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.

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.

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.

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.

I have asked Dr PaulStollard, Chief Executive of the Scottish Building Standards Agency (SBSA), to answer.His response is as follows:

The agency are currentlyworking to the 2007 SNP manifesto commitments “It’s time to move forward”. The aimsare broadly consistent with those in the publication entitled It’s Time for a GreenerScotland. An expert panel has been set up to produce a low carbon building standardsstrategy and this will be published later in the year. It is intended that thisdocument will provide a route map to low carbon buildings, with an aspiration towardszero carbon buildings.

The HITRANS surveywas focussed on ferry users rather than users of Gourock station. It cannot thereforebe used, on its own, to derive estimates of the percentage of passengers using Gourockstation who are ferry users. It can be used to derive estimates of the percentageof those using the Gourock to Dunoon ferry who arrive at or depart from Gourockby train. On this latter basis, the survey showed that 56 of the 179 passengersinterviewed on the Gourock to Dunoon service had used the train to arrive at Gourockor planned to use the train for their onward journey from Gourock. This represents31% of passengers using the service which is twice the figure used by Western Ferriesin preparing the news release it issued on  18 July 2007. This interpretation of the survey results has been endorsed by the author of the HITRANS report.

I am satisfied thatthe vehicle element of the current Cowal Ferries Ltd service on the Gourock to Dunoonroute does not generate an additional subsidy requirement. Indeed, the revenue fromvehicles carried exceeds the additional costs involved in running a vehicle, asopposed to passenger only service, using the vessels currently deployed on the route.

The ScottishGovernment is committed to tackling alcohol problems in Scotland. Over £10 millionwas made available to NHS boards in Scotland in 2007-08 specifically to tackle alcoholproblems in their area, in addition to their general financial allocations. Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS board wasawarded almost £3 million.

Alcohol and drugs action teams are tasked with theresponsibility for the strategic planning and co-ordination of action to tacklealcohol misuse in their area.

The ScottishGovernment will continue to take forward the commitments set out in the UpdatedPlan for Action on Alcohol Problems, but to complement that action, a longerterm strategic approach is required if we are to tackle Scotland’s complexrelationship with alcohol, and deliver sustainable change in attitudes.

We will continue totake action to promote further and higher education, and have already announcedsteps to remove the graduate endowment fee so that access to higher education isopen to those who have the ability rather than the ability to pay. However, we donot believe it is helpful to express participation in terms of a target rate. Unlikethe position in England there has never been a target rate for participation.