Seòmar agus comataidhean

Provision for expenditure related to EU funding channelled through or claimed direct by the Scottish Administration is included in Scotland's Assigned Budget. Common Agricultural Policy-related expenditure is classified as Annually Managed Expenditure (AME) and the level of provision can therefore be adjusted annually and in-year to reflect the actual level of payments. All other expenditure related to EU funding channelled through or claimed direct by the Scottish Administration falls within Scotland's Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL).

We are aware of no such funds. The Commission has proposed an additional 32 million euros across the Community for an emergency scrapping fund, but this has not been approved by the Council and the European Parliament.

At the end of the 2001 decommissioning scheme, 98 vessels had been decommissioned and the licences associated with these vessels contained 317,151 FQA units.The department does not maintain records of the value of FQA units.

The following tables show the annual amounts available from the European Commission for allocation to projects within European Structural Funds programmes for calendar years 2000-03 and relates to the 2000-06 programme period. Most of the figures for 1999 relate to the previous programme period of 1994-99. The majority of this information is not available by local authority area and is therefore broken down by programme or community initiative.Table 1

Programme	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Objective 2: South	See table 21	10.533	10.674	10.794	10.892
Objective 2: East	See table 21	47.294	44.259	41.068	37.608
Objective 2: West	See table 21	84.924	81.050	76.923	72.384
Objective 3	93.6042	78.461	74.517	70.364	66.792
Highlands and Islands Special Transitional Programme	55.1853	56.606	54.548	52.746	50.431
Community Initiative
Leader +	1.3743	0	4.335	4.084	4.660
Urban II	14.4354	0	1.928	2.187	2.187
Equal5	-	-	0.744	12.160	-
Adapt	13.574	-	-	-	-
Employment	5.741	-	-	-	-
Rechar	0.225	-	-	-	-
East Rechar	0.842	-	-	-	-
Resider	10.824	-	-	-	-

Notes: Figures expressed in millions of euros.1. Figures for 1999 relate to the previous programmes. As they do not equate exactly to the current programmes their equivalents are set out in table 2.2. This figure includes the former Objective 3 and now defunct Objective 4 programmes as the two were effectively merged into a new programme as part of the reform of the structural funds in advance of the current programming round.3. Figures for 1999 relate to the Highlands and Islands Objective 1 Programme and to Leader II respectively which both ran from 1994-99. 4. Figure relates to the Urban 1994-99 programme.5. First year of EQUAL was 2001. Allocations not yet made for 2003.Table 2

Programme	1999
Objective 5b Programmes 1994-99
Dumfries and Galloway	22.090
Rural Stirling and Upland Tayside	16.922
North West Grampian	22.226
Borders	21.594
Objective 2: East of Scotland 1997-99	48.856
Objective 2: West of Scotland 1997-99	286.375

Notes: Figures expressed in millions of euros.

There are four Structural Funds available in Scotland:The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) primarily supports productive investment, infrastructure and SME development. The Guidance Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF-Guidance section) supports measures for the adjustment of agricultural structures and rural development. The European Social Fund (ESF) supports measures to promote employment (education systems, vocational training and recruitment aids). The Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance (FIFG) supports measures for the adjustment of structures in this sector, and the "accompanying measures" of the common fisheries policy. These are made available through geographically defined programmes - the Highlands and Islands Special Transitional Programme, the three Objective 2 programmes (East, West and South of Scotland) and Objective 3 which supports training activities outwith the Highlands and Islands area.In addition to these there are four community initiatives, which are worth around 5% of the 2000-06 Structural Fund budget and are pilot projects/test beds for activity which, if effective is then mainstreamed into the larger funds:Interreg III: Cross-border, transnational and interregional co-operation.Urban II: Regeneration of urban areas in crisis. (Port Glasgow and Clydebank South)LEADER+ : Rural development through innovative local projects.EQUAL : Combating discrimination and inequalities in connection with the labour market.

The Scottish Executive makes no direct contribution to match funding at project level. Match funding for European Structural Funded projects is provided by the individual project sponsors, the funding for many of whom comes directly from the Scottish Executive either in whole or in part. This ensures local commitment to local priorities, accountability and value for money.

None. Decommissioned vessels are no longer active in the fishery.

The extent of take up of European Structural Funds by other UK regions is a matter for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Department for Trade and Industry and the European Commission. Take-up by other member states is a matter for the European Commission. The Commission monitors progress and reports to member states through the Committee for the Development and Conversion of the Regions, which is attended by Scottish Executive officials.Take-up is measured by the so-called "N+2" regulation, under which money has to be spent within two years of allocation by the Commission. So far as the 1994-99 programmes are concerned, where project activity finished at the end of 2001, final reports will be considered by the Commission over the coming months. For the 2000-06 programmes, the first test of take-up was at the end of last year, where the majority of Objective 1 and Objective 3 Programmes had to report financial performance against allocations. Again, the information is currently being considered by the Commission.

The department does not maintain records of the value of FQA units. Consequently, no assessment has been made.

The information requested is set out in the following table. In compiling the data, "enforcement" has been taken to mean spending by the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency. A detailed breakdown of figures on "sea fisheries" is not readily available: data will include some expenditure which may not be related to that. To allow proper year-on-year comparisons, all numbers are on a cash basis.

	2003-04Budget(£ Million)	2004-05Plans(£ Million)
Enforcement	13.4(14.3%)	14.2(32.5%)
Decommissioning and Transitional Aid	50.0*(53.4%)	Nil
Fisheries Research Services	16.9(18.1%)	16.4(37.5%)
Other	13.3(14.2%)	13.1(30%)
Total	93.6	43.7

Note:*The 2003-04 Budget presented to the Parliament makes no provision for this spending, which will be made during 2003-04 in a Revised Budget, but the planned spending on the schemes is included here for completeness.