Chamber and committees

No priority was given to new projects applying for funding in 2011-12 over those existing projects already in receipt of funding. All project applications were assessed using the core criteria:

The community must be at the heart of the decision making process of the project;

The funded activity should lead to significant CO₂ reductions, and

The funded activity should result in positive legacy for each community.

Across all grant schemes that deploy public funds, value for money, past record and deliverability of proposed projects are of course part of the wider assessment.

On the 22 March 2011, it was announced that 130 community projects had been successful in sharing £8,264,756 of awards through the Climate Challenge Fund (2011-12). This leaves £2,035,244 to be allocated to community groups in any further round and to cover the costs for the administration, review and development of the fund and training made available to all communities groups through the Community Action and Support Programme.

Every effort was made to notify all projects that submitted applications to the 2011-12 round of the Climate Challenge Fund of the outcome of their application before the public announcement was made. For those projects that were unsuccessful, feedback on their application was provided.

From the 130 projects currently awarded funding by the Climate Challenge Fund in 2011-12, 46 were previously successful in receiving funding between 2008-10.

Scotland would continue its membership of the EU. The issue of the euro would be decided by a referendum of the people – until then Scotland will retain sterling. This information is in the white paper, Your Scotland Your Voice, published in 2009 and available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/293639/0090721.pdf.

The information is not held by the Scottish Government in the format requested. However, the following table sets out the number of emergency ambulance incidents (all categories) in the NHS Grampian area in each financial year since 2007-08.

Health Protection Scotland (HPS) is responsible for the national surveillance of MRSA infections and publishes reports quarterly with data broken down by NHS board area. These can be accessed via:

http://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/haiic/sshaip/publicationsdetail.aspx?id=30248.

These data are for all MRSA infections reported in the Board, and may include cases which originated in the community rather than hospital. The numbers of cases of MRSA recorded in NHS Grampian are as follows:

1 January to 31 December 2008: 75

1 January to 31 December 2009: 43

1 January to 31 December 2010: 22.

Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland provides estimates of total expenditure on social protection in Scotland, which includes spending on personal social services and social security payments, under the current constitutional and financial arrangements. In 2009-10, spending on social protection for Scotland was £20.2 billion, equivalent to 15% of Scottish GDP (including an illustrative geographical share of North Sea GDP). Spending on social protection in the UK during 2009-10 was £221.8 billion, equivalent to 16% of UK GDP (including 100% of North Sea GDP).

Expenditure on social protection under independence would depend on the policy choices of future Scottish Governments and our ability to grow the economy more quickly and share the proceeds of this faster growth across society.

Under the current constitutional and financial arrangements, the HMRC publication Income Tax Liability Statistics estimates that there were 2.6 million income tax payers in Scotland during 2010-11. The number of people in Scotland who would be liable for income tax under independence would depend on the policy choices of future Scottish Governments and our ability to grow the economy more quickly and share the proceeds of this faster growth across society.

The Association of Chief Police Officers Scotland (ACPOS) has published information on the number of antisocial behaviour offences recorded in Grampian Police Force area in 2010-11. This can be found on pages 27 and 28 of the ACPOS Quarter 4 Report which is on the ACPOS website at:

http://www.acpos.co.uk/SPPF/Index.html.

The number of antisocial behaviour orders granted in the Grampian Police force area in 2010-11 is not held centrally.