- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 23 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how many of its staff are engaged in the task of promoting and supporting e-commerce.
Answer
E-commerce is an enabling technology and the term is capable of wide interpretation. It is estimated that there are currently 72 staff working within the core and associated departments of the Scottish Executive who are wholly or partly engaged in business processes, improvements in public service delivery and the promotion and support of information and communication technologies who could fall within a reasonable definition of e-commerce. This estimate excludes staff in agencies and non Departmental Public Bodies engaged in similar tasks.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 31 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 23 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken to carry out the actions recommended in the report by the Cabinet Office entitled
[email protected].
Answer
A range of actions is already in hand. Many of the report's recommendations concern reserved matters which are being taken forward at a UK level. On those recommendations for which the Scottish Executive has responsibility we will be contributing to a comprehensive progress report, which is being prepared for the Prime Minister by the Office of the e-envoy. The report is due to be published on the e-envoy's website (
www.e-envoy.gov.uk) at the end of February. Further reports will follow.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 23 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are suitable routes for road travel between the M74 and Dumfries other than the A701, A709 and A75.
Answer
The A701, A709 and A75 are the principle routes between the A74 and Dumfries. All other routes are minor local roads more suitable for local traffic.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 31 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 21 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what is the division of responsibilities between it and Her Majesty's Government's Minister for e-commerce, in particular for e-commerce and for new and emerging information and communication technologies in general.
Answer
The e-minister is responsible for e-commerce issues relating to reserved matters and the Scottish Executive is responsible for e-commerce issues relating to devolved matters.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 31 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 21 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had any discussions with Her Majesty's Government about the role and responsibilities within Scotland of Alex Allan, its "e-envoy", and, if so, what the outcome was.
Answer
Alex Allan took up post as e-envoy in January. The e-envoy chairs meetings of the Information Age Government Champions Network and the Executive's representative within that network attended two such meetings last month. Mr Allan met Scottish Executive representatives most recently on Friday 11 February. A wide range of issues was discussed, including the promotion of the use of ICTs by business and by the public sector in Scotland. Mr Allan is responsible for promoting and co-ordinating the use of ICTs in relation to reserved matters in Scotland.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 February 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 18 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what schemes it currently supports which facilitate community groups producing documentary films about their own communities.
Answer
The Great Northern Social Inclusion Partnership and the Working for Communities programme in Aberdeen support community film and video film making. Scottish Screen supports the Glasgow Film and Video Workshop's Cineworks, which is open to applications throughout Scotland.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 February 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 18 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to set up mechanisms to measure and monitor the development of e-commerce in Scotland.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is working in conjunction with the ONS and DTI through the Inter-departmental Group on E-commerce statistics, set up following the PIU Report
[email protected].The Executive is also working with Scottish Enterprise on the annual benchmarking exercise on the business uptake of information and communications technologies in Scotland, which supplements the UK benchmarking exercise carried out by DTI.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 31 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 18 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive which Minister last met with Her Majesty's Government's Minister for e-commerce and what was discussed.
Answer
The First Minister met Patricia Hewitt at the meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee on the Knowledge Economy held in Edinburgh on 11 February. The discussion centred on areas where joint working and exchanges of information between the United Kingdom government and devolved administrations would be beneficial.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 February 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 18 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to establish targets in schools and across the workforce for IT literacy.
Answer
Through the Programme for Government we are committed to ensuring that by 2003 school leavers have an understanding of information technology. For adults, we are considering whether discounts on computer literacy courses might be offered through individual learning accounts in order to increase IT literacy across the workforce.
- Asked by: David Mundell, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 February 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 17 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has for implementing recommendations 20 to 23 on pigeon issues set out in the report of the UK Raptor Working Group.
Answer
I refer Mr Mundell to my answer to question S1W-4163 in which I indicated that I have asked SNH for advice on the recommendations contained in the UK Raptor Working Group Report and how they might be implemented in Scotland.
