- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 22 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 4 February 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to update A Smart, Successful Scotland: Ambitions for the Enterprise Networks and, if so, who will undertake this work and when it will be published.
Answer
Ministers have made clearour commitment to A Smart Successful Scotland. We have also indicated ourwish to consider how this strategic direction should be refreshed. The Scottish Executive is currently undertaking work to refresh our Framework for EconomicDevelopment and this provides the broader economic context for A Smart,Successful Scotland as well as policy statements in other key areas. Linkedto this, we will soon commence a similar exercise to refresh A SmartSuccessful Scotland. This work will be led by the Department of Enterprise,Transport and Lifelong Learning and steps will be taken to involve stakeholdersand invite comments. I would expect to publish a revised document later thisyear.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 22 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 4 February 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made in arrangements for holding an annual business forum; what the format will be; what discussions it has had with representatives of the Parliament in respect of the forum, and when invitations will be issued to the forum and who will issue them.
Answer
The Scottish Executive and Parliament are working in partnership to host a business conferenceon 22 and 23 April 2004. Thereafter, the Scottish Executive will convenean annual business forum for on-going engagement with the business communityand to update on the key actions identified at the conference. The overall aimis for the Executive and the Parliament to engage jointly with business in focusingon key themes of
Smart Successful Scotland and on growing Scotland'seconomy.
Executive officials andrepresentatives of the Parliament are now planning for the Conference. Weexpect to announce details soon and we will issue invitations to the Conferencenext month.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 28 January 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether 16 and 17-year-olds are guaranteed training if they have been unemployed for six months.
Answer
16 and 17 year olds acrossthe UK who are not in full-time education or employment are guaranteed asuitable offer of training. The guarantee is delivered in Scotland byScottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise as a key element of theSkillseekers programme, funded by the Scottish Executive. To access this guarantee,young people must be registered with Careers Scotland.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 22 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 28 January 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what (a) its and (b) its agencies policies are in respect of recruiting employees over 60 and whether such policies are consistent with other policies in regard to age discrimination.
Answer
The Scottish Executive and its agencies are bound by the rulesof the Civil Service Commissioners Code on Recruitment against which we areaudited. The Code exists to ensure that recruitment to the Civil Service isfair and open, and is conducted in a non-discriminatory manner.
Theretirement practice age for all Scottish Executive staff is 60 years and, in line with this, applications foremployment are not normally considered from candidates over 60. This policy is currentlyunder review.
In line with the Executive’sequal opportunities policy, we do not discriminate on grounds of age. It is alsoour aim to become an organisation that broadly reflects the people of Scotland inall aspects of diversity, including age, and, to this end, we are currentlyreviewing our Diversity Strategy to ensure that continues to support this aim.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 December 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 27 January 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-4490 by Ms Margaret Curran on 8 December 2003, whether it will provide a breakdown of how the #10 million per annum for community wardens will be spent and what percentage of the estimated total cost of the community warden scheme this figure represents.
Answer
The Scottish Executive commitment will meet the full cost of those schemes approved by theExecutive, up to their indicative allocations. Match funding is not arequirement. Should individual local authorities decide to augment schemes oroffer additional schemes, that will be a matter for them.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 27 January 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what the implications would be for its income flow for each financial year from April 2005 if the income threshold at which graduates start to repay their student loans was to be raised to (a) #15,000, (b) #19,000 or (c) #25,000 per annum.
Answer
Future repayments (andtherefore the resource cost) are difficult to forecast as they depend on a widerange of factors. Our best estimate are that raising the repayment threshold to£15,000 would increase the resource cost to Scottish Executive by around £17million. That is the combined cost to the Executive of subsidising loans andnon-repayment. Raising the repayment threshold to £19,000 would increase costsby around £49 million whilst setting a £25,000 threshold would increase costsby around £102 million.
In each case we assume thatthe repayment threshold is increased from 2005 and then up-rated in line withinflation for each subsequent year.
Officials in the Scottish Executive and DfES are currently working to refine the model of studentrepayments to identify what the effects would be on annual income flows.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 December 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Colin Boyd on 22 January 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how much money has been collected under the Proceeds of Crime (Scotland) Act 1995 relating to drug offences in 2002-03 and 2003-04 to date.
Answer
During the financial year2002-03 the sum of £472,449.54 was recovered following Confiscation Ordersunder the Proceeds of Crime (Scotland) Act 1995 in respect of drug offences.The sum of £825,262.54 has so far been collected during the financial year2003-04.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 December 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 January 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to introduce non-numeric fingerprinting evidence and, if so, when it will be introduced.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-4550 on 20 January 2004.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/search_wa.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 December 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 20 January 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive in which European Council meetings its ministers have led the UK delegation as defined in Article 146 of the Maastricht Treaty since February 2001, detailing the name of the relevant ministers, the subjects discussed and the decisions taken.
Answer
The following table providesthe information requested.
| Date, Council and Lead Minister | Subjects Discussed | Decisions Taken |
| 12-2-2001: Employment and Youth Council: Nicol Stephen | 1. Strategies for lifelong learning. Also considered: 2. Community Action Programme. 3. Leonardo da Vinci. 4. European Year of Languages 2001. 5. Trans-European co-operation scheme for higher education. | To adopt a report on the concrete future objectives of education and training systems, and to discuss the work programme arising from the report at the next Education Council meeting. |
| 5-6-2001: Health Council: Susan Deacon | 1.The EU public health framework programme. 2.Misuse of alcohol by children and young people. 3.Proposals for a Tobacco Advertising Directive. 4.Research and information exchange on vCJD. | To include certain rare diseases in the scope of the public health framework programme, and to call on member states to build on existing work on surveillance and prevention of all transmissible spongiform encephalopathies as they affect human health. |
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 December 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 20 January 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-4499, S2W-4512, S2W-4513, S2W-4514 and S2W-4515 by Mr Jim Wallace on 10 December 2003, whether a detailed analysis of the outcome of the inward investment projects will be published for (a) 1998-99, (b) 1999-2000, (c) 2000-01 (d) 2001-02 and (e) 2002-03.
Answer
We have no plans currentlyto carry out a detailed analysis of the outcome of every individual inwardinvestment project recorded for the years in question.
Accurate figures could onlybe obtained by undertaking a comprehensive survey of overseas-owned companieson a regular basis. This would be a costly exercise and would also beinconsistent with the policy of reducing the burdens on business.
