Chamber and committees

As part of the development of the new Strategic Framework, consultation will take place with the Scottish Government, and a wide range of stakeholders, regarding specific measures. The strategic framework and measures will be endorsed by the eHealth Strategy Board. NHS 24 have also committed to report annually to the Health and Sports Committee on progress on telehealth related activity.

A review is currently underway to improve the cost recovery powers for local authorities dealing with dangerous and defective buildings.

Journey time reductions on the Highland main line will now take effect from December 2012. This is because the rail industry has agreed not to make any significant changes to the May 2012 GB Rail Timetable to accommodate planning for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The National Renewables Infrastructure Plan and associated £70 million fund have a primary focus of increasing Scottish manufacturing content for offshore renewables. Both Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and Scottish Enterprise (SE) are involved in negotiations with a number of site owners and renewables manufacturers. Further announcements will be made in the near future, building on the recent decisions by companies including Gamesa, Doosan and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to invest in research and development facilities in Scotland.

The recent and successful conclusion to the ownership issues at the Nigg Yard along with HIE's investment of £1.8 million to help transform the facility into a multi-use modern energy park is an example of progress in this area.

The enterprise agencies are working with a range of partners to support the growth of the supply chain across the full renewables spectrum. For example, HIE is supporting the trade body Energy North in its work to identify opportunities for local businesses to participate in a range of onshore renewables projects, including through the newly established Ignite database, which details procurement personnel in renewable energy projects currently in scoping and planning.

HIE’s support for the Sustainable Energy and Micro Renewables Centre, as part of Inverness College, further demonstrates our commitment to capitalise on new skills and services required for micro-generation.

No. The project will be delivered in phases and aims to provide incremental journey time reductions throughout the scheme.

A number of technical improvements are planned which should deliver reduced journey times on some services from next year. The full extent of these journey time improvements cannot be determined until the December 2012 timetable has gone through the rail industry’s planning process.

I announced on 14 October 2010 that both Learning and Teaching Scotland and HM Inspectorate of Education provided important support, inspection, practical materials and guidance to schools, colleges and early years provision. The introduction of curriculum for excellence made it the right time to bring these two bodies together.

Following the autumn programme of support to which S3W-33713 referred there are no further planned postponements of inspection activity to assist with the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence. Support for Curriculum for Excellence is a major part of Education Scotland’s remit and is embedded within its programmes of activity planned.

The Scottish Government regularly meets the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to discuss a range of issues. David MacBrayne Ltd officials were planning to discuss this issue with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in February this year but the meeting was deferred and a new date is being arranged.

At 30 June 2011, HMIE had 82 Inspectors; 10 Assistant Chief Inspectors; four Health and Nutrition Inspectors; and nine Assistant Inspectors involved in inspections.

As of 1 July 2011, when we became Education Scotland, we had 80 Inspectors; nine Assistant Chief Inspectors; four Health and Nutrition Inspectors; and eight Assistant Inspectors. Since then, the figures have reduced further so that at 30 September 2011, Education Scotland had 73 Inspectors; six Assistant Chief Inspectors; three Health and Nutrition Inspectors, and seven Assistant Inspectors.

Inspectors were deployed for a total of 4,404 days to carry out school inspections during 2010-11. This figure does not include pre-school inspections as, in the main, seconded pre-school practitioners carried out inspections in this sector.