Chamber and committees

City of Edinburgh Council and Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothian (SEEL) are currently working on a number of options to further develop Waverley station beyond Phase 1. Along with Network Rail, we are advising in this process. As yet, no decision has been made about the future of Waverley as this work is at a preliminary stage.

Transport Scotland has the operational responsibility for this area and can be contacted for further information if required.

We have made no commitment to support or fund any work beyond the current Phase 1. Funding for future rail projects such as Waverley Phase 2 would be subject to detailed feasibility analysis, the outcome of the Strategic Projects Review and future spending reviews.

The costs and benefits of any proposal would need to be considered and seen in the context of other transport and economic regeneration projects that might also be looking for funding.

Transport Scotland has the operational responsibility for this area, and can be contacted for further information if required.

The Executive does not currently collect information on (a) consumer debt and (b) overall debt. A recent report from the Department for Trade and Industry contains some information on debt for Great Britain, however we do not have this information at Scotland level. The report can be accessed via the following link http://www.dti.gov.uk/ccp/topics1/pdf1/debtdtionmori.pdf.

From July 2006 the Office for National Statistics survey on wealth and assets will collect information on household debt. The first annual results should be available at the end of 2007. There will be results for Scotland as a whole, but not for individual local authority areas.

The total debt covered by the Debt Arrangement Scheme is £1,039,947.83. The table outlines total debt and average debt broken down by local authority.

Authority	Average	Total
Argyle and Bute	£9,272.10	£18,544.20
Dumfries and Galloway	£8,880.55	£150,969.44
Eat Renfrewshire	£29,793.24	£119,172.98
Edinburgh City	£7,291.83	£14,583.66
Fife	£21,603.25	£43,206.50
Glasgow City	£6,869.68	£13,739.37
Moray	£19,736.00	£19,736.00
North Ayrshire	£41,526.83	£83,053.66
North Lanarkshire	£6,556.16	£576,942.02
Scotland	£8,666.23	£1,039,947.83

 

Figures correct at 24 January 2006.

There was no direct funding for local authorities to deliver the Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS) at its inception in November 2004.

The Scottish Executive has given the local authorities funding of £2 million in  2005-06 to support the development of money advice services. The table breaks down that figure by local authority.

The decision on how to spend the allocated funding is for each local authority to make, but the Executive set out in guidance their expectation that at least £40,000 of each allocation (£1.28 million pounds) was to be spend on providing or enabling DAS approved money advisers.

£2 Million Allocation(p.a.) - DAS

Authority	Allocation
Aberdeen City	£52,001.14
Aberdeenshire	£45,163.67
Angus	£40,000.00
Argyll and Bute	£40,000.00
Clackmannanshire	£40,000.00
Dumfries and Galloway	£43,440.01
Dundee City	£62,114.83
East Ayrshire	£52,508.90
East Dunbartonshire	£40,000.00
East Lothian	£40,000.00
East Renfrewshire	£40,000.00
Edinburgh, City of	£104,483.11
Eilean Siar	£60,000.00
Falkirk	£50,582.11
Fife	£100,345.60
Glasgow City	£286,383.12
Highland	£57,966.86
Inverclyde	£42,815.40
Midlothian	£40,000.00
Moray	£40,000.00
North Ayrshire	£57,588.72
North Lanarkshire	£122,460.49
Orkney Islands	£60,000.00
Perth and Kinross	£40,000.00
Renfrewshire	£62,603.09
Scottish Borders	£40,000.00
Shetland Islands	£60,000.00
South Ayrshire	£40,000.00
South Lanarkshire	£98,050.88
Stirling	£40,000.00
West Dunbartonshire	£45,167.28
West Lothian	£56,324.77
Total	£2,000,000

 

In February 2003, the First Minister announced his intention to take action to increase Scotland’s population by attracting people to live and work in Scotland. Following this announcement, a project team was set up in the Executive to develop proposals to encourage and facilitate the managed migration of people to Scotland. This team was supported by a steering group, comprising external interests as well as government officials. The team’s work contributed towards the policy statement, New Scots: Attracting Fresh Talent to Meet the Challenge of Growth, which was published on 25 February 2004.

Negotiations to acquire the Fresh Talent uniform resource locators (urls) began in March 2004 – as these domain names were owned by a private company - before the launch of the scotlandistheplace.com website. Negotiations to procure the domain names with the company were not successful at that point. The names Fresh Talent.com, Fresh Talent Scotland.com and Fresh Talent.co.uk were finally acquired for £3,000 in February 2005.

The following table outlines the number of Debt Arrangement Scheme debt payment programmes broken down by local authority as at 24 January 2006.

Argyll and Bute	2
Dumfries and Galloway	17
East Renfrewshire	4
Edinburgh City	2
Fife	2
Glasgow	2
Moray	1
North Ayrshire	2
North Lanarkshire Council	88
Total	120

 

 

Aberdeen	1
Aberdeenshire	Nil
Angus	1
Argyll and Bute	1
Clackmannanshire	2
Dumfries and Galloway	3
Dundee City	Nil
East Ayrshire	Nil
East Dunbartonshire	1
East Lothian	1
East Renfrewshire	2
Edinburgh City	6
Eilean Siar (Western Isles)	1
Falkirk	5
Fife	6
Glasgow City	2
Highland	3
Inverclyde	Nil
Midlothian	Nil
Moray	1
North Ayrshire	4
North Lanarkshire	4
Orkney	Nil
Perth	1
Renfrewshire	Nil
Scottish Borders	Nil
Shetland	Nil
South Ayrshire	1
South Lanarkshire	3
Stirling	Nil
West Dunbartonshire	1
West Lothian	Nil
Total	50

 

Figures correct at 24 January 2006.

Since the inception of the Debt Arrangement Scheme one debt payment programme has been revoked due to debtor default. This programme was in Dumfries and Galloway.

Ministers regularly engage with diaspora groups during international visits. The Executive engages with the diaspora through a number of other methods: through the internet sites, Scotlandistheplace.com and Friendsofscotland.gov.uk; inward press visits for international journalists, and promotion of contemporary Scotland at a range of international events. This engagement will be increased with the launch, later in January, of the diaspora e-magazine, titled, Scotland Now.