Chamber and committees

The total amount claimed in expenses by all special advisers since May 2011 is £2,302.46. This includes accommodation and meals as well as travel and personal incidental expenses. The expenditure was incurred by the advisers and claimed back through the Scottish Government Travel and Subsistence system, booked through the official travel agency or paid directly to suppliers via the Travel and Subsistence charge card.

Special Adviser expenses are incurred in the course of carrying out official business on behalf of the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Energy and Resource Efficiency Service is a collaborative project between partners resourced through existing budgets.

We established the Scottish Energy and Resource Efficiency Service earlier this year, bringing together partners to create a more joined-up approach including greater cross-referral. Elements of this are already happening, such as planning of co-hosted events between partners to encourage businesses to take a holistic approach to emissions savings.

The Scottish Energy and Resource Efficiency Service (SERES) will help to reduce the time spent by SMEs seeking information on emissions reduction by providing a single portal, through the Business Gateway website, where relevant information on the services provided by all partners will be available. Businesses will also be referred to individual partner organisations where relevant, in a way which minimises requests for customer data and places the onus on the SERES partner rather than the customer.

The customer journey will also be simplified for businesses who approach individual SERES partners directly, as each partner will have an improved knowledge of the services offered by other partners and can make appropriate cross-referrals.

The Scottish Energy and Resource Efficiency Service will be publicised through the distribution networks of the partner organisations. The partners are Zerowaste Scotland, Carbon Trust, EST, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands enterprise, SEPA and Business Gateway.

Information, advice and support through the Scottish Energy and Resource Efficiency Service will be accessible via internet, telephone or mail from the single portal and from the individual partner organisations as is currently the case.

For those who wish to go online, libraries in Scotland offer free computer and internet access to the public providing 8 million hours of internet access a year, this has risen by approximately 25% year on year. Tuition and assistance in using computers and the internet is available across the country through Skill Development Scotland learning centres and in the majority of community libraries.

The following table shows the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) staff currently assigned to Ministerial Correspondence Unit, by grade, and at 31 March of the last four years.

Please note that at 31 March 2009 one FTE A3 member of staff was temporarily assigned to Ministerial Correspondence Unit.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-02849 on 29 September 2011. 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/Apps2/MAQASearch/QAndMSearch.aspx.

Recent trafficking Inquiries have been conducted by the Equal Opportunities Committee and the Scottish Commissioner for Children and Young People. The current Inquiry by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission which is focussing on trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation in Scotland is likely to issue its Report in November. Once the Commission’s Report is published, the Scottish Government will consider the recommendations made in each Report. At present, we have no plans to produce a human trafficking strategy.

The content of the UK Government’s Strategy is a matter for the Home Office.