- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 February 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Morrison on 12 March 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-12622 by Mr Alasdair Morrison on 1 February 2001, whether it will provide details of the increased levels of financial support for the tourism industry being provided through the Scottish Tourist Board, in particular by how much such support is being increased.
Answer
Financial support for STB/Visitscotland in 2000-01 is £25.9 million, which is a £6.6 million increase on the previous financial year.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 February 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 12 March 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Minister for Education, Europe and External Affairs intends to visit Lockerbie Primary School and Lockerbie Academy when he is next in Dumfries and Galloway.
Answer
I cannot, at this stage, give any commitment to visiting schools in Lockerbie, but I am considering the possibility of including them in a future programme of visits.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 February 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 12 March 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, with regard to the announcement on 26 February 2001 by Ms Wendy Alexander of an additional #2.5 million to fund ICT training for the unemployed, how many places on ICT training schemes will be provided in Dumfries and Galloway.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W - 13681.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 February 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 12 March 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, with regard to the announcement on 26 February 2001 by Ms Wendy Alexander of an additional #2.5 million to fund ICT training for the unemployed, what percentage of this and what amount will go to Dumfries and Galloway.
Answer
SE Dumfries and Galloway have identified an ambitious programme of activities under this initiative. Their activities will attract £212,500 in funding support from Scottish Enterprise (9.4% of the total) and are expected to deliver 215 European Computer Driving Licence qualifications leading directly to 85 jobs being secured by local people.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 February 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 12 March 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, with regard to the announcement on 21 February 2001 by Jack Straw of #10.6 million of additional funding to encourage regional police forces to apply the National Intelligence Model guidelines, what discussions it has had with police forces to ensure that they take advantage of the funding available.
Answer
The announcement by the Home Secretary applies only to forces in England and Wales. The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS) has endorsed the National Intelligence Model (NIM) and an implementation team is considering the introduction of the model across the eight Scottish police forces and the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency. The decision to implement the NIM, which is connected to a new Scottish Intelligence Database, is an operational matter for chief constables. Last month, we announced an investment package of £8 million to take forward development work including that on a Scottish Intelligence Database.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 15 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Angus MacKay on 8 March 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the progress of projects which have received funding from the Modernising Government Fund and, in particular, the development of a new customer service centre in South Lanarkshire, the "eCare Project" and the use of telecommunication technology in public access kiosks in Dumfries and Galloway.
Answer
On 18 December 2000 I announced £26 million of funding to support 36 projects. The funds have still to be drawn down and at the present time it is too early to say how the projects are progressing.All of the projects are being monitored by the Executive and the project plans, along with progress reports for each of the projects, will be published on the Executives 21st Century Government website.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Angus MacKay on 7 March 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the announcement by the Office of the E-envoy on 16 January 2001 that more than 40% of UK government services are now available online, how many of its services are currently available over the Internet.
Answer
Current evidence suggests that, on the basis of the progress measures defined by the Office of the e-Envoy for its Electronic Service Delivery Progress Report, more than 25% of services provided by the Scottish Executive and its agencies are available online, thus meeting the target of 25% to be online by 2002. However, we do not believe that "services" and "online" in this context have universally understood definitions within the public sector in Scotland. Since the announcement of the target of 100% of government services to be available electronically by 2005 in March 2000, we have been considering how to ensure that our 21st Century Government Agenda is about improving services to the public and about increasing choice in the way services are delivered. The option to access services electronically can and should include a variety of delivery channels, including digital tv, call centres and the Internet. We are revising the collection of statistics to reflect this and will be able to provide fuller information in due course.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 5 March 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-10567 by Mr Jack McConnell on 27 November 2000, what formal relationships it has or intends to establish with local or regional government bodies in the north of England for the purpose of identifying issues of common interest between Scotland and the North of England.
Answer
As stated in my answer to question S1W-10567 on 27 November, the Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the Government Offices in the North-East and North-West on issues of common interest. Local authorities in the south of Scotland are best placed to develop relationships with their counterpart authorities south of the Border on issues of common interest.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Angus MacKay on 5 March 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any mechanism in place to measure its intellectual capital.
Answer
The Scottish Executive does not have a mechanism in place that provides an overall measure of its intellectual capital. However, the Executive uses many of the measures of intellectual capital used by leading exponents of this discipline including employee satisfaction, qualifications and training undertaken by staff.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 December 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 5 March 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken to ensure that the interests of rural areas such as Dumfries and Galloway are represented in Europe.
Answer
Scottish interests in devolved matters including those of particular interest to Dumfries and Galloway, are fed by the Scottish Executive into the formulation of the UK line which is taken forward by the UK delegation at meetings with EU institutions and Member States. Through these means for example, the whole of Dumfries and Galloway has secured eligibility for funding under Objective 2 and is able to participate in the Objective 3 programme of the European Structural Funds.
