Chamber and committees

Local authority budget allocation spend is a matter for individual councils, and I would suggest that you contact the relevant Highlands and Islands local authorities to obtain this data.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-26214 on 17 August 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.

The Scottish Government commissioned a research programme on Profitable and Sustainable Agriculture “ Plants in 2006, from which the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) is receiving an annual grant for strategic research of approximately £1.5 million for the period 2006-07 to 2010-11. The Scottish Government is currently in discussion with stakeholders regarding the priority questions for strategic research which will be commissioned from 2011. SAC, as one of the Scottish Government''s main research providers, is aware of and fully involved in this process.

In addition, the Scottish Government contracts SAC to undertake crop variety trialling and associated activities. The funding for this is as follows:

2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11
Actual (£m)	Actual (£m)	Actual (£m)	Budget (£m)	Plan (£m)
0.261	0.336	0.292	0.260	0.230

The reduction in contract funding for 2010-11 is due to the constant search for best value and need to find sums for the pressing issue of climate change. The contract funding for 2011-12 will be determined nearer the time.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-26214 on 17 August 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.

The budget allocated to Highlands and Islands Enterprise since 2002-03 is shown in the following table:

2002-03 (£000)	2003-04 (£000)	2004-05 (£000)	2005-06 (£000)	2006-07 (£000)	2007-08 (£000)	2008-09 (£000)	2009-10 (£000)	2010-11 (£000)
79,700	95,300	104,300	99,000	114,400	114,700	74,000	73,100	73,200

The budget for 2002-03 was prior to the introduction of resource accounting and budgeting, arising from which a non-cash budget of £14 million per annum is included in each year''s figure above, from 2003-04 onwards. From 2008-09, Highlands and Islands Enterprise''s budget was reduced to reflect the refocusing of the organisation as part of this government''s reform of the enterprise networks, hence for that and subsequent years the figures are stated after budget transfers to Skills Development Scotland. Budget figures are not available beyond the spending review 2007, which allocated budgets up to 2010-11.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise should not be viewed in isolation however, as it is only one arm of the very significant package of funding we have in place to support and stimulate economic growth in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

Skills Development Scotland, the newly established business gateway for the area, the Road Equivalent Tariff Scheme and the Town Centre Regeneration Fund together bring a funding investment of £26.7 million this year, in addition to that allocated to Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

Businesses in the area also benefit from a range of non-domestic rates reliefs including the Small Business Bonus Scheme, which alone amounts to an estimated £14.4 million in 2009-10, Rural Rate Relief and Empty Property Relief.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) is responsible for determining which businesses are considered to be significant and/or to have high growth potential. However, I understand that, in doing so, HIE takes a number of factors into account including market opportunity, the sector in which the business operates and significance to the local economy.

The collection and collation of information on businesses applying, successfully or unsuccessfully, to Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) for support is an operational matter for that body.

I have written to HIE''s Chief Executive, Sandy Cumming, asking him to respond to you directly on this issue.

The budget allocated to Highlands and Islands Enterprise has been utilised as follows for each year from 2002-03 to 2008-09:

2002-03: under spent by £0.9 million,

2003-04: under spent by £2.27 million,

2004-05: under spent by £5.6 million,

2005-06: under spent by £0.05 million,

2006-07: under spent by £0.4 million,

2007-08: under spent by £0.01 million.

Audited accounts for 2008-09 are not yet available.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise''s budget was reduced to reflect the refocusing of the organisation as part of this government''s reform of the enterprise networks.

Rather than having a negative impact on the economy, the reforms will enable it to maximise its contribution to economic recovery and growth by focusing more clearly on those activities likely to have the greatest economic impact on economic recovery and increased sustainable economic growth.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise continues to focus its interventions on selected account managed businesses and anticipate that many of these will benefit from opportunities arising from the Pentland Firth. The scale of the development of the Pentland Firth is such that the intervention of public funds will only be a small part of the total investment required. Highlands and Islands Enterprise is, therefore, prioritising its resources to ensure the most effective leverage of private funds.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise''s budget was reduced to reflect the refocusing of the organisation as part of this government''s reform of the enterprise networks.

While Highlands and Islands Enterprise has had regular dialogue with Scottish Government officials and ministers in the context of Highlands and Islands Enterprise''s operating plan, there have been no specific representations by Highlands and Islands Enterprise to ministers about the impact of reductions in the Highlands and Islands Enterprise budget.