Chamber and committees

The substantive grant conditions have not been relaxed. Ministers have approved changes to two grant conditions with the agreement in each case of the City of Edinburgh Council. In October 2010, the council sought approval to waive the 30 days formal notice required to give ministers prior to any termination of the tram contract. Ministers agreed to that request.

To allow the council time to conclude their negotiations with their contractors and obtain the agreement of their full council, ministers agreed with the City of Edinburgh council to extend the grant agreement from 31 March 2011 to 31 August 2011.

The progress reports cover all relevant aspects of the tram project and are not specifically structured on the basis of each grant condition.

The Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth was first made aware that the Edinburgh tram project would not meet its planned opening date of January 2011, in March 2010.

Representatives of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games earlier this year held in principle discussions with officials of Edinburgh City Council, Historic Scotland and the Scottish Government.

Following careful consideration of the proposal to display the Olympic symbols at Edinburgh Castle, Historic Scotland concluded that the proposal was not conducive to the successful operation of Scotland’s most popular heritage attraction.

Historic Scotland is an executive agency of the Scottish Government charged with safeguarding the nation’s historic environment. All functions performed by the agency are carried out on behalf of Scottish ministers.

We will use the inspiration provided by the 2012 Olympics, the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Ryder Cup etc. to encourage all Scots to be more active and help to make Scotland more physically active.

We will be building on our activity and investment in Community Sports Hubs within local communities and the Active Schools Network, which has delivered over five million opportunities for young people to be active last year. We will also be working in partnership with a number of organisations in support of events which will take place in Scotland next year in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics. These include Sport Relief, National School Sports Week and the World Active Ageing Congress. In addition, over 800 schools across Scotland have registered on the London 2012 Get Set programme.

The identification of a suitable location is primarily a matter for Edinburgh City Council. The Scottish Government stands ready to provide appropriate assistance as required.

The Scottish Government is committed to making the most of the opportunities that the 2012 Olympic Games could present for Scotland in the next year.

The Scottish Government strongly encourages both employees and employers alike to consider the full range of assistance available to working families, including childcare vouchers. We will convene a national summit with Scotland’s business community to explore new ways of incentivising and encouraging more flexible working in support of families. The summit will provide an opportunity to further promote childcare vouchers.

In the meantime, the Scottish Government continues to fund the Scottish Childcare/Family Information Service website which provides web-based and telephone advice to families on a range of issues, including childcare vouchers. HMRC’s website also offers advice to both employers and employees on this issue.

In June 2011, a number of healthcare professionals attended a Healthcare Improvement Scotland event in Dundee to discuss how best to help people with functional symptoms referred to neurological services. The event concluded with health boards asking for help to identify the size of the problem and for some recommendations for ways to help these people so that they could respond appropriately. As a result, Healthcare Improvement Scotland convened a short life reference group for functional neurological symptoms. The group is currently producing a report which will be published in early 2012. At this stage, Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s functional symptoms work will not extend to people with ME-CFS.

In September 2010, the Scottish Government published a Scottish Good Practice Statement (SGPS) on ME-CFS, for use by general practitioners, as part of the process of ensuring that people with ME-CFS receive better and more consistent standards of care, including quicker and more reliable diagnosis.

Scottish ministers are already taking forward a range of activity, including Getting It Right for Every Child and the Early Years Framework, to implement the UNCRC.

The Rights of Children and Young People Bill is to underpin this progress and also ensure that all relevant Scottish policy and legislation takes proper account of the rights of children and young people. The bill will demonstrate a clear commitment by government to recognise and respect these rights and ensure that service delivery takes account of the UNCRC in a robust and appropriate manner.

The bill will also improve transparency, parliamentary scrutiny and accountability by introducing a duty on Scottish ministers to publish periodic reports focussing on compliance for consideration by the Scottish Parliament.