Chamber and committees

It has not been possible to disaggregate the costs incurred by local authorities and a number of other agencies such as the police and the Scottish Legal Aid Board, as these have been absorbed into general operational costs.

The variations in yearly costs are due principally to the fact that the act was implemented in phases, with full implementation occurring in 2008-09.

The total of the actual set-up costs for the Scottish Government to date is £1.3 million. This relates to set-up costs for the Private Rented Housing Panel (PRHP) under Part 1 Chapter 4 of the 2006 act, enforcement powers under Part 1 Chapters 1, 3, 5 and 6, Scheme of Assistance powers under Part 2, and the provision of information on sale of houses under Part 3.

Information on set-up and annual costs to local authorities and other bodies and individuals is not collected centrally.

*Funding for B²rd na G idhlig.

The projected costs of the Gaelic language (Scotland) Act 2005 that were outlined in the Financial Memorandum are set out in the following table:

Note: *The annual costs for B²rd na G idhlig were not discussed in the Financial Memorandum. However, these costs are set out in the table.

No secondary legislation has been brought into force which would place any cost on local authorities, other organisations or individuals. However, we plan to introduce secondary legislation which will require pet dealers and the operators on animal sanctuaries to be licensed by local authorities. In such cases local authorities are expected to charge a licensing fee which would cover their administration and inspection costs, therefore, once introduced, there will be no net additional cost to local authorities.

To date, the costs to the Scottish Government are approximately £7,500 for the production, printing and distribution of a guidance booklet for land managers on the Control of Ragwort.

A biosecurity code which will be sent to all livestock farmers in Scotland, and animal welfare codes for horses, gamebirds, cats, dogs and rabbits are still being developed and there have been no costs to date.

Part 2 of the 2006 Act deals with improvements to the registration service in Scotland. The Financial Memorandum predicted expenditure of £100,000 by the Scottish Government in 2007-08 to acquire computer software and hardware associated with delivering e-registration. However, because of other priorities that work has been deferred until 2012.

Part 2 of the 2006 Act also envisages offering electronic notification of events to third parties, as an alternative to paper extracts of births, deaths and marriages, issued for a fee by the Registrar General and by local registrars. The new service will be introduced at a future date, if there is demand for it from, for example, insurance companies and pension firms etc. who no longer want to handle paper.

To date, there have therefore been no associated costs falling on the Scottish Government, or, as predicted, on local authorities or any other body as a result of part 2 of the 2006 Act.

£50,000 a year as a cost to the Scottish Government for charges which the Human Tissue Authority might make for its work in Scotland relating to transplantation;

£250,000 as a one-off payment which the Scottish Government would need to make for the production of an initial supply of forms and leaflets associated with the process of authorising a hospital post-mortem examination;

Between £100-150,000 as a charge to other bodies (mainly NHS boards) to develop training for the staff who would have to talk families through the post-mortem examination authorisation form, and

£20-25,000 a year as a charge on the Scottish Government for inspections of Schools of Anatomy carried out by HM Inspector of Anatomy.

Further expenditure of some £50,000 has been earmarked for the production of an information leaflet setting out people''s rights in terms of authorisation under the act of the use of their organs for transplantation.

The Scottish Government does not hold details of any expenditure by local authorities or others as an immediate consequence of the act.

Figures for drink driving convictions alone are not available. The following tables provide information relating to drink/drug driving convictions.

Persons¹ with a Charge Proved for Drink/Drug-Driving Related Offences²: Breakdown by Year, Police Force Area³ and whether or not First-Time Offenders⁴

Notes:

1. Each person who was convicted of such an offence in 2006-07 is counted only once.

2. Where main offence.

3. The South of Scotland constituency area does not exactly correspond to a full police force area. The South of Scotland constituency covers all of Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary, part of Lothian and Borders Police force area and part of Strathclyde Police force area.

4. First-time offenders relates to those individuals who were sentenced on one occasion for an offence of this type in the financial year considered and had no other convictions for an offences of this type in the last 10 years (e.g. 1997-98 to 2006-07 for the year 2006-07). Repeat offenders contains everyone whose most recent conviction in the financial year considered was not the only one of this type they had committed in the last 10 years. Repeat offenders are identified by their offender reference number; note that the ability to record and maintain unique reference numbers over time has increased over the last 10 years.

For data on drink/drug-driving offences I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-19813 on 28 January 2009. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.