Chamber and committees

In recognition of the difficulties facing the wider Ayrshire economy, I met with Scottish Enterprise Ayrshire, and the Chairman of the Ayrshire Economic Forum (AEF) on 1 August. I wrote to the AEF's Chairman on 8 August, underlining the importance of the AEF's Strategic Action Plan for securing sustainable economic development and employment opportunities across Ayrshire as a whole.The AEF is currently working up the detail of this action plan and my officials are working closely with local agencies to ensure this plan addresses the current challenges facing the Ayrshire economy.I also refer the member to the answers given to the questions S1W-27083 on 19 August 2002 and S1W-28194 today.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-24572 on 23 April 2002, which confirmed the Executive's view that the law on boundary walls is satisfactory and repeated the offer made in my letter to the member of 11 March this year to meet to discuss her concerns.

The Scottish Executive will undertake a consultation on the provisions of the regulations to implement the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Bill in Scotland from 22 August until 8 November 2002. These regulations cover point of sale advertising, the timetable for ending tobacco sponsorship and brand-sharing. The bill provides that the first two sets of regulations may be made by the Scottish ministers and the other set by the Secretary of State for Health for the whole of the UK. A copy of the consultation document is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre.

The commitment of European structural funds in Scotland was £92.154 million in 2000 and £181.649 million in 2001. The following table breaks this down by fund. There was no commitment of structural funds in the three Objective 2 Programmes in 2000 as the programmes were not approved until 2001.

Fund	2000	2001
Western Scotland Objective 2 Programme	0	£21,099,000
East of Scotland Objective 2 Programme	0	£42,342,153
South of Scotland Objective 2 Programme	0	£19,380,444
Objective 3 (Scotland) Programme	£46,487,869	£57,905,848
Highlands and Islands Special Transitional Programme	£45,666,000	£40,921,285
Total	£92,153,869	£181,648,730

The Scottish Executive has encouraged the five Programme Management Executives to pursue actively a range of activities to raise awareness of the availability of the funds, including:The provision on websites and the circulation to all partner organisations of programme bulletins providing up to date information on funds available and forthcoming application rounds;

• Facilitation of fast-track applications, rolling programmes and additional application rounds where appropriate;
• Delivery of regular application advice surgeries and workshops across the country;
• Engaging with target communities to stimulate applications for community economic development support;
• Analysis of underlying reasons for slow uptake in particular measures or areas, and

Efforts to promote private sector interest in the funds.

The Scottish Executive is very conscious of the particular problems of areas such as North Ayrshire. We are working closely with the Ayrshire Economic Forum to ensure that through investing in jobs and skills and encouraging the growth of new businesses that we create sustainable economic growth and employment opportunities for all members of the community. The key economic development agency for the area is Scottish Enterprise Ayrshire (SEA), which is committed to developing proposals to further economic development and generate job opportunities across Ayrshire. The resource allocation system operated by Scottish Enterprise already takes account of both opportunity and need in local enterprise company areas and a central budget allows for response to unexpected opportunities and needs in particular areas. SEA received £1 million in additional funding for its local action plan for 2002-03 to address identified needs in the local economy.There are already in existence a number of initiatives and strategies across the Ayrshire area designed to assist wider social and economic regeneration. The Ayrshire Strategy for Jobs is a five-year strategy designed to create a more diverse economic base; to facilitate the acquisition of new skills; to enhance Ayrshire's competitiveness as a business location, and to address problems of economic exclusion. The New Deal has helped over 5,000 people across Ayrshire enter employment and there are special initiatives for those clients who face particular difficulties. The Executive's Training for Work programme is available to unemployed adults on a voluntary basis and, in 2002-03, aims to offer 500 work-related training opportunities to clients in Ayrshire. SEA also provides training via programmes such as Skillseekers, the Individual Employment Fund and the Employment Initiative for Social Inclusion Partnership areas. North Ayrshire has benefited directly from over £3 million from the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund from the Western Scotland Objective 2 Programme 2000-06. Projects approved will promote the regeneration of disadvantaged areas, support vocational training and enhance economic development opportunities. Additionally, a further £8.5 million has been awarded to projects which will impact directly on North Ayrshire.

The Common Services Agency was asked to undertake a review of property options in Edinburgh and around Scotland. Ministers expect to consider these options shortly.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-27021.

We have made good progress. Around 650 posts have been located or are currently planned to be located outwith Edinburgh as a direct result of this policy. Including the new reviews announced in November last year, around 3,000 further posts will be covered by formal relocation reviews.The Education and Lifelong Learning Department is now wholly located in Glasgow; the Foods Standards Agency Scotland has been set up in Aberdeen and the Public Guardian's Office has been set up in Falkirk. The offices of the Scottish Social Services Council and the National Office of the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care have been set up in Dundee. The commission's regional office for the area will also be located in the Dundee HQ, with a further five regional offices located in Aberdeen, Musselburgh, Paisley, Hamilton and Inverness. The Scottish Public Pensions Agency will be located in Galashiels, and Scottish Water will set up its HQ in Dunfermline.Decisions are expected on the location of the Health Education Board for Scotland, sportscotland, the Common Services Agency of the National Health Service in Scotland, and Scottish Natural Heritage in the course of this year. Decisions are expected on the location of the Scottish Arts Council by the end of 2002, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education by mid 2003 and on Registers of Scotland in 2004.

The Scottish Executive set out its broadband strategy last year in the document, Connecting Scotland: Our Broadband Future. Our vision behind the strategy was to make broadband connections more affordable and pervasive across the country. We are pursuing this in three ways: Firstly, the Executive has developed the Pathfinder Initiatives to aggregate public sector demand for broadband in the Highlands and Islands and South of Scotland. It is hoped that this major investment on the part of the public sector will help to stimulate both demand for and supply of broadband within these areas which might not be immediately covered by the commercial market. Secondly, the strategy undertook to identify where there was a need for direct support measures; our programme under the UK Broadband Fund is developing this element through awareness raising measures and technology trials. Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise will be managing the projects under the Broadband Fund over 2002-03 and 2003-04. The last element of the strategy is ongoing regulatory liaison at UK level and we continue to work closely on this with our counterparts at UK level.Scottish Enterprise is spending £6 million on the first phase of its ATLAS project. The project will set up a Telecoms Trading Exchange and aims to substantially cut high bandwidth telecoms costs for Scottish businesses and encourage the use of broadband services. The first phase of ATLAS is planned to be operational by the end of this year.In addition, the Highlands and Islands Partnership Programme (HIPP) also has funding to stimulate demand and to enhance infrastructure in remoter areas.