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There is no formal guidance setting out how agencies should engage with representative offices in Scotland before travelling to their countries.

There is no law preventing householders and businesses from clearing ice and snow or other blockages from public footpaths. While there is no legal responsibility for them to do so, we would encourage people to take this kind of practical step to contribute to the winter resilience of their communities.

Being a good neighbour and clearing paths of ice and snow is the kind of practical step that many of us can take during spells of cold weather.

The legal position is that there is no law preventing people from clearing snow and ice on the pavement outside or on paths to their house, business or any other building. Provided they are careful, use common sense and don''t do anything which would be likely to cause harm or distress to others, it is highly unlikely that they will be found responsible for any accidents. Indeed, it is equally important that users of areas affected by snow and ice also take personal responsibility for their own safety.

On 13 December 2010, the 15th meeting of the British Irish Council was held on the Isle of Man. We had a successful meeting attended by ministers from all eight member administrations. The Minister for Parliamentary Business and I represented the Scottish Government.

The meeting began with a discussion on current economic developments and the measures being taken by each administration to tackle these issues. The Scottish Government noted the adverse impact on capital investment programmes of the recent UK Government''s spending review. The council agreed that these serious economic challenges reinforce the value of sharing information and knowledge amongst members, as the respective administrations work towards economic recovery.

The council then welcomed a paper on digital inclusion with all council members recognising the increasing importance of digital inclusion to equality of opportunity and for the delivery of more efficient public services. As with previous summits, the meeting received progress reports and agreed a plan for future work on the subjects currently being taken forward by council members. These are drugs misuse; demography; digital inclusion; the environment; energy, both grid infrastructure and marine renewables; collaborative spatial planning; early years; indigenous, minority and lesser-used languages; transport, and social inclusion

The council considered a number of operational issues regarding the establishment of the Standing Secretariat in Edinburgh, and agreed the Scottish Government''s proposals on cost sharing and a draft running cost budget. I also gave the council the Scottish Government''s commitment to bring forward details of the proposed accommodation for the Standing Secretariat once the opening date has been agreed by the council.

I am placing a copy of the Communiqu© that was issued by the British Irish Council after the meeting in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 52223).

The National Strategy for Self-directed Support, published on 23 November, makes it clear that local authorities should allow people who need support the right to choose how that support is provided and to take as much control of managing that support as they wish. Self-directed support options include taking an individual budget as a direct payment, choosing how the individual budget is allocated, or a combination of these. People may also choose to leave the local authority to arrange their support. Our draft Self-directed Support Bill includes a duty on local authorities to give people assessed as needing support the opportunity to direct their own support.

Individuals affected by brain injury, who have been assessed as requiring a social support service, are eligible for a direct payment. Under no circumstances should a person be refused a direct payment based purely on their condition or injury.

The circumstances in which direct payments are not appropriate are where a person:

is excluded by current regulations

is incapable of consenting to a direct payment and does not have a guardian or attorney

is barred because of gross misuse of a direct payment.

A full list of circumstances where people are ineligible for a direct payment can be found in the Community Care (Direct Payments) (Scotland) Regulations 2003, section 2:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2003/243/regulation/2/made.

Self directed support guidance was issued to local authorities in July 2007 and is available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/181224/0051499.pdf. This guidance primarily focuses on Direct Payments. On 23 November, the Scottish Government and COSLA published a joint strategy that outlines a 10 year vision for self-directed support. We have also set up an implementation group with COSLA and ADSW (Association of Directors of Social Work) representation. I expect this group will consider the need for further guidance as part of the delivery of its action plan.

Comparisons of rail passenger numbers in Scotland and Great Britain are published in the Scottish Government''s Main Transport Trends 2010 publication (Tables SGB1 to SGB3). A copy is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 52059).

Comparisons of rail passenger kilometres in Scotland with EU and OECD countries can be found in the Scottish Government''s Scottish Transport Statistics 2009 publication (Table 13.1). A copy is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 50075).

The Scottish Executive''s administration outturn costs since 1999 are shown below:

Year Ended 31 March	Resource	Capital	Total “ Cash Terms	Total “ Constant 2009-10 Prices
	£ million	£ million	£ million	£ million
1999	202	12	214	279
2000	171	20	191	244
2001	194	10	204	257
2002	187	18	205	253
2003	196	10	206	246
2004	214	11	225	262
2005	231	15	246	278
2006	246	15	261	290
2007	239	14	253	272
2008	251	14	265	277
2009	234	16	250	254
2010	261	15	276	276

Note: Structural changes that have taken place over the period affect any year on year comparison. For example the Scottish Government has absorbed activities from a number of bodies transferring into the core Scottish Government as part of the simplification of the public sector landscape (such as parts of Communities Scotland, and the Fisheries Research Service and Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency). There have also been significant new initiatives launched over that period such as the Public Procurement Reform programme.

During the peak construction activity around 900 jobs were created. In addition, First ScotRail has announced 130 permanent posts associated with the new Airdrie-Bathgate railway.