Chamber and committees

The only form of indemnity put in place in regard to the contract with Flour City Architectural Metals (UK) Ltd was the Parent Company Guarantee.

The following table shows the number of complaints submitted to the Scottish Ambulance Service under the NHS Complaints Procedure in the last three years, and the outcomes of these complaints:

	Number Total Received	Received, Total Responded to	Outcome of Upheld	Complaints Upheld in part	(%)Not Upheld
1998-99	580	573	43%	24%	33%
1999-2000	585	572	37%	29%	34%
2000-01	460	460	40%	23%	37%

A working group of NHS staff, professional and patient representatives are developing proposals for revision of the NHS complaints procedure to meet the commitment in Our National Health: A plan for action, a plan for change. The objective is to produce a procedure which is "credible, easy to use, demonstrably independent and effective". The proposals will be made public in a consultation paper at the end of June 2002.

It has not proved possible to collate all the relevant information in the time available for answering this question. I will write to the member once the full information is to hand and will place a copy of the letter in the Parliament's Reference Centre.

Work is expected to start in early 2003, subject to the tender for the PPP contract demonstrating value for money.

Flour City Architectural Metals (UK) was subject to the same due diligence procedures as other successful tenderers. Their ability to perform the contract was based on the professional and financial standing of the parent company, Flour City International, and, for this reason, a Parent Company Guarantee was sought and obtained.

Actual expenditure arising from a Deputy Presiding Officer, a cross party delegation, and one support officer, undertaking an agreed one week programme during Tartan Day 2001, was £40,409. The estimated expenditure arising from the Presiding Officer, a cross party delegation, and two support officers, undertaking an agreed one week programme, during Tartan Day 2002, is £45,000.

Details are set out in the attached table of visits in 2000, 2001 and 2002, funded by the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB), outwith the United Kingdom by:

• the Presiding Officer, the Deputy Presiding Officers;
• cross-party delegations of Members of the Parliament ;
• members travelling abroad on Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) business;
• members nominated to the Council of Europe, the Committee of the Regions and the British Irish Interparliamentary Body, and
• members of committees of the Parliament.

Travel outwith Scotland by members in an individual capacity is funded through either the Members' Support Allowance or the Members' Travel Allowance, depending on the destination. Information about expenditure under the Allowances scheme is published in the SPCB's Annual Report. Travel by parliamentary staff, other than when accompanying delegations noted in the attached table, is funded from individual directorate staffing budgets. Details are available of the total costs incurred by parliament staff in respect of such travel.The External Liaison Unit, in partnership with the Research and Information Group, is continuing to develop the information and communication aspects of the Parliament's external links. Ensuring that reports of parliamentary engagement abroad are as widely available as possible is a key objective.Reports of many visits are already available, as marked with an asterisk on the attached table. It has become normal practice for a report to be posted on SPEIR (at Programs/The Intranet/Services/External Liaison Unit/Events Reports) after external visits by the Presiding Officer, by Deputy Presiding Officers, by cross-party delegations of members and after British-Irish Interparliamentary Body Plenary meetings. The aim is that reports on all such forthcoming visits will be posted on SPEIR.Reports are made available via SPEIR following most visits involving the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association too. In all cases details are summarised in the CPA branch Annual Report which is circulated to all MSPs.Consideration is being given to how information about work done by MSPs nominated to the Committee of the Regions and the Council of Europe can be disseminated more widely in the Parliament. There is no practice of providing reports of visits by committees or their members. Such visits, both within and outwith Scotland, are generally related to inquiry work and the results feed into committee reports or discussions.The Senior Management Team has recently agreed that reports of external visits or activity by staff should be made widely available and this information will now also be posted on SPEIR.

Dates	Description	Participants	Approx. Costs to SPCB
05 to 09.04.00	Tartan Day Celebrations, Washington, USA	Patricia Ferguson MSP and George Reid MSP	£9,000
03 to 05.07.00	Millennium celebrations and presentation to Icelandic Parliament, Iceland	Presiding Officer + 1 Staff	£1,450
10 to 17.07.00	European Committee visit to Brussels, Tallinn, Budapest, Warsaw and Maastricht	Ben Wallace MSP, Margo Macdonald MSP and Elaine Thomson MSP	£4,000
14.08.00	Social Inclusion Committee Drugs Inquiry, Ireland	Committee Members + 1 Staff	£1,780
08 to 10.01.00	British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body Plenary Meeting, Galway, Ireland*	Patricia Ferguson MSP + 4 MSPs + 2 Staff	£2,750
30.10 and 01.11.00	Conference of Presiding Officers of Legislative Regions of Europe, Santiago de Compostela, Spain*	Presiding Officer + 2 Staff	£3,000
07 to 09.11.00	Delegation to Saschen-Anhalt Parliament, Germany	Patricia Ferguson MSP + 4 MSPs + 2 Staff	£5,000
21 and 22.11.00	Delegation to the Dail, Ireland*	Presiding Officer + 4 MSPs + 2 Staff	£1,100
07 to 09.12.00	Attendance at the AER Annual Conference, Seinajoki, Finland*	George Reid MSP + 1 Staff	£1,750
22 and 23.01.01	British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body Steering Committee Meeting, Dublin, Ireland	Patricia Ferguson MSP + 1 Staff	£550
25 to 27.01.01	Visit to Hungarian Parliament and other engagements in Budapest, Hungary*	Presiding Officer + 1 Staff	£2,000
29 and 30.01.01	Local Government Committee familiarisation visit to Dublin, Ireland	Trish Godman MSP, Kenny Gibson MSP, Keith Harding MSP + 2 Staff	£2,000
25 to 28.02.01	British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body Plenary, Plenary Meeting, Killarney, Ireland*	Patricia Ferguson MSP + 4 MSPs + 1 Staff	£2,400
26 and 27.02.01	European Committee visit to Brussels, Belgium	Committee Members + 3 Staff	£7,000
19 to 21.03.01	European Parliament Familiarisation visit to Brussels, Belgium*	George Reid MSP + 14 MSPs + 4 Staff	£3,500
02 to 08.04.01	Tartan Day Celebration, Washington, USA*	Patricia Ferguson MSP + 4 MSPs + 2 staff	£40,409
02 to 04.05.01	Council of Europe CLRAE Plenary, France	Bruce Crawford MSP	£250
04 and 05.06.01	To speak at a Conference organised by Patronat Catala Pro Europa, Catalonia, Spain	George Reid MSP	£20
03 to 05.07.00	Tynwald Opening Ceremony, Isle of Man*	George Reid MSP	£500
09 to 12.07.01	Conference on Regulatory Reform and Scrutiny of Legislation, Australia	David Mundell MSP + I staff	£7,800
11 and 12.07.01	Reporters from Transport and Environment Committee visit to Brussels, Belgium	Des McNulty MSP, Maureen MacMillan MSP + 1 staff	£1,500
11 to 15.08.01	National Conference of State Legislatures Annual Conference, San Antonio, Texas, USA	Patricia Ferguson MSP + 2 staff	£10,500
29 and 30.08.01	Meeting of the Holyrood Progress Group, Barcelona, Spain	John Home Robertson MSP, Jamie Stone MSP + 2 staff	£4,500
06 to 08.09.01	To speak at forum organised by the British Council, Prague, Czech Republic	George Reid MSP	Nil
07 to 14.09.01	47th CPA Annual Conference, Australia*	Richard Lochhead MSP, Cathy Jamieson MSP + 1 staff	£8,500
25 and 26.09.01	Petitions Committee Visit to Bundestag, Berlin, Germany	John McAllion MSP, John Farquhar Munro MSP, Dorothy Grace Elder MSP, Phil Gallie MSP + 1 staff	£2,800
08 to 10.10.01	Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee Visit, Brussels, Belgium	Elaine Thomson MSP, Annabel Goldie MSP, Duncan Hamilton MSP + 1 staff	£1,500
09 to 12.10.01	Scotland Week, Brussels, Belgium	George Reid MSP, Hugh Henry MSP, Alex Fergusson MSP, Robin Harper MSP, Annabel Goldie MSP + 5 staff	£5,000
14 and 15.10.01	BIIPB, Steering Committee Meeting, Ireland	Patricia Ferguson MSP	£500
15 to 19.10.01	13th Commonwealth Parliamentary Seminar, Tasmania, Australia	Keith Raffan MSP	£3,000
18 and 19.10.01	CLRAE Meeting, Strasbourg, France	Bruce Crawford MSP	£50
29 and 30.10.01	Conference of Presidents of Regional Legislative Assemblies of Europe, Maderia, Portugal*	Presiding Officer + 1 staff	£3,000
03 to 07.11.01	CPA Executive Committee Visit, Quebec City and Ottawa, Canada*	Lord James Douglas-Hamilton MSP, Michael Russell MSP, Iain Smith MSP, Karen Whitefield MSP + 1 staff	£10,000
03 to 06.11.01	Cross-Party Parliamentary Visit, Estonia*	George Reid MSP, Margaret Jamieson MSP, Donald Gorrie MSP, Keith Harding MSP, Tricia Marwick MSP + 1 staff	£8,000
09 to 11.11.01	Education, Culture and Sport Committee inquiry, Denmark	Karen Gillon MSP and Irene McGugan MSP	£1,250
16 to 18.11.01	Visit to New York, USA which included St Andrew's Society Dinner and Tartan Day preparation*	Presiding Officer + 1 staff	£5,000
09 to12.01.02	16th Conference of Commonwealth Speakers and Presiding Officers, Kasane, Botswana*	Presiding Officer + 1 staff	£9,000
20 and 21.01.02	Meeting with the Parliaments of Catalonia and Flanders, Barcelona, Spain*	Presiding Officer, Irene Oldfather MSP, Clerk/Chief Executive + 3 staff	£5,500
05 to 07.02.02	Attendance at COR Plenary, Brussels, Belgium*	Irene Oldfather MSP, Irene McGugan MSP + I staff	£1,500
01 and 02.03.02	Governance seminar, Florence, Italy	Nora Radcliffe MSP	£800
04 to 06.03.02	European Committee visit to EU institutions, Brussels, Belgium	All members of the European Committee + 5 staff	£4,400
24 to 26.03.02	BIIPB Plenary Meeting, Dublin, Ireland*	Murray Tosh MSP, David McLetchie MSP, Cathie Craigie MSP, Iain Smith MSP, Shona Robison MSP +1 staff	£4,000
14 and 15.05.02	Governance seminar (AER), Madrid, Spain	John Home Robertson MSP + 1 staff	£800
04 to 10.04.02	Tartan Day Celebrations, New York, USA*	Presiding Officer, David McLetchie MSP, Roseanna Cunningham MSP, Sylvia Jackson MSP, Margaret Smith MSP + 2 staff	£45,000
11 to 13.06.02	Transport and Environment Committee attendance at Aquaculture Conference, Norway	Maureen MacMillan MSP + 1 staff	£3,000

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:This incident was classed as a serious assault.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:The incident has been referred to the police for investigation. We do not comment on the location of any prisoner, not least when he or she may be the subject of a police investigation.