Chamber and committees

I meet regularly withall NHS chairs to discuss matters of importance to health and the NHS in Scotland, most recently on 26 November 2007. The Minister for Public Health also met with the seniorteam of NHS Highland on 21 August when she chaired the board’s annual review. Theboard’s performance on key national health targets including health improvement,efficiency, waiting times and cancer care were discussed.

We are delightedthat the Cross Border Co-operation Programme has been approved by the EuropeanCommission. The programme brings a welcome €192 million of EU investment to a€256 million programme for the cross border region, which includes parts of Western Scotland.

This provides agreat opportunity for Scottish organisations, including local authorities, tocollaborate with their Irish and Northern Irish partners in developing creativeand innovative projects that will bring long term economic and social benefitsto the cross border area. The rules for the programme require Scottish partnersto work with partners from Northern Ireland and the Republic injoint projects of mutual benefit.

Individualproject proposals will be dealt with by the programme’s Managing Authority, theSpecial EU Programmes Body (SEUPB), on a case-by-case basis. The SEUPB willprovide support and advice on all applications and we would encourage allpotential project applicants to make early contact with SEUPB to ensure theirproposals are presented in the best possible way. Scottish Government officialswill work closely with the SEUPB and their Irish and Northern Irishcounterparts to promote eligible Scottish projects to the best advantage.

The programmesets out a range of actions that local authorities and other partners mightrespond to. These include initiatives to support enterprise through economicdevelopment and community sustainability under the specific themes of: (1) enterprise;(2) tourism; (3) collaboration, and (4) infrastructure. All projectapplications must clearly show that they contribute to one of these themes.

I refer themember to the answer to question S2W-6385 on 27 November 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions areavailable on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can befound at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The Scottish BudgetSpending Review 2007 which was announced on 14 November 2007 makes provision for subsidised ferry services in Scotland. I can confirm that an increase of £37 million in theferry services budget includes provision for a new service between Campbeltown andBallycastle.

Scottish Governmentand Northern Ireland Executive officials continue to liaise closely to discuss jointworking arrangements for taking the project forward. Respective ministers in Scotlandand Northern Ireland will be discussing matters shortly with a view to reachingagreement on the next steps to be taken. Further information will be made availableas soon as practicable.

The A82 Route ActionPlan announced in April 2006 outlined a 10 year improvement programme at an estimatedcost of £90 million which will be considered for future investment as part of theStrategic Transport Projects Review which is due to report to ministers in summer2008.

Transport Scotland is currently planning to take forward some £16 millionof improvements from the Route Action Plan to improve safety and speed up journeytimes for local communities, tourists and business. This includes improvement workat Pulpit Rock and a bypass for Crianlarich which we aim to deliver within the currentprogramme to 2012.

Transport Scotland has held discussions with a broad range of authorities,including the emergency services, and will be considering a number of strategiesto minimise the effect of any future landslips on the A83.

None.

The A83 reopened totraffic at 1600hrs on Wednesday 14 November 2007, and traffic is restricted to singlefile for a short distance under the control of temporary traffic lights. The trafficlights will remain in place until further investigations and measures are implementedto ensure the continued safety of the road and traffic.

We will not know howmuch is in the Scottish component of the National Reserve until after the clawbackof unused entitlements has been completed; there will be a further clawback exercisein January 2008.

The main recommendationof the 2005 report was that more extensive research should be undertaken to developand implement a methodology for the assessment of landslide hazards, the exposureto road users and the resulting hazard rankings. This work is detailed, highly complex and time consuming.However, it is progressing well and will allow us to predict in the future wherelandslips are most likely to occur, prioritising areas for further site specificinvestigation and strategies to minimise the impact of future landslips.

Other recommendationsidentified as Early Opportunities in the 2005 report have since been implementedand evidence of actions taken can be observed on the network.