Chamber and committees

The Executive has had nodiscussions, to date, with either the Muslim community or with banks on Islamicmortgages for house purchase. the Executive has, however, had informal discussions on Islamic finance with theCouncil of Mortgage Lenders in relation to the funding of repairs, in thecontext of the Housing (Scotland) Bill.

The Scottish Executive currentlyhas no such plans.

I refer the member to answerto question S2W-16355 on 23 May 2005. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility forwhich can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament/webapp/wa.search.

The Scottish Executive issupporting feasibility studies into the reopening of Laurencekirk Station and stationsrelating to the Aberdeen Crossrail Project.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-16367, answered on 23 May 2005. All answers towritten parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, thesearch facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

VisitScotland’s overseas marketing strategy shows clear benefits to the tourism industry in Scotland, with an increase of 20% in the number of visitors from overseas last year compared with 2003. The amount of funding that VisitScotland invests in marketing Scotland in key overseas markets is shown in the following table:

	2002-03 (£000)	2003-04 (£000)	2004-05 (£000)
North America	1,846	1,896	1,827
Germany	1,150	1,072	1,220
France	570	586	515
Benelux	660	618	485
Scandinavia	218	659	660
Spain	265	311	280
Total Spend	5,864	6,985	6,910

Note: The total spend in each year also includes VisitScotland activity in public relation and travel trade activity across all overseas markets.

The Scottish Executive is not aware of any impediment in Scots law which prevents the provision of Islamic mortgages.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-13284 on 19 January 2005. 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/wa.search.

The Scottish Executive already provides core and training grant funding for Couple Counselling Scotland, Scottish Marriage Care, Family Mediation Scotland and Stepfamily Scotland under the Children, Young People and Families Unified Voluntary Sector Fund. The grants, including project grants they will receive in 2005‑06 under the Unified Fund, total over £633,000, supporting national initiatives in training, quality assurance, practice development and service delivery.

In addition, funding is offered under the Children, Young People and Families Unified Voluntary Sector Fund to ten local family mediation services, and these grants total over £627,000 in 2005-06.

The Scottish Executive provides core and training grant under the Children, Young People and Families Unified Voluntary Sector Fund to four national family support organisations - Couple Counselling Scotland, Family Mediation Scotland, Scottish Marriage Care and Stepfamily Scotland. The Scottish Executive has already provided change funding. As part of a change programme designed to enable these bodies to work effectively together, £250,000 was provided in 2004-05 and a further £250,000 is available in the current year. These resources are to support initiatives to integrate administrative functions and streamline support for local services - for the benefit of the end user.