Seòmar agus comataidhean

There is no protocol betweenthe Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and ACPOS in relation to allegationsof contraventions of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.There is, however, a protocol of this nature between ACPOS and the Electoral Commission.

Crown Counsel havenow taken the decision that there will be a fatal accident inquiry into the circumstancessurrounding the death of Christopher or Pascal Norris.

Police forces havea duty, under section 17(1)(b) of the Police (Scotland) Act 1967, where an offence has been committed to take all such lawful measures,and make such reports to the appropriate prosecutor, as may be necessary for thepurpose of bringing the offender to justice. Such action is taken under appropriateguidance from the Lord Advocate.

The Art Advisory Group was firstestablished in 2005. Its membership included MSPs and three experts. The three expertshave agreed to be members of the new group. The SPCB invited expressions of interestfrom MSPs on 8 October 2007 for the remainder of positions but did not require membersto provide details of background or expertise in design or fine art.

The following members expressedtheir interest:

Labour (4): Patricia FergusonMSP, Ken Macintosh MSP, Frank McAveety MSP, Cathy Peattie MSP

SNP (4): Roseanna CunninghamMSP, Christine Grahame MSP, Ian McKee MSP, Mike Russell MSP

Liberal Democrats (3): AlisonMcInnes MSP, Jeremy Purvis MSP, Jamie Stone MSP,

Conservative (1): Ted BrocklebankMSP

Other (1): Robin Harper MSP.

The matter was considered bythe SPCB on 7 November 2007 and given the level of interest in membership SPCB askedofficials to discuss membership of the group with the parties to establish a practicalnumber of members. The outcomes of these discussions with parties was presentedto SPCB and approved by them at their meeting on 19 December 2007. There was noformal communication back to individual members who were not selected in advanceof the confirmation of membership by the SPCB.

The informationis not available in the format requested, but I understand that 450 nurses havebeen supported to undertake this course.

The value of the currentfund is £13 million. To date £9 million has been allocated from the fund, therefore,at this time £4 million is unallocated.

However, six additionalprojects to the value of £1.3 million are currently under consideration throughthe Strategic Timber Transport Scheme and another four, to the value of £700,000,are under revision by the applicants. If all are accepted this will leave £2 millionunallocated, pending a final round of submissions in January 2008.

Pre-submissions indicatethat potential applications for the final round on 31 January 2008 already total £1.9 million. If this came to fruition,then only £100,000 of the original fund would be unallocated by the end completiondate of 31 March 2008.

Due to the long lead-intimes associated with many of the approved partnership projects, there has beena delay in actual uptake of the grant monies. Projected total cash expenditure inthe life of the Fund, by the end of March 2008, is approximately £4 million. Thereforethe carry over into the next tranche of the fund could be as much as £9 million,dependant on performance of the projects up to 31 March 2008.

I have today announcedthat the fund will continue for a further three years until March 2011. I have agreedan allocation of £5 million per annum, a total of £15 million, to finance carry-overprojects approved before 31 March 2008 and future projects thatcomply with the conditions of the Strategic Timber Transport Fund. The fund willcontinue to be managed and delivered through Forestry Commission Scotland. As partof their continuous improvement process, Forestry Commission Scotland, in conjunction,with The Strategic Timber Transport Forum, have commissioned a review of the currentawarding process, to explore ways of improving the effectiveness and efficiencyof the delivery mechanism.

Dates of future roundsof applications will be announced some time after March 2008.

At the end of Novemberthere were around 18,000 substantive staff still to be assimilated to the new Agendafor Change pay bands across NHSScotland. However, the substantial majority of thosehave been through the job evaluation process, and therefore know which pay bandthey are to be assigned to.

A table outliningthe position with substantive staff by health board and profession at the end ofOctober has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib.number 44256). This is the latest date that data at that level of detail is available.

This information isnot held centrally.

The implementationof Agenda for Change locally, including populating job matching and evaluation panels,is a matter for each individual health board in partnership with the NHS tradesunions and professional organisations.

I can also reportthat health boards are close to concluding the implementation of Agenda for Changepay, with the vast majority of staff now assimilated to the new pay bands and inreceipt of arrears of pay. There has been no target set for conclusion, buthealth boards are aware that it needs to be done as quickly and effectively as possible.Progress continues to be closely monitored and supported where possible by the ScottishGovernment.

The following awardshave been made;

Local Authority	Grant Offer
Moray	£455,000
West Lothian	£22,000
South Lanarkshire	£836,000
East Ayrshire	£6,672,000
Fife	£3,638,000
City of Edinburgh	£7,900,000