Chamber and committees

All uniformed officersare authorised to enforce road traffic laws, for example, seatbelts, mobile phonesand road traffic collisions and so the number of police officersinvolved in this activity will vary from day-to-day. The road policing units ofScotland’s eight forces have a total complement of841 officers, broken down as follows:

Central Scotland Police	43
Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary	43
Grampian Police	84
Fife Constabulary	56
Lothian and Borders Police	155
Northern Constabulary	25
Strathclyde Police	364
Tayside Police	71

 

We will establisha baseline against which progress can be measured. Our ambition for a simpler,smaller government is not only about numbers, but about removing unnecessaryduplication and establishing structures that can support and drive the deliveryof joined-up strategic outcomes. We are taking a strategic look across thedelivery landscape of Scottish public services to consider what structures willbest address the challenges and meet our strategic objectives.

The Scottish Governmentwill publish in year changes to spending programmes in the usual fashion in theautumn and spring budget revisions. This will include the costs of policy announcementswith spending implications. The consequences of such announcements will also beset out in the Strategic Spending Review.

As I announced on24 May 2007, we intend toachieve a simpler, smaller Government in Scotland through de-cluttering and simplifyingthe public service landscape. We have already reduced the number of GovernmentDepartments and Scottish ministers. We are taking forward our ManifestoCommitments in this area. The development of an outcome approach for local governmenttogether with clarity about the role of agencies and non-departmental public bodieswill also be crucial elements of our approach. We will provide Parliament withfurther details later this year on the detailed implications of our approach.

Scottish Water isfully funded to provide the strategic infrastructure required for all anticipatednew development during the current investment period.

The Provision ofWater and Sewerage Services (Reasonable Cost) (Scotland) Regulations 2006 introduceda legal basis for the calculation of the reasonable cost contribution to be madeby Scottish Water and developers towards the cost of providing local “Part 2” and“Part 3” connections to its networks. Scottish Water will provide a reasonable costcontribution towards the developers’ costs of funding “Part 2” and “Part 3” infrastructure.This reasonable cost contribution to new connections is available towards the totalcosts of both local water mains and sewers, and all other “Part 2” and “Part 3”assets.

The projected costsfor providing the necessary connections will depend on the timing of the house buildingconstruction programme and the contribution to be made to such connections by therelevant developers.

We have secured thepowers through the Compulsory Purchase Order, which was made on 24 March 2005, to acquire all of the land for the M74 Completion scheme.Acquisition of that land is almost complete. Compensation has been paid in the majorityof cases.

Land required forthe Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route will be identified inthe draft Compulsory Purchase Order which is due to be published within the nexttwo months. Individual compensation payments are not known but will be assessedby the Valuation Office Agency in due course. An allowance for the purchase of landand associated compensation has been included in the overall project estimate.

The Scottish Government believes that Scotland''s economic success must be a partnership between the private, public and third sectors, with the private sector the principal driver of growth. The debate about the size of the public sector in Scotland to date has been influenced by figures which exclude a proportion of Scottish economic activity relating to the Scottish sector of the UK Continental Shelf and the government believes that this issue must be seen within the context of an actual public sector size that is estimated to be comparable to the UK average when the whole of the Scottish economy is included.

The government is taking action to ensure that the public sector delivers more effectively with resources directed more towards frontline services in health, education and community safety, all of which contribute to Scotland''s potential for greater economic success and we are also taking forward measures to improve the competitive environment for Scottish business through lower business taxes, lighter and more effective regulation and a greater focus for national enterprise activity.

The government believes that this balanced approach will ensure that the public sector compliments the private and third sectors and that public spending does more to help generate private sector growth. Within this context our action to simplify and de-clutter the public sector landscape will play an important role in raising Scotland''s overall economic growth rate.

We are promotingactive travel through school travel co-ordinators, school and workplace travelplans and through funding local authorities, Cycling Scotland and Sustrans forinfrastructure, services and cycling training.

We will publish a 10-year plan to transform Scottishroad safety and have already announced the setting up of an expert group onroad safety to advise on what more could be done and provide options to providegreater protection for, particularly young, drivers.

Future transportinvestment priorities will be considered by the multi-modal strategic transportprojects review which is undertaking an objective, evidence based, review of the existing performance and future requirements of the nationally strategictransport networks. This willinclude consideration for improvements to make journeys greener, safer andeasier for Scottish commuters.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-3220 on 6 September 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Details of the deliveryof our current committed programme of major and important trunk road and rail infrastructureimprovements can be found on the Transport Scotland website at www.transportscotland.gov.uk. Futuretransport investment priorities will be considered by the multi-modal StrategicTransport Projects Review (STPR) which is undertaking an objective, evidence-based,review of the existing performance and future requirements of the nationally strategictransport networks.

Transport Scotland has the operational responsibility for this area, andcan be contacted if required.