³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

The Scottish Government gave a commitment in the Abolition of Bridge Tolls (Scotland) Bill on 20 December to end the unfairness that tolling of bridges brought particularly for the people of Fife, Tayside and the Lothians.

The Scottish Government are currently reviewing various funding options available for the Forth Replacement Crossing.

I can provide a guarantee that the users of the Forth Replacement Crossing will not be charged to use the bridge.

The Scottish Government supports accreditation of microgeneration installers as this provides industry with robust standards and ensures consumer confidence.

Therefore a current condition of domestic grants under the Scottish Community and Householder Renewable Initiative is that installers must meet certain accreditation standards.

However, we want to ensure these standards are fit for purpose and, to this end, are currently exploring a number of options with an industry group representative of the Scottish installer base. This includes proposals for streamlining the installer accreditation process.

There have been four occasions where the Scottish Ambulance Service has utilised either the Ministry of Defence or the Coastguard to transport patients in lieu of using a Scottish Ambulance Service resource. This compares to the same number in the same period of last year. In the period from 1 January 2008 to 31 August 2008 the service has undertaken a total of 263 missions from or within Orkney.

The Scottish Ambulance Service have provided the requested information, as set out in the following tables.

Non-Scottish Ambulance Service Resources Used to Transport Patients from/within Orkney “ 1 January 2008 to 31 August 2008

Incident Number	Aircraft	Pick up From	Destination	Reason
704664 (January)	MOD	Kirkwall Airport	Aberdeen Royal Infirmary	No SAS Aircraft unavailable at time of call, MOD provided quickest response.
722351 (March)	Coastguard	Stronsay	Kirkwall Airport	Weather
763869 (August)	Coastguard	Sanday	Raigmore Hospital	Weather
773192 (August)	Coastguard	Sanday	Balfour Hospital	Inverness helicopter on a task, Coastguard were able to provide the quickest response

 

Activity from/within Orkney Carried Out by All Aircraft

Month	Fixed Wing (SAS)	Helicopter (SAS)	NON SAS	Total
January 2008	25	8	1	34
February 2008	19	4	0	23
March 2008	34	6	1	41
April 2008	32	10	0	42
May 2008	19	8	0	27
June 2008	24	11	0	35
July 2008	30	4	0	34
August 2008	22	3	2	27
Total	205	54	4	263

 

We are aware of the proposed content of the innovation procurement plans for UK Government departments which are currently under development by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

We will shortly be publishing a Scottish Procurement Policy Handbook which will set out the fundamental rules, behaviours and standards applicable to public procurement activity in Scotland. The handbook will require all Scottish contracting authorities to consider how they can procure innovative solutions to their requirements. Compliance with the principles in the policy handbook will be mandatory and will be measured and reported on during contracting authorities'' audits.

The Scottish Government recognises the key role that public procurement has in encouraging innovation in business, leading to increased productivity and competitiveness and thereby contributing to sustainable economic growth.

We want to ensure that all public sector procurement activity reflects a growing understanding of market capacity and capabilities and that, where appropriate, requirements are specified in terms which encourage businesses to put forward innovative solutions to meet public sector requirements.

The Scottish Procurement Policy Handbook, which will be published shortly, will recommend that purchasers test the market to determine what solutions are currently or potentially available prior to advertising a contract. It will advise purchasers to take advantage of the more flexible procedures permitted by EU procurement law. It will also provide guidance on the preparation of specifications which are expressed in terms of outputs or outcomes and performance. By describing what is to be achieved rather than specifying how it should be done, the scope for businesses to propose innovative solutions can be maximised.

Purchasers can also access guidance on market engagement and developing output or outcome specifications through the Scottish public procurement toolkit at:

.

We are currently assessing the practicality of setting a target for the percentage of expenditure by the public sector in Scotland with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

We are continuing to develop the Scottish Procurement Information Hub, which provides detailed expenditure and supplier data from a significant number of high-spending public sector organisations in Scotland. Further development of the information hub will allow us to monitor the percentage of expenditure with medium, small and micro businesses and also to monitor average spending trends with SMEs in different sectors.

Data from the information hub shows that in the financial year 2005-06 (the most recent data available), just over 50% of public expenditure was with SMEs.

A number of initiatives under the public procurement reform programme impact on innovation and skills development in the private sector.

To enable businesses to gain a better understanding of public sector markets and contracts, we have recently launched a national advertising portal at:

.

Businesses will be able to access the portal free of charge and to use it to identify opportunities for proposing innovative solutions to meet public sector requirements.

We have developed a procurement competency framework which identifies the skills and competency levels required by purchasers across the public sector in Scotland. The framework recognises that in order to stimulate innovation, purchasers need to fully understand the market and to express their requirement in terms which allow businesses to propose innovative solutions.

The development of user intelligence groups by the procurement centres of expertise will promote sharing of knowledge between Scottish contracting authorities and a better understanding of the market and what it can offer.

The First Minister will announce details of the Saltire Prize challenge on St Andrew’s Day 2008. Details of the competition will also be published at this time.

Seminars are planned later this year for those involved in the sale/rental process and a range of guidance leaflets for different sectors is being developed at present.