Chamber and committees

I welcome the recognition in the Home Office’s Controlling our borders: Making migration work for Britain that Scotland faces particular demographicchallenges. We are pursuing these challenges through our Fresh Talent policy withinthe framework of the UK immigration system. I look forward to workingclosely with the Home Office on the detail of how the five year plan will be implemented.

The existing low-skill schemesaccount for only a very small proportion of low-skilled migration to the UK. Accessioncountry nationals are increasingly filling low-skill jobs in the hospitality andagriculture sectors. Almost 8,000 workers from these countries have registered inScotland since the worker registration scheme came into effect on 1 May 2005 and we arelooking at ways in which we can promote Scotland in these countries and raise this figure still higher.

I refer the member to the answersto question S2W-14627 on 8 March 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament/webapp/wa.search.

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.

Immigration is a reserved matter,and statistics on the control of immigration are a matter for the Home Office.

The General Register Office forScotland compiles estimates of international migration into Scotland, forthe purposes of demographic estimation and projections. A migrant is internationallydefined as someone who changes his or her country of residence for a period of atleast a year. These estimates are derived primarily from the International PassengerSurvey (IPS). Because the sample-size involved is relatively small, the estimatesdo not allow figures for the accession states to be separately identified.

There is some information availableon workers and visitors from accession states:

Information about the numberof people from the EU accession states who have registered to work in Scotland, includingseasonal workers as well as immigrants, is available from the Home Office

(http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/ind/en/home/0/reports/accession_monitoring.Maincontent.0007.file.tmp/Final%20Feb%20accession%20report.pdf)

Information from the IPS aboutall visitors to the UK from accession countries (including those who visit forless than 12 months and are therefore not defined as migrants) is published monthlyand is available through the following link:

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Product.asp?vlnk=12222&More=n

This does not give informationfor Scotland due to the small sample size.

I refer the member to the answerto question S2W-14434 on 10 March 2005. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for whichcan be found at http://www.scottish.parliament/webapp/wa.search.

The Executive welcomes and issupportive of proposals which will deliver modern facilities capable of supportingan increase in sports participation. A number of artificial pitches are being developedthrough the New Opportunities for Physical Education and Sports (NOPES) Lotteryprogramme and funding is also available to support their development through sportscotland’sBuilding for Sport programme.

I would 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 whichcan be found at http://www.scottish.parliament/webapp/wa.search.

I refer the member to the answerto S2W-14805 on 9 March 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for whichcan be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

I refer the member to the answerto S2W-14803 on 9 March 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for whichcan be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.