Chamber and committees

The total cost for the financial year 1999-2000 is £398,062 and for 2000-01 it is £560,843. Details are:

	Salary	ERNIC	16% Pension Contribution	Total
1999-2000	£310,530	£37,847	£49,685	£398,062
2000-01	£440,884	£49,842	£70,117	£560,843

It is not possible to estimate the total costs for the years 2001-02 and 2002-03 as the number of special advisers in post from time to time is a matter for the First Minister.

Whether Fife Council would decide to release such information, or withhold it on grounds of commercial confidentiality, is a matter for the council. The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Bill would, if enacted, provide individuals with a right of access to information, balanced by provisions intended to ensure that commercially sensitive information is afforded appropriate protection. Consideration of whether information would be disclosed would be made on a case by case basis.

The allocation of public funding to individual colleges of further education is a matter for the Scottish Further Education Funding Council. Details of the 2000-01 and 2001-02 grant-in-aid allocation rounds have been made publicly available on the council's website. The council's annual reports also contain an overall summary analysed by college of all funding allocations made during a year. The most recently published annual report by the council is that for 1999-2000. The details of a college's indebtedness and the cost and source of funds to service debt will be set out in the audited annual accounts. College accounts for 2000-01 are required to be laid before the Parliament by 30 April 2002, and those for 2001-02 by 30 April 2003.

This information is not collected from candidates for judicial appointments.

The fees payable to the Registers of Scotland in respect of such applications and its various information services are the subject of periodic review. The fees applicable to such applications were set in the Fees in the Registers of Scotland Order 1995 (SI 1995/1945) on the basis of an ad valorem scale. That scale bases the fee level for recording and registration on the value of the property transaction, thus maintaining such fee levels in line with the property market and inflation.The fees for recording, registration and information services were the subject of a consultative review in 1998 which led to the Fees in the Registers of Scotland Amendment Order 1999 (SI 1999/1085). That Order left the ad valorem scale for the recording and registration fees in question unchanged.The fees which the agency may charge are set at a level to meet its operating costs, but also to ensure that conveyancing costs in Scotland are kept as low as possible. This policy is consistent with section 25 of the Land Registers (Scotland) Act 1868 which requires that the amount of fees payable shall not be greater than is reasonably sufficient for defraying the expenses of the Registers of Scotland, including the expenses of the improvement of the systems of registration and recording.

The Scottish Executive has no functions in relation to the Health and Safety implications in the proposed European Commission's Physical Agents Directive. Therefore representations to the European Commission will be a matter for the UK Government.

Decisions as to the investigation of deaths are taken independently by the Lord Advocate. It is for the Lord Advocate to determine which of his officials carries out an investigation.

All the private sector companies responsible for trunk road maintenance need to demonstrate that their arrangements meet the detailed and exacting requirements set out in their contracts.Contractors' performance is reviewed and monitored continuously by the Performance Audit Group who report to the Scottish Executive. If the contractors fail to perform there are a range of sanctions that the Scottish Executive could take.

This is a matter for Scottish Natural Heritage. The information requested is not held centrally.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-19505.