Chamber and committees

Transport Scotland is represented on the National Salt Spreading Research Group, which commissioned a three-year research study on this subject in 2001. The final report of this study in 2005 included results of other trials undertaken for local authorities.

The trunk road maintenance contracts are tendered on the basis of a single lump sum payment for the delivery of all operations, including management, salting and monitoring associated with the winter service. Consequently, it is not possible to identify the expenditure on any specific element, such as road gritting (salting). The total cost of the winter maintenance service in 2004-05 and 2005-06 was £5.5 million and £6 million respectively. The four trunk road maintenance contracts cover approximately 2,000 miles of trunk roads, ranging from motorway to single carriageway. The average cost per mile of the winter maintenance service in 2004-05 and 2005-06 was £2,750 and £3,000 respectively per mile.

Broiler chicken production units are inspected by Scottish Executive staff and staff from the Animal Health Agency. Animal welfare and the conditions under which the chickens are raised are important aspects of these inspections.

Council Directive 2007/43/EC sets down minimum welfare standards for the keeping of broiler chickens from 30 June 2010, including setting a maximum stocking density. This will be transposed into domestic legislation by secondary legislation. Most broiler chicken producers in Scotland already meet these new EU requirements.

The Welfare of Farmed Animals (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2002 banned the keeping of laying hens in conventional battery cages from 1 January 2003, but allowed egg producers using these systems at 31 December 2002 to continue until 1 January 2012.

To bring forward the ban on conventional cages would gold plate the EU requirement and give egg producers using conventional cages insufficient time to change to enriched cages, barn or free range systems.

Injury accident statisticsfor this period are not yet available.

The Scottish Budget does notdistinguish between voted provision for the Crofting Building Grants and LoansScheme (CBGLS) and the Croft House Grants Scheme (CHGS). The former Schemeclosed on 31 December 2004. The latter scheme opened on 1 January 2005.

Expenditure on croft housegrants is demand-led and depends on the terms of the scheme and the number andvalue of applications. Gross provision for grant payments together with outturnon house grants provided under the schemes is set out in the following table. Theseamounts differ from, but are consistent with, those in the Scottish Budget: Spending Review2007, which sets out net spendingprovision for both grants and loans after accounting for the repayment of loansunder the CBGLS and predecessor schemes.

CHGS Grant Payments Only	2006-07 (£ Million)	2007-08 (£ Million)	2008-09 (£ Million)
Budget provision	2.7	3.0	2.6
Actual or forecast outturn	0.9	2.5	2.6

 

The Lease between the Scottishministers and the Eilean Ban Trust is a matter of public record. I have arrangedthat a copy of the extract of the Lease, held by the Registers of Scotland, is placedin the Scottish Parliament InformationCentre (Bib. number 44400).

An integral part of the successof the Crofting Community Development Scheme (CCDS) lay in the support providedlocally for crofting communities to develop sound business plans. These plans, onceapproved by the Crofters Commission, allowed communities to access management incentivepayments under the CCDS.

Building on this success, theCrofters Commission will devote £100,000 per annum of government funding to providedevelopment officers, who will assist crofting communities in drawing up their businessplans. This will give such communities the opportunity to access funding under thenew Scotland Rural Development Programme 2007-13 (SRDP), once the programme hasbeen approved formally by the European Commission. Proposals may be submitted eitherto the relevant Regional Proposal Assessment Committee with a view to securing aRural Development Contract (Axis 3),or else considered by the relevant Local ActionGroup under LEADER (Axis 4).

In keeping with ScottishTransport Appraisal Guidance (STAG), Highlands and IslandsAirports Ltd (HIAL) has prepared a report on the expansion of Inverness AirportTerminal reflecting the passenger growth envisaged in its master plan publishedin August 2007. The STAG report appraised an option which would provide capacityfor 1.5 million passengers and which the master plan envisaged would not be reacheduntil 2021. HIAL, in discussion with officials, is now considering other optionswhich meet regulatory requirements and Inverness Airport’s short to medium termanticipated passenger growth needs, while taking full account of environmental concerns.

Transport Scotland instructed Scotland TranServ to conduct a study intothe capacity of the Longman roundabout, south of Kessock Bridge, and a draft report was received in October2007. The study examined the existing and future traffic flows and the capacityof the existing layout, and proposed an engineering solution to reduce peak hourcongestion on a phased basis.

Transport Scotland will now review the draft report and discuss the outcomewith Scotland TranServ by the end of December 2007. The preferred solution willrequire to be prioritised against other competing schemes within the overall trunkroad improvement plan.