Chamber and committees

Data about injury road accidents are collected by the police and reported to the Scottish Executive using the STATS 19 statistical report form. These returns cover only accidents in which one or more people were injured: they do not cover "damage only" accidents.The following tables give the information which is available. The figures relate only to school pupils aged four to 16 inclusive because casualties who were school pupils on a journey to or from school are identified as such in the STATS 19 returns only if they are aged up to and including 16 years of age. It should be noted that the statistics given in the following tables are based upon the data which are held in the central statistical database, which are collected by the police at the time of the accident and subsequently reported to the Executive. They may differ from the figures which the local authorities might provide, because they do not take account of any subsequent changes or corrections that the local authorities may have made to their copies of the statistical information, for use at local level, based upon their knowledge of what happened in the accidents which occurred in their areas.In the tables all figures for 2001 are provisional.School Pupil Fatalities (Aged 4 to 16 Inclusive) While Travelling to or From School, by Local Authority

	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001
Aberdeen City	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Aberdeenshire	1	0	1	1	0	1	1	0	1	0
Angus	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	*
Argyll and Bute	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Clackmannanshire	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dundee City	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	*
East Ayrshire	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
East Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
East Lothian	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
East Renfrewshire	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Edinburgh, City of	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	*
Eilean Siar	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Falkirk	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Fife	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Glasgow City	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Highland	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	2	0	0
Inverclyde	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Midlothian	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	*
Moray	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
North Ayrshire	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
North Lanarkshire	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	1
Orkney Islands	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Perth and Kinross	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	*
Renfrewshire	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Scottish Borders	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Shetland Islands	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
South Ayrshire	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
South Lanarkshire	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	1	1	0
Stirling	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
West Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
West Lothian	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	*
Scotland	3	2	4	3	2	1	6	4	4	*

Note:*The figures for 2001 for these areas are not yet available.Accidents Involving at Least One School Pupil Casualty (Aged 4 to 16 Inclusive) Who Was Travelling to or From School, by Local Authority

	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001
Aberdeen City	34	19	31	22	22	24	23	15	12	7
Aberdeenshire	28	24	18	12	11	15	20	18	10	12
Angus	19	12	16	18	8	11	11	14	15	*
Argyll and Bute	8	6	12	14	9	11	8	7	4	7
Clackmannanshire	5	5	7	2	7	6	6	7	2	3
Dumfries and Galloway	8	14	8	6	17	4	8	12	11	11
Dundee City	23	17	34	21	37	28	23	29	25	*
East Ayrshire	16	15	13	13	15	10	15	13	11	10
East Dunbartonshire	6	9	12	12	8	8	14	9	9	16
East Lothian	3	8	11	7	8	8	8	7	15	*
East Renfrewshire	4	7	13	9	3	12	10	11	10	8
Edinburgh, City of	48	46	32	39	51	48	45	55	69	*
Eilean Siar	5	2	11	3	3	0	1	1	1	1
Falkirk	23	10	18	17	13	18	12	11	10	10
Fife	26	26	26	37	26	34	37	29	28	29
Glasgow City	105	102	113	85	88	86	88	84	102	101
Highland	25	28	66	57	22	9	9	17	13	10
Inverclyde	23	16	22	13	21	17	15	14	21	8
Midlothian	7	5	7	8	5	5	3	10	9	*
Moray	15	6	8	8	7	3	1	5	3	7
North Ayrshire	27	13	22	19	12	10	11	12	11	16
North Lanarkshire	43	51	42	44	42	38	49	39	30	49
Orkney Islands	0	1	2	4	3	1	2	0	0	0
Perth and Kinross	10	14	20	12	15	4	8	17	15	*
Renfrewshire	18	17	19	22	22	25	18	26	21	22
Scottish Borders	17	8	12	8	9	7	5	14	11	*
Shetland Islands	1	0	4	2	1	0	0	0	0	0
South Ayrshire	14	4	17	10	8	8	10	6	14	8
South Lanarkshire	46	52	44	39	44	35	34	36	39	40
Stirling	5	8	10	10	7	14	4	7	7	5
West Dunbartonshire	18	12	17	16	10	15	19	20	23	15
West Lothian	16	15	12	18	13	13	7	14	20	*
Scotland	646	572	699	607	567	527	524	559	571	*

Note:*The figures for 2001 for these areas are not yet available.

The publication and printing costs of Community Budgeting: responses to a consultation on local services and community engagement, October 2002 currently stand at £378.99. In addition the costs of distribution currently stand at £34.76.

The total cost of publishing and printing the English version of the Scottish Parliament Annual Report 2001 to 2002 was £19,226. This represents a significant saving of £11,600 over last year's costs, achieved by retaining the same design format and layout as last year and bringing more of the work in house. The number of reports published was 2,500. Distribution was increased this year and included all secondary schools as well as partner public libraries, international contacts and interested organisations throughout Scotland. We trust that MSPs will make their copies available in their constituency offices thereby increasing public availability to the document. The final cost of distribution is being calculated but is expected to be £2,500.

The maximum amount of a candidate's election expenses at local government elections is £219 plus 4.3p per voter. I am considering whether to make an order increasing this maximum before the local elections in May 2003.The maximum permitted levels in England and Wales are £242 plus 4.7p per voter.

The publication and printing of Closing the Opportunity Gap: Scottish Budget for 2003-06 has to date cost £1,078.33. In addition the costs of distribution currently stand at £317.

We do not believe that this legislation prevents people under the age of 21 being co-opted to council committees and therefore we have no plans to amend it.

The 2003-04 round of the Scottish Rural Partnership Fund (SRPF) was launched on Friday 30 August 2002. Some 2,200 application packs were produced to meet the perceived demand of those wishing to apply to the fund.A total figure of £8,391 was spent on the design, publishing, printing and distribution of the application pack.

Following the announcement of the proposed closure of Alcan's Burntisland facility, Scottish Development International officials have had on-going meetings with both local and corporate management to minimise the impact of any such action. The 90-day consultation period began on 11 September 2002 and therefore it is premature to make definitive assumptions about the outcome.However, in the event of any job losses, support will be provided to those affected through the Fife local response team in conjunction with the Executive's PACE (Partnership Action for Continuing Employment) framework. This will ensure a rapid response from local agencies in terms of offering advice, support and guidance on the range of retraining/upskilling and employment opportunities.

The Public report on the first year of the new trunk road operating companies 2001/2002 was published by the independent Performance Audit Group (Halcrow in association with PricewaterhouseCoopers) in line with the recommendations of the Auditor General for Scotland.The estimated cost to the public purse is £12,500.

The A8000 is a local road and is therefore the responsibility of the City of Edinburgh Council, as the relevant roads authority. The council and the Forth Estuary Transport Authority are jointly taking forward plans to construct the M9 Spur Extension/A90 Upgrading Scheme to provide a new link road and reduce congestion on the A8000.