Chamber and committees

The only direct support to airportsby the Scottish Executive is provided through Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd(HIAL) for the operation of airports in the Highlands and Islands. Capitalexpenditure provided by HIAL from 1 May 2001 until 31 March 2005 is set out in the following table.

Airports(info as at 31 March)	2001-02 (excl. April 2001)	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	May 2001 to 31 March 2005
Barra	34,973	40,620	-	31,713	107,306
Benbecula	2,022,555	736,077	899,407	158,345	3,816,384
Campbeltown	26,108	42,444	198,207	71,638	338,397
Inverness	190,191	1,519,808	494,628	950,743	3,155,370
Islay	352,106	2,529,147	602,867	81,429	3,565,549
Kirkwall	2,295,205	1,592,609	3,165,584	1,475,679	8,529,077
Stornoway	3,252,244	1,077,884	956,972	61,998	5,349,098
Sumburgh	371,740	288,561	40,027	339,695	1,040,023
Tiree	297,747	91,159	70,438	25,000	484,344
Wick	135,305	1,204,775	665,313	894,088	2,899,481
HIAL Head Office	194,958	103,601	97,470	104,781	500,810
HIAL Board	-	-	-	-	-
Totals May 2001 to 31 March 2005	9,173,132	9,226,685	7,190,913	4,195,109	29,785,839

 

In addition, the Executive providessupport for an element of new capital investment each year by local authoritieswhich might include investment by them in airports by way of loan charges support/supportedborrowing. This is not broken down by airport although Dundee City Council was grantedadditional loan charges support for Dundee Airport as follows:

2003-04: £640,000

2004-05: £682,000

2005-06: £722,000

2006-07: £760,000.

The Scottish Executive has alsofunded the following projects through the 2000-06 European Regional DevelopmentFund programme:

Inverness Airport Access Road - approved grant £1,042,000 (payments to date £453,683);

Sumburgh Airport Extension torunway 09/27 - approved grant £2,500,000 (payments to date £1,600,000);

Argyll Islands Air Services - approved grant £2,900,000 (no paymentsmade to date). This project will develop the airports at Oban, Coll and Colonsay,and

Airports Development Programme– approved grant £2,560,473 for development of Stornoway and Kirkwall Airports projectfully committed.

Expenditure on these projectsspan the funding period for European Structural funds 2000-06 and are not thereforebroken down into financial years.

The following table shows thenumber and percentage of pupils leaving publicly funded schools in Edinburgh withno qualifications in a foreign language at SCQF level 3 or better 2001-05:

Year	Number	Percentage of Leavers
2001	885	28%
2002	970	28%
2003	1,039	28%
2004	989	28%
2005	1,036	32%

 

The Scottish Football Partnership(SFP) is now operational with James Clydesdale having taken up post as Chairmanon 21 February 2006. The majority of its funding is earmarked for the YouthFootball Action Plan and some is set asidefor the Community Youth Awards and a Club Licensing Scheme which are currently beingdeveloped. The SFP is also considering how best to use the remaining funds to makethe biggest impact on football. The SFP is not accepting any applications until ithas agreed its programmes and finalised current initiatives.

A table showing the number ofentries and awards in National Qualification courses in foreign languages by pupilsin publicly funded schools in Edinburgh 2001-05 has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 39449).

The BBC is a key actor in thedelivery of public service broadcasting, which can play a significant role bothin developing the creative industries and in supporting cultural activity. Althoughbroadcasting is a reserved matter, the BBC is engaged in a regular dialogue withthe Executive, Scottish Screen and the Scottish Arts Council. The Scottish Arts Council has recently metwith the BBC to explore ways in which BBC Scotland might be able to work more closelywith arts organisations in Scotland.

Building on the experienceof Scottish Screen and the Scottish Arts Council hitherto, I shall expect CreativeScotland to work with the BBC and other broadcasters in pursuit of their sharedobjectives. It will be for the organisations concerned to consider whether a formalMemorandum of Understanding would be helpful in setting a framework for their futurecollaboration.

The latest availableinformation is from the 2001 Census. The following table gives a breakdown,by country of birth, of people who were born outside the UK butwithin the EU.

2001 Census, People Livingin Scotland and in the City of Edinburgh Local Authority Area Who Were Born in EuropeanUnion¹ Countries other than the UK

Country of Birth	Scotland	City of Edinburgh
All EU1 Countries (other than UK)	70,214	13,267
Austria	826	158
Belgium	1,108	247
Cyprus2	1,533	184
Czech Republic	307	73
Denmark	1,309	223
Estonia	78	19
Finland	631	167
France	4,850	1,412
Germany	18,703	2,760
Greece	1,853	575
Hungary	308	65
Ireland3	21,809	3,333
Italy	4,936	1,257
Latvia	95	17
Lithuania	133	13
Luxembourg	102	46
Malta	1,438	191
Netherlands	3,255	440
Poland	2,505	416
Portugal	520	142
Slovakia	123	26
Slovenia	49	6
Spain	2,555	1,058
Sweden	1,188	439

Notes:

1. Table includes allcountries which are currently (April 2006) part of the European Union.

2. Covers the whole of Cyprus, notjust the area which is part of the EU.

3. Includes “Ireland,part not specified”.

Data about injury road accidentsare collected by the police and reported to the Scottish Executive using the STATS19 statistical report form. These returns cover only road accidents in which oneor more people were injured: they do not cover damage-only accidents.

Accidents for which adverse orwinter weather conditions were reported as an attributable factor are not identifiedas such in the STATS 19 returns. The returns do, however, include information aboutthe weather and the road surface condition at the time of the accident.

The following table 1 lists the number of injury road accidents by month andpolice force from May 2001 to September 2005, the latest month for which informationcan be provided at present. The figures for the first nine months of 2005 are provisional.Provisional figures for 2005 as a whole will be published in June.

The following table 2 lists the number of these injury road accidents whichoccurred in what might be regarded as adverse or winter weather conditions. Thefollowing types of accidents were counted for the purpose of producing the figuresin this table - those for which either (a) the weather was recorded as one of thefollowing: snowing; fine with high winds; raining with high winds; fog or mist (ifhazard); or other adverse weather conditions, or (b) the road surface conditionwas recorded as one of the following: snow; frost/ice, or flood (surface water over3cm deep).

Information on road accidents which lead to a report to procuratorsfiscal is not held centrally.

Table 1 Injury RoadAccidents by Month and Police Force: May 2001 to September 2005

		Northern	Grampian	Tayside	Fife	Lothian and borders	Central	Strathclyde	Dumfries and Galloway	Scotland
2001	May	72	82	104	57	258	49	566	42	1,230
	June	69	81	100	63	310	64	537	28	1,252
	July	87	98	98	68	225	67	502	38	1,183
	August	78	102	111	75	298	54	583	59	1,360
	September	74	93	101	50	279	57	518	28	1,200
	October	63	108	108	63	268	62	587	38	1,297
	November	64	105	115	86	317	53	577	34	1,351
	December	68	110	91	62	278	54	575	44	1,282
2002	January	60	83	99	64	215	73	547	21	1,162
	February	57	97	81	65	223	51	516	40	1,130
	March	41	69	84	70	263	57	520	25	1,129
	April	32	75	79	49	235	62	472	36	1,040
	May	66	91	95	54	254	46	524	42	1,172
	June	63	100	103	52	251	62	493	32	1,156
	July	71	108	112	69	238	49	506	41	1,194
	August	92	100	108	69	327	81	563	47	1,387
	September	71	108	116	60	239	50	483	34	1,161
	October	70	86	115	64	283	75	575	38	1,306
	November	64	111	87	62	273	79	572	33	1,281
	December	57	129	89	62	250	57	540	36	1,220
2003	January	64	86	95	60	210	65	525	28	1,133
	February	46	73	95	63	261	49	466	40	1,093
	March	39	88	78	56	208	47	439	37	992
	April	55	68	76	58	207	71	527	35	1,097
	May	71	68	89	49	248	52	514	40	1,131
	June	80	102	91	52	228	56	475	41	1,125
	July	84	86	87	78	239	69	491	41	1,175
	August	99	113	90	61	221	65	554	31	1,234
	September	79	102	96	61	240	74	517	40	1,209
	October	52	99	70	64	291	58	546	44	1,224
	November	62	116	91	67	222	69	564	32	1,223
	December	69	100	89	50	255	77	594	38	1,272
2004	January	60	92	74	52	238	57	485	37	1,095
	February	42	77	68	68	229	39	424	27	974
	March	56	72	89	69	213	54	498	40	1,091
	April	67	78	89	47	245	43	505	29	1,103
	May	68	95	76	55	236	67	524	37	1,158
	June	73	92	108	57	254	62	569	33	1,248
	July	74	66	73	46	210	52	430	43	994
	August	86	125	107	76	264	59	571	56	1,344
	September	80	99	118	62	241	65	498	22	1,185
	October	63	104	78	64	262	54	556	42	1,223
	November	56	104	89	82	261	48	515	30	1,185
	December	74	95	103	76	263	59	564	44	1,278
2005 (prov)	January	57	84	76	55	220	53	511	44	1,100
	February	57	103	66	56	194	41	462	34	1,013
	March	51	86	63	55	194	43	495	38	1,025
	April	58	85	69	47	194	49	458	35	995
	May	72	93	78	71	223	55	488	40	1,120
	June	75	98	64	59	255	52	462	46	1,111
	July	70	103	82	52	222	55	441	45	1,070
	August	87	112	113	52	240	50	506	33	1,193
	September	56	94	92	61	225	56	507	39	1,130

 

Table 2 Injury RoadAccidents which Occurred in what Might be Regarded as Adverse or Winter WeatherConditions by Month and Police Force: May 2001 to September 2005

		Northern	Grampian	Tayside	Fife	Lothian and borders	Central	Strathclyde	Dumfries and Galloway	Scotland
2001	May	4	1	2	0	11	0	9	0	27
	June	1	2	3	3	11	2	18	0	40
	July	6	5	1	2	9	2	14	2	41
	August	3	3	0	1	2	1	13	0	23
	September	7	6	0	2	6	1	20	2	44
	October	11	11	9	1	21	10	77	4	144
	November	16	15	15	14	32	3	57	0	152
	December	27	41	21	12	45	12	129	11	298
2002	January	21	24	37	12	50	26	118	10	298
	February	24	18	11	10	40	9	134	13	259
	March	8	5	6	8	28	4	86	2	147
	April	4	4	3	1	8	3	21	1	45
	May	8	4	3	1	9	1	34	6	66
	June	6	3	4	2	4	0	19	2	40
	July	3	1	4	2	7	4	6	1	28
	August	4	6	2	0	10	2	15	0	39
	September	3	1	1	0	3	1	5	0	14
	October	6	11	13	10	17	5	62	8	132
	November	12	22	6	4	18	7	32	2	103
	December	10	13	6	7	41	9	43	3	132
2003	January	37	27	18	17	64	14	144	6	327
	February	16	16	25	14	37	16	60	9	193
	March	2	3	4	4	23	5	24	2	67
	April	2	5	0	0	6	3	23	1	40
	May	5	1	6	1	7	2	41	1	64
	June	3	1	0	1	8	1	9	1	24
	July	3	1	0	1	7	2	10	0	24
	August	7	3	0	0	5	0	8	0	23
	September	3	3	0	1	2	4	11	0	24
	October	11	16	1	5	29	5	40	6	113
	November	19	20	11	11	16	8	72	5	162
	December	32	35	21	3	45	15	107	6	264
2004	January	32	26	30	12	47	17	92	13	269
	February	17	23	9	9	31	5	50	6	150
	March	9	6	5	8	17	10	49	5	109
	April	4	4	2	1	11	1	22	0	45
	May	1	1	0	0	3	3	9	1	18
	June	5	0	0	6	11	2	18	2	44
	July	0	0	1	1	3	3	8	1	17
	August	7	15	7	5	15	5	30	3	87
	September	12	9	4	3	36	7	74	2	147
	October	9	5	4	8	18	8	48	3	103
	November	7	17	8	7	28	4	49	4	124
	December	35	26	18	15	53	19	160	18	344
2005 (prov)	January	24	25	18	14	66	11	180	16	354
	February	18	29	11	8	27	7	67	4	171
	March	12	16	5	1	22	6	34	2	98
	April	9	19	2	3	11	2	19	2	67
	May	5	2	0	2	4	0	16	2	31
	June	4	2	0	0	3	2	6	0	17
	July	2	4	0	0	4	1	4	1	16
	August	4	0	2	0	8	2	26	2	44
	September	9	4	1	3	15	2	45	5	84

 

No representations have beenmade by the Scottish Executive regarding the ability of light rail vehicles totravel on heavy gauge rail.

Transport Scotland hasthe operational responsibility for this area, and can be contacted for moreinformation if required.

The Scottish Executive willcontinue to fund Cycling Scotland and Road Safety Scotland to provide advice,courses and materials for cycle training in schools.

the Scottish Cycle Training Scheme (SCTS), formally known as cycling proficiency,is administered by Road Safety Scotland, who provide free training resourcematerials to all Road Safety Units in Scotland. This training scheme is offered to primary 6 to 7 pupilsthroughout Scotland by their local Road Safety Unit. All the 22 RoadSafety Units in Scotland use the SCTS as their cycle training programme forprimary schools. This scheme is designed to give pupils the skills andknowledge needed to cycle safely and responsibly on the road. Curricular linkshave also been developed between the SCTS and Streetsense, the main road safetyeducation resource (develop by Road Safety Scotland) for primary schools in Scotland.

Cycling Scotland iscurrently piloting a multi-stage programme in four local authority areas,Highland, Falkirk, Dumfries and Galloway and East Ayrshire. These pilotsinvolve delivery to primary 5 of cycle control skills, cycle training toprimary 6 and additional cycle training and journeying in primary 7. Cycling Scotlandwill share the results of this pilot and lessons learned with other key agenciessuch as Road Safety Scotland and Sustrans – Safe Routes to School.

Broadcasting is a reserved matterand is the responsibility of the Department for Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS).

The Scottish Executive has worked closely withDCMS throughout the BBC Charter Review process to make them aware of the outcomeswe want from the Charter Review and to highlight the potential for improvement interms of serving the Scottish public. TheExecutive’s response to the consultation on the BBC Charter Review Green Paper,which DCMS launched in March 2005, can be found on the BBC Charter Review websiteat www.bbccharterreview.org.uk.

We are continuing to work withDCMS to ensure that the next Royal Charter and Framework Agreement take accountof the different circumstances in the devolved nations of the UK as well asthe interests of listeners and viewers in Scotland.