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Data about personal injury road accidents are collected by the police and reported to the Scottish Executive using the STATS 19 statistical report form. The following table gives the numbers of road accidents which were identified in these returns as occurring on the specified sections of the A811 from 1995 to 2004, and the associated numbers of fatalities.

It should be noted that the statistics given below are based upon the data which are held in the Scottish Executive’s road accident statistics database and which were collected by the police at the time of the accident and subsequently reported to the Executive. They may differ from any figures which the local authorities would provide now, because they do not take account of any subsequent changes or corrections that local authorities may have made to the statistical information, for use at local level, about the location of each accident, based upon their knowledge of the roads and areas concerned.

Injury Road Accidents Occurring on Sections of the A811, and the Associated Numbers of Fatalities, as Reported in the “STATS 19” Statistical Returns

	Injury road accidents		Fatalities
Year	Stirling to Kippen*	Kippen* to Ballat**	Stirling to Kippen*	Kippen* to Ballat**
1995	6	11	1	1
1996	5	7	0	0
1997	7	10	0	0
1998	8	12	0	2
1999	7	8	0	0
2000	8	5	1	1
2001	9	5	0	1
2002	9	12	0	0
2003	8	9	0	3
2004	8	7	1	0

Notes:

*The junction of the A811 and the B822, near Kippen.

**The junction of the A811 and the A81, near Ballat.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is as follows:

The Scottish Executive guidance for community learning and development (CLD) Working and Learning Together to Build Stronger Communities, was published in January 2004, a copy of which is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre(Bib. number 38409). This guidance indicated that the overall responsibility for planning for CLD strategies rests with community planning partnerships, with local authorities expected to take responsibility for ensuring that arrangements are in place to set up and maintain partnership working at both strategic and operational levels.

On behalf of the Scottish Executive, Communities Scotland, through its Learning Connections team, has responsibility for supporting the establishment of strategies. The guidance was issued to local authority Chief Executives with the expectation that community planning partnerships would develop strategies in the most suitable manner taking into consideration local community planning processes. Whilst timescales of development and delivery have differed there has been no indication of non-compliance with the guidance request. Thirty partnerships have delivered final strategies to Communities Scotland with a further two strategies awaiting final endorsement by their council and/or Community Planning Partnership.

No. The numberof people who have been killed is unacceptably high. That is why we have undertakena full accident analysis to inform further improvements over and above the £40 millioninvestment over the next three years.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to reply. Her response is as follows:

Operating on behalf of Scottish ministers, Communities Scotland engages with local authorities on a range of housing and community regeneration issues. The nature of this engagement includes: statutory regulation of local authority housing, homelessness and factoring functions; assisting local authorities with the production of relevant plans and strategies; assisting local authorities locally with the delivery of housing and community regeneration goals, and, the provision of funding streams to support investment in housing and community regeneration.

Ensuring compliance with obligations that arise from this engagement falls to Communities Scotland.

There is no obligation on local authorities to publish annual reports on their services for adult literacy and numeracy.

The rates liability for all businesses, including new ones, is determined by the Scottish Assessors, and is usually based on an estimate of the annual rent which a subject would command on the open market. New business start-ups do not receive any specific rates reductions, although, there are a wide range of rate reliefs available to all qualifying businesses, including new ones. We have no current plans to introduce a rates reduction for new business start-ups in the next spending review.

The Executive will continue to fund projects approved in the final round of the Scottish Rural Partnership Fund (SRPF), but we have no plans at present to expand or replace this programme.

In 2004, a review and full consultation exercise was carried out on the SRPF. We are considering the outcome of that review and the fit of the SRPF in the context of our wider rural policy and range of support mechanisms. An announcement about future arrangements will be made in due course.

We provide financial support to rail freight services in Scotland through our Freight Facilities and Track Access Grant schemes. These are open to any rail freight service in Scotland which is unable to compete on price with its road alternative.

Details of individual awards of grant can be accessed on the Scottish Executive website at:

www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Transport/FT/freightgrants1.

We have discussed the rail option with the supermarkets who until recently had used EWS services to transport their goods to Inverness. They are aware of the merits of rail, and the availability of freight grant support, however, the choice of whether to use road or rail is a commercial decision for the individual companies concerned.

The information requested is given in a table giving details of funding awarded by the health department in respect of autism spectrum disorders, a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 38182).