Chamber and committees

Patrick Watters (COSLA)

Roderick Ian Douglas Mair (COSLA)

Tom McCabe (Minister for Finance and Public Services Reform)

Keith Dunckley Yates (SOLACE)

Colin Peter Caldwell Mair (Chief Executive, the Improvement Service for Scottish Local Government)

Douglas Sinclair (SOLACE) re-signed from the Improvement Service at the last board meeting on 21 November 2005 due to the completion of his term as chair of SOLACE. Gavin Whitefield (SOLACE) is the nominated replacement for Douglas Sinclair, however the legal appointment process for Mr Whitefield has still to be finalised.

Prior to the official launch of the Improvement Service, a Shadow Board was put in place in 2003 to pave the way for the establishment of the company. The Shadow Board Members were: -

Patrick Watters (COSLA)

Corrie McChord (COSLA)

Andy Kerr (then Minister for Finance and Public Services Reform)

Leslie Evans (Scottish Executive)

Douglas Sinclair (SOLACE)

Keith Dunckley Yates (SOLACE).

Table 1: Constant PriceGross Value Added for Manufacturing Sector: Quarterly Growth Rates, 2004 Q3 to2005 Q2

Table 2: Constant PriceGross Value Added for Manufacturing Sector: Four Quarter on Four Quarter GrowthRates, 2004 Q3 to 2005 Q2

Sources:

Scotland Data: Scottish Executive: Quarterly GDP Index.

United Kingdom Data: Office of National Statistics.

Each grant scheme has its own terms and conditions and responsibility for ensuring that councils adhere to these rests with the relevant Executive Department. In general, councils are required formally to assure the department that the funding has been spent in accordance with the grant offer. In a number of cases, there is a further requirement for councils to have the return audited as part of their annual accounts. Routine evaluation and monitoring is also carried out.

It should be noted that the statistics given below are based upon the data which are held in the Scottish Executive’s road accident statistics database and which were collected by the police at the time of the accident and subsequently reported to the Executive. They may differ from any figures which the local authorities would provide now, because they do not take account of any subsequent changes or corrections that local authorities may have made to the statistical information, for use at local level, about the location of each accident, based upon their knowledge of the roads and areas concerned.

Injury Road Accidents Occurring on Sections of the A811, and the Associated Numbers of Fatalities, as Reported in the “STATS 19” Statistical Returns

Notes:

*The junction of the A811 and the B822, near Kippen.

**The junction of the A811 and the A81, near Ballat.

The Scottish Executive guidance for community learning and development (CLD) Working and Learning Together to Build Stronger Communities, was published in January 2004, a copy of which is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre(Bib. number 38409). This guidance indicated that the overall responsibility for planning for CLD strategies rests with community planning partnerships, with local authorities expected to take responsibility for ensuring that arrangements are in place to set up and maintain partnership working at both strategic and operational levels.

On behalf of the Scottish Executive, Communities Scotland, through its Learning Connections team, has responsibility for supporting the establishment of strategies. The guidance was issued to local authority Chief Executives with the expectation that community planning partnerships would develop strategies in the most suitable manner taking into consideration local community planning processes. Whilst timescales of development and delivery have differed there has been no indication of non-compliance with the guidance request. Thirty partnerships have delivered final strategies to Communities Scotland with a further two strategies awaiting final endorsement by their council and/or Community Planning Partnership.