Chamber and committees

At April 2009 there are a total of 164 Variable Message Signs (VMS) located along the trunk road network.

This question was answered in the Chamber. The answer can be viewed in the Official Report using the following link:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor0423-01.htm

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-4401 on 26 September 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

The Scottish Government''s relocation policy was launched on 28 January 2008 in conjunction with the report on the review of asset management. The relocation policy can be accessed at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/govt-locations/location-policy/asset-management.

Achieving efficiency and best practice asset management are the key drivers of the new policy and within that context there are undoubtedly opportunities to be realised to recognise the benefits that relocating can bring to different parts of the country.

The delivery of the terms and conditions of this grant is an issue for the Regional Transport Partnerships (RTPs). The Scottish Government discussed the impact and as a result developed the grant with incremental reductions, to achieve the mainstreaming of travel planning within the RTPs.

I am delighted that RTPs have either made the travel plan officers permanent members of staff or have raised travel planning as a priority within existing functions and processes.

There have been a number of meetings between representatives of the Scottish Government and/or Transport Scotland with the Confederation of Passenger Transport UK over the last 12 Months, where the issue of the reimbursement of concessionary fares would have been discussed. Most of these have been in the context of the on-going review of the Scotland Wide Free Bus Travel Scheme for Older and Disabled People. It would be premature to consider releasing any records from these meetings prior to the conclusion of the review report, as this could be seen to be prejudicial to its outcome.

The Healthcare Environment Inspectorate will concentrate their activities on NHS acute hospitals. The Care Commission inspects care homes against the relevant legislation and the National Care Standards. There is a statutory requirement on care home providers to have appropriate procedures for the control of infection and the management of clinical waste. The commission will expect care homes to demonstrate that they have an appropriate policy on infection control. This may be the Scottish Government''s Infection Control in Adult Care Homes published in 2005. The National Care Standards also require that there are systems in place to control the spread of infection.

This question was answered in the Chamber. The answer can be viewed in the Official Report using the following link:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor0312-01.htm

The quoted range of outturn prices for the project represents the estimate of the cost for the delivery of the project by the most efficient procurement means. The choice of procurement options other than a publicly funded design and build contract would increase the cost above this level and reduce the certainty of delivery.

The value for money of a range of funding and procurement options was tested by Transport Scotland and their consultants using the prevailing view of the cost of finance in autumn 2008. Both a design and build contract with conventional funding and a PPP/NPD privately financed contract were considered to provide good value for money.

Changes to government accounting practice to be introduced by the UK Government in April 2009 had made the latter unaffordable whilst the adverse effect of the financial market since last autumn provides evidence to question the likely value for money that might be achieved from using private funding within the timescale of promoting this competition.

The additional cost of the third corridor to accommodate multimodal traffic, which was part of the original proposal announced in December 2007, were put at between £450 million and £580 million in 2016 outturn prices.