Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executive contributed to the development of the United Kingdom Government's response to the European Commission White Paper on Environmental Liability. This was published on the Scottish Executive website on 24 August 2000, and is available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library3/environment/UKresponse.aspThe UK response fully supported the concept of environmental liability, and the need to ensure that those who cause damage to the environment should be made to pay for putting it right.

Sarah Boyack wrote to you on 14 August 2000 confirming that the low level and lateness of returns, together with a number of other difficulties, made it impossible to publish any meaningful conclusions and that the 1997 survey was therefore being abandoned. The Executive is currently considering how work towards future surveys can be progressed.

No. The arrangements for holding a public inquiry into the application for scheduled monument consent have been postponed at the request of the applicants to await the outcome of the Executive's appeal of the County Properties judgement which is being heard by the Inner House of the Court of Session. It is not yet possible to give an indication as to when the inquiry may take place.

Section 43 of the recently published Housing (Scotland) Bill will extend the powers available to local authorities to provide cash grants to tenants. Specifically, this section, as currently drafted, will allow local authorities to prepare a scheme for designated pressured areas which would allow for grants to be paid both to its own tenants and to tenants of registered social landlords living within a designated area if they chose to do so. The Bill also gives Scottish Ministers powers to issue guidance on the form and content of these schemes and this will be prepared in due course and contain advice on eligibility criteria and the determination of grant payments.As far as the funding mechanism is concerned, it is intended that grants to tenants under these schemes in designated pressured areas will be paid by local authorities from resources made available for housing by Scottish Ministers.

All major strengthening operations have been completed and the remaining minor works such as landscaping and site clearance are programmed for completion by April.Revised traffic management arrangements are in hand, including re-opening the traffic lanes that are currently closed, and implementation is expected by the end of February.

I did not consider it appropriate to publish the figures as these were interim reports. I am currently considering the statutory reports received from local authorities towards the end of last year.

The European Commission has yet to develop a definition of the public interest groups who may be granted rights to act under the White Paper on Environmental Liability. Progress on this may be affected by the proposed reorganisation of the Environment Directorate General in the Commission. We may comment once details emerge.

Of these nine applications for Freight Facilities Grant, six have now been funded up to the level justified by economic and financial appraisal as necessary in order to tip the balance of costs in favour of rail or inland waterway. The other three applications remain under review.

I expect a draft of the Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance to be issued in early March 2001 to a wide range of interested bodies. A copy will be placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre. The first major application of the guidance will be in the Central Scotland Transport Corridor Studies later this year. I will also be encouraging local authorities and the Strathclyde Passenger Executive to use the draft guidance to appraise their transport projects. The draft will be updated as necessary in the light of these experiences and the comments received in the consultation. The final version will issue around the end of this year.

Since 3 February 2000, the Scottish Executive have received a further five applications for Freight Facilities Grant. Of these applications one has recently been awarded (£693,000) and four are under review.