Questions and answers

Question reference: S4O-04611

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 September 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether robotic radical prostatectomy is available from the NHS.

Question reference: S4W-27276

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 16 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when the 2015 single farm payments will be made.

The Single Farm Payment Scheme has been replaced by a range of new schemes or direct payments including the new Basic Payment Scheme and Greening payments.

Under EU rules the payment window for 2015 direct payments runs from 1 December 2015 to the end of June 2016. The new common agricultural policy (CAP) is far more complex than the previous CAP, which has been a significant challenge for administrations and farmers alike right across Europe. In addition to delivering the new IT system, there are also additional tasks to be completed for the first time this year such as greening inspections, regionalisation of land parcels, and calculating and issuing new entitlements.

The Scottish Government fully recognises the pressures facing the farming industry at present, and is striving to start making payments at the earliest possible time. It remains the case that we are aiming to start making payments by the end of December 2015 if at all possible. As we have said previously, we are also considering the option of partial payments.

We will of course continue to keep the farming industry, and the banking sector on which they rely, fully informed of progress with these issues, over and above the steps already announced.

Question reference: S4W-27277

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Aileen McLeod on 16 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when it will announce the proposed by-laws for the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park.

Question reference: S4W-27236

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 16 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government which local tourism bodies receive support from VisitScotland, broken down by amount received.

Details of VisitScotland’s growth fund awards for the year 2014-15, for the Year of Food and Drink and the period 2015-16 are in the following tables:

2014-15 Growth Fund Awards

Area/Local Authority	Recipient’s name	Project Description	Amount
Aberdeen City	Aberdeen Festivals	An international marketing campaign to promote Aberdeen’s broad range of festivals highlighting nine major events throughout the year, starting with the month-long Arts Across Learning Festival at the end of February. The campaign will aim to align Aberdeen’s festivals, which include everything from music and the visual arts to science and dance, with the city’s rich array of food and drink and its accommodation.	£25,000
Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire	Golf Aberdeen City and Shire	Campaign aimed at increasing awareness of the region as a golfing destination and increasing golfing visitors through familiarisation trips, website creation, event and exhibition attendance, print and online marketing.	£22,500
Argyll and Bute	Gardens of Argyll and Bute	To increase visitor numbers to Argyll and Bute gardens and increase the number of gardens in the group, carried out through the use of websites and social media in conjunction with Argyll and the Isles Tourism Cooperative.	£12,202
Dumfries and Galloway	South of Scotland Golfers’ Association	To promote Dumfries and Galloway as a region with a varied and good value golf product using online and print marketing.	£10,000
East, Mid and West Lothian	Visit West Lothian	Promotion of West, Mid, and East Lothian as a key stopover and destination to the group tour market.	£11,900
East Lothian	East Lothian Golf Tourism Alliance	Promotion of East Lothian’s golf product, bringing in ancillary services such as food and drink and accommodation.	£22,280
Edinburgh, City of	Marketing Edinburgh	The development of the North American market to secure additional business for the members of Marketing Edinburgh Ltd and the city of Edinburgh as a whole.	£39,100
Edinburgh, City of	Festivals Edinburgh	A multi-touchpoint campaign, targeting new markets throughout the year, with tailored ‘spotlight’ festivals message within cities across the UK including, Leicester, Bristol and York have been identified.	40,000
Highland	Cairngorms Business Partnership	Cairngorms Business Partnership series of themed mini-campaigns, either product (e.g. cycling) or location specific (e.g. Aviemore).	£35,000
Highland	Lochaber Enterprises Ltd	A year-round campaign aimed at encouraging more people from Scotland’s central belt to explore Lochaber. Promoting the region’s outdoor adventure sports, its wildlife and landscapes, as well as its food and drink.	£25,000
Highland	Dornoch	A brand new marketing campaign designed to “put Dornoch on the map”. A number of businesses in the partnership have joined forces to target people in the UK who are looking for an ideal short-break destination. Content themes of this campaign will include the promotion of fly fishing lessons, golf tuition, private guided walks at Dunrobin Castle Gardens and expert whisky tasting.	£40,000
Perth and Kinross	Golf Perthshire	Maximising the golfing legacy from the 2014 Ryder Cup in Perthshire.	£15,414
South Ayrshire	South Ayrshire Council Year 3	Arts and cultural festival designed to complement the creativity and variety of the work of Robert Burns and his legacy. Specific activity includes newly designed programme, targeted distribution strategy and new outdoor display elements.	£14,000
Stirling	Destination Stirling	Establishment of a new destination organisation, set up on the back of a Scottish Enterprise funded strategy and with backing from VisitScotland and Stirling Council, to take advantage of 2014 opportunities.	£26,000
Stirling	Breadalbane Tourism Co-operative	Campaign designed to build on Ring of Breadalbane Explorer hop-on, hop-off bus and promote ‘Rings’ beyond the bus, such as walking and cycling (on and off-road) routes.	£10,000
National	The Scottish Licensed Trade Association	To promote a positive image of Scottish pubs by telling ‘little heard of stories’ associated with pubs across the length and breadth of Scotland using a variety of marketing and communication tools.	£60,000
National	Sail Scotland	To increase visitors from key target markets through consumer exhibitions and promotional marketing.	£22,500
National	Scotland’s Gardens	A new national network of gardens, nurseries and related businesses working together to showcase the country’s outstanding horticulture to the world. The network aims to achieve an increase in visitor numbers to Scottish gardens, reap financial benefits for its members and drive national and international tourism in the gardens and natural environment sector.	£30,000

Total: £460,896

Year of Food and Drink Growth Fund Awards (2014-15)

Area/Local Authority	Recipient’s name	Project Description	Amount
Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire	Aberdeen City and Shire Food Tourism	A new regional collaboration, to position the area as a key part of Scotland’s Larder, showcasing the region’s rich food and drink offering, alongside the area’s natural rural landscape and surroundings.	£20,000
Argyll and Bute	Oban and Lorn Tourism Association	A regional campaign, building on Oban’s ‘Seafood Capital of Scotland’ brand, and promoting the area’s natural larder and ‘pasture to plate’ ethos. The campaign will raise awareness of the area’s marine heritage and its prominence in Scotland’s sustainable shellfish and seafood farming industry.	£15,000
Edinburgh, City of	Edinburgh World Heritage	A new trail, highlighting locations in the city’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites with historical food connections. The food heritage trail offers a new angle on sites across the old and new town world heritage sites, lining historic buildings and their food traditions.	£7,000

Total: £42,000

2015-16 Growth Fund

Area/Local Authority	Recipient’s name	Project Description	Amount
Moray	Moray Speyside Tourism	A marketing campaign aimed at increasing visitors’ awareness of Moray Speyside and build the Made in Moray brand. Content themes of the campaign include The Moray Speyside Larder, Cycle Moray Speyside and The Draw of the Coast.	£20,648.42

Total to date: £20,648.42

Question reference: S4W-27232

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 16 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what funding streams are available for local tourism bodies.

Financial support is available for local tourism bodies from a number of public bodies, although as funding is an operational matter for these organisations the information requested is not held centrally.

Examples of potential funding support include:

VisitScotland provides support through its growth fund, available for well researched, collaborative marketing campaigns to groups of tourism businesses operating at a local or national level, which will generate additional visitors to Scotland. The fund can support groups with up to 50% of approved total marketing costs to a maximum award of £40,000.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and Scottish Enterprise (SE) are currently working with and supporting a number of tourism groups across Scotland in line with their business priorities. The nature and scale of intervention varies across the tourism groups and is driven by the specific requirements and development needs of the group, aligned to the priorities for tourism for the local area and set in the context of the ambitions of the industry led Tourism 2020 Strategy and their operating plan priorities. HIE and SE are able to support tourism groups by drawing on a number of products and services offered across their portfolios. Support can be targeted at strategy development, internationalisation, project feasibility, organisational capacity and capabilities. Where there is a clear business case for support, both organisations are able to grant in aid to tourism groups to deliver specific projects.

Scottish Natural Heritage operates a grants programme to which tourism bodies can apply if their projects fit the relevant criteria. Its most recent round had a specific priority on nature based tourism, wild foods and innovative enterprises based on sustainable use of natural assets. The focus was on projects based on wide cross-sector partnerships: those developing partnerships with businesses reliant on Scotland’s nature and landscapes in the tourism and food and drink sectors, those adding value to businesses using natural heritage based brands, and those strengthening links between wildlife sites and the local economy.

National Park authorities support tourism projects which focus on key outcomes for the National Parks. This includes maximising the benefits of national initiatives such as Visit Scotland’s focus years and promoting sustainable transport around the National Park. The authorities may make a contribution to tourism groups on a case by case basis to assist the delivery of projects to achieve these outcomes.

Question reference: S4W-27234

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 16 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government which (a) agencies and (b) projects are supported by the tourism budget.

The 2015-16 Scottish Budget states:

“The Tourism budget supports VisitScotland to promote Scotland as a tourism destination, both within the UK and in key overseas markets.”

Table 6.07 of the 2015-16 Scottish Budget sets out the level 3 detail of the tourism budget, shown in the following table with level 4 data.

	2015-16 Budget (£ million)
Tourism
Level 3	50.580
Level 4
VisitScotland (Resource)	48.000
VisitScotland (Capital)	0.700
VisitScotland (Non cash)	1.480
Tourism special projects	0.400

As the lead public body on the visitor economy in Scotland a wide range of projects are supported by VisitScotland and these are set out in the VisitScotland Corporate Plan which may be accessed using the following URL:

http://www.visitscotland.org/pdf/Final%20Corporate%20Plan%202015%20revision.pdf.

Question reference: S4W-27235

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 16 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how VisitScotland allocates funds to local tourism bodies, and what criteria it uses.

VisitScotland provides support through its growth fund. The growth fund is a marketing fund available for well researched, collaborative marketing campaigns to groups of tourism businesses operating at a local or national level. The fund enables these groups to undertake inspiring new marketing activity, or further develop current activity, which will generate additional visitors to Scotland.

Applicants to the fund should demonstrate the following key criteria:

Alignment with the tourism industry’s Tourism 2020 Strategy and, where relevant, the National Events Strategy Scotland the Perfect Stage. Golf groups must also show alignment with Scotland’s Golf Tourism Strategy Driving Forward Together.

Fresh ideas, new developments and approaches such as new promotional themes, collaborations, packages, or markets, that will inspire customer engagement and additional visits.

Collaboration and business engagement demonstrating how businesses are coming together to help support the marketing campaign, through e.g. special offers, itineraries, competition prizes.

Growth in terms of awareness, visitor numbers and tourism spend, and strength/membership of the tourism group.

Sustainability of activity post funding. In this groups must demonstrate how the outcomes of the marketing campaign will help sustain and build marketing activity in future years and how activity will address periods which have capacity to increase the number of visitors and occupancy levels.

The fund is open to constituted groups of three or more independent tourism businesses, including destination organisations and sectoral groups. Applications are welcome from both new and existing partnerships.

Full criteria, conditions and guidelines for the VisitScotland growth fund against which applications are assessed are available on its website at:

http://www.visitscotland.org/pdf/GrowthFundCriteriaConditionsDec2013.pdf

Question reference: S4O-04586

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2015
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 16 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when the final decision on the merger of Police Scotland's L and K divisions will be announced.

Question reference: S4W-27219

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 15 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what the current level of inward investment is by companies based in China.

Question reference: S4W-27220

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 15 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what the current level of exports is from Scottish companies to China.

Chamber and committees