Chamber and committees

The amount of money made available by The Scottish Office for capital expenditure at airports in Scotland since 1994-95 is as follows:£000's

	1994-95	1995-96	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99
Barra	49	64	280	122	-
Benbecula	9	10	37	126	-
Campbeltown	-	575	47	130	37
Inverness	3103	1393	40	95	458
Islay	341	63	13	91	36
Kirkwall	100	90	58	724	47
Stornoway	32	53	98	119	69
Sumburgh	265	683	136	299	8
Tiree	522	77	10	54	22
Wick	97	43	31	30	18

Consents under section 94 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 in respect of capital expenditure at local authority airports since 1994-95 are as follows:£000's

	1994-95	1995-96	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99
Dundee	199	781	1147	436	553
Orkney	-	-	-	-	250

The following amounts have been allocated to Prestwick Airport from public funds since 1994-95:£000's

	1994-95	1995-96	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99
Enterprise Ayrshire	293	195	68	30	937
Regional Selective Assistance	240	-	-	-	-

It is estimated that the new charging arrangements will eventually increase road traffic accident income to the NHS in Scotland to around £10 million per annum. The previous arrangements saw only £1 million per annum being recouped.Once collected, the income is remitted directly to the NHS Trust or Trusts that provided the treatment for the accident.

At present there are no weight restrictions on bridges which are the responsibility of the Scottish Executive. The assessment of 4 structures has still to be completed. Out of a total of 1024 bridges in the trunk road assessment programme, 94 did not pass the initial assessment. It is expected that many of these will pass when reassessed using more sophisticated techniques. Replacement or strengthening of the remainder will be programmed over a number of years on a prioritised basis in line with available funding. In the interim it is unlikely that any of these bridges will need to be weight restricted. Information about bridges on the local road network is not held centrally since responsibility for their maintenance rests with individual Councils as local roads authorities.

Roadside digital imaging sensors are being provided and installed on some sections of the Scottish trunk road network by Trafficmaster plc at no cost to the Scottish Executive.These sensors will be used by Trafficmaster plc to provide up to the minute traffic information to subscribers of in-car units. As part of the licence granted by The Scottish Office, the Scottish Executive will have access to the sensor data to augment the present data sources to provide traffic information to the travelling public via variable message signs.

Roadside digital imaging sensors are presently being erected adjacent to some sections of Scottish trunk road network by Trafficmaster plc under the terms of a licence granted by The Scottish Office. These sensors will be used by Trafficmaster plc to provide up to the minute traffic information to subscribers of in-car units.Trafficmaster propose to place approx 250 sensors adjacent to Scottish trunk roads. An exact number cannot be given at this time as locations and numbers may have to be revised if particular sites are not effective. A schedule of the sites at present proposed has been placed in the Scottish Parliament library.

No. Matters concerning maritime safety and the international law of the sea are reserved to the UK Government.

Revised guidance on opencast coal was published in March 1999. This replaced paragraph 74-78 of NPPG 4. As with all planning guidance, the remainder of NPPG 4 will be kept under review although there are no plans at present to update the non-coal aspects of the guidance.

No, that is a matter for the Secretary of State for Social Security.

A new charging regime was introduced on 5 April 1999 through Regulations made under the terms of the Road Traffic (NHS Charges) Act 1999. Under the new arrangements, individuals are no longer charged an emergency treatment fee for hospital attendances following a road traffic accident in which they were involved. NHS charges only become payable when an insurance company pays compensation under a personal injury claim in respect of a road traffic accident.

In practice, NHS charges are met by insurance companies and not passed on to the individual concerned. Neither the individual's entitlement to personal injury compensation or the amount awarded is affected by the charge recovery.

The new charging arrangements apply to all cases where compensation is or has been paid in respect of accidents from 2 July 1997. The charges are:

• Treatment without inpatient admission: flat rate charge of £354
• Treatment with admission: daily rate of £435 subject to a ceiling of £10,000

The charges have been set to reflect the actual costs to the NHS as a whole for treating road traffic accident victims.

Toll charges incurred by Scottish Ministers or Deputy Ministers for travel over the Skye Bridge on official business are reimbursed from budgets allocated within the Scottish Executive for travel and subsistence expenses purposes. To date no costs have been incurred by Scottish Ministers or Deputy Ministers in respect of travel over the Skye Bridge. The estimated costs for the current financial year are £103.