Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Governmentis committed to doing more to empower individuals and communities to have more controlover their own lives and more choice in how their needs are met. To this end, weare holding a series of meetings with a range of stakeholders who have a particularexpertise in empowering communities, local community activists and communityplanning partners with a view to developing practical proposals. We are also consideringhow best to develop the role of community councils. This will include identifyingpilots for supporting them to play a greater role in community planning and alsofor allowing them to have some control over existing spending in their area to meetspecific local priorities.

I am pleased to announcethe appointment of the reconstituted Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM).

While we would not look to CoRWM to provideadvice to the Scottish Government on deep geological disposal, we will still be actively engaging with CoRWMon interim storage and research and how the committee’s work in these areas willsupport our commitment to dealing responsibly with Scotland’s radioactive waste following our announcement in June (S3W-1426).

The reconstituted committee will play a key role in scrutinisinggovernment’s and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s (NDA) plans for the long-termmanagement, including Interim storage and disposal,of radioactive waste. It will provide on-going independent advice to the ScottishGovernment, the UK Government and the devolved administrations for Wales and NorthernIreland.

Further information, including biographies of new CoRWM members,is available at: 

www.corwm.org.uk.

Local authoritiesare responsible for ensuring that the schools in their area, whatever thedesign, are capable of providing an appropriate environment for effectivelearning and teaching. Consideration of the educational merits of open plan, orsemi-open plan, classrooms is therefore a matter for local authorities.

The ScottishGovernment is keen to ensure that all major sporting events, including the 2012games, can provide an opportunity to increase sports participation in Scotland and inspire people to become involved in sport inmany ways. We are confident that top Scottish athletes competing in the OlympicGames will inspire a generation of young people throughout Scotland to get involved in sport and benefit from thelifelong rewards of a healthy and active lifestyle.

We must berealistic about the potential benefits from the games but at the same timecontinue to work hard to secure opportunities and benefits for differentsectors across Scotland.

However, we mustensure that opportunities presented by the Olympic and Paralympic Games are notat the detriment of funding to Scottish sports. The Scottish Governmentstrongly opposes the diversion of monies from the National Lottery good causesand have asked the UK Government to look seriously at other funding streams forthe additional costs of the games.

The loss oflottery funding to good causes in Scotland as a resultof the Games will be approximately £150 million, £13 million from sport.

The purpose of theHousing Supply Task Force is to promote action and to make a practical differenceto the delivery of housing across Scotland. The taskforce will be challenging those with responsibility for delivery and pressing forchange where this is hampering housing supply rather than writing reports. Whileit is not the intention to prepare a formal report, the detailed studies of specificissues that the task force will undertake are likely to produce conclusions of widerinterest and these will be published. Minutes of meetings and other documentationwill be placed on the Scottish Government website and I intend to keep Parliamentinformed of progress. Fundamentally, though, the role of the task force is not toanalyse the problems of housing supply – it is to press for solutions.

The Scottish Governmentexpect to consult later this year on a proposal to extend crofting tenure inScotland to the island of Arran and the remaining parts of the Highlands andIslands Enterprise area not currently within the Crofting Counties.

The proposedextension will not affect the arrangements for offering grant assistance tocrofters within the crofting counties, as defined in the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993. Support arrangements for crofting arepresently under consideration by the Committee of Inquiry on Crofting, which isexpected to report to ministers early in 2008.

As an executive non-departmentalpublic body (NDPB), the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) is fullyaccountable to ministers and the Scottish Parliament for the money it spendsand the services it provides. As an NDPB the SQA must operate within aframework of controls which is monitored and enforced through a sponsor team inthe Scottish Government’s Schools Directorate. The framework compriseslegislative measures and a number of sets of guidance including the ScottishPublic Finance Manual and a Management Statement and Financial Memorandum.Under the framework all NDPBs are required, among other things, to make anexplicit commitment to openness and to deliver value for money.

The SQA haspublicly declared that it is committed to openness, transparency and the publicinterest in the exercise of its functions. It demonstrates this commitment bypublishing Board minutes, corporate plans, annual reports, annual accounts andother corporate and operational documents. The SQA also fully recognises andembraces its obligations under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and has made clear the internal policiesit has established to meet these obligations.

The SQA’s statutoryauditor is the Auditor General for Scotland (AGS), who is responsible to the Scottish Parliament for ensuring propriety and value for money in thespending of public funds. The Auditor General has currently appointedAudit Scotland to undertake the annual audit of SQA’saccounts in order to ensure that they present a true and fair view of SQA’sfinancial affairs. Once the SQA’s accounts have been audited and the AGS hasconsidered the results of the audit the accounts are laid before Parliament. TheAuditor General may also undertake investigations into the use of resources bySQA and whether they achieve economy, efficiency and effectiveness. The AuditorGeneral published the results of his review of SQA’s performance managementarrangements in November 2006.

The chief executiveof the SQA is also its accountable officer and as such has a specific, personalresponsibility for the propriety and regularity of the SQA’s public finances. Asaccountable officer, the chief executive is responsible for ensuring that SQA’sresources are used economically, efficiently and effectively. If called upon todo so, the chief executive is expected to appear before the Audit Committee of the Scottish Parliament to answer questions concerning the SQA’s expenditureand receipts and related activities.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

Grants paid to registered social landlords, through ScottishHomes approved development programme from 1989-90 to 1995-96 were as follows:

Financial Year	Amount (£ Million)
1989-90	202.600
1990-91	198.642
1991-92	224.451
1992-93	266.797
1993-94	274.127
1994-95	277.93
1995-96	287.119

 

We do not hold recordsof any other public money registered social landlords might have received duringthis period.

The Scottish QualificationsAuthority (SQA) is required to meet the full cost of exam delivery from charges.Every year the SQA prepares a draft budget and, as part of the budgeting process,reviews its charging levels. The SQA’s draft budget and its proposals for chargeincreases are then considered by ministers for approval. In each of the two mostrecent years, 2006-07 and 2007-08, SQA’s charges have increased by 3%.

The recordedcrime statistics do not identify details of individual crimes, such as thenature of items which have been stolen, however police forces may be able tosupply this information if contacted directly.