Chamber and committees

Timetabling of parliamentary business is a matter for the Parliamentary Bureau and selection of motions for debate is a matter for the Presiding Officer.The Executive hopes to bring forward a debate on youth policy after the Easter recess. The Scottish Youth Parliament is likely to form part of this debate.

None. The Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Councils allocate public funds to further and higher education institutions, on the condition that they are used for the purposes for which they are granted.

These are matters for local authorities, although we would expect them to have regard to the revised CIPFA Code of Practice on Treasury Management in the Public Sector.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-23369.

This is a matter for local authorities, although we expect them to have regard to the CIPFA Code of Practice for Treasury Management in the Public Services (2001) and professional advice where it is an issue.

The Scottish Museums Councils are responsible for publishing the final report of the National Audit of museum and gallery collections, buildings and services. We expect the report will be published in the summer.

The National Cultural Strategy committed the Executive to initiate a national audit of collections in museums and galleries, beginning with the industrial museums. Resources of £250,000 were made available for the audit and an interim report was published in October 2001. In addition, a Strategic Change Fund of £3 million over three years was announced for the sector. In December 2000, the Executive allocated £1.26 million of this fund over three years towards the running costs of the Scottish Fisheries Museum, the Scottish Maritime Museum and the Scottish Mining Museum in recognition of their financial difficulties. A condition of the package was that the local authorities involved would maintain their level of support over the same three-year period. The three industrial museums were accepted as museums of national importance on the strength of evidence from a number of independent studies and expert advice from the National Museums of Scotland.

The Scottish Executive has awarded an increase in funding of £850,000 over the three years 2001-02 to 2003-04 to the Scottish Museums Council. The Scottish Museums Council has made a bid to the Executive for additional funding for ICT development to enable them to provide more support for the non-national museum sector. We have received representations on funding from six individual non-national museums.The Scottish Executive is responsible for the National Museums and Galleries; the responsibility for non-national museums rests with local agencies and local authorities, which have statutory responsibility to provide cultural facilities for the residents in their areas.

The information requested is not held centrally.

Government resources should never be used for party political purposes and detailed guidance on the role and conduct of Scottish Executive civil servants during the Scottish Parliament election campaign will be issued to Scottish Executive staff when the Parliament is dissolved. The guidance will be published.