Chamber and committees

VisitScotland will be present at this event, and view it as an excellent opportunity to forge new contacts, as well as meeting with existing contacts. VisitScotland’s branding for the new “Scotland – Welcome to our life” campaign will be fully evident at the convention. VisitScotland will use this opportunity to highlight all that Scotland has to offer as a great destination to visit.

The Scottish Executive plays a full part in helping to formulate commitments the UK Government has made on counter-terrorism, including on the non-proliferation of chemical, biological, radioactive and nuclear weapons.  Work is on-going – in co-operation with the UK Government and our partners around the world – to fulfil these commitments.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-14805 on 9 March 2005. 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/webapp/wa.search.

The Executive has committed £1.2 million from the Scottish Consolidated Fund to support the implementation of the Action Plan for Youth Football over a 10 year period.

All Executive funding for youth football in Scotland funded from the ScottishConsolidated fund is administered by sportscotland and awarded to organisations against specific programmes and initiatives or through the application-based programme Sportsmatch.

Youth football would have benefited from the awards made from the Scottish Consolidated Fund set out in the following table. However, it is not possible to quantify the precise amount of the award which has benefited youth football. In addition to these, a contribution was made in 2002-03 towards the costs of the review of youth football carried out by independent consultants.

Year	Annual Development Grant Aid	Sportsmatch
SFA	SWFA	No. of awards	£
1999-2000	48,000	18,000	27	44,202
2000-01	48,000	18,000	29	44,832
2001-02	48,000	18,000	54	117,967.47
2002-03	100,000	18,000	22	72,800
2003-04	100,000	28,500*	27	80,243.85

Note: *18 month award.

It is extremely disappointing that the legal complications affecting the transfer of the funds from the Football Stadia Improvement Fund to the Scottish Football Partnership have not yet been resolved. I am given to understand though that it is expected that the outstanding issues should shortly be resolved and that the transfer of the funds will be completed as quickly as possible thereafter.

The Executive has committed £1.2 million from the Scottish Consolidated Fund to support the implementation of the Action Plan for Youth Football over a 10 year period. It will be for the Implementation Steering Group to determine how and when the funding is to be allocated against agreed work programmes and targets.

Section 16 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003, which commenced on 1 November 2004, determines the conditions under which victims of crime are given an opportunity to be notified when a prisoner is released, dies in custody, is transferred outwith Scotland, becomes eligible for early release or is unlawfully at large. These conditions require that the offender who perpetrated the offence against the victim must have been sentenced to four or more years imprisonment or detention and must have been convicted of a prescribed offence.

The Victim Notification (Prescribed Offences) (Scotland) Order 2004 (SSI 2004/411), which came into force on 1 November 2004, prescribes the offences for which a victim will be entitled to receive information relating to the person who perpetrated the offence against them.

Ministers may, by order, change the conditions set out in section 16 of the 2003 Act by amending the period of time to which an offender must have been sentenced, by adding to the information that victims can receive or by altering the list of prescribed offences.

The legislation governing the release of information to victims has been in effect since 1 November 2004. Its effect on victims is subject to evaluation. Once that evaluation is complete, Ministers will consider what changes, if any, are required to the conditions set out in section 16 of the 2003 Act.

As part of the Fresh Talent initiative,activities are underway to promote Scotland as a place to live, work and study overseas, includingin the accession countries. For example, staff from the Fresh Talent team are attendingan education fair in Poland in March to promote Scotland as a destination of choice.We have also run articles in the Polish media to raise Scotland’s profile.Almost a tenth of the enquiries to the Relocation Advisory Service are from Polishnationals which reflects the strong links that exist between Scotland andPoland. The overall Fresh Talent budget of £1.7 million in 2004-05 includes fundingfor promotional activities overseas, including in the accession countries.

The Fresh TalentInitiative aims to attract bright, talented and hard-working individuals from allcountries, including the EU accession states, to come and live, work and study inScotland. Weare engaged in a number of activities to promote Scotland overseas, including inthe accession countries. For example, staff from the Fresh Talent team are attendingan education fair in Poland in March to promote Scotland as a destination of choice.We have also run articles in the Polish media to raise Scotland’s profile.I would expect to see results from this activity in the months and years ahead.