Chamber and committees

The information requested is not held centrally.

Ministerial approval to the visitscotland.com joint venture partnership proposal in April 2002 was based on a detailed business case, the public version of which was placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre in October 2002 (Bib. number 27374). The business case covered a range of factors critical to the success of the joint venture, including a detailed value for money analysis that demonstrated a net financial gain for the public sector.

Our Major Events Strategy, which we published In November 2002, sets out the Executive's vision of Scotland becoming one of the world's foremost events destinations by 2015. The strategy was developed in close partnership with key players in the public sector already involved in major events, including sportscotland, VisitScotland, the Scottish Arts Council, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, COSLA and the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow.The strategy is now being taken forward by EventScotland, which is a joint venture between the Executive and VisitScotland; it has been allocated £10 million funding from the Scottish Executive via VisitScotland in the next three years (£2 million this year, £3 million in 2004-05 and £5 million in 2005-06). EventScotland is working with a wide range of partners, including the area tourist boards, VisitBritain, other tourism organisations and local authorities to develop a portfolio of major events that will help attract visitors to Scotland, and to enhance Scotland's international profile.

Visitscotland.com is a world-class visitor contact centre covering in breadth and detail the whole scope of Scottish tourism. It plays a vitally important role in promoting Scottish tourism, and this role will become even more important in future.

Thirteen of the 14 area tourist boards (ATBs) are shareholders in visitscotland.com, with a 12.25% stake between them (Greater Glasgow and Clyde Valley Tourist Board is not a participant). Together with VisitScotland's share of 12.75%, the public sector in Scotland has a 25% stake in visitscotland.com. As a shareholder, the ATBs collectively are represented on the board of visitscotland.com. Through board membership, the ATBs have the opportunity to contribute to and influence the visitscotland.com business plan and all aspects of its operations.

Although this is an operational matter for VisitScotland, I understand that area tourist boards already have the facility to amend and update tourism provider details. A more powerful amendment facility is being developed and will be available to area tourist boards later this year.

Apart from a small sum for production of the initial consultation letter, no external costs or consultancy fees were incurred during the course of the area tourist board review.

Visitscotland.com's annual business plan requires the approval of VisitScotland. It sets out visitscotland.com's business strategy and targets, and the actions needed to achieve them. Visitscotland.com is a commercial company and its business plan targets for bookings and turnover are commercially sensitive.At the outset of its operations, visitscotland.com entered into a service-level agreement with VisitScotland and the 13 participating area tourist boards, which sets out performance standards for the operation of the website and the contact centre at Livingston. The agreement provides incentives to meet or exceed these standards, which can only be done by meeting and exceeding customer expectations and thereby increasing the volumes of business generated by visitscotland.com. Any failure to meet consistently the standards set out in the agreement is addressed through a full range of provisions covering inter alia response times, call abandonment rate and customer satisfaction, which trigger either service credits or service defaults.

This is an operational matter for the area tourist boards.

The operation of the Scottish Public Pensions Agency and the regulation of the Police Pensions Regulation1987 in Scotland form part of the Finance portfolio. Under Regulation H of the Police Pensions Regulations 1987, the Scottish ministers role is limited to the appointment of an independent medical referee in cases where the officer is appealing against the decision of the police authority. The decision to refer cases to a medical authority is solely for the police authority to determine. In a small number of cases involving an Inspector or Assistant Inspector of Constabulary, central police officers or some overseas policemen the Scottish ministers undertake the role of police authority.There are no planned amendments to these referral rights.