Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-15798 on 9 May 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

“The SPS’s Estate Development Programme will in the next five years give priority to the elimination of the practice of slopping-out by replacing out-of-date prisoner accommodation with modern facilities. SPS is seeking to provide completely redeveloped prisons at HMP Edinburgh, HMP Glenochil, HMP Perth and HMYOI Polmont during this period. Some upgrading of visitor, staff and administrative facilities will be incorporated in this programme. Separate costings for these facilities are not available at this stage of the process.”

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond.  His response is as follows:

“During the last five years, the SPS’s Estate Development Programme included a new health centre and staff facility at HMP Shotts (combined project value of £1.5m), a visits upgrade at HMP Edinburgh (project value of £1.5m), staff facility at HMP Glenochil (project value of £0.7m) and some improvements to staff and administrative facilities at HMP Aberdeen and HMP Greenock as part of wider prison developments (combined project values of £0.7m and £1.6m respectively).”

The following table gives, for each council tax band, the estimated percentage of households in each household income band. For example, an estimated 25% of households occupying a Band A dwelling have a gross household income of £150 or less per week, excluding any Council Tax Benefit income. These figures are based upon survey data from 2002-03 and 2003-04.

The Council Tax Band occupied by a household, however, does not equate directly to the Council Tax bill. Many households with low incomes will qualify for Council Tax Benefit, and will therefore pay little or no council tax from their gross income.

	Gross household income excluding Council Tax Benefit (£ per week)
Council Tax Band	Up to 150	150 to 300	300 to 450	450 to 600	600 to 750	Over 750	TOTAL
Band A	25	40	16	9	5	5	100
Band B	15	34	19	14	10	9	100
Band C	10	26	20	18	11	15	100
Band D	7	20	17	17	14	24	100
Band E	5	13	15	15	14	38	100
Band F	15		12	11	11	51	100
Band G & H	11		14		9	66	100

Note: The percentage of households in each cell has been estimated using data from the Family Resources Survey aggregated over two years. Where the sample size is insufficient to allow confident estimation, cells have been merged. The incomefigures reported are gross household income from all sources less any income received as Council Tax Benefit. Percentages are reported to the nearest whole number and may not sum to 100% due to rounding.

Identified allocations of funding to be made by the Scottish Executive to Argyll and Bute Council in financial year 2005-06 are shown in the table below. In addition, the Executive provides a range of other grants to local authorities, some of which are substantial, but for which information is either not held centrally on the breakdown by local authority area (for example grant made to the Strathclyde Joint Police Board) or where at this stage in the financial year the breakdown of funding by local authority area is not yet known (such as grants under the European Regional Development Fund).

 

Category	Amount allocated
Support for core services through Aggregate External Finance	£167,159,000
Supported new in-year capital borrowing	£11,137,000
School Travel Co-ordinators	£17,000
20mph Speedzones and homezones	£211,000
Cycling, walking and safer streets	£156,000
Rural Public Passenger Transport Grant	£489,000
Contaminated Land Grant	£72,000
Anti-social Behaviour	£204,700
Housing Support Grant	£135,000
Strategic Waste Fund	£1,851,000
Community Regeneration Fund	£986,000
Community Voices Programme	£60,000
Bus Route Development Grant	£328,000
Determined to Succeed	£200,590
Incentive Scheme	£6,000
Private Sector Housing Grant	£15,000
Homelessness Task Force	£376,700
Furniture Grant	£57,534
Implementation of Youth Justice Measures in ASB strategy	£161,000
Workforce Development Fund	£112,122
Children’s Hearings (legal representation)	£2,500
Support for Care Leavers	£58,270
Additional Funding for Foster Care	£43,700
Public Transport Fund	£1,595,000
Flood Prevention and Coast Protection	£123,000
Schools Fund	£1,943,000
Supporting People	£13,782,000
Child Protection	£20,000
Warm Deal	£16,000*
Educational Maintenance Allowance	£250,000*
Piers and Harbours	£3,724,000*
Total	£201,302,116

 

Note: Figures marked with an asterisk are estimates. Actual expenditure will depend on the uptake of grants during the year, some of which are demand-led.

The data in the table set out in the answer to S1W-24402 by Lewis Macdonald on 26 April 2002 were taken from the nine regional leaflets which were issued to accompany the publication of Scotland’s Transport: Delivering Improvements.

The City of Glasgow area appeared in both the West of Scotland 2 and Westof Scotland 3 leaflets, and therefore figured in two rows of the written answer’s table. Glasgow was, however, counted only once in the all-Scotland totals, making the sum of the individual columns greater than the Scotland totals.

I attach a revised table which makes this clearer.

Region	Population	Total Cost (£million)	Cost Per Capita (£)	Schemes
Highlands and Islands	325,890	71.029	217.95	193
North East Scotland	525,300	39.622	75.43	75
Northern Isles	42,340	16.741	395.39	69
South East Scotland 1	884,900	145.238	164.13	66
South East Scotland 2	277,600	39.541	142.44	31
Tay	737,500	71.303	96.68	105
West of Scotland 1	521,400	73.358	140.69	99
West of Scotland 2 (excluding Glasgow)	533,610	49.752	93.20	14
West of Scotland 3 (excluding Glasgow)	659,220	46.352	70.30	37
Glasgow	611,440	112.279	183.60	20
Scotland	5,119,200	665.215	129.95	709

The number of secure units which are or have been operational in Scotland since 1996 are noted below:

 

Local Authority Area	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Angus Council*	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
City of Edinburgh	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
East Dunbartonshire**	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
North Ayrshire***	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Dumfries & Galloway****	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Fife****	1	1	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
City of Dundee	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	1	1
Total	7	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6

 

*           Rossie School, near Montrose is operated by an independent organisation

 

**         St Mary’s Kenmure, Bishopbriggs, is operated by an independent organisation

 

***        Kerelaw School, Stevenston, is operated by Glasgow City Council

 

****      Secure Accommodation facilities in Fife & Dumfries & Galloway are no longer operational

A complete list of all the respondents to the Strategic Priorities for Scotland’s Passenger Railway consultation, published December 2000, is in the Scottish Executive Library and available on-line at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library3/transport/spspr-19.asp

I can confirm that the information provided in my reply to question S2W – 14046 was inaccurate. This inaccuracy arose when the information provided to me was formatted and I apologise for that error. A corrected version of the table has been placed in the Parliament’s reference centre (Bib number 36401).

I can confirm that the information provided in my reply to question S2W – 14048 was inaccurate. This inaccuracy arose when the information provided to me was formatted and I apologise for that error. A corrected version of the table has been placed in Parliament’s reference Centre (Bib no. 36401).