on schedule for early 2008.

The Scottish Budgeton 14 November 2007 confirmed that the International DevelopmentFund is set at £4.5 million for 2007-08, an increase in the inherited baseline budgetof £3 million. The full amount of the fund will be spent on development as administrationcosts are met from a separate budget.

The majority of thisyear’s allocation is committed to on-going projects but as a result of the electionand the review of the international development policy that is underway, there isa small degree of flexibility in this year’s International Development Fund. ScottishGovernment officials have been actively considering how best to utilise this byidentifying priorities that are in line with existing policy commitments, with aprimary focus on Malawi.

A funding round isexpected to be announced in the New Year after the review of the wider policy iscomplete, with a view to making awards early in the 2008-09 financial year.

Further to my responseto question S3W-6410 on 22 November 2007, the Scottish Governmentwill take forward the recommendations in the Historical Abuse Systemic Review: Residential Schoolsand Children’s Homes in Scotland 1950 to 1995.

I am working withpartners to bring forward specific proposals, from developing the workforce to ensuringhigh-quality services, which address the issues raised. I will announce these proposalsto Parliament in due course.

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.

Theconsiderations the Scottish ministers will take into account in designatingprojects as national developments were set out in the statement to Parliament bythe Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth on 13 September 2007.The contribution a project would make to the achievement of the Government’sclimate change target is one important consideration, but not the only basisfor designation as a national development. The strategic environmentalassessment for the National Planning Framework will address the effects ofnational developments on the environment, including climatic factors.

All relevantmaterial considerations will be taken into account in the determination of theplanning application.

The oneenforcement notice that has been served on Scottish Water was in relation to aworks that was in the commissioning phase, and was dealt with under thecontractual arrangements in place at the time. No additional monies wereallocated to Scottish Water for this purpose.

The carbon impactof a spending proposal will be an integral part of the policy assessmentprocess during the next budgetary period. Where appropriate, the assessmentwill measure the likely impact on emissions and incorporate the monetary costof these emissions using the government’s new shadow price of carbon guidance.

Scottish Waterwere allocated £14.4 million for odour minimisation at 14 works inthe Quality & Standards IIIa capital investment programme for 2006-10.

Compliance withCode of Practice on Sewerage Nuisance is met within Scottish Water’soperational budget.