Chamber and committees

We have no plans to take such action.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

Once, when KPSL advised the SPS in advance that the prison would open on 25 rather than 16 March 1999.

Visitor attractions are an important part of the visitor experience in Scotland, as they are a part of a wide and rich diversity of offerings and products. VisitScotland supports any industry-led initiative that adds value to Scotland’s product offering and will look at support for any new attractions on merit. Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise would also be willing to consider what support may be appropriate for new privately funded attractions. However, this would need to be set in the context of the market situation, and the potential of the attraction to attract additional businesses to Scotland, as well as likely levels of displacement from existing attractions.

There is a high-level of provision of visitor attractions in Scotland and any major new project could be associated with a high-level of displacement which could potentially undermine the viability of other attractions. However, Scottish Enterprise considers supporting every visitor attraction on a case-by-case basis. Assistance may be offered to fund new attractions that bring economic benefits to the Scottish tourism industry.

The Executive is keen to engage in dialogue with the environment industryabout the issues being discussed at the conference and their wider impact on regeneration. These issues engage the interests of a range of ExecutiveDepartments. Officials from the Development Department and the Scottish EnvironmentProtection Agency will be participating in the conference.

Information held centrally by the Ministerial Correspondence Unit provides average response times by working days for letters addressed to ministers which ministers or officials have replied to. A breakdown for each of the last 12 months for the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Department is shown in the following table.

	Replies by Ministers	Replies by Officials
	Average Response Time in Working Days
2005 June	15.5	11.2
May	17.8	1.7
April	20.3	2.3
March	23.2	11.4
February	23.6	22.5
January	22.6	14.9
2004 December	24.2	8.8
November	26.6	10.2
October	24.2	13.3
September	6.0	18.0
August	7.9	21.6
July	5.1	21.2

 

Information held centrally by the Ministerial Correspondence Unit provides average response times by working days for letters addressed to ministers which ministers or officials have replied to. A breakdown for each of the last 12 months for Environmental and Rural Affairs Department is shown in the following table.

	Replies by Ministers	Replies by Officials
	Average Response Time in Working Days
2005 June	11.9	9.9
May	13.2	11.8
April	14.7	8.6
March	18.0	11.7
February	17.2	11.2
January	18.1	13.9
2004 December	15.9	10.8
November	20.0	11.9
October	16.8	13.9
September	25.5	9.7
August	16.1	12.3
July	15.2	10.1

 

The total expenditure on hospitality in each of the last three years by the SPCB was:

2002-03 £62,300

2003-04 £54,800

2004-05 £41,500.

The majority of expenditure on hospitality is in respect of the Parliament’s external liaison activity, involving members, including Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and Tartan Day.

All SPCB expenditure is authorised in accordance with delegated budgetary authority. The SPCB’s overall budget is approved by the Finance Committee and the Parliament in the relevant Budget Act.

Under the terms of its Management Statement, Scottish Enterprise has full responsibility for conducting its own pay negotiations within the terms of a remit agreed beforehand with Scottish ministers. It is therefore for Scottish Enterprise, as the employer, to reach a settlement. It is regrettable that the dispute has not yet been brought to a satisfactory conclusion and I will continue to encourage Scottish Enterprise and the unions to resume negotiations as the best way of reaching agreement.

The Executive has not issued any instructions to Scottish Enterprise in respect of the pay dispute between itself and the staff of Careers Scotland. Under the delegated pay arrangements for non departmental public bodies, Scottish Enterprise as the employer, has full responsibility for conducting its own pay negotiations with staff.