Seòmar agus comataidhean

The total number of seats is not below 250. Seating provision for the press and public in the Holyrood Chamber, including that for disabled visitors, will total 277.

Responsibility for the Post Office and Post Office services is a reserved matter.A decision not to roll out Your Guide nationally was announced by DTI Ministers on 15 October. The decision was taken largely on value for money grounds, following the evaluation of a major pilot.Officials will continue to stay in close contact with DTI and Post Office efforts to identify the potential for government departments to deliver services through post offices in future.The Executive's public internet access point initiative is creating over 1,000 new venues across Scotland where people can have cheap, easy access to the web and all its services - public, commercial and voluntary sector. We are actively encouraging rural post offices to participate in the scheme - which provides eligible venues with computer hardware, software, and internet connectivity - all free of charge. The scheme therefore allows rural post offices to provide another valuable service to their customers and potentially another source of income for small post offices.

The Scottish ministers set the policy directions under which the New Opportunities Fund (NOF) operates the PE and Sport Initiative in Scotland. This programme is now operational and is NOF's responsibility to administer based on guidance agreed with the Scottish Executive. Each local authority area has been given a provisional allocation and the local authority submits projects based on agreed local priorities.

Information has been received on Flour City International Inc. as a result of the work of the SPCB's agents. Further updated information is expected soon together with an opinion on the prospects of recovery of the additional costs being incurred by the SPCB due to the failure of Flour City Architectural Metals (UK) Ltd. The SPCB will then consider the opinion and what action might be appropriate. As I stated in my letter to the member of 3 October, I will write further once reports from our agents are received. As the SPCB will be considering its legal position it is not appropriate that information forming part of that consideration be placed in the Parliament's Information Centre

The estimated costs of current legal services being provided by Shepherd and Wedderburn in connection with Flour City Architectural Metals (UK) Ltd and Flour City International Inc. is £10,000 plus outlays.

A tendering exercise was carried to procure outsourced legal services and contracts were agreed with three firms. The services provided by Shepherd and Wedderburn in connection with Flour City Architectural Metals (UK) Ltd and Flour City International Inc. have been at the rates quoted in the contract. It would not be appropriate to divulge the competitive rates which prevail as a further tender round is likely when the current contracts expire.

The design work supplied by Flour City has required to be adapted since the original package has now been split into six separate trade packages. It has been estimated by the Design Team that around 95% of the drawings produced by Flour City were satisfactory or better and form the basis on which the additional design requirements are being built. Interface details generic to Flour City have been developed further, since they utilised many of their own standard details, and the additional cost for this is estimated at £117,500.

The information requested broken down by years is given below. Since access and egress of visitors is a continuous process it is not possible to identify total numbers in the gallery at any one time.

1 September to 31 December 1999							1 January to 31 December 2000
Number of Visitors							Number of Visitors
Wednesday			Thursday				Wednesday		Thursday
8/9	233		9/9		387		1/1 - 7/1 - Recess
15/9	242		16/9		534		12/1	133	13/1	327
22/9	319		23/9		397		19/1	143	20/1	483
29/9	248		30/9		604		26/1	147	27/1	465
6/10	287		7/10		445		2/2	170	3/2	710
11/10 -22/10 - Recess							9/2	154	10/2	447
27/10	384		28/10		636		16/2	349	17/2	481
3/11	235		4/11		582		23/2	218	24/2	624
10/11	194		11/11		347		1/3	171	2/3	558
17/11	267		18/11		480		8/3	102	9/3	537
25/11	300		26/11		476		15/3	209	16/3	439
1/12	198		2/12		480		22/3	297	23/3	559
8/12	269		9/12		405		29/3	73	30/3	658
15/12	89		16/12		299		5/4	631	6/4	738
20/12 -31/12 - Recess							10/4 - 21/4 - Recess
							26/4	205	27/4	865
							3/5	258	4/5	378
							10/5	266	11/5	554
							15/5 - 2/6 - Parliament met in Glasgow
							7/6	237	8/6	526
							14/6	262	15/6	642
							21/6	346	22/6	677
							28/6	214	29/6	519
							5/7	242	6/7	722
							10/7 - 1/9 Recess
							6/9	243	7/9	245
							13/9	151	14/9	660
							20/9	174	21/9	358
							27/9	143	28/9	379
							4/10	284	5/10	482
							9/10 - 20/10 - Recess
							25/10	351	26/10	397
							1/11	175	2/11	533
							8/11	227	9/11	417
							15/11	102	16/11	405
							22/11	163	23/11	412
							29/11	168	30/11	574
							6/12	195	7/12	447
							13/12	143	14/12	381
							17/12 - 31/12 - Recess
Total		3,265		Total		6,072	Total	7,346	Total	17,599
Average		251		Average		467	Average	216	Average	517

1 January to 31 December 2001					1 January to 30 June 2002
Number of Visitors					Number of Visitors
Wednesday			Thursday		Wednesday		Thursday
1/1 - 5/1 - Recess					1/1 - 4/1 - Recess
10/1	91		11/1	318	9/1	141	10/1	324
17/1	142		18/1	436	16/1	117	17/1	369
24/1	108		25/1	524	23/1	200	24/1	403
31/1	201		1\2	474	30/1	123	31/1	416
7/2	140		8/2	322	6/2	226	7/2	330
14/2	262		15/2	442	13/2	616	14/2	429
19/2 - 23/2 - Recess					18/2 - 22/2 - Recess
28/2		100	1/3	471	27/2	330	28/2	616
7/3		186	8/3	431	6/3	182	7/3	525
14/3		404	15/3	886	13/3	357	14/3	628
21/3		168	22/3	530	20/3	401	21/3	621
28/3		130	29/3	501	27/3	283	28/3	501
4/4		152	5/4	499	1\4 - 13/4 - Recess
9/4 - 20/4 - Recess					17/4	204	18/4	514
25/4		241	26/4	387	24/4	314	25/4	592
2/5		158	3/5	433	1/5	269	2/5	454
9/5		131	10/5	586	8/5	197	9/5	608
16/5		205	17/5	412	15/5	277	16/5	740
23/5		150	24/5	526	20/5 - 7/6 - Committee Work and Parliament meeting in Aberdeen
30/5		269	31/5	357
6/6		332	7/6	113	12/6	294	13/6	464
13/6		332	14/6	510	19/6	230	20/6	671
20/6		195	21/6	605	26/6	168	27/6	621
27/6		180	28/6	361
2/7 - 31/8 - Recess
5/9		182	6/9	340
12/9		166	13/9	542
19/9		426	20/9	604
26/9		291	27/9	570
3/10		359	4/10	682
8/10 - 19/10 - Recess
24/10		338	25/10	707
31/10		181	1/11	746
7/11		239	8/11	603
14/11		256	15/11	504
21/11		253	22/11	608
28/11		181	29/11	821
5/12		207	6/12	681
12/12		201	13/12	392
19/12		118	20/12	226
24/12 - 31/12 - Recess
Total		7,676	Total	18,150	Total	4,929	Total	9,826
Average		213	Average	504	Average	259	Average	517

The member may wish to know that the SPCB has already increased the planned seating capacity for press and public in the Holyrood Chamber from 200 to 267 seats, and that there will be further 275 public spaces in committee rooms as against only 53 in our temporary accommodation.

Local authorities have public liability insurance cover for the extent of their own legal liability across all the services, including education, for which they are responsible. Consideration of insurance cover beyond that would be a matter for individual local authorities or for other parties involved in the provision of the activities referred to.

The information of the landscaping costs are as follows:

Category	£ million
Construction	7.7
Fees	1.9
Land acquisition	0.3
Risk and Inflation	1.8
Muster Room	0.5
VAT	2.0
Total	14.2

The SPCB and the Holyrood Project Group consider opportunities for cost savings on an on-going basis across the whole project, including savings for the landscaping development. Decisions to implement cost saving measures are taken whenever the quality of the finished product and the integrity of the architects' design concepts will not be materially compromised and are balanced against the impact on other works packages and any programme implications. The cost savings information is not collated in the detailed manner requested, and no separate exercise is being undertaken.