Chamber and committees

Yes. We are discussing how it will with various interested parties the proposed structure of the Carbon Trust, and in particular complement the Scottish Executive's existing services to businesses delivered by the Scottish Energy Efficiency Office, and the advice delivered by the Energy Saving Trust.

The funding will be used to support energy efficiency and to further the development of renewable energy in Scotland. Discussions will be held with the Carbon Trust, the Energy Saving Trust and other bodies with an interest on how to enhance the delivery of energy efficiency advice to Scottish businesses to complement the existing work of the Scottish Energy Efficiency Office; and how best to support new renewable energy technologies. An announcement of the outcome will be made in due course.

It is a priority of the Executive to ensure that staff have access to the latest technology and are able to use it effectively to provide an efficient, high quality service to Ministers, Parliament and the public. Through the internal Training and Development course programme staff are offered a wide range of learning opportunities designed to raise awareness and improve staff skills and knowledge in information and communication technologies.

Electoral pilot schemes are scheduled to take place at the local government elections being held in England and Wales in May. Decisions on the introduction of similar pilot schemes, including online voting, for local government elections in Scotland will be considered once an analysis of the results of the pilots in England and Wales has been produced. Any future consideration of online voting will take account of security matters.

The Executive is providing £26 million through the Modernising Government Fund to support innovative projects which use information and communication technologies. Local authorities will lead 22 of these projects with funding of £17.5 million.As well as supporting key technologies such as telecommunications infrastructure, call centres, electronic service delivery and smart cards, the projects will also deliver strategic, transferable benefits to the whole of the public sector.

Section 9 of the draft Bill published on 1 March sets out the scope of public authority discretion in relation to the charging of fees for providing information. The upper limits of fees would be prescribed and all authorities would have discretion whether or not to charge a fee. Section 22 of the draft Bill requires that Scottish public authorities set out in a publication scheme any fees to be charged in relation to information made available routinely.

The Scottish Executive and its agencies currently have around 230 posts in Dumfries and Galloway. There has been no transfer of Scottish Executive posts to this area since July 1999. Two new posts have been created in the region.Last December I announced to Parliament that detailed reviews of the Edinburgh operations of six public bodies would be undertaken to individual timetables based on lease breaks and other operational factors. In accordance with this timetable we aim to be in a position to make decisions on the location of the Scottish Public Pensions Agency by the end of March and the Health Education Board for Scotland in mid-2001.I also announced at that time that the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care and the Scottish Social Services Council would not be located in Edinburgh. Mr Chisholm announced on 6 March that the national offices of these two new bodies will - if the Parliament passes the necessary legislation to enable them to be established - be located in Dundee. Decisions on regional offices for the Commission will be announced shortly.

I am happy to say that virtually all of the e-government projects in which the Executive is directly involved are currently on schedule and within budget. The table below gives more details of the Executive's major e-government projects. The published 21st Century Government Action Plan gives details of e-government projects ongoing across the wider public sector.

PROJECT	ON SCHEDULE?	ON BUDGET?
Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) of Agricultural Grants and Subsidies	A pilot project of one of the subsidy schemes, with a limited number of claimants, was completed towards the end of 2000 and proved the concept of collecting subsidy claims through electronic means. Following assessment of the pilot, work is in hand on the development of a full system for commencement in July 2001. ESD will be progressively rolled out across the main agriculture grant and subsidy schemes over the next three years.	Yes
Electronic Cattle Traceability	This project comprises two main components, the development of a system to allow farmers to transmit cattle traceability through electronic means and also the electronic identification of cattle. There has been very good progress on arrangements for the electronic transmission of cattle traceability information with the system becoming operational in February 2001. Details of a supported roll-out of the system, including the electronic identification of cattle will be announced later this year.	Yes
LINETS	Development of the Legal Information Network for Scotland (LINETS) to provide law, administration and police service professionals, initially in public sector departments, with access to networked, computer based statute and case law, and other related information is currently on schedule.	Yes
ISCJIS	Development of the Integration of Scottish Criminal Justice Information Systems (ISCJIS) programme to link the computer systems of the various criminal justice organisations within Scotland is not currently on schedule, but this programme is dependent on agencies other than the SE.	Yes
NHSNet	All GPs and hospitals in Scotland are connected to NHSNet enabling data to be passed electronically. Scotland- wide roll out of Electronic Clinical Communication Implementation project enabling e.g. referral and discharge letters, appointment booking, test results etc to be communicated electronically is planned by 2002-03. Project is currently on schedule.	Yes
Scottish Health on the Web	Scottish Health on the Web (SHOW) is the Internet presence for the NHS in Scotland and associated organisations. It comprises some 120 websites, including the major health promotion site HEBSweb, and provides a wide range of information and links on health matters. There are currently some four million accesses per month; further developments are planned and are on schedule.	Yes
NHS 24	Scotland's equivalent of NHS Direct (NHS 24) will be established during 2001 with full roll out quickly thereafter. It will be an integrated system offering advice on healthcare issues; or information on health and services; or an assessment of symptoms by a trained nurse in one phone call. The project is on schedule.	Yes
UK Online	UK online is a project aimed at giving citizens online access to government information and services. As part of this project the UK online citizens portal has been developed. UK online now contains six Life Episodes. Each Life Episode has a Champion from within the Executive and Associated Departments. Its contents from a Scottish viewpoint are driven by input from stakeholders from within and out-with the Executive. Further developments are planned, and are on schedule.	Yes - to date no direct Scottish cost - time only.
Scottish National Public Transport Timetable	The Scottish Executive has worked with local authorities and transport operators to deliver the Scottish National Public Transport Timetable, providing a simple way to plan journeys using IT and partnership working to focus on the needs of the individual traveller. The system went live on 3 January 2001	Yes
NADICS traffic information website	This website provides on line trunk road Traffic Information and has links to other transport related sites such as CalMac; SPT; CityLink; AA/RAC; Police; Tourist Boards. Planned developments (including plans to display live CCTV pictures of traffic conditions at stress points on the trunk road network) are all on schedule.	Yes

Nominations for the Government Computing Innovation Awards come from a wide variety of sources. It is not possible to provide details of nominees for this year's awards, as the closing date for nominations is 30 March 2001.

The Scottish Executive has made no such assessment.