Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executive and Parliament are working in partnership to host a business conferenceon 22 and 23 April 2004. Thereafter, the Scottish Executive will convenean annual business forum for on-going engagement with the business communityand to update on the key actions identified at the conference. The overall aimis for the Executive and the Parliament to engage jointly with business in focusingon key themes of Smart Successful Scotland and on growing Scotland'seconomy.

Executive officials andrepresentatives of the Parliament are now planning for the Conference. Weexpect to announce details soon and we will issue invitations to the Conferencenext month.

Ministers have made clearour commitment to A Smart Successful Scotland. We have also indicated ourwish to consider how this strategic direction should be refreshed. The Scottish Executive is currently undertaking work to refresh our Framework for EconomicDevelopment and this provides the broader economic context for A Smart,Successful Scotland as well as policy statements in other key areas. Linkedto this, we will soon commence a similar exercise to refresh A SmartSuccessful Scotland. This work will be led by the Department of Enterprise,Transport and Lifelong Learning and steps will be taken to involve stakeholdersand invite comments. I would expect to publish a revised document later thisyear.

The Scottish Executive and its agencies are bound by the rulesof the Civil Service Commissioners Code on Recruitment against which we areaudited. The Code exists to ensure that recruitment to the Civil Service isfair and open, and is conducted in a non-discriminatory manner.

Theretirement practice age for all Scottish Executive staff is 60 years and, in line with this, applications foremployment are not normally considered from candidates over 60. This policy is currentlyunder review.

In line with the Executive’sequal opportunities policy, we do not discriminate on grounds of age. It is alsoour aim to become an organisation that broadly reflects the people of Scotland inall aspects of diversity, including age, and, to this end, we are currentlyreviewing our Diversity Strategy to ensure that continues to support this aim.

16 and 17 year olds acrossthe UK who are not in full-time education or employment are guaranteed asuitable offer of training. The guarantee is delivered in Scotland byScottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise as a key element of theSkillseekers programme, funded by the Scottish Executive. To access this guarantee,young people must be registered with Careers Scotland.

Future repayments (andtherefore the resource cost) are difficult to forecast as they depend on a widerange of factors. Our best estimate are that raising the repayment threshold to£15,000 would increase the resource cost to Scottish Executive by around £17million. That is the combined cost to the Executive of subsidising loans andnon-repayment. Raising the repayment threshold to £19,000 would increase costsby around £49 million whilst setting a £25,000 threshold would increase costsby around £102 million.

In each case we assume thatthe repayment threshold is increased from 2005 and then up-rated in line withinflation for each subsequent year.

Officials in the Scottish Executive and DfES are currently working to refine the model of studentrepayments to identify what the effects would be on annual income flows.

The Scottish Executive commitment will meet the full cost of those schemes approved by theExecutive, up to their indicative allocations. Match funding is not arequirement. Should individual local authorities decide to augment schemes oroffer additional schemes, that will be a matter for them.

During the financial year2002-03 the sum of £472,449.54 was recovered following Confiscation Ordersunder the Proceeds of Crime (Scotland) Act 1995 in respect of drug offences.The sum of £825,262.54 has so far been collected during the financial year2003-04.

The Scottish Executive is inregular contact with the UK Government on a wide range of issues including therepayment threshold for student loans.

The target referred to is“Reducing the gap in unemployment rates between the worst 10% of areas and the Scottish average by 2006”.

The measure is constructedby subtracting the claimant count unemployment rate for Scotlandfrom the claimant count unemployment rate for the worst 10% of wards in Scotland. Definitionsof claimant unemployment vary across countries due to different eligibilitycriteria for unemployment benefit, so international comparisons are notpossible.

The Scottish Executive iscommitted to reducing disparities in unemployment between different parts of Scotland. “Reducethe gap in unemployment rates between the worst 10% of areas and the Scottish averageby 2006” was set out in Building a Better Scotland and is one of theperformance measures for achieving A Smart, Successful Scotland and SocialJustice – a Scotland where everyone matters.

The Fraser of AllanderInstitute report Measuring progress towards Smart, Successful Scotland, 2003indicated that over the past 10 years the gap between unemployment levelsin Scotland’s worst 10% of areas and the Scottish average has closed from justover 20% to 5%.

Progress towards this targetwill continue to be monitored through Smart, Successful Scotland.

The Executive has discussedwith Her Majesty’s Government the content and implications of the bills in itslegislative programme, including the Energy Bill. The discussions for each billhave reflected the extent of the relationship with devolved matters. We have now issued a Sewel motion to the Parliamentcovering those provisions within the Energy Bill that fall in devolvedcompetence.