Chamber and committees

The Scottish Arts Council is the lead agency charged with maintaining a national overviewof young people’s involvement with the arts. The council continues, inpartnership with arts organisations, local authorities and others, to develop awide range of initiatives that engage with young people. Prominent among suchinitiatives are the links officer scheme, the cultural co-ordinator’s scheme,the youth music initiative and the Dewar awards for talented young artists. Thecouncil’s draft education strategy is currently out for consultation and willinform future support for this sector.

Adecision on the future accommodation requirements of VisitScotland has now beenreached. Following an extensive option appraisal of the 10 potential areasshortlisted as possible locations for the VisitScotland headquarters office,the majority of VisitScotland posts will move to a new location within theEdinburgh area.

Ministersare agreed that any other decision would be too disruptive given the majorrestructuring which has taken place at VisitScotland and the need to maintainthe momentum of recovery from the difficulties of 2001.

However some functions ofVisitScotland currently based in Edinburgh will be identified for relocation in due course,following the forthcoming report of the ad hoc ministerial group on tourism.VisitScotland will also work within the job academy arrangements beingdeveloped by Edinburgh City Council and Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothiansfor getting people who are economically inactive back into the labour market.

In the answer given toquestion S1W-24583 on 23 March 2002, I undertook to continue to report quarterly on thenumbers of letters received by ministers and our performance in answering them.This is the second quarter in which I am reporting performance on letters onlyand not invitations.

In the quarter July toSeptember 2003, 2,619 letters were received for ministerial reply of which 66%received a reply within 17 working days, and 84% received a reply within 25 workingdays. In the same period ministers received 783 invitations.

The target on exclusions was helpful in setting a clear direction of travel and as a stimulus to the development of alternatives to exclusion. We remain committed to seeing a trend of reductions in exclusions but based on the application of the best available management practices, not on a specific target. No target should override judgements on a case-by-case basis where decisions must be made in accordance with the best interests of the staff and other pupils and of the child.The Scottish Executive is committed to supporting teachers and taking a firm approach to discipline. Exclusion is a sanction schools may use. It should sit within a wider framework of effective policies and practices on discipline within which exclusion is a legitimate last resort. Our policy on exclusion recognises the need to ensure the rights of the majority of pupils, who are hard working and well behaved, and of teachers to enjoy a positive learning environment. We also have an obligation to address the needs and observe the rights of pupils involved in disruptive behaviours. The way to reduce exclusions lies in determined, sustained, long-term, effective management and sound and consistent policies which make a real difference to behaviour in schools. That was the clear message from the Discipline Task Group (DTG). There is excellent practice in many Scottish schools and implementation of the DTG recommendations is making further improvements. Since 2000 we have allocated £33 million to authorities to implement the DTG recommendations, with a further £10 million to follow in each of the next two years. This is in addition to the £10 million a year we have been providing since 1999 to fund alternatives to exclusion, increased to £11 million from this year. We are building on the work of the DTG with the establishment of two expert groups: one to look at discipline in corridors, playgrounds and other out of class areas, and the other to look at involvement of parents in ways which improve behaviour in schools.We are also appointing a development officer to help authorities with implementation and assist in the sharing of experience and good practice. Finally, we are facilitating a series of "masterclasses" for headteachers. These will commence in the autumn and will be an opportunity for all headteachers to discuss and share best practice in behaviour management.We will continue to record incidents of violent and anti-social behaviour towards teachers in schools to monitor trends and we will encourage consistency in recording practices to give an ever more reliable base to such statistics. This information, together with other data and expert advice from education professionals and others, will form the basis of future policy action.By these means, and with the commitment and professionalism of teachers and other school staff, I am confident that we can ensure that all pupils can benefit from a high quality education in a well ordered learning environment.

We have, once again, succeeded in allocating everyone who applied to join the Teacher Induction Scheme in August 2003 to one of his or her five preferred authorities, albeit the scheme offers no such guarantee.The matching of probationers to their preferred authorities has been even more successful than last year. In the primary sector 96% of applicants have been allocated to one of their top three preferences (94% last year), and in the secondary sector 89% have been allocated to one of their top three (86% last year).There is, however, no certainty that we will be able to maintain such high levels of matching in future years. As we train more teachers over the coming years, to deliver our new partnership commitments, it may not prove possible to afford the same priority to student preferences

In the answer given to question S1W-24583 on 28 March 2002, I undertook to continue to report quarterly on the numbers of letters received by ministers and our performance in answering them.In the quarter October to December 2002, 3,464 letters were received for ministerial reply, of which 74% received a reply within 17 working days and 91% received a reply within 25 working days. This performance has improved against the targets compared to that in the third quarter of 2002 when 70% of letters received a reply within 17 working days and 89% received a reply within 25 working days.

The recorded crime statistics collected centrally do not distinguish football-related incidents and the Scottish Executive has not commissioned research over the last 10 years on football-related violence.The Executive has, however, mounted research into violent crime in Scotland and that research may, in due course, be able to identify football-related incidents.

Information on arrests by the police is not collected centrally. The recorded crime statistics collected centrally do not identify the location of the crime.

We will continue with our policy of strengthening and extending Gaelic education at all levels. We believe this is the most effective means of increasing the number of Gaelic speakers. In addition, I will ask Bord na Gaidhlig to take account of the 2001 Census when they produce their first national plan for Gaelic. The Scottish Executive has provided the following translation:Leanaidh sinn oirnn leis a' phoileasaidh a tha againn a bhith a' neartachadh agus a' leudachadh foghlam Gàidhlig aig gach ìre. Tha sinn a' creidsinn gur e seo an dòigh as èifeachdaich air a bhith a' leudachadh àireamh luchd-labhairt na Gàidhlig. A thuilleadh air sin, iarraidh mi air Bòrd na Gàidhlig suim a ghabhail de Chunntas-sluaigh 2001 an uair a bhios iad ag ullachadh an ciad plana nàiseanta airson na Gàidhlig.

The information requested is not held centrally.