Chamber and committees

Since the first meeting inMay of the parliamentary cross party group on fair trade, which I chair,officials in the International Division have met with members of the Welsh Fair TradeFoundation to learn from Welsh progress in becoming a fair trade nation.Officials are currently working on a programme of action for Scotlandwhich will be taken forward by MSPs at the next meeting of the cross partygroup.

As part of our Partnership Agreement commitment to support the development of credit unions, the Scottish Credit Union Capacity Fund was launched in 2003. The fund is worth £1.1 million over a three year period and is aimed at helping credit unions build their capacity and work towards self sufficiency. To date, 24 successful applications have secured awards totalling £700,000.

The Executive has also led the way in securing the European Commission decision on State Aids to allow credit unions to receive higher levels of public funding to carry out financial inclusion activity. Work is now starting on implementing the decision as a workable scheme and preparing guidance for credit unions and funders by late 2005.

Careers Scotland has partnership agreements with each secondary school and college in Scotland to provide career information, advice and guidance to all young people on education, training and employment opportunities. This service is designed and delivered to meet the differentiated needs of individuals, and includes specialist support for those who have additional support needs. Specialist advisers continue to have a responsibility to college students at pre-exit and post college stages.

The higher education careers services provide free services for all higher education students, including specialist services for disabled people, offering pre-entry information and guidance to assist with the transition from school to higher education. Services continue to be available to graduates for one year after graduating.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-17693 on 20 July 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliamentary website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The Scottish Executive works closely with construction industry stakeholders, including trades unions. The Union of Construction Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT) is a member of the Scottish Construction Forum and is fully engaged in its work programme, including workforce development issues. Scottish Enterprise Glasgow also meets regularly with UCATT as part of the Construction Glasgow steering group.

UCATT and TGWU are also represented on the Scottish Advisory Committee of the sector skills council for construction (CITB/ConstructionSkills), providing a formal interface between the construction industry, unions and CITB/CS thus allowing consideration of  local training needs and priorities.

NHS Fife are implementing a range of measures to improve access to NHS dental services in Fife including Kirkcaldy. Examples are the appointment of salaried dentists and the approval and funding for an eight surgery dental centre in Kirkcaldy which is due to open in September 2005.

The commission’s report is currently being considered. When it was published I stated that the Executive would respond formally in the summer. That remains our intention.

We have already made provision to allow a court to impose electronic monitoring as a condition of bail in murder and rape cases. This is currently being piloted. This is a significant tightening of the previous law where bail could be granted for those convicted of murder or rape without any such additional safeguard.

The gender balance in the construction industry is not representative of the population of modern Scotland. We welcome the work of the CITB-ConstructionSkills, the sector skills council for the construction industry, which is working with industry employers to address the issue. The CITB-ConstructionSkills is responding to the need for equal opportunity and diversity in the construction industry.  It has a range of initiatives in place to encourage young women to consider a career within the industry, and to encourage employers to recruit the best candidate for the job regardless of gender or race. 

The Executive has committed £20 million in 2004-06 to support three pathfinder Urban Regeneration Companies (URCs) in Craigmillar, Raploch and Clydebank. URCs are designed to develop new ways of delivering sustainable physical, economic and social benefits to disadvantaged communities. They have developed a range of proposals which will be evaluated to see if this can be replicated in other areas. In addition, the Executive has committed £318 million over three years to the Community Regeneration Fund, which will be targeted at the most disadvantaged communities in Scotland to support community based regeneration.

This year, 2004-05, the Scottish Executive will be investing between £250,000 and £300,000 on the domestic abuse publicity campaign to raise awareness of the issues and the services available to women.