Seòmar agus comataidhean

I can confirm the increase in the City of Edinburgh Council''s provisional 2010‘11 revenue funding is 1.76%. Local government remains committed to implementing the concordat. The strength of the concordat lies in enshrining a realistic, flexible and sustainable approach to the issues that face local and national government. Recent joint discussions have produced a framework for further sustained progress on a number of the key concordat commitments at a time of increasing financial pressure on the Scottish Government and on local authorities, given the reductions in public expenditure imposed by the UK Government.

The terms of the Norland Managed Services contract will be provided on request to Procurement Services.

The cost of the Norland Managed Services contract is published on the Parliament''s website and updated quarterly. 

Detailed below is the yearly breakdown of expenditure under this contract since contract commencement in July 2004. 

Year	Cost (exc. VAT)
July 2004 “ June2005	£427,176
July 2005 “ June 2006	£596,986
July 2006 “ June 2007	£845,113
July 2007 “ June 2008	£1,500,693
July 2008 “ June 2009	£2,625,994
Total Expenditure to June2009	£5,995,962

 

The annual contract costs include spend against planned and reactive maintenance and project work.

The total expenditure exceeds the initial estimated contract value of £1.1 million.

Holyrood is a unique building, bespoke in its design, and as the building ages this has an impact on both planned and reactive maintenance. We constantly review and develop our maintenance plans to ensure asset performance meets business needs and cost-effective solutions are delivered.

Cleaning and coating of window frames, along with any other minor works required to keep the building wind and watertight, will be a requirement of the new high level fabric maintenance contract.

The SPCB is currently undertaking a tender exercise to procure high level fabric maintenance services for a seven year period. The contract is due to be awarded by mid March 2010. The value of this contract will be published on the Parliament''s website following contract award.

Some routine maintenance to windows will also be undertaken through the MITIE maintenance contract which commences on 31 January 2010.

Lighting maintenance is covered within the current building maintenance contract. The SPCB has a contract for carpet supply and installation with MJM Flooring (Scotland) Ltd. The replacement of carpets can also be procured through the building maintenance contract with Mitie, which will commence on 31 Jan 2010.

Details of these contracts are published on the Parliament''s website and are updated quarterly.

Those arrangements already exist. Scottish Government core funding for higher education institutions is provided through the Scottish Funding Council (SFC). The SFC has a remit to ensure that institutions are making proper arrangements for financial management and accounting, and are using SFC funds in ways which are consistent with the purpose for which they have been allocated. The Chief Executive of SFC is ultimately answerable for the use of these funds and may be called to appear before the Public Audit Committee to give evidence and answer questions. The Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 2005 provides that the Auditor General for Scotland may inspect the accounts and accounting records of all institutions funded by the SFC.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise is responsible for determining best value in the allocation of its resources consistent with delivery of the objectives and priorities agreed with Scottish ministers and set out in its Corporate Plan. I have written to HIE''s Acting Chief Executive, Sandy Brady, asking him to respond to you directly on this issue.

The detailed process to evaluate the bids submitted was set out to all bidders prior to their preparing bids. The requirement to select the successful bidder was on the basis of the Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT). This required the board to consider each of the tenders on a qualitative and quantitative basis. MEAT was defined in the process, and discussed with bidders, as the offer that provides the greatest ratio of quality points for each pound of price.

The qualitative part of the evaluation considered aspects in three key areas, namely; design, logistics and commercial and the detailed evaluation process set out to bidders was followed rigorously by the board.

The quantitative or financial score was based on a pricing structure that bidders were required to follow and is part of the New Engineering Contract (NEC) 3 suite of documents recommended for use by the Office of Government Commerce. This is an industry standard form of contract familiar to all bidders. Key elements of the financial evaluation were:

¢ The target and maximum price offered by bidders, and in particular affordability, and

¢ The bidders proposals for sharing both cost under and over spends (Pain/Gain).

Due diligence was undertaken on all bids to consider legal, financial and technical requirements that had been included in the OJEU advert. For further detail on the evaluation process I refer the member to the answer to questions S3W-29005 and S3W-29006 on 1 December 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

A number of parliamentary questions and items of ministerial correspondence following the announcement of preferred bidder have been received and appropriately addressed.

Financial services, including investment business, banking and deposit-taking, collective investment schemes and insurance is a reserved matter in accordance with Schedule 5 of the Scotland Act 1998.

Guidance on the banking arrangements that should be adopted by the Scottish Administration (including the core Scottish Government and Executive Agencies) and other organisations, including bodies sponsored by the Scottish Government is contained in the section on Banking in the Scottish Public Finance Manual:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/Finance/spfm/banking#a1.

I have asked Willie Pretswell, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

The information requested is shown in the following table. This gives the snapshot population at the end of June in each year.

Remand Prisoners With No Fixed Abode on 30 June 2005-08

	2005		2006		2007		2008
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
Barlinnie	16	5	17	4	15	3	34	6
Aberdeen	3	5	1	1	1	1	6	5
Cornton Vale	4	6	5	4	6	6	13	9
Dumfries	5	16	5	14	-	-	4	8
Edinburgh	7	5	7	3	4	2	11	4
Greenock	4	5	2	2	3	3	2	2
Inverness	2	6	3	5	5	8	4	6
Perth	3	2	2	1	4	2	-	-
Polmont	2	2	1	1	2	2	-	-
Kilmarnock	2	3	3	4	-	-	8	7
All	48	4	46	3	40	3	82	5

Source: Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services.

Notes:

1. Some of these percentages are based on small numbers and therefore year-on-year fluctuations should be interpreted with caution.

2. This table consists of those prisoners whose address information on 30 June in the given years was no fixed abode. The address information on liberation from prison may be different.

3. The following symbols are used throughout:

-nil,

*less than 0.5,

n/a - not available.

I have asked Willie Pretswell, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

The information requested is shown in the following table. This gives the snapshot population at the end of June in each year.

Sentenced Prisoners with No Fixed Abode on 30 June 2005-08

	2005		2006		2007		2008
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
Barlinnie	45	3	38	3	40	3	42	3
Aberdeen	7	3	6	3	7	3	6	3
Cornton Vale	7	3	6	2	2	1	10	2
Dumfries	10	5	11	5	8	4	11	6
Edinburgh	15	2	24	3	22	3	25	3
Glenochil	12	3	23	5	32	5	21	3
Greenock	9	3	11	4	10	3	10	3
Inverness	4	3	4	3	5	4	5	4
Low Moss	7	2	3	1
Perth	14	3	10	2	4	1	3	*
Peterhead	23	8	20	7	19	6	19	6
Polmont	9	1	4	1	3	*	2	*
Shotts	24	5	22	4	14	3	20	4
Kilmarnock	40	7	38	6	47	7	42	6
Open Estate	6	2	8	2	10	2	4	1
All	232	3	228	3	223	3	220	3

Source: Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services.

Notes:

1. Some of these percentages are based on small numbers and therefore year-on-year fluctuations should be interpreted with caution.

2. Low Moss closed in May 2007.

3. This table consists of those prisoners whose address information on 30 June in the given years was no fixed abode. The address information on liberation from prison may be different.

4. The following symbols are used throughout:

-nil,

*less than 0.5,

n/a - not available.