Chamber and committees

The ScottishGovernment distributes its flag flying guidance annually to agencies andassociated departments including the Crown Office. The guidance advocates thatthe Saltire should be flown daily. The flag poles above the Crown OfficeDepartment Headquarters are currently being refurbished and when work iscompleted the Saltire will fly daily.

This information isnot held centrally. Riot training is provided in-force and the number of officersrequired to undergo training is determined by individual Chief Constables on a year-by-yearbasis.

The Scottish Governmentdoes not keep records of security incidents in non-departmental public bodies asthe IT systems involved are the responsibility of those bodies. Records of any suchincidents will be held by them.

There have been noreported incidents of hacking into Scottish Government IT systems since 1999.

Saltire only: Thefollowing courts fly the Saltire flag on a daily basis:

Mercaitgait, Aberdeen

Inverness

Lerwick

Parliament House,Edinburgh

Lawnmarket, Edinburgh

(a) Union Flag only:The following courts fly the Union flag on a daily basis:

Saltmarket, Glasgow

(b) Both Flags: Nocourts fly both flags together.

This information isnot held centrally.

There is no separatecategorisation for concessionary cardholder companions in Transport Scotland’s concessionary claim process. Therefore it is not possibleto identify separately this element of concessionary travel. Projections are basedon total concessionary journey levels.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-3236 on 4 September 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

NHS boards have arole to ensure a care package is provided which offers appropriate medical careand support for every patient, including end of life services. As far as possible,they should ensure that the needs and wishes of the patient and their family aremet. The Scottish Government fully supports and endorses the principle of choiceand welcomes initiatives that increase and support the choices of patients. We haveindicated our support for the voluntary sector involvement in caring for patientswith life ending illnesses. The Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care providesa unique forum for the development and implementation of palliative care strategyand good practice, a comprehensive communication network, and a source of expertadvice and guidance for practitioners, service managers, planners and policy managers.Many charities and voluntary organisations are active in this area including MarieCurie Cancer Care. Its work in NHS Tayside through the Delivering Choice Programmehas the potential to identify further opportunities specifically to support patientswho wish to die at home. We await with interest, the results of this programme, which is currently being piloted. However, the choicehas to be properly informed so that patients who opt to die at home do so in thefull understanding of the support they may need.

The third sectorprovides a unique contribution predominantly at the point of early engagementwith young people who are, or are not at risk of being not in education,employment or training.

We have askedlocal partnerships delivering our more choices, more chances agenda to worktowards better engagement of the third sector, and to make better use of allexisting resources so that employability provision joins up with widerprovision.

We recognisethere are barriers, for example around funding arrangements and engagement instrategic planning activity, to more effective engagement of the third sector.We are considering how we can tackle those barriers, both generally and withspecific reference to young people who need more choices and chances.