Chamber and committees

The music industry has no officialdefinition, but we take it to mean any activity which encourages involvement inmusic making across all age groups and music styles, and recognises and celebratesthe social, personal and economic value of music and music making.

This information is not routinelycollated nor centrally compiled. The most recent relevant data is contained in the2003 Mapping the Music Industry in Scotland report compiled independentlyon behalf of Scottish Enterprise. Economic and employment data for 2003 obtainedfor the report include the following: £106 million generated annually in sales andmusic services; the industry is made up of approximately 2,040 full-time employeesand 2003 part-time workers, and annual consumer spending of around £331 millionon musical instruments and live and recorded music.

I shall reply to the member as soon as possible.

The Scottish Executive uses arange of criteria including considering the effects on economic activity, measuredin terms of the impacts on the broader creative industries sector. The ScottishArts Council also measures audience participation figures for the music activitywhich it funds.

The information requested isnot held centrally. The majority of funding for the music industry by the Executiveis routed through the Enterprise Networks, the Scottish Funding Council and the Scottish Arts Council. The Executive does not hold details of their expenditureas this is an operational matter for them. In addition, other Executive Departmentshave, in this period, provided substantial funding towards various music initiatives.Examples of these are:

The Health Department’s NationalProgramme for Improving Mental Health and Well-being funding to the Scottish Associationfor Mental Health (SAMH) to fund the One in Four booklet and music CD, plusan associated festival to promote its message, and

The Environment and Rural AffairsDepartment’s Rural Challenge Fund funding for local initiatives to bring music andother cultural opportunities to rural communities, with particular emphasis on enablingyoung people to access facilities and events.

It is unacceptable that certain individuals latch on to marches purely as an excuse to indulge in bigoted and abusive behaviour. Following the publication of the Action Plan on Tackling Sectarianism in Scotland we now intend to look at the powers currently available to the police to deal with inappropriate behaviour around marches and parades.

As I made clear in my answer to question S2W-21897, we have urged Scottish stakeholders to respond to the Home Office consultation, and we also intend to give stakeholders the opportunity to express their views directly to Home Office and Scottish Executive officials.

We do not plan to make a submission to the UK Government as part of the current consultation on the review. The Home Secretary is required to consult Scottish ministers on any changes to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme and our stance in response to this will be informed by the submissions of Scottish stakeholders to the consultation.

Under the terms of an agreement with the Home Office, the Scottish Executive pays a percentage of the total UK cost of both compensation payments made under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme, and the administration costs of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority and Appeals Panel. That percentage is based on a rolling average of Scottish claims on the scheme over the previous three years. Over the past few years this has fluctuated between 11-13%. In 2004-05 the Executive’s contribution was £20.6 million (11%).

I am writing to a range of stakeholders inviting them to respond to the UK Government’s consultation paper on the reform of Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme, and to initiate discussions on developments in the way in which victim services in Scotland are delivered in the light of any changes to the Scheme.

The Scottish Executive will introducelegislation this session to establish a new independent body to handle such complaints.Our policy is that complaints from clients should be dealt with wherever possibleby the law firm or lawyer who provided the service in question. The new body, the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission, will act as a gateway to receive those complaintsabout lawyers which cannot be resolved at source. The new body will take over thehandling of complaints about inadequate professional service from the legal professionalbodies, the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman and the Scottish Solicitors DisciplineTribunal.

The legal professional bodiesand their discipline tribunals will retain responsibility for professional discipline.The commission will accordingly refer complaints about the conduct of lawyers tothe professional bodies for investigation, but will have powers to oversee the wayin which conduct complaints are handled. The commission will be led by a board whichwill have a non-lawyer majority and a non-lawyer chair.

The arrangements we propose recognisethe strong message from the response to our consultation that there should be anindependent complaints handling body and that its powers should be vested in a boardrather than a single officeholder. The new system aims to build public confidencein the system for handling complaints against lawyers while the commission willalso have the role of promoting good practice in complaints handling by law firmsand practitioners. The commission will be funded by the legal profession througha general levy on legal practitioners and a levy on complaints. Vexatious or frivolouscomplaints will be sifted out and will not be the subject of a levy.