Chamber and committees

The First Minister leads on constitutional issues, supported by Ms Hyslop in relation to promoting Scotland''s interests in inter-governmental relations with the UK Government and the other devolved administrations and supported by myself in relation to the Referendum Bill and preparations for a subsequent referendum, including continuing work in relation to the National Conversation.

Ms Hyslop leads on culture and external affairs, including maximising the capacity for growth of Scotland''s creative industries and tourism sectors; maximising access to high-quality cultural events and opportunities for the people of Scotland, managing Scotland''s reputation as a distinctive global identity at home and abroad, and bringing a sharp and sustainable economic growth focus to the promotion of Scotland abroad In addition, her role in support of the First Minister includes pressing for improvements to the operation of the Joint Ministerial Committee, and in the conduct of inter-governmental business more generally, seeking better consultation and proper recognition of devolved interests. It also includes attending the British-Irish Council, a valuable forum for securing co-operation in policy across its eight members.

I continue to lead on the government''s legislative programme (primary and secondary), including discussions with the UK Government on legislative proposals in relation to Scotland Act orders and legislative consent motions. I also lead on Freedom of Information and local government elections.

In addition, funding for those aged 20+ has been made available in 2009-10 for the hospitality, professional cookery and management framework.

As an example, the hospitality and tourism sector identified projected demand for skills for chefs and managers, as a result 200 all-age apprenticeships in professional cookery and double the number of apprenticeships in hospitality supervision have been made available in 2009-10.

Please see in the following table information on funding rates for modern apprenticeships (MA) in tourism or related MAs.

MA Funding for 16 to 19-Year-Olds

MA Funding for 20+

The Scottish Executive has however processes in place to address rare diseases and has taken the opportunity to comment upon and support the UK position in its response to the European Council.

Total capacity, disabled spaces and charges, where applicable, are given in the following table. Average usage is based on counts carried out on three separate days and spread across different periods of the day e.g. morning, lunchtime and afternoon.

The majority of these car parks are owned by Network Rail and leased to First ScotRail to operate on a daily basis. At Aberdeen five levels of the multi storey car park owned by Union Square Developments are leased to Network Rail for rail users. The car parks at Elgin and Laurencekirk are council owned.

There are no plans at present for further expansion but Transport Scotland continues to meet with our key stakeholders to explore opportunities to expand car parking where this is needed, and to seek the funding this would require.