Chamber and committees

The Scottish Football Association,as the sport’s governing body, will be primarily responsible for implementing theAction Plan for Scottish Youth Football but many other bodies which contributedto the review will have a role to play. A steering group including representativesfrom the SFA, the Executive, sportscotland and other relevant organisationswill be established to oversee the implementation process.

The Executive does not provideExchequer funding for football clubs.

Stage One proposals are currentlybeing assessed and an announcement about which proposal will progress to Stage Two– when financing arrangements will be firmed up – will be made by July 2004.

Rugby has benefited from considerable funding through sportscotland since 1997 as noted in the tables below. However, it is not possible to identify funding over the specific categories requested as an award may cover various categories. Rugby has also benefited from the School Sports Co-ordinator Programme and will continue to benefit from the Active Schools Programme. Rugby is also a core sport in the Scottish Institute of Sport and the Area Institutes and will also have benefited from many of the multi-sport awards made under the Lottery Sports Fund. Sportscotland has also funded the post of Youth Development Manager for women’s rugby at £30,000 per year since 2000-01.

EventScotland is contributing £100,000 with sportscotland contributing £20,000 towards the hosting of the Under 21 rugby world cup in June of this year. Glasgow City Council, the City of Edinburgh Council and Scottish Borders Council have also contributed towards the costs of the tournament.

Funding for rugby from other public sources is not held centrally.

Table A: Lottery Sports Fund

Year	Capital		Sports Facilities		TAP		Junior Groups		Awards for All		Performance Coach
	No	£	No	£	No	£	No	£	No	£	No	£
1997-98	2	359,200			16	44,731
1998-99	2	42,726			28	41,790			4	9,618
1999-2000	1	121,300			29	79,936			2	2,494
2000-01			1	41,288			1	40,000	2	6,997	1	8,089
2001-02			1	80,000	33	74,250	1	40,000	5	15,292	1	9,999
2002-03			1	158,960	31	20,660	2	56,600	3	8,759
2003-04					30	10,000	2	70,000	8	18,636
Total	5	523,226	3	280,248	167	271,367	6	206,600	24	61,796	2	18,088

 

Table B: Development Grant aid to Governing Body

Year	Scottish Rugby Union	Scotland Rugby League
1997-98	702,000
1998-99	702,000
1999-2000	700,000
2000-01	700,000	15,000
2001-02	600,000	9,000
2002-03	550,000
2003-04	500,000
Total	4,454,000	24,000

No. The contract between NHSLothian and Consort Healthcare for the provision of facilities and services atthe Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh does not provide for penalty charges to be incurredby NHS Lothian. However, should there be a material failure to delivercontractual commitments, for example relating to services, or the availabilityof accommodation, thus restricting the treatment of patients, penalties wouldbe incurred by Consort Healthcare, under the agreed payment mechanism.

A number of elements of thepayment schedule are variable, depending on the number of patients seen andtreated, for example, the cost of patients’ meals.

Passenger terminals and publicbuildings at ferry ports are covered by Part III of the Disability DiscriminationAct (DDA). The DDA is a reserved matter. Part III of the act deals with access togoods, facilities and services and imposes specific duties on service providers.These duties have been introduced incrementally since 1996, with the remainder tocome into force by October 2004. Transport infrastructure, including ports, is alreadycovered by these provisions.

As the duty will be placed onthe harbour authority to comply with the law, any costs incurred in so doing shouldbe met by the harbour authority. Any claim of discrimination under part III of theDDA would ultimately be a matter for the courts.

The creation of thefacilities required at Rosyth to operate the direct ferry service from Scotland to mainland Europe dependedon a Scottish Executive funded Freight Facilities Grant (FFG) of over £10 million.This grant scheme is open to any company which requires additional facilities inorder to transfer freight from road to water or rail. As well as this capital grantscheme we are planning to introduce shortly a new Waterborne Freight Grant (WFG)scheme devised to contribute to any revenue short fall during the first three yearsof new shipping operations where freight is transferred from road to water. We arecurrently seeking EU state aid clearance for this grant scheme. Our budget for theFFG and WFG grant schemes for 2004-05 is £14.6 million.

Any companies seekingFFG or WFG support for projects that transfer freight from road to rail and sea,including the carriage of goods by sea to feed into the Rosyth-Zeebrugge ferry service,should approach the Scottish Executive to establish eligibility.

On 4 March 2003, the Executive announcedthe future availability of £375 million towards the completion of at least the northEdinburgh tramline and related public transport improvements in Edinburgh. Thatfunding is dependent on City of Edinburgh Council and Transport Initiatives Edinburghproducing a robust business case for the tram.

At the time of the announcementthe Scottish Executive had appropriate estimates of the capital and operatingcosts. Those cost estimates continue to be developed by Transport Initiatives Edinburghas part of the production of the business case. The latest estimates from TransportInitiatives Edinburgh continue to show fare box revenue exceeding operating costsby a significant margin.

The extent and future provisionof services currently made available to area tourist boards by organisations suchas local authorities will be reviewed quickly as part of the development of thenew tourism network. The overall aim is to maintain such support to tourism as oneof Scotland’s most important business sectors, and one which benefitsevery part of the country.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

Ministers have given a commitment to provide 18,000 new and improved homes for social rent and low cost home ownership in the three years up to 2006. Specific programme details for 2005-06 will be developed during the course of 2004-05.The following table shows the planned number of housing approvals in 2004-05 ineach local authority area split by general needs, special needs and low costhome ownership.

Table 1 – Housing Approvals by Category (2004-05)

Unitary Authority	Rent – General Needs No.	Rent – Special Needs No.	Low Cost Home Ownership No.
Aberdeenshire Council	75	35	48
Angus Council	20	49	0
Argyll and Bute Council	209	37	11
City of Aberdeen Council	20	20	38
City of Dundee Council	66	113	16
City of Edinburgh Council	310	94	0
Clackmannan Council	30	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway Council	62	23	32
East Ayrshire Council	14	2	16
East Dunbartonshire Council	100	18	0
East Lothian Council	73	0	7
East Renfrewshire Council	68	21	80
Falkirk Council	40	29	0
Fife Council	113	53	0
Glasgow Council	1,075	172	172
Highland Council	148	16	108
Inverclyde Council	98	24	100
Midlothian Council	38	0	0
Moray Council	58	45	10
North Ayrshire Council	50	13	21
North Lanarkshire Council	151	73	40
Orkney Islands Council	4	0	29
Perthshire and Kinross Council	60	40	41
Renfrewshire Council	76	162	0
Shetland Islands Council	4	0	4
South Ayrshire Council	31	8	24
South Lanarkshire Council	212	0	35
Stirling Council	34	0	0
The Scottish Borders Council	35	15	4
West Dunbartonshire Council	44	20	36
West Lothian Council	24	10	0
Western Isles Council	35	6	3