§ Mr. KynochTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what was the outcome of the recent consultation exercise on councillors' allowances; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. StewartA total of around 50 responses were received to the consultation paper. In the light of these comments, my right hon. Friend has decided to bring forward amending regulations which will apply to the shadow and islands councils from April 1995 onwards. The new system will recognise the workload that councillors will have to undertake after reorganisation and will allow local authorities greater flexibility. The draft regulations will
provide a Scottish quantum of around £7 million for the payment of basic allowance to all councillors; this may include a discretionary attendance allowance scheme of up to 25 per cent. of each council's share of the quantum;require the Scottish quantum to be distributed on the basis of population within each of the new council areas in three bandwidths. Details of the three bandwidths and the amount each authority will use to calculate its share of the quantum for basic/attendance allowance are given below. The sum available for each council is calculated by multiplying the figures given by the number of councillors.leave decisions on the payment of special responsibility allowance at the discretion of councils themselves, who will have to balance their priorities and needs in determining payments. The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities has indicated its willingness to issue guidance on the level of special responsibility allowances which might be paid;require that where special responsibility allowance is paid councils will, as at present, pay the allowance to at least one member of an opposition group.require councils to publish details of their allowances scheme and to publish an annual report of payments made to individual councillors.My right hon. Friend will consult local authority interests on the draft regulations with the intention that the new system will be in place for the shadow and islands councils in April 1995. The present arrangements for the payment of councillors' allowances will remain in place for the existing mainland councils until the new councils take over in April 1996.
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§ Mr. StewartIn 1994–95, a total of £210.063 million was allocated to Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise to fund their respective training programmes. The planning figure for 1995–96, which includes provision for the package of training measures announced last year in the White Paper on Competitiveness, is £212.213 million: this figure is subject to parliamentary approval of the estimates. A breakdown of the allocations is as follows:
Basic/attendance allowance Population over 150,000 City of Aberdeen 6,000 Aberdeenshire 6,000 City of Dundee 6,000 City of Edinburgh 6,000 Fife 6,000 City of Glasgow 6,000 Highland 6,000 North Lanarkshire 6,000 South Lanarkshire 6,000 Renfrewshire 6,000 Population 100,000–150,000 Angus 5,500 East Ayrshire 5,500 North Ayrshire 5,500 South Ayrshire 5,500 The Borders 5,500 Dumfries and Galloway 5,500 East Dunbartonshire 5,500 Falkirk 5,500 West Lothian 5,500 Perth and Kinross 5,500 Population up to 100,000 Argyll and Bute 5,000 Clackmannan 5,000 Dumbarton and Clydebank 5,000 Inverclyde 5,000 East Lothian 5,000 Midlothian 5,000 Moray 5,000 Orkney Islands Council 5,000 East Renfrewshire 5,000 Shetland Islands Council 5,000 Stirling 5,000 Western Isles Islands Council 5,000 The Secretary of State also proposes to align where practicable the rates of travel and subsistence payable to elected members of local authorities with those paid to local authority officials. A circular to local authorities giving details of the new rates which will be effective from 1 April 1994 will be issued in due course.
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