Matters concerning the basing of Trident missiles are reserved to the Westminster Parliament and all questions of detail are for the Ministry of Defence.

I am not aware of any occasions on which the Scottish Executive have suggested that lottery funding comes from the Exchequer. The National Lottery has been a great success story bringing £1.7 billion to almost 25,000 projects in Scotland since 1994 and transforming funding for the arts, heritage and sport as well as funding flagship projects in health, education and the environment and provided a valuable source of funding for charities. The National Lottery is UK public funding, but  it is accounted for separately from Exchequer funds.

Many projects supported by the lottery are also supported by Exchequer funds, with some lottery distributors aligning their lottery and Exchequer funding to maximise effectiveness. There are also examples of major projects and initiatives which are co-financed by the Executive and lottery distributors. Scottish ministers are actively involved in the work of the National Lottery in Scotland and therefore take part in a variety of announcements involving lottery funding.

The Prime Minister has stated publicly that the key themes of this year’s G8 summit will be climate change and Africa. I, my ministerial colleagues, and our officials, have regular discussions with our counterparts in the UK Government on various aspects of these very important issues.

No. These issues are reserved. Consequently we do not intend to approach the Committee in this regard.

However, the Scottish Executive does work with the UK Government to help develop effective responses to terrorism and related national security issues, including the non-proliferation of chemical, biological, radioactive and nuclear weapons.

Policy on defence and the nuclear deterrent is reserved to Westminster and, as such, is a matter for the UK Government.

No. These issues are reserved. Consequently we do not intend to seek Parliamentary time for such a debate.

However, the Scottish Executive works with the UK Government to help develop effective responses to terrorism and related national security issues, including the non-proliferation of chemical, biological, radioactive and nuclear weapons.

The Scottish Executive works with international partners through the UK Government to develop effective cross-border responses to terrorism and related national security issues, including the non-proliferation of chemical, biological, radioactive and nuclear weapons.

We work closely with the UK Government on a wide range of law enforcement related issues – including counter-terrorism. This work plays an important role in helping to formulate the UK policy on tackling counter-terrorism, including commitments made in the forum of the G8.

The Scottish Executive works with international partners through the UK Government to develop effective cross-border responses to terrorism. The Scottish Police Service and the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency work successfully with a wide range of agencies from around the world on a variety of key law enforcement issues, including counter-terrorism.

The Proposal for a European Council Decision on the exchange of information extracted from the criminal record for mutual legal assistance requests requires each member state to designate a single central authority for initial contact. It will be possible, however, to designate more than one central authority for on-going contact, for the exchange of information in connection with such requests and for sending information back to the state of nationality at the time of conviction in individual cases. The question of which authority should be designated for the exchange of Scottish criminal records is under consideration.