Chamber and committees

The mosteffective contribution the Executive can make to Scottish football is ensuringthat there is a greater pool of healthy, physically active young peopleavailable and willing to become involved in football. That is why we areinvesting significant sums in the Active Schools Programme.

For thepast 18 months, the Executive has also been fully involved in the independentreview of youth football commissioned by the Scottish Football Association.Ministers are currently considering proposals from the SFA on how to takeforward the review’s recommendations. An announcement is expected shortly.

I am delighted to announce that, under Scottish ministers’ arrangements for supporting major purchases by the National Institutions in Scotland, the Scottish Executive will contribute £6.5 million towards the total cost of securing the John Murray Archive for the National Library of Scotland.

The John Murray Archive is the most historically significant archive to become publicly available in the past hundred years containing extensive work by Byron, Scott, Darwin, Livingstone and countless other figures of global significance. It contains over 150,000 letters and manuscripts of the publishing firm founded in 1768.

Acquisition of the archive will enhance the national and international cultural and educational reputation and image of Scotland, and enable the National Library to strengthen its already significant contribution to Scottish Executive priorities, including the promotion of Scotland worldwide, support for research, education and lifelong learning and the generation of economic benefits.

Plans for the sustainable management of municipal waste in Scotland were set out in the National Waste Plan and its 11 constituent area waste plans published early in 2003. To support implementation of the plans, around £120 million to 2006 has, to date, been distributed to 22 local authorities from the Strategic Waste Fund including over £27 million to the three authorities in North-East Scotland.

Theappointment of Mr Graeme Pearson as the new Director of the Scottish DrugEnforcement Agency was announced on Friday 6 February.

Working closely with the STUC, employers’ organisations and other relevant bodies and agencies, the Scottish Executive is currently developing a package of measures to help address the problem of attacks on workers who provide services to the public. Ihave met the Transport and General Workers Union to discuss their concerns. Thisis being followed up by officials who have recently met representatives of theConfederation of Passenger Transport and the head of security at First Bus in Scotland.

More immediately, the Scottish Executive is, through the Public Transport Fund, supporting theinstallation of CCTV cameras in all buses operating in Dundee and atrial in Glasgow on 100 buses operated by First Bus.

The Forum for RenewableEnergy Development in Scotland (FREDS), which comprises senior stakeholdersfrom Government, academia, the industry and enterprise networks, hasestablished a sub-group tasked with developing an action plan for the developmentof marine energy in Scotland. The report of this sub-group will be presented toFREDS later this year. A representative of Renewables UK attendsFREDS as an observer on behalf of the Department for Trade and Industry.

We have contributed over £2million towards the capital cost of the European Marine Energy Centre offOrkney, due to begin operating by April this year. The Centre will play a vitalrole in the testing and accreditation of wave energy devices. We are alsoproviding, through Scottish Enterprise, £150 million over 10 years to the newenergy Intermediary Technology Institute which will significantly improve theopportunities to bring new renewables technologies, including of course marinetechnologies, to market.

I expect the EnergyIntermediary Technology Institute (EITI) to focus strongly on areas such asmarine energy where Scotland, with indigenous developers leading the field, has apotential competitive advantage. The EITI will support the development ofmarine and other energy technologies by fostering increased contact between theacademic and business sectors in Scotland.

Our present plans are to continue to commission environmental and plant research, and veterinary services from the Scottish Agricultural College. The Scottish Executive is currently reviewing its Strategy for Agricultural, Biological and Related Research. Future support will be guided by the outcome of this review which will be published in the spring.As part of our review we have noted significant support for veterinary servicesat the Scottish Agricultural College.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-5557. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility forwhich can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.