Chamber and committees

Decisions on the approach to be taken to filling vacancies in Senior Civil Service posts within the Scottish Executive, including Executive agencies, are taken on a case-by-case basis.

I refer the member to the answergiven to question S2W-8237 answered 11 June 2004.All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’swebsite, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

Scottish ministers have todayappointed the Commissioners to the Cultural Commission. James Boyle and I believethat these appointments will provide the breadth of experience required for thecommission to fulfil its remit, as outlined in the Cultural Policy Statement whichI launched in Parliament on 22 April.

The newly appointed CulturalCommissioners are:

Craig Armstrong, musician

George Black, Chief Executiveof Glasgow City Council

Gordon Jeyes, Director of Children’sServices, Stirling Council

Brian Lang, Principal of St Andrews University

Colin Marr, Director of Eden Court Theatre

Shonaig Macpherson, McGrigors

Lucy Mason, Chief Executive ofDance Base

Ian Ritchie, businessman

The commission, chaired by JamesBoyle, will involve people right across Scotland in carrying out the review of culture. Offices have sofar been established for the commission in Stirling University, Abertay University inDundee, The Lighthouse in Glasgow and Eden Court Theatre in Inverness, where meetings and activities will take place. Otherpremises will be established in Aberdeen and Dumfries; the commission’s permanent base will be in Edinburgh’s Broughton High School.

I hope that the people of Scotlandwill engage enthusiastically with the commission in its important task of developingpractical recommendations to deliver the Executive’s vision for Scotland’s culture,promoting access and excellence, and building on this nation’s already strong reputationfor creativity.

The Scottish Executive is notaware of any data which would provide a reliable basis for assessing what numberof graduates in chemistry and closely-related subject might be regarded as sufficient,and is not confident that it is possible to produce such data.  Although there havebeen no recent representations to the Executive of a shortage of graduates in thesedisciplines, the Executive is aware of concerns about a long-term falling trendin the level of demand from school-leavers to study chemistry at degree level. Weare exploring with Future Skills Scotland the scope for developing better informationon the supply of and demand for people with science qualifications.

Food safety is theresponsibility of the Food Standards Agency (FSA). Monitoring of the safety andquality of food is carried out routinely by local authorities in theircapacities as “Food Authorities” under the Food Safety Act 1990. Local authoritiesdetermine local priorities for sampling surveillance but will also contributeto wider national surveys when required.

The agency also undertakes a programme of UK surveys, however, there are currentlynone that specifically address the monitoring of listeria, E. coli,pesticides or carcinogens in salads and vegetables offered for sale in modifiedatmospheric packaging in supermarkets.

Onadvice from the Advisory Committee onthe Microbiological Safety of Food (ACMSF), the FSA is currently consulting on its "Guidanceon the safety and shelf-life of vacuum and modified atmosphere packed chilledfoods". The aim of the consultationis to produce guidance for manufacturers, retailers and local authorities (foodenforcement) that assists them to be aware of the steps that they need to taketo control food poisoning bacteria and avoid some of the confusion thatsurrounds what is a very technical area.

The Partnership for a BetterScotland, which sets out the policies and direction of the Scottish Executive for this Parliament, states that, “We will developa new focus for Scotland’s languages recognising both our heritageand our diversity. We will legislate to provide secure status for Gaelic througha Gaelic Language Bill. We will introduce a national language strategy to guidethe development and support of Scotland’s languages,including British Sign Language and ethnic community languages. We will give localauthorities and other public bodies a responsibility to draw up a languages planwhich reflects the communities they serve”.

Once the guidance and rules of the waterborne freight grant (WFG) scheme have been finalised it will be promotedby the Scottish Executive. We will ensure that all sectors of the freight industryincluding shipping companies, ports and logistics companies are aware of the opportunitiesthat the new grant scheme will offer.

The great length of our coastlinemeans that there is considerable potential for transferring freight from roads towater in many parts of Scotland. It will be for the freight industry to identify whichScottish ports could most appropriately handle new WFG supported traffic flows.

It is expected that an announcementwill be made on this issue by the end of 2004.

I refer the member to the answersgiven to questions S2F-849 on 29 April 2004, and S2W-8010,S2W-8011 and S2W-8012 on 18 May 2004. All answers towritten parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the searchfacility for which can be found at:http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

I refer the member to the answersgiven to questions S2F-849 on 29 April 2004, and S2W-8010,S2W-8011 and S2W-8012 on 18 May 2004. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.