Chamber and committees

In general, public sector fundingfor the Institute for System Level Integration comes from Scottish Enterprise andis an operational matter for them. In financial year 2000-01, the Scottish Executiveprovided the ISLI with a one-off grant of £40,000 to fund six MSc students.

The Scottish Executive does notdirectly fund the Institute for System Level Integration and, therefore, has notset it any targets.

The Scottish Executive’s PartnershipAction for Continuing Employment (PACE) framework will provide those affected bySolectron’s decision with support, advice and guidance on a wide range of retrainingand upskilling opportunities to help them access alternative employment. This comprehensivesupport includes: Jobcentre Plus services; one-to-one counselling; access to high-qualitytraining; seminars on skills such as CV writing and starting a business, and accessto IT facilities.

The Fife PACE teamhas been in contact with Solectron and will be providing significant support toemployees.

The Electronics sector fallswithin the recently announced Priority Industries for Scottish Enterprise. A largenumber of the electronics companies in Fife receive dedicated account managementsupport from Scottish Enterprise Fife for marketing and strategy development, productand technology development, process improvement and leadership and workforce development.Companies in the sector are also eligible for support from generic programmes, includingthe Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service, SCIS, SMART and SPUR and access toNational Training Programmes.

Inaddition, Scottish Development International (SDI) is working with the electronicsindustry to help it evolve from its traditional manufacturing base into a knowledge-intensivesector by supporting Scottish electronics companies to achieve success in globalmarkets, by attracting inward investment to complement Scotland’s existingsector strengths, and by supporting the commercialisation of the R&D base internationally.

With specific reference to Lexmarkand Solectron, these companies are receiving assistance from Scottish EnterpriseFife and its partners to reduce the economic impact resulting from their respectivecircumstances. Employees of the companies are being supported through the PartnershipAction for Continuing Employment (PACE) initiative.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-28748 on 26 October 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’swebsite, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

No licence application has beenreceived by the Scottish Executive under Regulation 44 of the Conservation (NaturalHabitats & c.) Regulations 1994, and it would therefore be premature to commenton this issue.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-28748 on 26 October 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’swebsite, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-28748 on 26 October 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’swebsite, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The Scottish Executive is incontact with Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) on whether the proposed ship-to-shiptransfers of crude oil in the Firth of Forth would be likely to disturb a EuropeanProtected Species, or damage or destroy its breeding sites or resting places. Ifit were established that the proposed transfer would be likely to affect a EuropeanProtected Species in one of these ways, a licence would be required from the ScottishExecutive as the licensing authority under regulation 44 of the Conservation (NaturalHabitats & c.) Regulations 1994 whether or not the species is present in theseplaces.

Should a licence applicationbe necessary, the Scottish Executive would consider it in accordance with the requirementsof regulation 44.

A background briefing note onStakeholder Advisory Group (SAGE) on ELF (extremely low frequency) and EMF (electricmagnetic fields) was placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib.number 38663) in January 2006. This includes details of the group’s remit.