- Asked by: Derek Brownlee, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 29 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what roads will be allocated funding from the spending on roads shown on page 52 of Scottish Budget: Spending Review 2007 and what the total allocation is for each road where an allocation decision has been taken.
Answer
Section 2 of the Scottish Budget commits to delivering a motorway and trunk road network that supportsthe economy and the people of Scotland by enabling safe and reliable journeys (£932.6million/£1,063.7 million/£1,181.4 million). Further elaboration is provided in section3, page 90 which confirms this spend is across all trunk roads in Scotland andis spent in line with our published programme of road improvements and ourneeds based maintenance priorities.
- Asked by: Derek Brownlee, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 29 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what the eligibility criteria will be for applications for the (a) Saltire and (b) Horizon prizes outlined on page 53 of Scottish Budget: Spending Review 2007.
Answer
Full details willbe announced to Parliament in due course.
- Asked by: Derek Brownlee, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 29 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of the spending on roads shown on page 52 of Scottish Budget: Spending Review 2007 will be on (a) construction of new roads, (b) improvements to existing roads and (c) maintenance of existing roads, broken down by year.
Answer
Section 2 of the ScottishBudget commits to delivering a motorway and trunk road network that supports theeconomy and the people of Scotland by enabling safe and reliable journeys (£932.6million/£1,063.7 million/£1,181.4 million). Section 3, page 90 provides a more detailedanalysis of spending plans for motorways and trunk roads for the period 2008-11.
- Asked by: Derek Brownlee, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 29 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether provision has been made in the spending review for construction of a replacement Forth crossing, beyond the sums shown on page 52 of Scottish Budget: Spending Review 2007.
Answer
This settlementprovides the additional resources required to take forward the design andpreparation (e.g. environmental impact assessment, ground investigation,environmental, topographical and traffic surveys) for the replacement ForthCrossing.
- Asked by: Derek Brownlee, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 29 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what savings will be released as a result of the restructuring of the enterprise network for each year covered in Scottish Budget: Spending Review 2007, broken down into those savings arising to (a) Scottish Enterprise and (b) Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
Answer
There will be savingsachieved through more coherent and focused activity but it is not yet possible toquantify these.
- Asked by: Derek Brownlee, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 29 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what amount of the proposed (a) Scottish Enterprise and (b) Highlands and Islands Enterprise budget shown on page 52 of Scottish Budget: Spending Review 2007 will be spent on the restructuring of the enterprise network broken down by year.
Answer
There will be somecosts associated with the implementation of the reforms. The amount of those costshas not yet been determined but every effort will be made to minimise them.
- Asked by: Derek Brownlee, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 29 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how much in cash releasing savings will be required in each directorate to achieve the efficiency target stated in Scottish Budget: Spending Review 2007.
Answer
Efficiency is coreto the delivery of our ambitious programme for the public service in Scotland and the Scottish Government expects all of the publicsector to play its part. Targets are being set at portfolio level, and each portfoliowill produce Efficiency Delivery Plans setting out how it will deliver its efficiencies.The plans will be published by the end of March 2008 and will be made availableon the internet.
- Asked by: Derek Brownlee, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 27 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what prison capacity will be in each year from 2007-08 to 2010-11 based on the spending plans in Scottish Budget: Spending Review 2007.
Answer
I have asked MikeEwart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:
Following the openingof replacement accommodation at HM Prison Perth in October 2007, the design capacity of the estate is approximately 6,400.HM Prison Addiewell is due to open in December 2008, providing 700 places, and newhouse blocks will open at HM Prison Edinburgh (early 2009) and HM Young OffendersInstitution Polmont (late 2009) providing a further 250 places. When this additionalaccommodation comes on stream, subject to prisoner numbers at the time, it willbe used to reduce the levels of cell-sharing across the estate and to allow unfitaccommodation to be decommissioned or replaced.
Work is also underwayto deliver a new 700 place prison at Bishopbriggs. Following the termination of the competition to design, build, operate and finance the new prison on 24 August 2007, SPS is now preparing for a new competition to designand build a prison for public sector operation and management as instructed by theCabinet Secretary for Justice on 22 August 2007. We expectto commence this procurement process around the turn of this calendar year and toaward a construction contract around the end of 2008, with a view to HM Prison Bishopbriggsopening during 2011.
The Cabinet Secretaryfor Justice also announced in August 2007 that HM Prison Aberdeen and HM Prison Peterhead (both considered to be unfitfor purpose) would be replaced with a new prison in the Peterhead area (HM PrisonGrampian). SPS is now taking forward this development, and will be using the privatesector to construct the prison and public sector staff to operate and manage thefacility. No firm date has yet been set for the opening of HM Prison Grampian –further work is required, including site identification, securing planning permissionand development of a specification. It is therefore likely to open after HMPrison Bishopbriggs.
- Asked by: Derek Brownlee, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 27 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what spending will be included in Strategic Research and Analysis as shown on page 81 of Scottish Budget: Spending Review 2007.
Answer
This budget providesa central fund to support strategic long-term investment in the evidence base incross-cutting policy areas across all the portfolios. Work for the Strategic SpendingReview and, more recently, development of high-level outcomes for the Purpose andfive Strategic Objectives has revealed gaps in the evidence base particularly aroundthe evaluation of longer-term policy impacts. Directorate research budgets focusmainly on short-term sectoral needs. A central fund will support the developmentof performance analysis and high-level policy evaluation designed to assess ourperformance in achieving the Purpose and Strategic Objectives.
- Asked by: Derek Brownlee, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 27 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how much of the £12.8 million, £21 million and £29.2 million shown on page 61 of Scottish Budget: Spending Review 2007 for capital investment in the prison estate relates to each prison on which expenditure will be incurred, broken down by year.
Answer
I have asked MikeEwart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:
These figures referto the overall increase in the SPS Draft Budget for capital expenditure in comparisonwith the Budget for 2007-08. Over the next three years, the SPS will be investingan average of some £120 million per annum in replacing and modernising prison capacityacross the estate. Details of the planned investments are provided in the responseto question S3W-6454 on 27 November 2007. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
