Chamber and committees

Scottish Government officials meet regularly with the Crown Estate to discuss a range of rural, coastal and marine issues.

As outlined in the answer to question S4W-24246 provided on 2 February 2015, we expect the review of the classification issues to take a number of months. We are however taking all appropriate action to protect vital capital investment in Scotland and to resolve these issues as promptly and effectively as possible.

This was underlined by our recent announcement on further primary schools in East Renfrewshire, Dundee and Argyll and Bute which are to be built or refurbished under the first component of phase four of our Schools for the Future programme.

We are committed to delivering well-designed, sustainable schools through our £1.8 billion programme and 18 schools have already been completed with a further 17 schools currently in construction. Providing high quality learning is at the heart of the Scottish Government’s work and our programme is expected to deliver more than 100 new or refurbished schools by March 2020.

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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Information on the number of news releases and calling notices issued to the media is available on a monthly basis. However, we do not hold records of the number of formal and informal comments issued to press and other media outlets by Scottish Government officials and by special advisers. The number of news releases and calling notices issued by the Scottish Government Communications Division is set out in the following table:

The number of news releases and calling notices was lower during September 2014 due to the restricted period ahead of the referendum.

The Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce programme budget for 2014-15 is £12 million, the breakdown of which is set out in the following table. The distribution of the £16.6 million budget for 2015-16 has not yet been established.

Table 1: Developing the Young Workforce budget breakdown 2014-15

*Original sum allocated was £1 million for 2014-15. Slippage in establishing the groups means £100k has been spent to date. These groups, once established will be fully funded by the Scottish Government in 2015-16.

The Attainment Scotland Fund is targeted at schools in local authorities with the biggest concentration of primary age children from households in deprived areas. Analysis of statistics around primary school pupils whose homes are located in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation deciles 1 and 2 (the bottom 20%) indicate that the highest concentrations are in Glasgow, Dundee, Inverclyde, West Dunbartonshire, North Ayrshire and Clackmannanshire. These will therefore be the first areas to benefit from this programme. The Scottish Government recognises that there is a need across Scotland. During the coming year we will continue to work with other local authority areas which are geographically diverse and socially mixed but where there are pockets of severe deprivation, to dig deeper into addressing the local need.

The Scottish Attainment Fund supplements our existing national support for raising attainment which has been enhanced by a new commitment to ensuring an attainment advisor will be available in every local authority. Schools in Shetland have also benefited from the Access to Education Fund, which was established to help reduce barriers experienced by pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The research remit was to assess the economic impact of i) national and regional restrictions on the use of mobile fishing gears within one and three nautical miles of the shore and ii) limits on the number of creels. The research was to be conducted using economic impact analysis and cost benefit analysis. The research remit was agreed by ministers and was subsequently amended to drop the assessment of creel limits following the Creel Consultation in 2012.

The Digital Strategy for Scotland implementation programme involves a range of organisations across the justice sector, other public services, and private, third sector and voluntary organisations. We expect the list of organisations to grow as work progresses.

To date, officials and representatives from the following organisations are involved in the implementation programme - Scottish Court Service, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, Police Scotland, Scottish Legal Aid Board, Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration, Scottish Prison Service, Scottish Tribunal Service, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Scottish Police Authority, Scottish Arbitration Centre, Scottish Mediation Network, Citizen’s Advice Scotland, Which?, Law Society of Scotland, Scottish Women’s Aid, Social Work Scotland, Victim Support Scotland and The Faculty of Advocates.

The implementation will draw on contributions from a user forum and operations forum. The user forum will bring together those who have experience of the multiple and sometimes complex user requirements. The operations forum will bring together those who work in the various justice sectors and are familiar with their requirements and processes, including representatives from the legal profession and businesses.

The Digital Strategy for Justice in Scotland is a collaborative piece of work contributed to by organisations across the justice landscape, including officials and representatives from the Scottish Court Service, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, Police Scotland, Scottish Legal Aid Board, Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration, Scottish Prison Service, Scottish Tribunal Service, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Scottish Police Authority, Scottish Arbitration Centre, Scottish Mediation Network, Citizen’s Advice Scotland, Which?, the Law Society of Scotland, Scottish Women’s Aid, Social Work Scotland, Victim Support Scotland and The Faculty of Advocates. The strategy was collated by officials from Criminal Justice Division of the Scottish Government and approved by the justice board.

This was a political response provided by special advisers on behalf of ministers - in response to a direct newspaper query - and was not a Scottish Government press office comment.

The full quote that issued to the Press and Journal is as follows:

Spokesperson for Keith Brown:“No amount of shameless electioneering from Danny Alexander can disguise the fact that this SNP Government is delivering for Highland transport projects where the Lib Dems failed to.

“They failed to upgrade the Highland mainline during eight years in office at Holyrood – we are delivering a £5 billion package of funding for our railways by 2019, including substantial improvements to the line between Aberdeen and Inverness.

“We are also pressing ahead with the dualling of the A9 and A96 – projects the Lib Dems ignored when they were in office.”

The cost of researching and producing this report was £50,100.