Chamber and committees

Information on businesses in the form requested is not held centrally. However, information on the number and rateable value of non-domestic properties which may be eligible for relief under the Small Business Bonus scheme is available for each local authority area on the Scottish Assessors Portal (www.saa.gov.uk).

This information was given in response to answer to question S3W-7498 on 13 December 2007. 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/webapp/wa.search.

Information on businesses in the detail requested is not held centrally. Information on the average savings for business properties in 2008-09 according to their rateable value is available for Scotland as a whole and is presented as follows, together with the number of business properties falling in each band. Savings represent the projected amount of additional relief that will be available under the Small Business Bonus Scheme in 2008-09 compared with the percentage relief that would have been available under the Small Business Rate Relief Scheme (had it continued at the same rates of relief as in 2007-08):

Rateable Value Bands	Number of Separate Business Properties	Average Rateable Value (£)	% Small Business Rates Relief (2007-08)	% Small Business Bonus Scheme (2008-09)	% Additional Saving Under SBBS (2008-09)	Average Additional Saving SBBS (2008-09) (£)
up to £1,000	28,482	£512	50%	80%	30%	£70
£1,001 to £2,000	22,781	£1,511				£208
£2,001 to £3,000	18,849	£2,532				£348
£3,001 to £3,500	7,884	£3,279				£451
£3,501 to £4,000	7,461	£3,790	40%		40%	£694
£4,001 to £4,500	6,867	£4,298				£787
£4,501 to £5,000	6,427	£4,796	30%		50%	£1,098
£5,001 to £5,750	7,478	£5,394				£1,235
£5,751 to £6,000	2,941	£5,911	20%		60%	£1,625
£6,001 to £7,000	8,406	£6,536				£1,796
£7,001 to £8,000	7,053	£7,551	10%		70%	£2,421
£8,001 to £9,000	6,312	£8,567	5%	40%	35%	£1,373
£9,001 to £10,000	5,284	£9,559				£1,532
£10,001 to £11,000	4,379	£10,575		20%	15%	£727
£11,001 to £11,500	1,986	£11,330				£778
£11,501 to £12,000	1,862	£11,835	NIL		20%	£1,084
£12,001 to £13,000	3,465	£12,572				£1,152
£13,001 to £14,000	2,991	£13,589				£1,245
£14,001 to £15,000	2,756	£14,594				£1,337
Total	153,664		Average up to £15,000			£752

Notes:

1. To allow comparison between the new Small Business Bonus Scheme and the Small Business Rates Relief Scheme, information is given for each £1,000 rateable value band up to £15,000. Additional bands correspond to the thresholds for different percentage reliefs available under the 2007-08 Small Business Rates Relief Scheme.

2. To ensure comparability, the 2008-09 poundage rate (45.8 pence in the pound) has been used in all calculations.

3. For illustrative purposes, the table also shows the number of non-domestic properties, except zero-rated properties, with rateable values of up to £15,000, together with their average rateable value (source: Scottish Assessors Portal, 1 October 2007; www.saa.gov.uk).

4. Percentage relief available under the Small Business Bonus Scheme in 2008-09 represents 80% of the full Scheme benefits, which will be available from 2009-10.

5. The number of eligible businesses will be lower than the number of non-domestic properties in each area, because some businesses have more than one property. This may affect eligibility for relief under the Small Business Bonus Scheme, which will depend on:

the combined rateable value of all properties in Scotland of which the business is in rateable occupation or (if vacant) which the business is entitled to occupy;

whether the property is eligible for one of the existing rates relief schemes, and

the level of other public sector assistance received by the business.

If the Support forBorrowing line for Scottish Water was cut by £75 million, a corresponding cut inits investment programme would be required.

A cut of this sizewould mean the deferment or cancellation of many essential projects which improveservices to customers.

The Scottish Government has takena significant number of steps to support local authorities in providing additionalsupport for learning needs including the following:

Providing local government inScotland with record levels of funding over the period covered by the spending review2008-11. The vast majority of the funding will be provided by means of a block grant.It is the responsibility of each local authority to allocate the total financialresources available to it on the basis of local needs and priorities having firstfulfilled its statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and localpriorities including the Scottish Government’s key strategic objectives.

A code of practice was producedto provide guidance to local authorities and other agencies on carrying out theirfunctions under the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act2004.

In2007-08, the funding made available througheducation GAE is £4.2 billion; this figure includes £273 million for provision forspecial educational needs.

In 2007-08, providing £44.7 million specifically for the implementation of theEducation (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 (£12.5 million);inclusion of pupils with additional support needs and disabilities in mainstreamschools (£25 million), and the training and development of staff working with pupilswith additional support needs and disabilities (£7.2 million).

This budget funds a wide rangeof police services, including those provided by the Scottish Police Services Authority,which directly support or complement front line policing. These services includethe Scottish Crime and Drug enforcement agency, other specialist policing activitiessuch as national support for Scotland’s counter-terrorism capability, forensic science services,police training and development, criminal records and international policing.

The Police Information and Communicationsbudget funds the development and maintenance of both Scottish and UK-wide informationand communication technology (ICT) systems to support operational policing in Scotland.The budget covers the Scottish contribution to UK wide systems including the frameworkcontract for the Airwave radio system, the Police National Computer and joint developmentof other national systems to enable police forces to share information and intelligenceacross the UK. The development and maintenance of Scottish systemsincludes the Criminal History System, custody management systems and the AutomaticNumber-plate Recognition System.

The £2 million of savings I announcedin October 2007 will be achieved by a number of measures.

The Scottish Government willreview how we produce and distribute our publications. Reducing the number of documentswe print, producing smaller print runs and encouraging greater use of web-only publicationswill help reduce cost and environmental impact.

Initial distribution of publicationswill continue to be free of charge to our key stakeholders and other interestedparties. Additional requested copies will be subject to a nominal postage and packagingcharge from 1 April 2008.

We already make all of our printedpublications available online. Our aim is to increase our web-only publicationsby up to 20 per cent (around 250) by the end of this financial year. This approachto more web-only publications will reduce the need for large amounts of printedcopies, and will help us become more environmentally-friendly.

From June 2008, we will stopproducing large reprints of publications, except in exceptional circumstances. Accessto any publication can continue to be made free of charge via our website. Wheredemand is substantial and continuous, we will carry out a reprint but any reprintedcopies will carry a cover price to reflect the cost of the reprint.

Additionally, we are introducinga print on demand service which will allow anyone to request a copy of an out ofprint publication. This will allow one or more copies to be printed, the cost ofwhich will depend on the size and the number requested.

We will further review theseproposals to assess their impact over the next two years. At that time, we may alsoconsider the introduction of cover prices for some publications as long as thisit does not prevent people accessing important information.

All documents will still be availableto download free of charge from the Scottish Government website.

The eHealth budget funds a numberof key national systems supporting the operation of NHS Scotland, such as ScreeningProgrammes, General Practice IT systems and the communications infrastructure. Inaddition, it supports boards in making the changes to IT which will underpin thewider improvements signalled in Better Health, Better Care; such as 18 weeks andimprovements to the management of long-term conditions. The priorities for futureimprovement will be set out in a new eHealth Strategy scheduled for the spring of2008.

A reduction of £12.5 millionper annum, unless the shortfall was made up by NHS boards from their general allocations,would mean a reduction in existing services and commitments in both 2008-09 and2009-10. In 2010-11 it would reduce the scope for the new eHealth Strategy to enablethe improvements in patient care to which we are committed.

The following tableshows the numbers of patients ready for discharge in NHS Tayside at April ofeach year.

NHS - PatientsReady for Discharge - Number Reported by NHS Tayside at each April Census(April 2004 to April 2007) by Local Authority Area¹

Local Authority	April 2004		April 2005		April 2006		April 2007
	Total2	Over 6 weeks3	Total	Over 6 weeks	Total	Over 6 weeks	Total	Over 6 weeks
Total	133	72	99	37	77	25	48	9
Angus	19	5	17	4	13	2	7	1
Dundee City	67	38	46	22	46	20	20	6
Fife	-	-	8	1	1	-	-	-
Perth and Kinross	46	28	28	10	17	3	21	2
Local Authority not identified	1	1	-	-	-	-	-	-

Notes:

1. Local authority is based on those patientsresident in each local authority area. This will include patients who were notconsidered to have social work involvement in their discharge planning processor in their post-hospital care arrangements. A patient ready for discharge isnot considered to have social work involvement in their discharge planningprocess if the principal reason for delay is in the Healthcare groups; orprincipal reason for delay is in the Patient/Carer/Family - related categoriesand a date of referral for social care assessment has not been recorded.

2. Number ofpatients ready for discharge in all specialties.

3. Number ofpatients ready for discharge with a duration of over six weeks (43 days ormore), i.e. the common period for local discharge planning agreement timescaleacross Scotland.

The following tableshows the numbers of patients ready for discharge at April of each year and thetotal shown as a percentage of the total number of average available staffedbeds.

NHS- Patients Ready For Discharge - Numbers by NHS Board Area of Treatment at eachApril Census (2004 to 2007)

NHS Board Area of Treatment	April 2004		April 2005		April 2006		April 2007
	Total1	Total Delays as a % of Staffed Beds2	Total	Total Delays as a % of Staffed Beds	Total	Total Delays as a % of Staffed Beds	Total	Total Delays as a % of Staffed Beds
Scotland	1,747	5.8	1,332	4.6	1,046	3.7	755	2.8
Ayrshire and Arran	139	6.7	108	5.3	94	4.9	66	3.5
Borders	36	5.5	26	4.2	18	2.8	25	4.0
Dumfries and Galloway	8	1.0	6	0.7	4	0.5	1	0.1
Fife	121	6.8	92	5.4	74	4.4	61	3.7
Forth Valley	98	7.1	78	5.9	68	5.4	47	3.6
Grampian	214	7.1	194	6.6	156	5.5	102	3.6
Greater Glasgow	458	5.5	326	4.1	252	3.2	219	2.9
Highland	101	5.8	82	4.8	73	4.3	44	2.7
Lanarkshire	121	4.0	81	2.8	65	2.5	41	1.8
Lothian	304	7.1	225	5.5	142	3.4	89	2.2
Orkney	3	3.2	3	3.2	8	11.7	3	3.9
Shetland	-	-	-	-	5	5.0	6	6.3
Tayside	133	5.4	99	4.3	77	3.4	48	2.2
Western Isles	11	4.8	12	5.2	10	5.0	3	1.9

Notes:

1. Number ofpatients ready for discharge, in all specialties, reported at each April census(2004 - 2007).

2. Source: ISD(S1) average available staffed beds as at each quarter ending 31 March in eachyear.