Chamber and committees

The Fresh Talent initiative aims to provide an additional pool of talent to support the long term economic and cultural growth of Scotland. The initiative is one of a range of measures we are taking to further invigorate our economy. The Fresh Talent initiative will play its part to make sure that Scotland has the necessary skills and talent to meet the challenges of tomorrow.

In taking forward the Fresh Talent initiative, we recognise that tourists who have a good experience whilst in Scotland are more likely to consider, or recommend, Scotland as a great country to live and work. We are therefore putting in place a range of measures to showcase all facets of contemporary Scotland to visitors. For example, we have recently launched a campaign to welcome visitors to Scotland at our major airports and we are producing a CD-ROM and brochure on modern Scotland that will be distributed to the international press and visitors to G8 and major tourist events across Scotland this summer. We will target specific events that attract a high number of tourists such as the Edinburgh International Fringe where we will place a full page advert to promote Scotland, and we will run adverts at the major golf championships in Scotland.

The Scottish International Scholarship Programme will provide places for 22 international scholars to Scotland from China (9), India (6), Australia (2), South Africa (2), Singapore (2) and New Zealand (1).

Under the Dare to be Digital competition we have provided funding for eight international scholarships from China (2), Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Taiwan and Thailand to participate in the summer 2005 competition.

The Home Office will administer the Fresh Talent: Working in Scotland scheme. The Executive will monitor the scheme, and will publish reports on its website.

The Scottish Executive contributes towards the funding for Education UK Scotland. This is a sector-led British Council Scotland initiative which aims to promote Scottish education at all levels in overseas markets, and to facilitate co-operation within and between education sectors. Education UK Scotland run a number of working groups to enable institutions to co-ordinate their efforts to recruit overseas students.

In partnership with the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), the Scottish Executive is currently working up a detailed action plan to implement the principles identified in the Strategic Funding Review Joint Statement, which was published last week. The action plan will be published in the summer. Further information about the review can be found at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/viu.

We are not aware of any such policy promotion in relation to new capital projects commissioned by the Executive and refer you to the answer to S2W-15648, answered on 17 May 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search. However, records are not held centrally in this area and individual organisations may have been active in it in respect of their own businesses.

No steps have been taken to establish a formal policy on commissioning new art when the Executive commissions new capital projects. We remain content to address the issue on a project-by-project basis.

No consideration has been given to nominating a Scottish city to date. Discussions regarding the financing of the European Institute for Gender Equality are still on-going and this is affecting all future plans to set up the institute. When these are resolved and location considered, nominations for the institute’s headquarters may be sought from member states. This process is reserved and ultimately a matter for the UK Government. Scottish ministers will liaise with UK counterparts about any potential Scottish locations.

The civil service nationality rules are a reserved matter. There are restrictions on the nationalities of persons who are eligible to apply for posts in the civil service, and the Civil Service Management Code states what these restrictions are. The Scottish Executive has no authority to deviate from these nationality rules, including reasons for restrictions. The Civil Service Management Code can be accessed on the Cabinet Office website www.cabinet-office.gov.uk