Chamber and committees

The guidance note itself isnot dated but the European Commission’s covering letter is dated 21 November 2002. Memberstates would have received this guidance shortly after that.

The Scottish Executive is committedto securing a more dynamic economy and recognises that public expenditure impactsboth directly and indirectly on economic performance, including positive effectson the labour market. Employment in Scotland has increased by nearly 220,000 since 1997.

Information on the directcontribution of public funds to job creation is available through the RegionalSelective Assistance (RSA) scheme. The RSA is the Scottish Executive’s mainnational scheme of financial assistance to industry, helping create andsafeguard jobs and encourage investment in the Assisted Areas (AAs) of Scotland.

The table below providesdetails of the number of planned jobs (created and safeguarded) where thecontribution per job is in the categories requested.

Calendar Year	No. of Planned Jobs
	Up to £10k per job		£10k-£100k per job		£100k-£500k per job	£500k-£1m per job	£1m-£2m per job	Over £2m per job
1997	7,564	3,320	6,893	871	0	0	0	0
1998	7,672	3,141	2,743	153	0	0	0	0
1999	6,999	2,806	2,869	1,087	0	0	0	0
2000	8,140	5,024	3,022	941	0	0	0	0
2001	4,134	1,221	1,163	77	0	0	0	0
2002	3,733	2,539	788	1,525	0	0	0	0
2003	2,568	3,036	714	399	0	0	0	0
2004	5,369	1,677	802	1,264	0	0	0	0
2005	6,094	1,605	897	612	0	0	0	0

 

Information on the proportionof the population living in a rural area, for local authority area and parliamentaryconstituency, is available in tables 1 and 5 in the Scottish Executive UrbanRural Classification 2004-2006 publication. This is available from the ScottishExecutive website through the following link http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/07/31114822/5.

No definition of “rural” hasbeen fixed for the 2007-13 Structural Funds programmes. Under the proposed Priority3 of the Lowlands and Uplands Scotland European Regional Development FundProgramme, which focuses on rural development, there will need to be spatial targetingof the funding on the rural areas of the region. One of the questions posed in thecurrent consultation on this programme is how such areas should be defined. Afterthe consultation closes – on 8 January – the Executive will consider the responsesand publish a definition of rural areas before the end of February 2007 throughits Structural Funds website (www.scotland.gov.uk/structuralfunds).

The breakdown of Scottish Executivespend by supplier on media trainers since 1999 is:

Paddy Christie	Christina McIntyre Media
1999: £4,650	1999: £1,560
2000: £2,500	2000: £1,040
2001: £3,200	2001: £2,080
2002: £8,775	2002: £1,045
2003: £825	2003: £1,695
2004: £1,975	2004: £1,300
2005: £3,450	2005: No spend
2006: £1,000	2006: £650

 

The Scottish Executive does nothold this information centrally and therefore could only provide this informationat disproportionate cost.

The decisions relating to theproposed Intermediate Delivery Bodies (IDBs) for the delivery of future StructuralFunds in Lowlands and Uplands Scotland were settled collectively. The Executiveoperates on the basis of collective responsibility, which ensures that issues thatare of interest to more than one department are properly discussed and that theviews of ministers are considered.

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

I am content that allgovernors and deputy governors in post are competent to carry out their duties.

The following table gives estimatesof numbers of first-time buyers in Scotland in each year and the number of sales to first-time buyersas a percentage of all mortgage completions. Sales with a mortgage account for around80% of all sales of residential properties.

	Number of Sales to First-Time Buyers	Sale to First-Time Buyers as % of All Mortgage Completions
1996	33,300	50
1997	35,400	50
1998	35,500	53
1999	38,100	50
2000	41,200	49
2001	47,500	41
2002	49,900	34
2003	38,700	27
2004	31,500	22
2005	34,500	32

Source: Regulated Mortgage Surveyof the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

I refer the member to thequestion S2W-30071 answered on 7 December 2006. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament's website the search facility forwhich can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.