Chamber and committees

No.

On 3 December 2007 theChief Planner took a call from Mr Salmond in his capacity as constituency MSP. MrSalmond sought advice from the Chief Planner on whether it would still be permissiblefor the officials of the Scottish Government Planning Directorate to meet representativesof the Trump Organization. A request was then made by the Trump Organization representatives.The Chief Planner arranged the time and venue.

As a result of the unusual amountof public interest in the First Minister’s travel to this meeting, the PermanentSecretary has personally considered what use was made of the Government Car Serviceon this occasion. He has noted that it is commonplace for civil servants, includingspecial advisors, to travel with ministers in government cars, in order to assistministers to use time spent travelling to progress government business, and thatit is also common for the minister’s government car to convey such civil servantsto their destination, where it is different from the minister’s destination. Heis satisfied that the use made of the Government Car Service in this case was consistentwith such general practice and was both appropriate and pragmatic.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-7664 on 20 December 2007. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for whichcan be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

I refer the memberto the letter sent on 31 October 2007 by the Accountable Officerto the Convenor of the Audit Committee. A copy of this letter can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/audit/papers-07/aup07-06.pdf.

Recycling servicescurrently funded by the Strategic Waste Fund will in future be supported throughthe local government settlement. We expect that around £100 million over the nextthree years in the centrally-held Zero Waste Budget will be used to develop infrastructurerequired to meet future waste targets.

Each case is consideredon its merits and penalties are not automatic. Regulation 19 of the Landfill AllowancesScheme (Scotland) Regulations 2005 lay down the penalties thatcan be levied if an authority exceeds its allowance. These penalties are £10 a tonnein 2005-06; £25 a tonne in 2006-07; £50 a tonne in 2007-08, and £150 a tonne insubsequent years. In addition, if the United Kingdom shouldfail to meet Landfill Directive targets in 2010, 2013 and 2020, the regulationsmake provision for supplementary penalties for those authorities exceeding theirallowances.

Under the concordatagreed between the Scottish ministers and the Convention of Scottish LocalAuthorities, the ring-fence around the Strategic Waste Fund will be removedfrom 1 April 2008, with the funding being absorbed into the main localgovernment settlement.

The ScottishGovernment will be providing local government in Scotland with record levels of funding over the period covered by the spendingreview 2008-11. The vast majority of the funding, including the funding to helpimplement the National Waste Plan, will be provided by means of a block grant.It is the responsibility of each local authority to allocate the totalfinancial resources available to it on the basis of local needs and prioritieshaving first fulfilled its statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set ofnational and local priorities including the Scottish Government’s key strategicobjectives and manifesto commitments.

The concordat betweenthe Scottish Government and local government outlines that as part of the overallpackage each local authority would aim to reach a Single Outcome Agreement withthe Scottish Government at the earliest opportunity. National Indicator 39 in theconcordat relates to reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill. This is in linewith the EU Landfill Directive target for 2010 on reducing the amount of biodegradablemunicipal waste sent to landfill.

We estimate thataround £50 million over three years will be spent on waste delivery bodies.These resources will be spent on household and commercial waste prevention;developing markets for recycled materials; public education and awareness onwaste and litter, including support for Keep Scotland Beautiful; the communityrecycling sector; advice to local authorities, and waste infrastructure. We areconsidering carefully with local authorities and others how best to spend theremaining waste resources (around £100 million over the three years) in thezero waste budget, but our aim is to support the further development ofinfrastructure that will be required to meet future waste targets.