Chamber and committees

The cost of the secondmentto be funded by the Scottish Executive is charged to the staff costs heading of the Executive’s Administration Budget.

Staff on secondment (either inwardor outward) are not included in staffing returns. The Scottish Executivefollows cabinet office mandate criteria and only civil servants who are in postand are carrying out civil service functions are counted.

Secondments have no effect onthe reported number of staff working for the Scottish Executive. Secondees arenot counted for the purposes of determining the Scottish Executive’s staffingnumbers.

Salaries of staff in the Scottish Executive’s core Departments are paid from the administration budget.The current provision for staff costs, set out in the 2005-06 SupportingDocument to the Budget (Scotland) (No. 2) Bill, includes the cost of permanent staffand secondments which may be funded from the Executive’s Interchange budget orfrom the Policy Division related to the secondment.

As stated by the Minister for Education and Young People in the debate on 1 December 2004, we expect the Scottish Law Commission to publish a discussion paper on limitation in the second half of 2005 and to report to ministers during 2006. Discussions are continuing on whether any aspect of the review could be brought forward, and we will announce theoutcome of those discussions as soon as possible.

The only significant capitalproject within the Scottish Executive’s core estate where art works wereincluded in the capital cost over the period was the refurbishment of StAndrews House. In this case, the budget was £100,000 – 0.5% of the capitalrefurbishment cost. This information on other public sector capital projects isnot held centrally.

In relation to the mostrecent capital project within the Scottish Executive’s own core estate duringwhich advice was sought on the incorporation of art works into that project,the refurbishment of St Andrew’s House, that advice was provided by Art inPartnership. Further information about this project is given in the answer toquestion S2W-15646 on 27 April 2005. Information in relation to the incorporation ofartworks in all public sector capital projects is not held centrally.The Scottish Arts Councilprovides advice and assistance to anyone interested in enhancing their home orwork environment through the purchase of art works. For example, Own Art is aninterest free loan scheme for Scotland to make it easy and affordable for individuals andorganisations to buy original, high quality contemporary art. Furtherinformation about the work of the Scottish Arts Council can be found at www.scottisharts.org.uk.

All relevant files held by the Scottish Executive are now available for public inspection. Full details on how to access these files can be found at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/topics/education/accesstoinfo/residentialestablishments.

We are currently collating information about other organisations who are making the information they hold available and intend to extend our webpage to include links to these organisations in due course.

My officials met with representatives of INCAS on 10 December 2004 to discuss this. Since then the Executive has paid for mentoring and developmental work to be undertaken with INCAS. A proposed business plan, including information on the level of financial support being sought from the Executive, is due to be submitted to the Executive in the near future.

The idea of having a group to specifically scope the level of support services available to survivors of in care abuse arose out of discussions between INCAS and my officials. Subsequently, at both a meeting with officials on 10 December 2004 and again in correspondence of 10 March 2005 INCAS has been invited to submit membership suggestions for the short-life working group. The remit of this group has also been discussed with INCAS.

The First Minister apologised on behalf of the people of Scotland on 1 December 2004. Information on other organisations is not held centrally.