Chamber and committees

JMP Consultants Ltd providetechnical advice relating to the Skye Bridge. In addition, Commerzbank AG has been appointedto identify and analyse options to assist ministers when they are consideringdecisions in the future for ending the toll regime at the bridge.

We are in regular contactwith the UK Government, the regulator and the industry about the upgrades thatwill be necessary to the electricity network to ensure that the renewableresource in the Highlands and Islands is fully realised.

Several ministershave met with Highland Council representatives during the past six months todiscuss a wide range of issues. There have also been a number of meetingsbetween Scottish Executive officialsand officers of the council on various matters.

The total annual amounts of repaymentsreceived over the last five years under the Crofters Building Grants and Loans Scheme(CBGLS) were as follows:

Year	Capital (£ Million)	Interest (£ Million)	Total (£ Million)
2002-03	2.9	1.9	4.8
2001-02	2.4	2.0	4.4
2000-01	2.3	2.0	4.3
1999-2000	1.7	2.6	4.3
1998-99	1.6	2.5	4.1

 

Thesefigures include instalments of loan repayments, made up of capital and interest,and capital repayments when debtors have decided to end loans by early repaymentof the capital outstanding.

Theway in which government accounting deals with these receipts is as follows:

thecapital element is a specified receipt set out in the annual budget exercise, andis authorised for use as income to be applied. In effect these receipts are nettedagainst Environment and Rural Affairs Department expenditure.

the interest is surrendered tothe Scottish Consolidated Fund.

To date Phytophthoraramorum has been found in the south of England in four species oftree; Southern red oak, Holm oak, beech and Horse chestnut. Research on whichspecies of tree found in the UK were susceptible to the disease was started inAugust 2001. Results from laboratory tests indicate that red oaks, beech, Sweetchestnut, Sitka spruce and Douglas fir are at greatest risk whilstother species such as our native white oaks are not so susceptible. Otherresearch is also being undertaken on how the disease is spread.

We have taken precautionarymeasures with emergency legislation designed to control the disease put inplace in May 2002 and these were followed by emergency measures throughout theEU in November 2002.

In line with EU measures, anintensive survey programme of retail outlets, nurseries, gardens and otherestablished planting areas has been under way since the first UK case inFebruary 2002. There have now been over 300 findings of the disease in the UK,including 24 in Scotland. In Scotland all of the outbreaks have been on horticulturalestablishments. All four of the cases where infection has been discovered intrees have been at well known historical gardens in the south of England whereinfection had already been found in ornamental shrubs of the rhododendronfamily.

Following the discovery of the disease in trees we are stepping up eradication and containment action. In Scotlandstaff from the Forestry Commission will shortly begin surveying in woodlands inareas identified as being of high risk from the disease. This will complementthe surveys being performed in England and Wales. This survey will be completed by the end of theApril 2004 and further action will depend on the findings.

SEERAD are currentlyconsidering what further action it should take with regard to horticulturalplants in the light of the findings in trees in the south of England.

There are466 people on the active waiting list for an organ transplant at Scottish units,435 of them waiting for a kidney transplant. The national UK median waiting time for a kidney is 700 days, for a heart132 days and for a liver 70 days. The main factor affecting these waiting timesis the availability of suitable donor organs.

TheExecutive recognises that there are increasing problems with access to NHSdental services in the Highlands and Islands and other parts of Scotland and hasin place a number of measures aimed at improving access. Enhanced measures, e.g.allowances for vocational trainees and newly qualified dentists enteringsubstantive general dental practice, are targeted at eight designated areas,including Highland and the Islands.

We willcontinue to keep the need for incentives which attract and retain students andpracticing dentists within the National Health Service under constant review.

The member will be awarefrom media reports on 16 and 17 October that the Jambo has completelycapsized. I am advised that its cargo is now lying on the seabed under thevessel and in its immediate vicinity and that it is no longer practicable tocontinue to recover it. As a consequence the salvage operation has come to aclose. The site is now subject to environmental monitoring, involving the ScottishEnvironment Protection Agency and Fisheries Research Services (FRS), which willcontinue over the winter months.

The Scottish Executive had been fully involved in the salvage operation through the environmentgroup which was established immediately after the Jambo sank on 29 June.Scottish ministers have been kept constantly informed of progress. I amsatisfied that all practicable steps were taken to recover as much of the cargoas possible as quickly as possible, allowing for the unique and extremelydifficult circumstances surrounding this unfortunate incident. In the light ofthat, and of the most recent events, the Scottish Executive has not made, and has noplans to make, representations to Her Majesty’s Government.

We are giving carefulconsideration to the responses received to the consultation on council tax forsecond and long-term empty homes.

Since 1998-99 we have doubled to £19.28 million the spendthat Communities Scotland provides in the Highlands and Islands for the provision of affordablehousing.

Inaddition, I was particularly pleased to be able to announce at the Conventionof the Highlands and Islands in Stornoway on 7 October that a further £10 million wouldbe directed to affordable housing opportunities in rural Scotland over the two years 2004-05 and2005-06.