Chamber and committees

Ministers received recommendations for funding under the Race, Religion and Refugee Integration (RRRI) Fund on 19 June 2008. In anticipation of a decision on the fund, officials started drafting letters in preparation. 22 of these draft letters were sent out prematurely in error on 9, 10 and 11 July 2008. Officials immediately contacted the affected organisations to explain the administrative mistake and indicate that a decision on the fund would be communicated to them as soon as decisions were finalised.

All applicants to the RRRI Fund were sent letters informing them of the outcome of their application on 28 July 2008.

Ministers in the previous government, considered proposals for an Islam fest and, in March 2007, agreed in principle that such an event be developed and financially supported. The Scottish Government has taken this forward by providing £200,000 to the Scottish Islamic Foundation to develop IslamFest for Scotland. This event will be open to, and welcoming of, all of Scotland''s diverse communities and aims to inform about the different strands of Islamic culture and promote constructive dialogue between Muslim and non-Muslim communities, as well as develop trade and investment opportunities for Scotland. The Scottish Government applies grant conditions which ensure that government funding cannot be used for political propaganda and that grantees comply with legislation which includes the Race Relations Act 1976 (as amended 2000) to eliminate racial discrimination; promote equality of opportunity and promote good relations between people of different racial groups.

No civil servants attended the Weaving the Tartan conference on either 5 or 6 August 2007.

No civil servant accompanied the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, to the Weaving the Tartan conference.

The Scottish Government are sourcing Saltire flags and other promotional goods for use in the celebrations of St Andrew''s Day 2008 from Scottish Government approved suppliers according to procurement guidance. The buying decision is made on quality, price and required delivery time. I can confirm that Scottish-based suppliers will be amongst those invited to submit bids for goods to be used in the celebration of St Andrew''s Day 2008.

The government car service does not routinely keep a record of which of their customers has been the passenger when a car parking fine has been incurred. It is not therefore possible to provide the breakdown of information requested.

Night services are not currently included and they were not included by the previous administration.

28% of Scottish Government ministers have their principal residence in the area covered by the former Strathclyde Regional Council.

There are 346 railway stations in Scotland. At present, 204 stations are considered to be fully accessible for people with reduced mobility.

Disabled access to the UK rail network is a matter reserved to Westminster under the auspices of equalities legislation, such as the Disability Discrimination Act. The Office of Rail Regulation is responsible for ensuring train operating companies comply with legislation relating to disabled access at train stations.

It is anticipated five stations will be made fully accessible this year, and a further three next year, through the first phase of the Department for Transport''s Access for All programme. A further five stations will be made step free in the second phase from April 2009. The Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change recommends which stations in Scotland should be given priority for Access for All funding, following consultation with Transport Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-12302 on 9 May 2008, in relation to the time period 31 May 2007 to 23 April 2008. 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/webapp/wa.search.

In relation to the number of requests the Scottish Government has received under the terms of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 for the period 24 April 2008 to 29 July 2008, 282 requests were received and of those, 244 responses have been issued. Of the requests that have been responded to, the information was fully released in 131 cases whilst it was partially released in 51 cases. The information was not held by the Scottish Government in 24 instances.

As advised in the answer to S3W-12302, the number of cases that were referred to the Scottish Information Commissioner can be found on the Commissioner''s website at:

http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/home/ScottishInformationCommissioner.asp.