Chamber and committees

A report from Price WaterhouseCooper, commissioned by the UK Government, has shown the effects of the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games on the rest of the UK but did not take into account theeffects of the Nations and Regions Group and the Scottish Steering Group for London2012 which will be working hard over the next six years to ensure that Scotlandbenefits in every way possible from the games.

The Scottish Executive hasset up an Economic Development Sub-Group of the Scottish Steering Group for London 2012 whose remit is to maximise the economic benefits to Scotland of The London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.

The sub-group is currentlyworking towards ensuring that Scottish businesses and industry have as muchnotice as possible about when they can bid for contracts. The sub-group is alsolooking at ways they can help Scottish businesses and industry maximise theirchances of submitting successful bids. To this end, as they receive informationabout the London 2012 procurement strategy, the sub-group will arrangeworkshops on bidding for Olympic contracts.

The Economic Development sub-groupis also planning to organise a conference for Scottish business before the nextround of contracts are to be announced. Lord Coe, on his visit to Scotland on 4May, told the sub-group that the next round of contracts will not be until nextyear.

I refer the member to the answerto question S2W-21644 on 12 January 2006. Allanswers 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 categorisation of an athletewould largely depend on the sport in question and the entry criteria for any associatedcompetition. A “Scottish-level” athlete may be one who is selected to representScotland or restricts their participation in competition to national events. A “UK-level”athlete may be one who is selected to represent the UK or restrictstheir participation in competition to UK events. A “world-level” athlete is one who competes regularlyon the world stage. Some athletes may be the best in their sport or event in Scotland butnot be among the best in the UK and the rest of the world.

No discussions have taken placeon this issue.

No assessment has been requested.

No discussions have taken placeon this issue.

This information is not heldcentrally.

This information is not heldcentrally.

Funding of £4 million hasbeen made available under the national and regional facilities strategy toprovide for a revamped Royal Commonwealth Pool. Funding for swimming pools isavailable from sportscotland under the lottery supported Building forSport programme and I have asked the chair of sportscotland to provideyou with details of all awards made to date.