- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 23 October 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 18 December 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the (a) City of Edinburgh Council and (b) Destination Edinburgh Marketing Alliance regarding debts incurred by The Gathering 2009.
Answer
(a) Given the positive results from the independent economic impact analysis of the Gathering event and the potential of future Gathering events, the Scottish Government had several discussions with representatives of the City of Edinburgh Council.
(b) The Scottish Government has had no direct discussions with Destination Edinburgh Marketing Alliance regarding the debts incurred by The Gathering 2009 Ltd.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 23 October 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 18 December 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what communications it had with the organisers of The Gathering 2009 prior to the event taking place.
Answer
The First Minister met with the directors of The Gathering 2009 Ltd on 12 November 2008 and Michael Russell, the then Minister for Culture, External Affairs and the Constitution met with them on 28 April 2009.
In addition to this, EventScotland, the national events directorate of VisitScotland managing the Homecoming Scotland initiative on behalf of the Scottish Government, attended regular steering group meetings with The Gathering 2009 Ltd, the City of Edinburgh Council and Scottish Enterprise in the run up to the event taking place.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 23 October 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 18 December 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what losses have been taken on by the (a) City of Edinburgh Council, (b) Destination Edinburgh Marketing Alliance, and (c) Scottish Government in relation to The Gathering 2009.
Answer
A news release issued on 15 October 2009 by the City of Edinburgh Council, on behalf of Destination Edinburgh Marketing Alliance (DEMA), stated that DEMA was taking over The Gathering 2009 Ltd, citing the positive economic impact of the event and the potential of future events, and stating that DEMA would be taking on The Gathering 2009 Ltd''s remaining private sector obligations.
The Scottish Government did not take on losses incurred by the company but made the decision to write-off the public sector debts owed to them.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 23 October 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 18 December 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it received a copy of the business plan for The Gathering 2009 in advance of the event taking place.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-28304 on 18 December 2009. 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/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 23 October 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 18 December 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what lessons it considers need to be learnt from the financial loss incurred by The Gathering 2009, given that it met the ticket sales target set by the organisers.
Answer
Clearly it will be important for those delivering future Gathering events to take cognisance of the experience gained in the organisation and delivery of the 2009 event.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 23 October 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 18 December 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the creditors of The Gathering 2009, including for any debt written off or payment made by public agencies.
Answer
Information relating to the private sector creditors of The Gathering 2009 Ltd is commercially sensitive and, as such, it would be inappropriate to list these creditors.
Given the circumstances of the company, the judgement was taken that the debts were irrecoverable. As a result, the Scottish Government, Historic Scotland and the Scottish Ambulance Service took the decision to write off the amounts owed to them by The Gathering 2009 Ltd. Debt written off by the public sector totals £316,000.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 28 September 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 6 November 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) vacant and (b) underused buildings it and its agencies own.
Answer
There are presently two core Scottish Government office buildings that are vacant. Action is currently in hand with a view to their disposal. In terms of underused buildings, we are working to ensure that all parts of the Scottish Government have in place asset management plans which will identify any spare accommodation capacity which offer rationalisation and consolidation opportunities.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 28 September 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 26 October 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many properties it has disposed of in the last two years to which section 68 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 could have been applied.
Answer
No core Scottish Government-owned buildings, to which section 68 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 could have been applied, have been sold by the Scottish Government in the last two years.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 28 September 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 26 October 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to bring forward electricity grid reinforcements in the Pentland Firth strategic growth area for marine renewables.
Answer
Creating the appropriate grid infrastructure to support future renewable energy developments in the Pentland Firth and throughout Scotland is a priority for the Scottish Government. It is also a key recommendation of the
Marine Energy Roadmap, published by the Forum for Renewable Energy Development in Scotland''s Marine Energy Group in August 2009.
In response to this recommendation, the Scottish Government is working closely with National Grid and transmission companies through both the Marine Energy Group and the Pentland Firth Coordination Committee to help synchronise developer activity and deliver grid capacity for the projects emerging from the Pentland Firth leasing round.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 October 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 26 October 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it took to ensure that its carbon assessment of the draft budget 2010-11 was calculated in such a way as to encourage reduction of emissions through improved sustainability rather than by reducing job numbers.
Answer
In addition to direct emissions associated with expenditure by the public sector, the assessment also includes the emissions associated with related increases in private consumption spending, termed induced emissions. Outputs from the assessment methodology do not suggest that emission reductions should be achieved by reducing job numbers, but rather through the reduction in carbon intensity of the goods and services we all use.
