Adam Ingram: To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made to secure European LEADER funding for Scotland’s rural areas.
Adam Ingram: To ask the Scottish Executive what structures it intends to put in place to distribute LEADER funding to additional areas which will become eligible for funding under the new round.
Adam Ingram: To ask the Scottish Executive what mechanisms are in place in Scotland to deal with applications for the new round of European LEADER funding.
Adam Ingram: To ask the Scottish Executive what changes, if any, there will be to Scotland’s share of the new round of European LEADER funding.
Adam Ingram: rose—
Adam Ingram: I would like to commend the minister and his officials for producing the comprehensive documentation and the mass of facts and figures that accompany the bill. As a member of the Finance Committee, I look forward to the detailed scrutiny of the bill; I believe that Mr McConnell is appearing before us next Tuesday. The stark fact that stares out at me from the mass of information is that this...
Adam Ingram: I am sorry, but I cannot give way. For the Executive, that would have saved the embarrassment of robbing classrooms to bail out Scottish Opera and Hampden Park. A drugs enforcement agency could have been funded without cutting the Scottish Prison Service budget. The Cubie recommendations could have been comfortably funded in full. We have yet to hear what programmes will be cut to fund Cubie.
Adam Ingram: The problem with this bill goes far deeper than how much we get as a handout from London. This Parliament is not in control of its income. Regardless of how much our citizens pay through value added tax, fuel duty, stamp duty, insurance tax, car tax, corporation tax or even our own North sea oil revenues, not one additional penny will come to Scotland. All of it flows into Gordon Brown's...
Adam Ingram: That ought to be unacceptable to us all.
Adam Ingram: In short, then, I sum up by saying that we should be setting a national budget in this Parliament. If this is a national Parliament, it should act like one.
Adam Ingram: rose—
Adam Ingram: To ask the Scottish Executive what studies, if any, have been conducted into the impact on employment following the construction of an out-of-town retail development.
Adam Ingram: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it expects the National Planning Policy Guideline No 8 to be observed at all times or whether it considers that exceptions to these guidelines can be made and, if so, under what circumstances would adherence to them be waived.
Adam Ingram: To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it intends to undertake to restore stability in the market for milk and whether it intends to make representations to Her Majesty's Government to put in place measures which will protect farmers against the development of any buyer’s monopoly in the milk market.
Adam Ingram: To ask the Scottish Executive what the mechanism will be for payment of "agrimoney" to milk producers and how much will be paid out.
Adam Ingram: To ask the Scottish Executive when it last made representations to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to secure "agrimoney" for milk producers and whether it will place details of these representations in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.
Adam Ingram: To ask the Scottish Executive what data provided in the new publication Scottish Economic Statistics will be additional to that currently provided in the Statistical Bulletins (Industry Series).
Adam Ingram: The minister seems to be using the bill to load responsibility for transport investment on to local government. The thrust of the bill appears to be either that the council should pay, or that—again—the motorist should pay, on top of the road tax and petrol tax of 80p in the pound. Leaving aside November's announcements, what new finance will the minister provide for Scotland's roads...
Adam Ingram: I take this opportunity to question the financial responsibility in the budget. I have taken the trouble to look at the Executive's press release, dated 15 December 1999, which proudly trumpeted an increase in local government spending ahead of inflation. Jack McConnell announced that he had been able to increase finance to councils—grant-aided expenditure—ahead of inflation, by 3.7 per...
Adam Ingram: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a breakdown of any new burdens and commitments which have financial implications for local authority budgets, and whether it will quantify the changes which have been made to aggregate external finance and revenue support grant for this coming financial year to accommodate these changes.
