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The research report Disability Equality and Scottish Local Authorities: Access to Services, was published in July 2005, prior to the introduction of the public sector duty to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people, which came into force in December 2006. The report was focussed on local authorities and neither the previous Labour/Liberal Democrat Executive nor the Scottish Government has taken any action specifically in response. However, the public sector duty to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people will help local authorities to address the issues raised in the report. A range of guidance documents produced by the Disability Rights Commission is available to assist public bodies to deliver the duty, including guidance specifically written for local authorities.

Shared public services projects do not necessarily mean larger contracts nor the automatic exclusion of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It will be for individual projects to consider the possible impact on suppliers.

For consistency with other parts of the Scottish Government in calculating spend, the Scottish Procurement Directorate defines businesses on number of staff:

Small business - less than 50 staff.

Small and medium-sized enterprises - less than 250 staff.

The Federation of Small Businesses has agreed that numbers of staff should be used to define organisations in terms of small and medium-sized enterprises, where numbers of staff are not available, financial data should be used. There are no plans at present to change these definitions.

The Scottish Government has held extensive discussions with small and  medium-sized enterprise (SME) representatives including Scottish Chambers of Commerce, CBI Scotland and the Federation of Small Businesses. These discussions have led to the introduction of a number of measures to help SMEs gain access to more business opportunities from the public sector. These include a Suppliers Charter, National Advertising Portal and the Single Point of Enquiry. At the end of December 2007, Scottish Procurement Directorate were involved in launching the Tendering for Public Contracts document designed as a short guide to help SMEs participate in public sector procurement.

There is guidance available on working with small and medium-sized enterprises available on the Scottish Government website.

The Scottish Public Procurement Toolkit provides Best Practice detailed guidance on procurement for the public sector. It gives emphasis to market factors in public procurement and has been adopted by all the procurement centres of expertise. EU law prohibits discrimination on grounds of locality or nationality and it is not possible to give preference to suppliers on grounds that they are locally based.

Applicants to the Rural Development Contracts “ Rural Priorities can apply online from home where they have internet access or using facilities provided for community use, for example, in public libraries.

We recognise that online submission and associated guidance may provide challenges for a limited number of those wishing to apply for funding under Rural Development Contracts - Rural Priorities. The SRDP Implementation Team have taken action to assess the scope and nature of any barriers to access and are putting in place measures to provide appropriate assistance to overcome these.

Due to the number and range of options available (156 from new entrants, village halls, forestry biodiversity and renewable energy) and the focus on regional priorities (local solutions for national outcomes) a manual system would be unmanageable for applicants who with the online system can quickly and easily focus on the elements which are pertinent to their business.

We believe that we are complying with the Equality and Human Rights legislation and that we have not been discriminatory in introducing online delivery of Rural Development Contracts “ Rural Priorities (RDC RP).

Due to the number and range of options available (156 from new entrants, village halls, to forestry biodiversity and renewable energy) and the focus on regional priorities (local solutions for national outcomes) a manual system would be unmanageable for applicants who with the online system can quickly and easily focus on the elements which are pertinent to their business.

We have no such plans.

Expressions of interest in the matched funding to create sustainable travel demonstration communities are being sought from local authorities by 30 April. I will write to you after these bids have been received giving details of the bids and place a copy of that letter in Scottish Parliament Information Centre.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-11087 on 16 April 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Scottish Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.''