Chamber and committees

The information requested is not held centrally. However, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary annual statistical returns show that between 1 April 1999 and 31 March 2000, there were 141 operations in Scotland for which firearms were issued to the police, and between 1 April 2000 and 31 March 2001 there were 74 such operations.

I announced in Parliament on 25 April that the Executive would set aside up to £10 million to fund measures which may be required by the closure of Motorola's Bathgate plant. Up to £10 million in total remains available.

Expenditure as at 30 September is shown in the table:

	£
Media Costs (TV, Radio, Posters and Bus Backs)	293,929
Consultancy	21,150
Roadshow	834
Printing Costs (Posters and Leaflets)	11,653
Miscellaneous	3,455
Total	331,021

The Executive expects to spend a further £292,475 this financial year. Transport operators, who are jointly sponsoring the campaign, are meeting £164,000 of the total cost and one operator has provided the bus for the roadshows.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The Executive is in regular contact with the UK Government on a range of issues, including tax issues.

The A90 between the Forth Road Bridge and Cramond Bridge is classified as a local road. Traffic management and road safety measures on that section of road are therefore matters for the City of Edinburgh Council.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 road accidents in which one or more people were injured: they do not cover damage-only accidents. The traffic lights for the bus lane on the southbound side of the A90 came into operation on 1 August 2000. STATS 19 returns have so far been received for nine months since that date. The returns for those nine months show that 15 injury road accidents were identified as occurring on the A90 between the Forth Road Bridge and Cramond Bridge. The returns do not provide information about the causes of the accidents, nor do they distinguish between accidents on the southbound lanes and those on the northbound.It should be noted that this figure is based upon the data which are held in the central statistical database and which were collected by the police at the time of the accident and subsequently reported to the Executive. They may differ from any figures which the local authority would provide now, because they do not take account of any subsequent changes or corrections that the local authority may have made to the statistical information, for use at local level, about the location of each accident, based upon its knowledge of the road and area concerned.

My answer to question S1W-17453 on 5 September set out the details of the contributions made by public bodies to the costs of the Euro 2008 feasibility study. The Executive has seconded Mr John Henderson to the Scottish Football Association as part of the team being assembled to prepare a detailed bid and is discussing the wider support for the bid with the SFA.

The study into the feasibility of hosting the European Nations Football Championships in 2008 was completed in May of this year. The Executive was not involved in meeting the costs of the study. My response to question S1W-17453 on 5 September set out the contributions to the costs by public bodies.

Following completion of the initial feasibility study in May, Mr John Henderson was seconded from the Scottish Executive to the Scottish Football Association to assist with the SFA's consideration of whether to bid for the 2008 event.

None. The staging of fixtures in the Six Nations Championship is a matter for the Championship Committee.