Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executive is currentlydeveloping criteria for attaining and maintaining national performing company status,in consultation with the current national performing companies and the ScottishArts Council. The criteria will be made publicly available before the end of March2007.

The Scottish Executive engageswith the Scottish diaspora to further Scotland’s interests for the long-term benefit of our economyand society. Scotland-Now showcasesmodern Scotland as a great place to live and work, visit, study and invest.

We communicate regularly withthe diaspora, alumni and people with an affinity towards Scotland electronicallythrough regular updates. The first edition of Scotland-Now (www.scotland-now.com)the e-magazine which is specifically aimed at the diaspora audience, was publishedin March 2006.

The weblink to Scotland-Now is currently issued to over78,000 individuals. Five thousand, four hundred and seven subscribers register directand, additionally, subscribers to partner organisations, including the globalscotnetwork, Talent Scotland, AncestralScotland, VisitScotland, Scottish NetworksInternational (SNI), various alumni associations, and Rampant Scotland, also receiveupdates on an individual basis.

The average cost per editionof Scotland-Now is £8,737.65. Thisrepresents a cost of approximately 0.11p for every individual who receives the weblink.

The budget available to EventScotlandin each of the last three years was £3 million in 2004-05, rising to £5 millionin both 2005-06 and 2006-07.

Anyone with any degree ofcontrol over premises covered by the new fire safety regime (as introduced on 1October 2006 by Part 3 of the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005, as amended, and theFire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006) must, to the extent of that control,assess the risk from fire in those premises and take reasonable fire safetymeasures in response, to ensure other persons’ safety. However, thisresponsibility will be in direct proportion to the level of control: the morecontrol, the greater the fire safety responsibility. The greater theresponsibility, the greater the level of knowledge and expertise which may berequired in order to undertake a fire safety risk assessment in respect of thepremises.

Neither the fire safetylegislation nor Practical Fire Safety Guidance for Care Homes offer aprescriptive definition of the knowledge or expertise required to undertake therisk assessment as this will be unique to the circumstances and the premises.For example, factors which might affect the level of expertise required of theperson undertaking the assessment could be: the nature of the activities undertakenon the premises; the layout of the premises; the persons likely to be on, or inthe immediate vicinity of, the premises; and the fire safety measures already inplace. The person carrying out the assessment must be familiar with thesefactors. In some circumstances, such as where a care home’s layout or structuremay increase the likelihood of fire spread, a greater awareness of thesefactors may be necessary in order fully to understand the fire risks involvedand assess what fire safety measures are required in order to minimise theserisks.

It is for those with firesafety responsibilities to ensure that the person undertaking a risk assessmenthas sufficient technical training and experience or knowledge of the premises(its features, the activities undertaken on it and by whom) and therequirements of the fire safety legislation in respect of fire safety measures.

In the majority of cases, responsibilityfor enforcing the new fire safety legislation lies with the fire and rescueauthority/joint fire and rescue board. When visited by an enforcement officer,the person with fire safety responsibilities may be asked to discuss the firesafety risk assessment and explain the action taken as a result of theassessment. If the enforcement officer considers that the action taken wasinsufficient to meet the fire safety duties, enforcement action may be takensuch as the service of an enforcement notice which requires specified action tobe taken within a specified time. In cases of serious risk, a prohibitionnotice may be served which prohibits or restricts the use of the premises untilthe specified action has been taken. The powers and duties of enforcementofficers are outlined in Chapter 3 of Practical Fire Safety Guidance forCare Homes.

The Information Services Division(ISD) have been working on producing Scottish data which are equivalent to thatpresented in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) European Health for All database.The current version covers around 80% of the indicators included in this database.

However, to avoid the possibilityof misleading comparisons being made, ISD have excluded indicators where the requireddata were not readily available or where they could not produce a Scottish indicatorbased on the WHO definition. The total health expenditure figures requested areone of these excluded indicators. Calculating this indicator depends on having detaileddata on private health expenditure and ensuring that it is compatible with WHO definitions.This is not currently possible.

ISD are continuing to investigate,along with the Health Department, all of the indicators which are currently excludedand will add any new indicators to future versions of the database.

Statistics on the number of UKParliament electors by UK parliamentary constituency and local government electorsby local government area will be published on 22 February 2007. The GeneralRegister Office for Scotland are currently collating information on the number ofScottish Parliament electors by Scottish parliamentary constituency and region forpublication in the near future but a publication date has not yet been set.

In developing the revised digitalinclusion strategy, the Scottish Executive will take on board the findings fromthe review of the initiatives implemented under the previous strategy, which confirmedthe earlier identified target groups were still relevant in relation to the digitaldivide. To deliver the revised strategy and in line with the findings from the widespreadconsultation activities, the Scottish Executive will promote collaboration withpractitioners with an emphasis on supporting service delivery partners to deliveractivities that are sustainable, cohesive, have potential for national rollout,and are based on strong evidence supported by a sustainable business case, to ensurenew and innovative ways of working are implemented to tackle the digital divide,particularly with target groups.

The new strategy is being developedfollowing a wide ranging consultation with practitioners, citizens and policy makersand is on track to be finalised at the end of 2006. The strategy will include anaction plan which will seek to address the issues from the consultation and ensurethat digital inclusion is at the heart of relevant policy development and servicedelivery.

A very wide variety of ways areused to promote Scotland’s music industry at home and abroad by the Scottish Executiveand its agencies. Examples include:

Scottish Enterprise: theMusicwise project, in partnership with the Musicians Union, helps musicians to developportfolio careers;

Highlands and Islands Enterprise – Around £150,000 per annum goesto EVENTS/HAIL; due to the Highland Year of Culture, this is likely to increasein 2007;

Scottish Arts Council: SXSW –the world’s largest trade-fair and showcase opportunity for the contemporarymusic sector which is held annually in Austin, Texas; Showcase Scotland at CelticConnections – the showcase uses the middle weekend of the Celtic Connectionsfestival to host a large number of overseas music professionals and offer them informationand opportunities to hear the Scottish artists playing in the extensive Celtic Connectionsprogramme; WOMEX 2006 – this will take place in Seville and will have a Scottishpresence with a showcase by Salsa Celtica. SAC will support a shared trade standwith “Hands up for Trad”, and

Scottish Development International(SDI) – for several years, companies have been assisted to attend and exhibit atMIDEM, one of the main music industry markets. SDI provided financial support tothe trade association AIM (Association of Independent Music) to ensure Scottishcompanies presence on a new, unified, UK-wide stand this year.

I expect a new sports strategyfor Scotland to be published early in the New Year.