Seòmar agus comataidhean

The First Minister has had no correspondence with the governments of signatory countries of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty subsequent to his letter of 15 October 2007 and the responses received to this, which were published on the Scottish Government website on 4 August 2008 http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/FOI/Disclosures/2008/08/responses.

The corporate TV services used by the Scottish Government are managed by Information Services and Information Systems (ISIS). ISIS does not have any subscriptions to Sky or Setanta for their TV output.

There are two non-executive members of the Transport Scotland Board, Dr Iain Docherty and Dr Jacqueline Redmond. Both also sit on the Audit Committee, which Dr Redmond chairs. Their responsibilities are to advise the chief executive and to provide independent and informed contributions on strategic policy and delivery issues, bringing an external perspective to the work of the board.

The total actual cost for the First Minister''s office for 2008-09 was £619,940. The following table shows the comparison of costs over the last three years:

	2006-07	2007-08 (Part Year - Previous Administration)	2007-08 (Part Year - New Administration)	2008-09
First Minister''s Office Costs	£638,356	£73,714	£523,862	£619,940
Total Private Office Costs (including First Minister Office Costs)	£2,901,721	£464,908	£2,031,273	£2,475,412

 

All claims under the Single Farm Payment Scheme (SFPS) are paid once the statutory eligibility and validation checks, including physical inspections as appropriate, have been completed. It follows that any claims remaining unpaid are because we are unable to confirm eligibility or in some cases, we are in dispute with the business concerned about its eligibility: consequently, there are no eligible claims outstanding for the years 2005 to 2007 (for the position on 2008 see below).

The Single Farm Payment Scheme (SFPS) was introduced in 2005 and unlike some of the traditional schemes, does not provide for a date by which payments must be made. The European Commission provided for a payment window that opens on 1 December and closes on 30 June each year. In order to answer the second part of the question, we have calculated the proportions of payments made after 30 June in each of the scheme years concerned:-

2005 “ 11.8% of all businesses received a final settlement of their SFPS claim after 30 June 2006. In monetary terms, this equated to 3.4% of scheme expenditure.

2006 “ 2.28% of all businesses received a final settlement of their SFPS claim after 30 June 2007. In monetary terms, this equated to 0.5% of scheme expenditure.

2007 “ 0.4% of all businesses received a final settlement of their SFPS claim after 30 June 2008. In monetary terms, this equated to 0.2% of scheme expenditure.

As far as the 2008 scheme year is concerned, we are still within the payment window for settlement of eligible claims but, in terms of payment performance to date, 99.8% of producers have been paid a total of around £442 million.

I refer the member to the answer to his question S3W-21400 on 4 March 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.

As I said in my answer to that question, the Outturn Report for 2007-08 can be found on the internet at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/10/Outturn2008. It includes a breakdown of the efficiency savings made in the First Minister''s portfolio.

The 2008-09 Outturn Report is scheduled to be published in October and will, like previous reports, be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.

The schools and hospitals visited by the First Minister in 2008-09 are set out in the following table.

Name of School	Location	Date
Mearns Castle High School	Newton Mearns	17 April 2008
Sleat	Skye	26 August 2008
Royal Blind School	Edinburgh	2 September 2008
Donaldson''s School	Linlithgow	17 September 2008
Dumfries and Galloway College	Dumfries	11 February 2009
Borders College	Hawick	4 March 2009
Hawick High School	Hawick	4 March 2009
Arran High School	Arran	23 March 2009
Name of Hospital	Location	Date
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary	Aberdeen	10 September 2007
Raigmore Hospital	Inverness	5 August 2008
Western General Hospital	Edinburgh	20 August 2008
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary	Aberdeen	29 August 2008
Forth Valley Hospital	Larbert	25 March 2009

 

The prisons visited by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice in 2008-09 are set out in the following table.

Name of Prison	Location	Date
HMP Cornton Vale	Stirling	12 February 2008
HMP Barlinnie	Glasgow	14 February 2008
HMP Addiewell	Addiewell	3 March 2008
HMP Cornton Vale	Stirling	17 June 2008
HMP Saughton	Edinburgh	22 August 2008
HMP Barlinnie	Glasgow	10 October 2008
HMYOI Polmont	Falkirk	17 December 2008
HMP Kibble	Bishopton	29 December 2008
HMP Saughton	Edinburgh	27 April 2009

 

The information requested is not held centrally. The Care Commission gathers data from some care services on the number of staff who have a recognised nursing qualification and/or SVQ HSC375 Administer Medication to Individuals. Further information can be obtained from the Commission''s Chief Executive:

Ms Jacquie Roberts

Chief Executive

Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care

Compass House

11 Riverside Drive

DUNDEE

DD1 4NY

T: 01382 207100

E: Jacquie.roberts@carecommission.com.

The Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Bill, which was introduced before the Scottish Parliament on 5 March 2009, sets out procedures for the withholding of information which would otherwise require to be disclosed to an accused person in criminal proceedings, where disclosure of that information would be likely to cause substantial prejudice to an important public interest.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-21400, on 4 March 2009 and S3W-24040, on 27 May. 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.

The Outturn Report for 2007-08 can be found on the internet at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/10/Outturn2008.

It includes a breakdown of all efficiency savings made; including efficiency savings made in areas within Culture, External Affairs and Tourism Directorate.

The 2008-09 Outturn Report is scheduled to be published in October and will, like previous reports, be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.