Chamber and committees

All employees were invited to attend PACE information sessions on site where representatives of Skills Development Scotland, Jobcentre Plus Scotland and Inverclyde Council Money Advice Team outlined the support available to those facing redundancy. All employees were made aware of their eligibility for funding for training and were invited to apply.

All employees being made redundant from the TSC contact centre in Greenock were provided with information on training available to them, in particular the opportunity of early access to Training for Work programmes.

It is too early to be able to assess figures for those entering Training for Work programmes and for those entering further education.

To date eight employees have undergone Skills Training Analysis, five of whom started work before the required training could be sourced and delivered. The remaining three people are awaiting procurement of their recommended training.

This information is not currently tracked by Skills Development Scotland which delivers PACE support on behalf of the Scottish Government. However, HM Revenue and Customs can track this information after 12 months and the issue of tracking and evaluation will be considered as part of the action plan approved by the PACE Partnership.

All of the 140 employees being made redundant from the TSC contact centre in Greenock were offered one to one counselling and advice on career development. One hundred and twenty-five employees accessed this support.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-26379 on 2 September 2009. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-26379 on 2 September 2009. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

At the time of TSC''s announcement, Scottish Development International (SDI) and Scottish Enterprise (SE) were continuing to engage with the company in Greenock in order to minimise the impact of any potential job losses. Skills Development Scotland were alerted to this announcement and the PACE team was engaged to support staff during the consultation period.

Ministers were also involved in speaking with senior management at the company and the Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism visited TSC''s European headquarters in Larbert on 14 April. SDI in India also met with high-level officials from TSC, including the chairman of TSC''s parent group.

SDI and SE are still actively pursuing opportunities to bring alternative business to the TSC site in Greenock, with possible inward investor visits to the site taking place this month and SDI marketing, wherever possible, the availability of the Greenock site.

I met Mr Al Megrahi at his request on 5 August as part of my consideration of the application made by the Libyan Government for transfer under the prisoner transfer agreement between the UK and Libyan Governments. This follows the commitment given by Jack Straw MP, Secretary of State for Justice, that in cases where applications for transfer were not submitted personally by the prisoner, the prisoner must be given the opportunity to make representations. Mr Al Megrahi had the opportunity to make representations and he chose to do so in person. Therefore, I was duty bound to receive his representations. I accordingly met him.

The meeting was of no relevance to the appeal. Should future applications be made under this or other prisoner transfer agreements, similar meetings could well take place and for the same reason.

Compassionate release is governed by section 3 of the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act 1993, which gives the Scottish ministers power to release on licence a person serving a sentence of imprisonment if satisfied that there are compassionate grounds justifying such release.

The process is set out in Scottish Prison Service circular 21A/05, issued in 2005.