Chamber and committees

I understand thatInverness College recently submitted to the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) an outline businesscase for funding to support its relocation to a greenfield site and that a decision will hopefully be made in January.

College funding decisionsare a matter for the funding council and not ministers. However, our decision toprovide an extra £100 million to support college and university estates shows howserious we are about providing the resources to create world-class buildings andfacilities. £60 million of that support is for colleges which we understand fromthe SFC will mean that the Inverness College plans can be advanced during the SpendingReview 2007-10 period.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-5196 on 25 October 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

There have been nomeetings with the European Commission to discuss the state aid implications of roadequivalent tariff.

To date there havebeen no discussions with ferry operators but the consultants working on the studyof road equivalent tariff (RET) will, as part of their remit, speak to various ferryoperators to seek their views on RET.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-5196 on 25 October 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

An announcementis expected to be made before the end of the year on the replacement Forth crossing.

Within the Scottish Government there are three staff for whom the road equivalent tariffstudy forms a significant part of their workload. Other Scottish Governmentstaff will be involved in an advisory or line management capacity. Theconsultants Halcrow have allocated nine people to the study and another threewho will provide an independent view of the study team’s conclusions. BothHalcrow and the Scottish Government will also draw on relevant expertise asnecessary from outside their organisations during the course of the study.

The first stageof the study will be completed by the end of 2007. The timing of the nextstages will be subject to the decisions reached on the recommendations from thefirst stage.

We made it clearin announcing details of the road equivalent tariff (RET) study on 13 August 2007 that the initiative would benefit all categories offerry users. There will be no residency requirement for RET.

No decision hasbeen made regarding the financing of the replacement Forth Crossing.

Both bridge and tunneloptions are being considered in light of their ability to serve multi-modal trips.

However, heavy railhas not been included as an option for any replacement crossing as the existingrail infrastructure can be improved to meet foreseeable demand.