Chamber and committees

No local authorities have approached the Scottish Executive in this matter.

Lottery funding of £500,000 was provided by Scottish Screen towards the production of the film Sweet Sixteen. No representations have been made to the Scottish Executive by Scottish Screen regarding the film's distribution or potential audience.

The monthly expenditure on fuel, vehicle purchase, and staff costs for the Government Car Service (Scotland) (GCS) since May 1999 is shown in the following table:

Month	Fuel Cost (£)	Vehicle Purchase (£)1	Staff Costs (£)2
May 1999	2,120	0	3
June 1999	3,076	0	3
July 1999	3,575	0	3
August 1999	1,620	0	3
September 1999	4,730	0	3
October 1999	4,227	0	3
November 1999	2,927	0	3
December 1999	3,345	0	3
January 2000	2,391	0	3
February 2000	2,511	0	3
March 2000	3,251	84,788	3
April 2000	4,032	0	17,316
May 2000	2,353	47,040	14,438
June 2000	2,712	0	9,937
July 2000	2,715	0	25,648
August 2000	2,150	82,641	19,146
September 2000	1,378	0	16,064
October 2000	1,930	0	18,645
November 2000	2,187	0	21,755
December 2000	1,261	0	25,922
January 2001	1,431	100,574	18,964
February 2001	1,177	0	18,405
March 2001	2,450	0	27,162
April 2001	2,452	0	31,784
May 2001	3,124	0	28,243
June 2001	3,625	0	35,851
July 2001	2,167	0	33,144
August 2001	3,637	0	32,749
September 2001	3,254	0	37,930
October 2001	3,682	0	37,083
November 2001	3,882	0	35,168
December 2001	2,657	0	36,992
January 2002	3,548	0	33,533
February 2002	3,346	0	35,832
March 2002	3,652	23,776	35,459
April 2002	3,253	0	37,483
May 2002	4,761	0	34,686
June 2002	3,149	0	37,178
July 2002	3,433	0	34,864
August 2002	3,893	0	35,114

Notes:1. The figure provided is net, plus VAT. None of the GCS vehicles are leased.2. Staff costs include ASLC and ERNIC.3. A breakdown of monthly costs is not available.

Twenty-one of the vehicles operated by the Government Car ervice (Scotland) (GCS) are dual-fuelled. All were converted prior to purchase.GCS drivers are issued with a fuel agency card for use nation-wide, and this facility is supplemented where necessary by local accounts. This enables the drivers to obtain LPG from over a hundred refuelling stations.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-29117 on 23 September 2002. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa

Since 1999 the Scottish Executive has made 12 awards of Freight Facilities Grant (FFG) totalling almost £34 million. Over the last three complete financial years the breakdown of these awards is:

1999-2000	seven awards made totalling £12.916 million
2000-01	three awards made totalling £10.983 million
2001-02	two awards made totalling £10.039 million

In addition, the Executive funded the £11 million award by Department for Transport to Forth Ports plc in 2001-02 for the Rosyth to Zeebrugge ferry link. The Scottish Executive has made three awards of Track Access Grant (TAG) since taking over responsibility for the scheme in December 2000. All three awards were made in the financial year 2002-03. In addition, the Scottish Executive will contribute to a further two awards of TAG made by the SRA under our working agreement for applications which have traffic flows on both sides of the border.The SRA has no powers to award TAG for traffic flows wholly within Scotland. However, since assuming responsibility for TAG in February 2001 the SRA have made four cross-border awards of TAG, including the two mentioned above made under the recent working agreement.

The Scottish Executive takes a wide range of factors into account in formulating its social and economic policies. Consignia, post offices and postal services are reserved to the UK Government.

The Executive has discussed with the research team the Marine Motorway Study, which is being undertaken by Heriot Watt and Napier Universities to establish the viability of freight ferry services on UK coastal routes as an alternative to long-distance road transport. The research was commissioned and partly funded by the Department for Transport which has responsibility for shipping, a reserved matter. We will consider the outcome of the study once it is completed.The Executive and the UK Government recognise shipping as providing environmental benefits. This is reflected in the support offered through the Freight Facilities Grant scheme. This provides assistance with capital expenditure costs to help make freight transport by water more competitive.

Shipping is one of the most environmentally sustainable means of transport available, and the Scottish Executive is keen to encourage a modal shift of freight transport away from road onto water and rail. A significant funding mechanism for encouraging such modal shift is the Freight Facilities Grant (FFG) Scheme that has funded three awards totalling almost £16 million to move freight onto water. This total includes the £11 million FFG funding of the Rosyth to Zeebrugge ferry link which demonstrates the Executive's commitment to achieving modal shift in freight transport and to support short sea shipping as a means to this end. In addition, the Executive, in conjunction with the Department for Transport and the Welsh Assembly Government are looking at proposals to extend the scope of the FFG scheme in relation to maritime transport.

The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the UK Government on a wide range of issues, including those relating to the merger of the Traffic Area Network (which supports the Traffic Commissioners in the fulfilment of their statutory responsibilities) and the Vehicle Inspectorate Executive Agency.