Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executive wrote to Local Authority Chief Executives, copied to Chief Executives and Directors of public sector bodies in Scotland, on 29 November 2001, outlining the key priority areas for developing citizen focussed services which could be supported by the second round of the Modernising Government Fund. Bidding Guidance for outline project proposals setting out strategic objectives and 4 key project areas issued on 19 December 2001.

Recommendation six of the Digital Scotland Task Force report related to a broadband network for schools. I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-21268 on 16 January 2002.

The Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Councils provide six-monthly reports on their progress in implementing relevant recommendations contained in the Digital Scotland Task Force's report. The last such report was received in December 2001.

Telecoms regulation is reserved to the UK Government. However, the Scottish Executive recognises the importance of an efficient and competitive telecoms infrastructure to economic development. Within the context of its economic development remit, Scottish Enterprise is working on the Accessing Telecoms Links Across Scotland (ATLAS) project which aims to increase choice within the wholesale telecoms market in Scotland.

Local authorities through COSLA, have given an undertaking to match the Executive's commitment to delivering services online by 2005. Each local authority has identified e-advocates at both Senior Officer and Elected Member level who are accountable for the delivery of their Council's 21^st Century Government Strategy.Eight of these e-advocates, along with the Chief Executive of COSLA, are represented on the Central/Local 21^st Century Government Forum which helps to drive the Modernising Government and Information Age Government agendas across all local authorities.

Local Authorities, through COSLA, have given an undertaking to match the Executive's commitment to online services by 2005.The Central Local 21^st Century Government Forum agreed that councils should be invited collectively to propose an approach, targets and a timetable for making available electronically the public services they deliver.This consultation exercise was carried out in October 2001 and councils have agreed that a standard definition of services and electronic channels should be endorsed and that an online database should be set up to monitor council progress in delivering services electronically. The structure and content of this database is being developed.

Since April 2000, the Executive, through the NGfL Scotland programme of seminars and events, has supported seven seminars at which education authorities have been encouraged to meet and discuss their experience of obtaining and delivering a range of ICT services. Most recently, nearly 300 delegates attended the conference "Connecting Scotland's Schools", which launched discussion of the services that might be offered over the planned Scottish Schools Digital Network.

Building on the experience gained from existing partnerships with commercial providers, the Executive and Learning and Teaching Scotland are developing a procurement strategy covering the financial years 2002-03 and 2003-04 that will continue to raise the awareness of all commercial providers of the opportunities afforded by the Executive's extensive investment in educational software and content.Learning and Teaching Scotland will continue to engage with trade bodies in the software and multimedia industries, and is represented on the steering group that is guiding the creation of E-learning Alliance Scotland.

Good progress is being made with the Electronic Clinical Communications Implementation programme. Electronic transmission of laboratory test results is now well established in many parts of the country and a number of locations are beginning to electronically transmit referral and discharge letters. The technical infrastructure will be in place during the first half of this year to enable secure electronic exchange of clinical information between any GP practice and any NHS Trust in Scotland. The target is to achieve widespread implementation by 2003.

Management and Leadership skills are a strategic priority for the Scottish Executive and its Corporate Learning Services (CLS). CLS provides a wide range of project management, management and information technology training using a variety of training methods, including e-learning, classroom based and computer based training. All of these develop skills that can be used to take forward electronic service delivery.We have introduced a suite of courses with the aim of improving project teams; these include Project Leadership, Project Support, Microsoft Project and Consultancy Skills. The topics covered in these courses include project definition, goal setting, motivating the team, problem solving and negotiation.The Scottish Executive 21st Century Government Unit have also arranged a number of seminars and workshops on relevant topics for senior public sector staff outwith the Executive. We will continue to hold such seminars on appropriate topics where there is an identified need.