Chamber and committees

It is not possible to separate in the Scottish Executive’s accounting system all of the First Minister’s costs from the First Minister’s staff costs but the First Minister’s Office costs as a whole are detailed in the following table –

	1999-2000 £	2000-01 £	2001-02 £	2002-03 £	2003-04 £
Accommodation1	0	0	0	0	0
Travel	36,971	45,371	36,684	45,836	44,305
Transport2	220	235	0	0	360
Stationery	13,905	11,212	6,887	9,331	9,123
Hospitality3	2,362	614	1,203	1,444	1,132
Total	53,458	57,432	44,774	56,611	54,920

Notes:

1. Accommodation costs are managed centrally and not allocated against ministers’ offices.

2. Excludes cost of Government Car Service for First Minister as costs are not broken down by individual minister.

3. Includes teas, coffees, working lunches etc but excludes functions hosted by the First Minister.

In 2005, courts throughout Scotland will continue to have access to a range of community based penalties which contain an element of community reparation. These include both Community Service Orders and Probation Orders - where the court has imposed an additional condition of unpaid work in the community. Supervised Attendance Orders, which are a penalty for fine default, can also include a requirement to carry out unpaid work within the community.

 In addition, from spring of this year both District and Sheriff Courts in the Dundee, Inverness and Greenock areas will have access to a new Community Reparation Order, provided for within the Anti-Social Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004, as part of a two year Scottish Executive funded pilot scheme.

Statistics on the effectiveness of safety cameras in reducing casualties are reported in the independent Three-year Evaluation of the UK Safety Camera Programme. These relate only to safety camera partnerships that have been operational within the Programme for a full year to March 2003. It shows that the UK Safety Camera Programme had achieved the following at camera sites: 

Category	Reduction (Absolute Numbers)	Reduction (Percentage)
All killed and seriously injured casualties (KSIs)	870	39.9%
All Personal Injury Collisions (PICs)	4,030	32.6%
Pedestrian KSIs	131	35%
Pedestrian PICs	329	23%

Note: Figures are for April 2000 – March 2003 and for 24 UK safety camera partnerships that had been operating for at least one year.

The level of claims made in cash terms in each year from 1999 is as follows:

Financial Year	Level of Claims (£000)
1999-2000	136
2000-01	93
2001-02	763
2002-03	321
2003-04	360

 

The Scottish Executive does not have a single, specific definition of “computer system”. The current legislation which deals with indecent pictures of children is section 52 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982. This covers pictures “produced by computer graphics or otherwise howsoever”. It also covers “data stored on a computer disc or by other electronic means” that is capable of being converted into a picture. The provisions of the 1982 act are wide enough to cover what is included within the definition of “computersystem” in the Framework Decision.

The Scottish Executive does not use a single, specific definition of “computersystem” in the drafting of legislation. Where the term “computer” is used, the definition will normally depend on the context and the circumstances.

The resource budgets are set out in the Consolidated Resource Accounts for each of the years 2000-01 to 2003-04 and are available on the Scottish Executive website. The resource budgets for departments in 2004-05 are set out in the 2004-05 Autumn Budget Revision Supporting Document and for 2005-06 in the Budget Bill Supporting Document for the year ending 31 March 2006. The resource budgets for each Ministerial Portfolio up to 2007-08 are set out in the Draft Budget 2005-06.

For the staffing levels of each department in the years 2000 to 2004 I refer the member to the question S2W-12292 answered on 6 December 2004. 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. The staffing levels for permanent and fixed-term temporary staff at January 2005 are as follows:

	All Staff
Total	4,517.7
Centrally Managed Staff	88.1
Development Department	317.9
Education Department	317.5
Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department	550.2
Environment and Rural Affairs Department	1,127.5
Finance and Central Services Department	466.1
Health Department	381.2
Justice Department	257.9
Legal and Parliamentary Services	185.9
Office of the Permanent Secretary	825.4

 

Staffing levels for future years up to 2007 have yet to be determined.

The 2000-01 to 2003-04 administration costs of each of the Scottish Executive’s core departments are set out in the table below. Restructuring of departments in the Scottish Executive over the period affects some of the year on year comparisons. The 2004-05 administration budgets for each core department are set out in the 2004-05 Autumn Budget Revision Supporting Document. The 2005-06 and 2006-07 budgets will be considered in the light of departmental commitments and priorities.

Department	2000-01 (£000)	2001-02 (£000)	2002-03 (£000)	2003-04 (£000)
Development	17,051	16,513	17,068	12,326
Education1	15,897	9,670	10,755	11,604
Enterprise and Lifelong Learning	9,800	11,039	11,401	20,008
Environment and Rural Affairs	28,769	31,481	33,200	34,912
Finance and Central Services	16,356	24,195	23,069	24,495
Health	11,928	13,029	14,188	15,341
Justice	16,294	15,372	9,083	10,450
Corporate Services (including OPS and LPS)2	47,345	51,410	61,737	58,537
	116,095	121,299	118,764	129,136

Notes:

1. 2000-01 outturn includes spend on HM Inspector Schools which became an Agency with effect from 1 April 2001.

2. OPS is Office of the Permanent Secretary; LPS is Legal and Parliamentary Services.

No significant refurbishment work has been carried out in any private ministerial offices on the Scottish Executive estate in the last four years.

A full reply to Mr Salmond’s letter of 18 November was sent on 19 January 2005.The reply was delayed so that it could reflect the outcome of further consideration of the implementation of the 2003 Act on which final announcements were made on 22 December 2004.

The size and make-up of the staffing of the Scottish Executive is mainly determined by the elected party’s programme for government. Development of the programme is usually based on decisions taken by ministers during the normal four year cycle of the Parliament. There are no indications yet of the policies that will be required to benefit the people of Scotland in 2014-15.