Chamber and committees

The Public Transport Fund has been increased to enable councils to develop public transport initiatives.

None. The councils have declined our invitations to broaden the A8 and A80 study to cover this corridor.

I have only received this report in the last week. I can assure Mr Harper that I will be studying it carefully.From a preliminary read it is clear that the report raises issues which go considerably beyond the competence of this Parliament. But I agree we need to take careful note of the report's contents and ensure that they are fed into our policy considerations for the marine environment.

The Scottish Executive does not hold information on the cost of the bus infrastructure part of the CERT scheme which is the responsibility of the City of Edinburgh Council as the local roads authority. Capital allocations of £15 million have been made available from the Transport Challenge Fund and the council is also seeking private finance for the project which is estimated to cost £49 million.

The CERT guided busway is about nine kilometres in length.

Twenty-six bids have been made to the third round of the Public Transport Fund for projects commencing in 2001-02. The projects are listed in the table below.

The size and nature of the projects varies markedly. Some of the relatively small projects have not provided a detailed analysis of all the elements needed to estimate the Net Present Value (NPV) of the project. The economic appraisal (and hence the NPV) is only one of the criteria the Executive takes into account when assessing bids to the Public Transport Fund. The assessment considers each bid against the Government's five criteria of economy, integration, safety, accessibility and the environmental impacts.

Authority	Project
Aberdeenshire	Enhanced Rail Services between Inverurie - Aberdeen - Stonehaven
Argyll and Bute	Cycleways - Helensburgh and Lomond
Clackmannanshire	Integrating Rail into Alloa
Dumfries & Galloway	Stranraer Integrated Transport Package
Dundee City	North West Arterial Corridor
East Ayrshire	Cycling and Walking Facilities in Kilmarnock
East Dunbartonshire	Creation of a Local Travel Pattern Database
East Lothian	Musselburgh Public Transport Spine
East Renfrewshire	Cycling and Walking Facilities in East Renfrewshire
Edinburgh City	A Quality Bus Network for the 21st Century
Eilean Siar	Sound of Barra Ferry Service
Falkirk	Camelon Park and Ride and Visitor Access to the Falkirk Wheel
Fife	Markinch Railway Station Improvement and Dedicated Bus Link Between Leven and Glenrothes via Markinch
Glasgow City	Quality Bus Corridors
Highland	Inverness & Aviemore Transport Interchanges
Inverclyde	Gourock Integrated Transport Interchange
Midlothian	Edinburgh to Penicuik Rail Link
North Ayrshire	Quality Bus Corridor
Orkney Islands	Instrument Landing System at Orkney Airport
Perth & Kinross	Perth Transport Plan Commuter Cycle Routes, Phase 1 and Broxden Park and Ride
Renfrewshire	Integrated Package of sustainable transport improvements to improve access to Inchinnan Business Park and Glasgow Airport
Scottish Borders	Waverley Railway Procurement of Parliamentary Order
South Ayrshire	South Ayrshire Integrated Transport Partnership
South Lanarkshire	Rutherglen Town Centre Genuine Travel Choices
Strathclyde Passenger Transport	Multi-Modal Information
West Lothian	Extension of the City of Edinburgh Rapid Transit (CERT) into West Lothian

The information requested is not held centrally.

The Scottish Executive granted consent for the application to plant a crop of genetically modified winter-grown oilseed rape at the Daviot site based on the advice of the statutory Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE) that the crop did not pose a threat to public health or environmental safety. It is normal practice for ACRE's advice to be published.

It is recognised that there will be pollen dispersal from a crop which is grown in the open and this is why the environmental risk assessment to which all applications are subjected considers carefully the safety implications of cross-pollination and the impact of foraging insects. ACRE have concluded that there are no safety issues from cross-pollination - to either human or animal health, or to the environment.

The universal fortification with folic acid of all wheat flour, and, therefore, all food products containing flour, including bread, as a measure to prevent neural tube birth defects, is currently the subject of a joint consultation by the UK Health Departments and the Food Standards Agency. The consultation implements the commitment given by the Health Departments earlier this year to seek views, widely, on the conclusions of the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food and Nutrition Policy (COMA) on folic acid fortification matters as set out in their Report published in January 2000.

The outcome of the three month period of consultation, which ends on 31 October, will inform Ministers' decisions which are expected to be announced in January 2001.

Information on the environmental benefits of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) powered vehicles is given on page 57 of Alternative Fuels - An Assessment of the Emissions Performance of Alternative and Conventional Fuels published by the Cleaner Vehicles Task Force in January 2000, a copy of which is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib number 7656). This demonstrates that LPG vehicles will offer most benefits to air quality when they are used in urban areas. However, the climate change benefits that LPG vehicles bring, through reduced carbon dioxide emissions, are the same in rural areas as they are in urban areas.

The Executive takes a variety of measures in urban areas designed to improve air quality and contribute to climate change objectives. For example, the Public Transport Fund is assisting local authorities to provide alternative choices to car use and tackle problems of congestion. Of the £58 million allocated so far from the first two rounds, over £35 million has been allocated for projects in the 4 major Scottish cities.

The effectiveness of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) as the regulator and enforcement body for pollution control in Scotland is kept under continual review in the light of current and new duties arising from domestic and European legislation. Procedures within SEPA are primarily operational matters, responsibility for which rests with SEPA itself rather than the Scottish Executive.

Audit Scotland is currently carrying out a value for money study of SEPA's main regulatory functions. A report is expected to be available to the Parliament's Audit Committee this autumn.

SEPA's Chief Executive has been, and will be, fully consulted about these developments.