Chamber and committees

VAT is a reserved matter and as such guidance is issued by HM Customs and Excise. The agencies and other bodies are separately registered for VAT and their VAT Liaison Officers will be best placed to consider the impact of the increase on their respective bodies.

As far as local authorities are concerned we do not expect the impact to be significant as under the VAT Act 1994 they are able to recover the VAT on supplies and services.

As outlined the Financial Memorandum which accompanied the Forth Crossing Bill, the estimated capital expenditure (in outturn costs) in this year and the next five years (2010-11 to 2015-2016) is £1.792 billion, there is no forecast revenue expenditure for the next five years.

The Financial Memorandum can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/33-ForthCrossing/b33s3-introd-en.pdf.

The latest information on free school meal uptake is given in table 3 of the national statistics publication School Meals in Scotland, 2010. This can be found on the Scottish Government website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/07/06095048/0.

Since May 2007 the redundancy terms available to the Permanent Secretary of the Scottish Government has been in line with the Civil Service Compensation Scheme. Details of the scheme are available at:

http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/my-civil-service/pensions/index.aspx.

The Minister for the Civil Service announced on 6 July 2010 that the UK Government plans to introduce, as soon as possible, legislation to cap the amount of redundancy payments made to civil servants to bring them in line with best practice in the private sector.

The Scottish Government continues to work with partners across health and education to ensure that appropriate and necessary data are gathered, shared and used.

After undertaking constituency business, the First Minister flew to London from Aberdeen on 7 June 2010 for an evening meeting with the Secretary of State for Scotland. After the Joint Ministerial Committee (JMC) Meeting on 8 June 2010, the First Minister flew from London to Edinburgh to attend a reception at Bute House. I travelled outward by rail and returned from the JMC meeting by rail to Edinburgh.

The Scottish Government and Transport Scotland routinely liaise with the Forth Estuary Transport Authority (FETA) in relation to the condition of the Forth Road Bridge and will continue to do so. These discussions were well summarised publically during a recent Forth Crossing Bill committee meeting where the Forth Road Bridge chief engineer and bridgemaster gave strong and compelling evidence of the structural and operational problems facing the existing bridge. The following link refers to this Committee meeting.

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/forthXbill/or-10/fcb10-0202.htm#Col7.

Such evidence reinforced our existing, considered conclusion that the type of extensive remedial work required to extend the use of the Forth Road Bridge for all vehicles would have severe economic implications, accordingly no further re-examination of the bridge for such purposes will be pursued.

The appointment of staff at all levels is a matter for individual colleges and universities. The importance of Nolan principles is emphasised in both the guide for college board members produced by the organisation Scotland''s Colleges, and in the guide for members of higher education governing bodies produced by the Committee of University Chairs.

The financial memorandum agreed between the Scottish Funding Council and institutions it funds provides that The Council must be able to rely on the whole system of governance, management and conduct of the institution to safeguard all funds of the institution deriving from Scottish Ministers and to achieve the purposes for which those funds are provided. As a recipient of public funds, the governing body of the institution will strive to achieve at all times good practice in the governance, management and conduct of the institution.

The governing bodies of both colleges and universities already include members who are elected by staff.

My officials are currently discussing with the STUC and the organisation Scotland''s Colleges a range of issues relating to the composition of college boards of management. It is too early to say if this will result in agreed recommendations on extending the current number of elected places.

Universities, as autonomous bodies, are responsible for seeking to make changes to their own governance arrangements and ministers have no powers to direct them. A governance code of practice and general principles in the higher education sector is provided by the Committee of University Chairs.

Previous summer programme costs can be found on the summer cabinet programme website which can be found at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/14944/costs.

As in previous years, this year''s costs will be published once the programme is complete.