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The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) resources and functions are not assigned specifically to either urban or non-urban sources of pollution, therefore the following estimate of costs is very crude.

Approximately two thirds of SEPA''s activities are associated in some way with the tracing of urban pollution, accounting for approximately £53 million and 900 staff. This staffing estimate includes those staff directly involved in the regulation and monitoring of potential urban impacts (such as environment protection officers, legal staff and science staff) and also SEPA''s support service staff such as human resources, admin and finance.

Local authorities in Scotland receive, as part of the financial support from the Scottish Government, a contribution towards funding of air quality assessment work in their areas. The Scottish Government also provides grant support of about £1.5 million per annum to urban local authorities who have declared air quality management areas under the Environment Act 1995.

The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) aims to control all impacts on the water environment with the aim of achieving good ecological status for water bodies by 2015. The directive introduced river basin management plans (RBMPs) to manage our water environment. These are required to set out the environmental pressures and what can be done to address them. This includes steps to mitigate the effects of climate change on rivers and lakes. Draft RBMPs for the Solway Tweed river basin districts have now been consulted on, and SEPA will publish both RBMPs in December 2009.

The draft RBMPs are available on the SEPA website at:

http://www.sepa.org.uk/water/river_basin_planning.aspx.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has statutory responsibility for controlling potential sources of pollution from sites it regulates in urban areas. These include emissions from industrial facilities, sewage treatment works and surface water drainage and waste management activities. SEPA is able to determine the location of environmental emission sources within regulated sites and monitor and assess the accumulative environmental impacts of such emissions. In addition, SEPA''s environmental surveillance monitoring enables it to trace and investigate any unauthorised emissions, together with any potential pollution incidents notified by members of the public.

Additionally, the Scottish Government assists local authorities to implement their duties under the Environment Act 1995 to review and assess air quality by issuing comprehensive guidance, which can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Environment/waste-and-pollution/Pollution-1/16215/TG09.

Complementary investment under the Home Insulation Scheme, which will be in addition to the £15 million allocated by the Scottish Government, will be delivered mainly from Carbon Emissions Reduction Target activity and owner contributions. The amount of investment contributed from these sources will depend on the uptake of measures under the first phase of the scheme which will cover at least 90,000 homes. Complementary investment will also be provided from local councils and other local partners in the selected areas. Complementary investment from some of the local councils selected for the first phase of the Home Insulation Scheme is subject to final confirmation and approval.

I refer the member to the answers to question S3W-25585 on 27 July 2009 and question S3W-21691 on 27 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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-25584 on 27 July 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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-25589 on 27 July 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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-25584 on 27 July 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.

No targets for waiting times have been set. The Energy Assistance Package is a collaborative approach to tackling fuel poverty, and a range of partners with differing delivery timescales provide advice and intervention at each of the four stages. It is a demand-led programme and as such waiting times are dependent upon the number of applicants, available resources (including installer capacity) and the individual circumstances of each installation which may include technical issues such as the suitability of the fuel supply or the need for a building warrant, or personal issues such as agreeing a convenient installation date with the applicant. Delivery partners are working hard to keep waiting times to a minimum at each stage of the package.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-25589 on 27 July 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.