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Glasgow City Council''s share of the Transfer of the Management of Development Funding budget in 2011-12 is £68.1 million. This is the same proportionate share as included for Glasgow in the 2010-11 budget.

The budget for the Transfer of the Management of Development Funding for 2011-12 is £97.710 million.

It is estimated that increasing the business rates paid by the largest retail properties will raise an additional £30 million in 2011-12.

That resource will be used to support a range of front line services provided by councils, and maintaining the same 2010-11 levels of support for tens of thousands of town centre small and medium-sized enterprise businesses through the Small Business Bonus Scheme.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-37881 on 13 December 2010. 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.

JESSICA investment is delivered to projects via Urban Development Funds (UDFs). The European Investment Bank is responsible for procuring the UDFs. Once established, UDFs will launch an open call for projects.

The government administered a pre-call exercise over the summer. This sought expressions of interest and high-level information from potential project sponsors. This information will be shared with short-listed UDF bidders.

There is no distribution formula between areas. Investment decisions will be taken by fund managers, based on the quality of investment propositions.

The JESSICA Scotland fund is part-funded by the European Commission through Priority 3 of the Lowland and Uplands Scotland European Regional Development Fund Programme; so can invest in integrated urban development plans in the 13 local authority areas that are eligible for support under that programme.

These areas account for the highest share of population in the 15% most deprived data-zones, as measured by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation. They also have the highest concentration of people not in education, employment or training.

Maintaining police officer numbers at least 17,234 is one element of the 2011-12 funding package agreed by Scottish Government and COSLA''s Leadership and currently being considered by councils. To secure the full funding package, councils are required to agree to all the elements of the package, including that on police officer numbers. A process of verification for the various commitments during 2011-12 will be discussed and agreed between the Scottish Government and COSLA so that agreed arrangements can be in place by the start of the financial year. Local government''s performance in delivering on the commitments will of course ultimately be a key factor in assessing the level of the local government settlement in the next spending review, for 2012-13 and later years.

The Scottish Government will not take investment decisions and therefore has had no discussions with local authorities about the distribution of JESSICA funding.

The Government has worked closely with local authorities during the development of the JESSICA funding model. COSLA, the Scottish Local Authorities Economic Development Group and individual local authorities were represented on a Steering Group that led on feasibility work and concluded that JESSICA would be a valuable funding tool to support the delivery of regeneration in Scotland.

Investment decisions will be made by Urban Development Fund managers, working with the European Investment Bank and JESSICA Investment Board.