Chamber and committees

Sportscotlandhas a target of 148 Scottish medallists by 2007. Many of these will be achievedby athletes competing in the Olympic and Commonwealth Games. Sportscotlandsupports and invests in approximately 60 sports in Scotland whichin turn use some of that investment to promote their individual sport to thepublic. Scottish athletes are used to promote their sport and sport in general throughthe Sporting Champions programme by making visits to schools to help inspireparticipation. The Executive takes advice on the promotion of sport from arange of people including current and former top athletes.

Local authorities provide anannual return to the Scottish Executive on training activity undertaken fromspecific grant funding along with their Training Plans. As part of this theyare asked to identify any activity undertaken jointly with the voluntary sectorand others. However, it is not possible to precisely identify the share andbenefit to the voluntary sector as the benefit to the sector may be in kind aswell as in monetary terms, for example some local authorities reserve places ontraining courses for voluntary/independent sector staff.

The Scottish Executive wasan official sponsor of the Homeless World Cup, contributing £30,000 towards thecost of hosting the tournament and hosting the opening reception at MeadowbankStadium on 19 July. The Executive also provided resources for the tournament’smedia centre and was represented on the steering group of sponsorship partners.I also participated in the media launch of the tournament in February and the openingreception, closing ceremony and attended several matches, as did a number of myofficials.

The factors relevant to aProcurator Fiscal’s assessment of the public interest are described in the CrownOffice and Procurator Fiscal Service’s Prosecution Code, at Section 6 (page8) “Public Interest Considerations”. A copy of the Code is available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 37201).

The table produced for thisanalysis is too large to be included in this response and has been placed inthe Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 37171). For thisanalysis, the amount of discount was converted to 2004 prices on the basis ofchanges in the retail price index between the purchase date and 2004. Figuresare in thousands of pounds.

Immigration is a reservedmatter for which the Home Office is responsible. Applications for entry intothe United Kingdom are dealt with on a case by case basis under theImmigration Rules.

Payment in arrears is in accordance with the Scottish Public Finance Manual and is intended to avoid the spending of public funds in advance of need, which is why this arrangement is preferred. There is flexibility, however, as the manual allows alternative grant payment arrangements to reduce the risk of financial difficulties for voluntary organisations. Accordingly, no assessment has been made of the impact on voluntary organisations of the Scottish Executive paying grants in arrears.

It was decided to review general grant conditions across the Scottish Executive because inconsistencies were emerging in the control of funding, for example, the way in which annual accounts had to be presented. The updated conditions ensure uniformity of the core conditions applying to all recipients of grant funding from the Scottish Executive. The updated conditions are also designed to be more user friendly and transparent than those used previously. Furthermore, the updated conditions consolidate a range of conditions already in place, and Scottish Executive Divisions are able to amend clauses to suit their needs.

Scottish Executive grant funding is normally available on a three year funding basis, with instalment arrangements agreed between recipient organisations, in accordance with the Scottish Compact with the voluntary sector. Organisations can seek to receive grant funding from the Scottish Executive in any way which suits their needs and this will be considered, subject to financial rules and spending review restrictions.

It is appropriate for the Scottish Executive to retain intellectual property rights on publicly funded research if, for example, retention of these rights by the grant recipient organisation might inhibit policy development or dissemination, or create a disproportionate commercial benefit to the grantee. However, if there is no need for the Scottish Executive to retain intellectual property rights it will be appropriate for the voluntary organisation undertaking the research with public funding to hold them for the work done.