Chamber and committees

Awards of Freight Facilities and Track Access Grants to rail projects with traffic flows between Scotland and England and funded by the Scottish Executive and the Department for Transport have, up to 31 March 2002, removed a total of 1.4 million lorry miles from Scotland's roads each year.

The volume of information requested is large and detailed. I have therefore arranged for the information in table form to be placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 26178). The table shows the value of correctly completed claims received by the Scottish Executive from each further education college, the value of those paid and the amount outstanding in each year of the 2000-06 Structural Funds Programme period.

In the main, European Regional Development Fund and European Social Fund payments are made in order of receipt. The Scottish Executive aims to pay correctly completed claims within 30 days of receipt of a valid claim but always seeks to respond sympathetically to requests from vulnerable organisations for urgent payment.

The Executive's planning policy on radio telecommunications encourages site sharing where it represents the best environmental solution. The additional equipment should be designed and positioned as sensitively as possible, though technical constraints may limit the possibilities. In some cases the shared use of an existing mast might require an increase in its height and visibility.Mast and site sharing options should be explored by developers and planning authorities, to see whether such an option can provide a solution for individual proposals. Developers should provide information on the reasons for their chosen solution to the planning authority to support their planning application.

The following tables, 1 and 2, show information on planning applications for radio telecommunications infrastructure, including ground-based masts, additional antennas, roof-based masts and equipment housing. The figures show for each planning authority the numbers of planning applications received, the numbers granted permission, the number refused permission, the numbers refused permission on grounds related to health and safety and the average time taken to determine the planning applications.The information provided on planning applications has only been collected from planning authorities since the introduction of the new legislation governing new telecommunications development since 23 July 2001 and data for the final quarter of 2002 is not yet available. Completion of the returns by planning authorities is voluntary, and there are therefore gaps in the returns.The following table 3 shows the number of planning appeal decisions in which planning permission was granted for telecommunications development for each of the years 1999 to 2002 for each planning authority area:Table 1: Planning Applications Data; 23 July 2001 to 31 December 2001

	Applications Made	Granted	Refused	Refused on Health and Safety Grounds1	Average Time Taken to Determine (Days)
Aberdeen City	22	8	0	0	62
Aberdeenshire	20	14	1	0	56
Angus	11	6	0	0	45
Argyll and Bute	22	9	0	0	64
Clackmannanshire	3	0	1	0	34
Dumfries and Galloway	20	13	0	0	37
Dundee City	13	4	1	0	55
East Ayrshire	17	9	2	0	63
East Dunbartonshire	20	5	2	1	70
East Lothian*	4	0	0	*	*
East Renfrewshire	12	2	1	1	63
Edinburgh	97	31	8	0	57
Eilean Siar	13	10	0	0	52
Falkirk	16	6	0	0	68
Fife	35	19	1	0	40
Glasgow City*	80	*	*	*	*
Highland	41	17	0	0	92
Inverclyde	6	2	0	0	94
Midlothian	7	3	1	0	59
Moray	6	1	0	0	68
North Ayrshire	16	4	1	0	45
North Lanarkshire*	37	*	*	*	*
Orkney	2	0	0	0	0
Perth and Kinross	16	1	0	0	28
Renfrewshire	25	14	0	0	90
Scottish Borders	18	12	0	0	45
Shetland	1	1	0	0	37
South Ayrshire	24	11	0	0	62
South Lanarkshire*	63	*	*	*	*
Stirling	15	9	0	0	49
West Dunbartonshire	9	0	1	0	54
West Lothian	20	3	5	1	65
Scotland		214	25	3	592
Missing/Incomplete Return*

Notes:1. This data also includes applications that were refused on grounds relating to health concerns but which did not refer explicitly to "health and safety".2. This total was derived from dividing the total of days spent determining by the number of applications received through Scotland as a whole.Table 2: Planning Applications Data; 1 January 2002 to 30 September 2002

	Applications Made	Granted	Refused	Refused on Health and Safety Grounds1	Average Time Taken to Determine (Days)
Aberdeen City	32	23	5	0	83
Aberdeenshire	20	24	1	1	76
Angus	12	10	1	0	55
Argyll and Bute	34	20	1	0	58
Clackmannanshire	1	1	1	1	67
Dumfries and Galloway	28	22	1	0	70
Dundee City	14	9	4	0	78
East Ayrshire	14	12	4	2	112
East Dunbartonshire	19	17	4	3	71
East Lothian	20	15	3	0	73
East Renfrewshire	9	10	2	0	92
Edinburgh	135	101	17	0	76
Eilean Siar	6	4	0	0	0
Falkirk	30	11	8	2	75
Fife	37	25	7	2	61
Glasgow City*	99	*	*	*	*
Highland*	8	4	4	1	145
Inverclyde	7	6	1	0	67
Midlothian	3	5	1	0	52
Moray	7	10	0	0	61
North Ayrshire	16	17	3	0	57
North Lanarkshire	34	38	6	2	86
Orkney*	*	*	*	*	*
Perth and Kinross	22	21	3	0	102
Renfrewshire	29	24	6	0	80
Scottish Borders	12	13	1	0	98
Shetland	2	0	0	0	0
South Ayrshire	18	20	3	0	89
South Lanarkshire	65	49	0	0	82
Stirling	15	11	2	0	72
West Dunbartonshire	19	8	8	0	68
West Lothian	34	21	4	0	66
Scotland		551	101	14	752
Missing/Incomplete Return*

Notes:1. This data also includes applications that were refused on grounds relating to health concerns but which did not refer explicitly to "health and safety".2. This total was derived from dividing the total of days spent determining by the number of applications received through Scotland as a whole.Table 3: Planning Appeals - Developments Granted Planning Permission on Appeal

	01-01-99 to 31-12-99	01-01-00 to 31-12-00	01-01-01 to 31-12-01	01-01-02 to 31-12-02
Aberdeen City	1	-	1	1
Aberdeenshire	-	-	1	1
Angus	-	-	-	-
Argyll and Bute	-	-	-	1
Clackmannanshire	-	-	-	-
Dumfries and Galloway	-	-	-	-
Dundee City	-	-	-	1
East Ayrshire	-	-	-	1
East Dunbartonshire	-	-	-	2
East Lothian	-	-	-	-
East Renfrewshire	-	-	-	1
Edinburgh	-	-	1	2
Eilean Siar	-	-	-	-
Falkirk	-	-	2	2
Fife	-	1	-	3
Glasgow City	-	-	-	1
Highland	1	-	-	1
Inverclyde	-	-	-	-
Midlothian	-	-	-	2
Moray	-	-	-	-
North Ayrshire	-	-	-	-
North Lanarkshire	-	3	4	1
Orkney	-	-	-	-
Perth and Kinross	-	1	3	3
Renfrewshire	-	1	1	2
Scottish Borders	-	-	-	-
Shetland	-	-	-	-
South Ayrshire	-	-	-	-
South Lanarkshire	-	1	-	3
Stirling	-	-	-	-
West Dunbartonshire	-	-	-	-
West Lothian	-	-	-	1
Scotland	2	7	13	30

Note:- Indicates no appeal decisions granting planning permission made.

Funding levels for Scottish police forces are currently at record levels. As a result of the spending review, the Grant Aided Expenditure for Lothian and Borders Police will rise by almost 20% between 2002-03 and 2005-06 (from £149 million to £179 million).In addition to payment of police grant, Lothian and Borders Police has been given an extra £660,000 over 2001-02 and 2002-03 towards the cost of dealing with increased security risks.

Full details of ScotRail's income and expenditure can be found in the statutory accounts of ScotRail Railways Limited which are filed at Companies House.Future track access charges levied will be set by the Rail Regulator.

The Scottish Executive did not pay any rail freight operating subsidies in 2001-02. However, during this period it disbursed Freight Facilities Grant payments totalling £8,064,558. The amount paid in 2001-02 for passenger rail operations was £150.8 million.

We achieved our own target of making awards of Freight Facilities Grant, by March 2002, that will remove 18 million lorry miles from Scotland's roads each year. We are also confident of meeting our future targets of making awards by March 2003 and March 2004 that will remove 21 and 23 million lorry miles respectively from Scotland's roads each year.

The Scottish Executive recognises the important contribution rail freight makes to the economy and the environment, and will continue to support the rail freight industry in Scotland through the administration of the Freight Facilities and Track Access Grant schemes.