Chamber and committees

Further to my answer to questionS2W-22941 on 31 March 2006, the majority of concerns from business are raised andaddressed through the work of the industry led Regulatory Sub-Group of the SmallBusiness Consultative Group. This group was set up in December 2004, partly in responseto the fact that the hotline was not generating as much calls from Scottish businessesor from the public as was originally anticipated. It was therefore decided to trya different tack to try and engage with business over any regulatory concerns theymight have. The group does this by selecting specific areas of regulatory activity,examining their purpose, objective, implementation and enforcement together withtheir impact on business costs and thereby gain a view of their overall effectiveness.The group engages with business practitioners, enforcers and advisers as well aspolicy maker’s out – with the Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department to ensureas wide a spectrum of opinions and experience are captured as possible. The Groupis chaired by Professor Russel Griggs of the CBI and includes representatives fromthe Federation of Small Businesses, The Forum of Private Business, The ScottishChambers of Commerce, the Institute of Chartered Accountants for Scotland, the Scottish Consumers Council and the Scottish Trades Union Congress. The ScotlandOffice and the Office of Fair Trading participates in matters concerning UK legislationand regulators and representatives of the EU Commission have also been involved.In 2005 the Sub-Group looked at specific five issues referred to it by members:Care Homes, Maternity/Paternity Regulations, Smoke Flavourings Regulations, thesub-sea sector and the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations.All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliaments website, the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The Improving Regulation Unithotline received four calls in total in 2005, all from non-governmental bodies orthe public. None of these were substantive. However, as I explained in my answerto S2W-25186, since 2004 we have established a different approach towards addressingbusinesses’ concerns involving the Industry led Regulatory Sub-Group. The “hotline”,introduced in 2001 has now outlived its usefulness and can now be retired. It shouldbe stressed that there are presently no additional costs involved in running the“hotline”

I refer the member to theanswers to questions S2W-25185 and S2W-25186 on 6 October 2006. All answers towritten parliamentary questions are available on the Parliaments website, the searchfacility for which can be found at:http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The official source of pay estimatesis the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), which is carried out by the Officefor National Statistics (ONS).

Through a Service Level Agreementthe Scottish Executive has access to the micro-data for this survey therefore analysesof the distribution of earnings can be carried out for Scotland andthe local areas specified, given sufficient sample sizes. The survey data are currentlyavailable for 1997 to 2005. The use of the data from ASHE are subject to the ONS’procedures and protocols.

The ONS provide ASHE distributionstatistics (percentiles and quartiles) for Scotland, local enterprise companyareas, local authority areas and parliamentary constituencies via their websiteat http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=14203.

The filming and production ofall video content on the web is part of the normal remit of the web team at St Andrew’sHouse. Regular webcasts of ministerial events have been produced since August 2002and made available through the main Executive website. Podcasting is an additionalmeans of distribution.

The podcasting service was developedin-house and incurs no additional production costs.

No decision has yet beenmade on the level of grant which the Scottish Executive will provide to BritishWaterways to fund its activities in Scotland from 2008-09 onwards. The current grant provided bythe Scottish Executive is not linked to the level of funding which theDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs provides and there are noplans to link this in the future.

The following table presentsthe mean and median household income estimates for Scotland basedon the Family Resources Survey. Sub-Scotland income estimates are not available.

Table: Median and Mean Household Weekly Income for Scotland, 2004-05(£ Per Week)

Gross Household Income		Net Disposable Household Income		Net Disposable Household Income (After Housing Costs)		Equivalised Net Disposable Household Income (Before Housing Costs)		Equivalised Net Disposable Household Income (After Housing Costs)
Median	Mean	Median	Mean	Median	Mean	Median	Mean	Median	Mean
464	586	372	447	324	398	349	397	313	356

Source: Households BelowAverage Income, Department for Work andPensions.

Notes:

Gross household income: Total income from all sources includingfrom Tax Credits, before deductions of income tax and National Insurance.

Net disposable householdincome: Total income after deductionsfor income tax, National Insurance Contributions, council tax, pension contributionsand maintenance payments.

Housing costs: Net disposable income but with rent/mortgagepayments, water charges, structural insurance premiums, ground rent and servicecharges deducted.

Equivalised net disposablehousehold income: “Equivalised”Income is used to allow comparisons of living standards between different householdtypes. Income is adjusted to take into account variations in the size and compositionof the household. This adjustment reflects the fact that a family of several peoplerequires a higher income than a single person in order for both households to enjoya comparable standard of living. The key assumption is that all individuals in thehousehold benefit equally from the combined (equivalised) income of the household.There are distinct equivalence scales used for income before housing costs (BHC)and income after housing costs (AHC).

 

The following is a corrected answer(published on 2 February 2007);see below

 

Rhona Brankin: The following table presents the mean and medianannual household income estimates for Scotland based on the Family Resources Survey. Sub Scotlandestimates are not available.

Table: Median and MeanWeekly Household Income for Scotland, 2004-05 (£ per Week)

Gross Household Income		Net Disposable Household Income		Net Disposable Household Income (After Housing Costs)		Equivalised Net Disposable Household Income (Before Housing Costs)		Equivalised Net Disposable Household Income (After Housing Costs)
Median	Mean	Median	Mean	Median	Mean	Median	Mean	Median	Mean
414	538	332	408	286	361	349	397	313	356

Source: Households BelowAverage Income, The Department for Work and Pensions.

Notes:

Gross householdincome: Total income fromall sources including from Tax Credits, before deductions of income taxand National Insurance.

Net disposablehousehold income: Totalincome after deductions for income tax, National InsuranceContributions, council tax, pension contributions and maintenance payments.

Housing costs: Net disposable income but withrent/mortgage payments, water charges, structural insurance premiums, groundrent and service charges deducted.

Equivalised netdisposable household income:“Equivalised” Income is used to allow comparisons of living standards betweendifferent household types. Income is adjusted to take into account variationsin the size and composition of the household. This adjustment reflects the factthat a family of several people requires a higher income than a single personin order for both households to enjoy a comparable standard of living. The keyassumption is that all individuals in the household benefit equally from thecombined (equivalised) income of the household. There are distinct equivalencescales used for income before housing costs (BHC) and income after housingcosts (AHC).

Median: The income valuewhich divides a population, when ranked by income, into two equal-sized groups.The measure is most commonly used to represent average income due to the highlyskewed nature of the income distribution, which leads to the very high incomesof a few having a disproportionate impact on the mean.

Mean: The totalincome/expenditure of all households in a population, divided by the number ofhouseholds. In some situations it can be more appropriate to use the meanrather than the median.

Mean individual income estimatesare not available for Scotland or Sub-Scotland geographies. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) prefer to quotevalues for median individual income. The income distribution is highly skewed andthe mean value is much more sensitive to sampling variation than the median value.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-28499 on 28 September 2006. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliaments website, the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

 

The following is a corrected answer(published on 2 February 2007);see below

 

Rhona Brankin: The following table presents the mean and medianannual household income estimates for Scotland based on the Family Resources Survey. Sub Scotlandestimates are not available.

Table: Median and MeanWeekly Household Income for Scotland, 2004-05 (£ per Week)

Gross Household Income		Net Disposable Household Income		Net Disposable Household Income (After Housing Costs)		Equivalised Net Disposable Household Income (Before Housing Costs)		Equivalised Net Disposable Household Income (After Housing Costs)
Median	Mean	Median	Mean	Median	Mean	Median	Mean	Median	Mean
414	538	332	408	286	361	349	397	313	356

Source: Households BelowAverage Income, The Department for Work and Pensions.

Notes:

Gross householdincome: Total income fromall sources including from Tax Credits, before deductions of income taxand National Insurance.

Net disposablehousehold income: Totalincome after deductions for income tax, National InsuranceContributions, council tax, pension contributions and maintenance payments.

Housing costs: Net disposable income but withrent/mortgage payments, water charges, structural insurance premiums, groundrent and service charges deducted.

Equivalised netdisposable household income:“Equivalised” Income is used to allow comparisons of living standards betweendifferent household types. Income is adjusted to take into account variationsin the size and composition of the household. This adjustment reflects the factthat a family of several people requires a higher income than a single personin order for both households to enjoy a comparable standard of living. The keyassumption is that all individuals in the household benefit equally from thecombined (equivalised) income of the household. There are distinct equivalencescales used for income before housing costs (BHC) and income after housingcosts (AHC).

Median: The income valuewhich divides a population, when ranked by income, into two equal-sized groups.The measure is most commonly used to represent average income due to the highlyskewed nature of the income distribution, which leads to the very high incomesof a few having a disproportionate impact on the mean.

Mean: The totalincome/expenditure of all households in a population, divided by the number ofhouseholds. In some situations it can be more appropriate to use the meanrather than the median.

The following table presentsthe median individual income estimates for Scotland based on the Family ResourcesSurvey. Sub-Scotland income estimates are not available.

Table: Median IndividualWeekly Income for Scotland, 2002-03 to 2004-05¹

		£ Per Week
Median
Total Individual Income	Net Individual Income	Disposable Individual Income
217	195	157

Source: Individual incomes, Departmentfor Work and Pensions.

Notes:

1. Three year rolling years havebeen used due to small sample sizes

TotalIndividual Income is equal to gross income, defined as income from all sources receivedby an individual, plus tax credits.

NetIndividual Income includes tax credits, but deducts National Insurance contributionsand

incometax payments from gross income.

DisposableIndividual Income includes Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit and property incomefrom letting and sub-letting (apportioned across household adults where appropriate),and deducts National Insurance contributions, income tax payments, childcare costs,travel to work costs, parental contributions to students living away from home,maintenance and child support payments (which are deducted from the income of theperson making the payment), and housing costs (including Council Tax, all costsapportioned across household adults where appropriate).

A number of items of income areexcluded from individual income, either because they are shared receipts or costswhich can not be readily assigned to an individual.