HC Deb 09 December 1968 vol 775 cc46-7W
Mr. Wright

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland why the estimates for the Scottish Development Department have been allowed to rise this year by 42 per cent. over the original figures.

Mr. Ross

The increases of £8,331,000 for which I have presented supplementary estimates are made up of

  1. (i) £5,000 for grants to local authorities towards expenditure on the removal of oil pollution from beaches;
  2. (ii) £2.796,000 for refunds of Selective Employment Tax to local authorities, which will be offset by an equivalent increase in the yield of the tax;
  3. (iii) £3,343,000 for grants to local authorities towards the cost of making good the 47 damage to their property caused by the January storms, and £2,187,000 for repayable loans to local authorities to enable them to finance the cost of repairs to some of the private property which was damaged in the same storms.

Only token provision was made in the Department's original estimate for the cost of storm damage which at that time could not be forecast with any accuracy.