Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S1W-10319

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 October 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 20 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the 27 British Tourist Authority overseas offices which represent Scotland; how many tourists from each of these areas visit Scotland each year, and what percentage of the total number from each area visiting the UK each of these figures represents.

Number of visitors to UK and Scotland from countries in which BTA has a presence

	Overseas visitors to UK (000)	Overseas visitors to Scotland (000)	Scottish % of UK figure
Argentina	91	12	13
Australia	604	104	17
Austria	242	22	9
Belgium	1,184	52	4
Brazil	154	15	10
Canada	673	136	20
Denmark	431	40	9
Finland	145	12	8
France	3,275	133	4
Germany	2,831	211	7
Hong Kong	165	14	8
India	175	11	6
Ireland	2,310	192	8
Italy	1,090	75	7
Japan	546	47	9
Netherlands	1,719	107	6
New Zealand	166	29	17
Norway	509	40	8
Portugal	177	6	3
Saudi Arabia	100	8	8
Singapore	91	7	8
South Africa	285	29	10
Spain	879	61	7
Sweden	676	66	10
Switzerland	583	34	6
UAE	101	6	6
USA	3,880	470	12

Question reference: S1W-10320

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 October 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 20 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive how many ministerial meetings it has had with the British Tourist Authority since 1 July 1999.

Question reference: S1W-10312

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 October 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 20 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what budget (a) it and (b) the Scottish Tourist Board has available annually to spend on joint advertising with companies for the purpose of promoting Scotland abroad.

Question reference: S1W-10296

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 October 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sam Galbraith on 19 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will detail, with regard to the proposed development of a centre for the creative industries at Pacific Quay, (a) who will operate the studio; (b) what room for expansion will be available at the proposed site or whether other additional venues are earmarked and, if so, where, and (c) what proposals there are to integrate the site with any possible film theme park venue elsewhere.

Question reference: S1W-10294

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 October 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 19 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what consideration it will give to granting Enterprise Zone status to Rosyth port.

Question reference: S1W-10295

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 October 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 19 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider granting Enterprise Zone status to other ports and harbours.

Question reference: S1W-10297

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 October 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sam Galbraith on 19 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to assist the creative and media industries in distribution and marketing.

The Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Enterprise announced on 20 September a joint initiative to help music and publishing companies reach wider markets through innovative use of technology. The Executive will continue to work with these agencies and others to identify further opportunities in line with the Executive's cultural strategy and Scottish Enterprise's strategy for the creative industries.

Question reference: S1W-10298

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 October 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sam Galbraith on 19 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding has been provided by Scottish Screen to create a Scottish film fund and what directions or instructions it has given to Scottish Screen regarding such a fund.

Question reference: S1W-10282

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 October 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 19 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive how much of the #25 million to be invested in a development programme for the creative industries over the next five years referred to in Creative Scotland: Shaping the Future will be spent in each of these years and what specific projects will receive funding under this programme.

The SE Network operates within an annual planning cycle. Each cluster plan developed by SE so far identifies key strategic objectives for development and anticipates the timescales and resources needed to achieve these objectives. The next stage, as defined in Creative Scotland: Shaping the Future, is to work with industry further to develop specific projects and interventions in the context of the agreed objectives. These are:

Development of a dynamic flexible business environment

Expansion and development of the existing talent and skills base

Development of an environment in which innovation can flourish

Development of an international reputation for Scotland's Creative Industries

To assist in detailed action planning, the SE Network is working with four key industry focus groups in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen. However, from our industry consultation to date several priority projects have emerged. These are:

Pacific Quay site development

Dundee Creative Industry Campus

Market Entry Programme into London and North America

Investment will be allocated to these projects in the forthcoming year, subject to the SE Network annual budget allocation process.

Question reference: S1W-10283

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 October 2000
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 19 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the statement in Creative Scotland: Shaping the Future that incubation facilities for the development of new ideas and the transfer of ideas across the creative industries sector will be created, what facilities will be developed, where such facilities will be, when they will be established, and how this proposal will be taken forward.

The Scottish Enterprise Network has two priority projects which relate directly to the provision of incubator facilities for new and start-up businesses in the creative industries. These are:

The Pacific Quay development in Glasgow, and:

The Creative Industries Campus in Dundee

SEn is already investing in these projects with the aim of facilitating the right conditions within which the private sector will provide and maintain any incubation facilities.

In relation to the transfer of ideas across the creative industries, SE has already started the process of developing regional and national networks under the following banners:

Creativescotland.com (national web resource)

Creative Edinburgh

Creative Glasgow

Creative Aberdeen

Interactive Tayside

The first of these regional networks will be launched on November 13 in Edinburgh. It is through these networks that the transfer and commercialisation of ideas across the creative industries cluster will be encouraged.