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All transport projects for which funding is sought from the Scottish Executive are subject to appraisal under the Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance.

The provision of funds for the UK rail network is a reserved matter. The Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) has administered funding on a UK basis since it was established in 2001. The SRA publish their strategic plan annually, a copy of the 2002 and 2003 documents are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. numbers 18609, 26628 and 26626). The strategic plan sets out the projects that the SRA is seeking to support in Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-255 today. 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/webapp/search_wa.

Figures across the whole of the time period requested are not available on a consistent basis. This is because the method of funding FE colleges changed when responsibility for the methodology transferred to the Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC) from 2000-01.Because of the fundamental role that FE colleges have in encouraging people of all ages and from different backgrounds to participate in post-school learning, a large proportion of the resources made available to FE colleges by SFEFC are associated in some way with the promotion of social inclusion. The Scottish Executive expects SFEFC to exercise its the judgement and expertise in allocating the resources placed at its disposal, and does not instruct SFEFC on the proportion of funding which must be applied to social inclusion initiatives. The figures in the following table show, from 2000-01, the sums which SFEFC made available to further education colleges to cover the additional costs of social inclusion over and above the standard funding per student place.

Year	£
2000-01	5,208,896
2001-02	9,891,576
2002-03	10,986,126

Source: Scottish Further Education Funding Council.

No funding has been sought from the Scottish Executive for such a study. The opening or re-opening of railway stations is generally considered a local transport issue and as such we would expect the relevant local authority to take a project forward. It is a matter for Scottish Borders Council to determine whether the restoration of a station at Reston is one of its transport priorities and to identify appropriate funding for a feasibility study. Any proposal to re-open a station at Reston would also require the Scottish Borders Council to consult the Strategic Rail Authority.

No.

No.

There is no information currently available on the future provision of legal services in Peebles. It is hoped that the on-going discussions between Scottish Court Service, Scottish Borders Council and Lothian and Borders Police will culminate in court services being re-established in Peebles.If court services cannot be re-established in Peebles, provision of legal services could be considered as part of the consultation process on the delivery of court services.

Social Exclusion can take many forms and is often complex and multi-dimensional. The Social Justice Milestones are used throughout Scotland to measure a range of issues that can lead to social exclusion. The Scottish Executive is ensuring that the needs of rural areas are identified through urban/rural disaggregation of social statistics. For example, the Social Justice Annual Report's technical report disaggregated 12 of the social justice milestones on an urban and rural basis. A compendium of rural statistics - Social Focus on Urban Rural Scotland - was published on 22 May 2003.

Formulaic funding for social inclusion is provided by the Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC) via the three strands shown as follows:Entry Costs Social Inclusion Premium: This element reflects SFEFC's on-going commitment to support the development of further education as a means of giving new opportunities to people from socially deprived areas. The premium supports the extra costs colleges bear when engaging with socially excluded groups and provides an incentive for colleges to increase their provision for these groups. Colleges will receive a premium worth £57.95 in 2003-04 for students domiciled within the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland.Retention and Achievement Social Inclusion Premium: This element acknowledges the difficulty in meeting the on-going support needs of students from under-represented groups as they progress through their courses. Colleges will receive a premium for 2003-04 worth £9.94 per unit of funding generated by students domiciled within the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland.Remoteness Element: SFEFC has a duty, on behalf of the Scottish ministers, to ensure that there is adequate and efficient provision of FE in Scotland. It is recognised that there are additional costs, for what are often small colleges, associated with operating in remote and island areas of Scotland. The remoteness element aims to reflect the additional costs which these colleges necessarily bear. Each qualifying remote college receives an institutional element (£191,359 for 2003-04), and the sum of £30.70 per head based on the number of students whose home address is in a sparsely populated area.It is also recognised that colleges operating on islands or in extremely remote locations can face even higher financial burdens due to their location. Therefore, both the above institutional and student based elements are uplifted by a further 30% for island locations and 15% for extremely remote mainland locations.