Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executive engageswith the Scottish diaspora to further Scotland’s interests for the long-term benefitof our economy and society. We aim to encouragethe diaspora’s active participation and engagement in promoting Scotland as a greatcountry to visit, live, learn, work, do business and invest.

During the First Minister’s visitto Melbourne, Australia in March 2006, he hosted one diaspora event and launchedthe quarterly diaspora E magazine, Scotland-Now.

We will encourage Australians,through marketing and promotional activities, to find out about living and workingin Scotland by going to www.scotlandistheplace.com and contactingthe Relocation Advisory Service if they have specific enquiries. We also use casestudies of Australians who are already in Scotland - for study or work purposes - to help us showcase whatScotland has to offer.

The Scottish Arts Council andthe National Museums of Scotland (NMS), both non-departmental public bodiessponsored by the Scottish Executive, are currently preparing an exhibition of contemporaryScottish crafts, Cutting Edge, which will run from February to June in 2007.The exhibition will be taken on tour to Kilmarnock, Aberdeen and,hopefully, Glasgow.

Previous exhibitions and toursinclude the Celebrating Scotland’s Crafts exhibition at the NMS in June 2000which subsequently toured Scotland and the USA in 2002-03.

The NMS have an internationalcollection of craft items, which includes many Scottish crafts and has been involvedin showcasing Scottish crafts at both the Smithsonian Institute and during TartanWeek.

Scotland’s indigenous crafts are also well represented in collectionsin non-national museums throughout Scotland.

The Scottish Executive engageswith the Scottish Diaspora to further Scotland’s interests for the long-term benefit of our economyand society. We aim to encourage the diaspora’sactive participation and engagement in promoting Scotland as a great country tovisit, live, learn, work, do business and invest.

During the First Minister’s visitto Melbourne, Australia in March 2006, he hosted one diaspora event and launchedthe quarterly diaspora E magazine, Scotland-Now.

Scottish DevelopmentInternational (SDI) is already highly active in the Australian market, with a presencewhich covers all the Australian states and which supports both the trade and inwardinvestment agendas in a way that is knowledge driven and highly integrated. the Executive works closely with SDI, where appropriate, to further Scottish interestsincluding encouraging inward investment.

Part-time workers are protectedagainst discrimination by the Part Time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment)Regulations 2000. Under the regulations part-time workers are entitled to receivethe same access to training and development opportunities as full-time employees.

It is for individual employersto ensure that staff receive appropriate training. As an employer, the ScottishExecutive delivers learning opportunities on the principle of equal opportunity,recognising the variety of working patterns we operate and using the full rangeof learning opportunities available to us.

The Scottish Executive received£35 million in respect of 2002-03 and £57 million in respect of 2003-04 to balanceany change in the cost of council tax benefit subsidy.

Scottish ministers have not writtento the Home Office specifically on this issue. However, it has been discussed aspart of on-going discussion with the Home Office around asylum practice.

The Scottish Executive engageswith the Scottish diaspora to further Scotland’s interests for the long-term benefitof our economy and society. We aim to encouragethe diaspora’s active participation and engagement in promoting Scotland as a greatcountry to visit, live, learn, work, do business and invest.

During the First Minister’s visitto Melbourne, Australia in March 2006, he hosted one diaspora event and launchedthe quarterly diaspora E magazine, Scotland-Now.

The First Minister’s visit markedthe beginning of a long-term engagement with the Australian Diaspora to showcasewhat 21st century Scotland has to offer and to encourage some of these bright, talentedpeople to come here to live and work.

The Scottish Executive and theState of Victoria are currently developing an action plan for co-operation over a numberof initiatives in areas such as health and life sciences. There has already beenvaluable co-operation over Glasgow’s 2014 Commonwealth Games bid.

The Executive believes that Scotland willbenefit from the exchange of experience and expertise that the agreement provides for. It isan integral part of the agreement that an assessment of the benefits to both partieswill carried out.

The Scottish Executive, throughits trade and investment arm Scottish Development International (SDI), has beeninvolved in a number of marketing activities to promote business links. These includeattendance at AusBiotech 2005, the main conference and exhibition for the biotechnologyand life sciences industry, and at CeBIT Australia 2006, Australia’s leading informationand communications technology event. SDI also sponsored an Australian British Chamberof Commerce networking lunch in August 2006, at which the British High Commissionerto Australia, the Rt Hon Helen Liddell, spoke about trade and culturallinks between the UK and Australia. SDI will continue to actively promote Scotland as aplace to do business in and with.

The Scottish Executive signeda sister state agreement in March 2006 with the Australian State of Victoria whichwill promote collaboration in the areas of health, education, trade tourism andsocial policy.

Assessment of the barriers tobusiness start-up, and the mechanisms to addressing these constraints, is an operationalmatter for the Enterprise Networks.