Chamber and committees

There are several initiatives in place that aim to reduce the rate of inflation in the NHS. These primarily focus on the areas that consume a high percentage of the budget, i.e. pay, procurement and prescribing.

NHS pay is determined at the UK level by independent pay review bodies. The Scottish Government feed into this process. Part of the evaluation of the pay review bodies is to consider the current state of the economy including growth, the labour market and inflation. In the procurement of services, national contracts are negotiated to ensure value for money.

There are also initiatives in place to control the prices which the NHS is paying for both generic and proprietary drugs and to ensure remuneration arrangements for independent Primary Care contractors for 2010-11 are reasonable in current economic circumstances.

NHS boards are also required to operate within their agreed revenue resource limit; operate within their capital resource limit; meet their cash requirement, and meet their cash efficiency target hence controlling the rate of expenditure within the NHS overall.

The Solway Shellfish Management Association (SSMA) is a private company limited by guarantee (Reg No. SC211971). The company is exempt under section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 from providing audited accounts. However, the SSMA have confirmed their income and expenditure as follows:

Period	Income	Expenditure
1 November 2005 to 30  April 2007	£374,912	£264,779
Year ending 30 April 2008	£112,652	£168,157
Year ending 30 April 2009	£70,000	£107,436

 

The final accounts for the period to 30 April 2010 are not yet available. Information on the company can be obtained from Companies House or from the Company Secretary, Juliette Cooke at Solway Shellfish Management Association, Campbell House, The Crichton, Bankhead Road, Dumfries, DG1 4ZB.

Scottish Planning Policy (SPP) which was published on 4 February 2010 sets out the Scottish Government''s planning policies on renewable energy. The SPP is a consideration which can be taken into account in decisions on planning matters.

Paragraph 133 of the SPP states that the disturbance of some soils, particularly peat, may lead to the release of stored carbon, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. Where peat and other carbon rich soils are present, applicants should assess the likely effects associated with any development work.

The SPP, at paragraph 185, also states that planning authorities should ensure that the development plan or supplementary guidance clearly explain the factors that will be taken into account in decision making on all renewable energy generation developments.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has set out a strategy for protecting and conserving Scotland''s important soils to reduce impacts of climate change through carbon leakage. This strategy is set out in the SNH board paper SNH/10/1/2 (23 February 2010) which is available on the SNH website at:

http://www.snh.org.uk/data/boards_and_committees/main_board_papers/2010-Feb23/SoilCarbon.pdf.

The Scottish Government will receive the following Barnett DEL consequentials following the UK Budget announcement on 24 March 2010:-

UK Programme DEL	2010-11 Resource (£000)	2010-11 Capital (£000)	2010-11 Total (£000)
Higher and Further Education	30,954		30,954
Roads investment	8,442		8,442
Regional Transport Schemes		17,085	17,085
Rates Relief	19,598		19,598
Total DEL	58,994	17,085	76,079

 

In addition there is a further £6.2 million of consequentials in AME in respect of additional student loans but this will ultimately depend on the take up of such loans in Scotland and should be viewed as a notional figure at this stage.

The application of the £76 million DEL consequentials in Scotland will be determined by Scottish ministers and announced in due course.

This information is not held centrally.

Each renewable energy producer will be able to benefit from a discount on their business rate bill of up to 200,000 Euros over a rolling three year period. This is the maximum that can be awarded under State aid de minimis.

Micro-generation and offshore energy generation are already exempted from payment of business rates and the new renewable energy producers relief will, from 1 April 2010, remove or reduce the rates burden for onshore developments.

Details of the number of renewable energy producers in each band who benefit from the new relief and the corresponding amount of business rate revenue forgone will be available at the end of 2010-11, the first full year of the scheme.

The managing agent contract sets performance requirements that influence the longevity of the system: replacement parts must be available for 10 years; each installation under the contract must offer a 12 month warranty, and the installation must be serviced at the end of the warranty period. The managing agent advises the customer at this time of the need for regular servicing and provides a list of local accredited service engineers as well as details of its own care plans. Once the warranty has expired, there is no contractual liability that can be enforced by Scottish Government. However, the current managing agent, Scottish Gas, advises customers to contact them in the first instance if there is a breakdown, even when the warranty has expired.

The selection of heating system products and the quality of installations is a matter for the managing agent. The Scottish Government also employs an independent Monitoring and inspection agent that surveys a sample of installations throughout the year and works with the managing agent to continuously improve the quality of installations.

There is no requirement on customers to report breakdowns, either to the managing agent or to Scottish Government. However, we have been made aware of a few cases where systems installed under the central heating programme have broken down and have been condemned as being beyond repair. Whilst we do not wish to underestimate the seriousness of individual cases, the number of such cases does not warrant any more systematic investigation of the longevity of installations.

EAP Stages One and Two

The Energy Assistance Package (EAP) offers certain benefits that are available regardless of the energy performance of the dwelling and the absence / presence of a central heating system:

energy saving advice (Stage One), and

income maximisation checks, and referrals for social tariffs or cheaper payment methods (Stage Two).

The Energy Savings Trust, which administers the EAP, attempted to contact everyone whose application under the central heating programme was being honoured in 2009-10, to offer energy saving advice, a benefits health check and, where appropriate, access to social tariffs. However, it is not possible to say how many of these people may have received assistance under the central heating programme which ran from 2001 and will end in March 2010.

EAP Stage Three

The eligibility criteria for cavity wall and virgin loft insulation (Stage 3) do not necessarily exclude households who had received measures under the central heating programme. Some may not have received cavity wall insulation at the same time as heating system measures, or they may have refused loft insulation.

Although checking of referrals to Stage Three against the historic record of the central heating programme insulation measures might limit the number of unnecessary referrals to the energy supply companies who deliver Stage Three measures, the burden of checking historic records would be disproportionate to the benefit.

EAP Stage Four

Scottish Gas holds a record of dwellings that received grant assistance under the CHP since their appointment as managing agent in 2006. Each referral to Stage 4 of the Energy Assistance Package is checked against the Scottish Gas database of dwellings where applications have been made under both the central heating programme and the EAP. By the end of January, 5 applicants on the Scottish Gas database who benefited under the central heating programme have also had insulation measures installed under EAP. This represents a negligible percentage of the 9,592 households referred to Stage 4 of the EAP by the end of January 2010.

The CHP was introduced in 2001 and was originally managed by EAGA. Details of the dwellings that received assistance under the CHP were not forwarded to Scottish Gas. Although the Scottish Government could trace grant paid to CHP applicants between 2001 and 2006 from Communities Scotland financial records, the records are not held electronically and it would be not be a cost-effective use of resources to require officials either to undertake a manual check or to scan the paper documents.

Unlike the central heating programme, the Home Energy Assistance (Scotland) Regulations 2009 sets out that under the EAP, no grant may be made in respect of any dwelling for which a grant under these Regulations has been made within the previous 10 years.

I refer the member to the Motorway and Trunk Road programme document which can be found on the Transport Scotland Website at:

http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/road/motorway-and-trunk-road-programme.

In addition, the Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR) has recommended investment in many of these roads to be brought forward in future road improvement programmes as and when budget allocations allow. The STPR Reports can be found on the Transport Scotland website at www.transportscotland.gov.uk.