Chamber and committees

Between May and December 2011, the Lord Advocate attended 14 meetings of the 23 meetings of the Scottish Cabinet.

The Scottish Government has not made any representations to Edinburgh City Council regarding the installation of the Olympic symbol within the city. Historic Scotland is an executive agency of the Scottish Government charged with safeguarding the nation’s historic environment.

As set out in the White Paper, Your Scotland, Your Voice published in November 2009.

Scotland would continue to operate within the Sterling system until a decision to join the Euro by the people of Scotland in a referendum when the economic conditions were right. (Page 31, Section 3.34)

None. The Barnett formula is a system whereby the grant payable to the Scottish Government is adjusted to reflect the spending plans (budgets) of comparable UK Departments. The income derived from Air Passenger Duty (APD) is not a comparable programme and therefore there would be no direct consequentials of abolishing APD.

The Single Outcome Agreements prepared by local authorities and their community planning partners are required to take account of the three social frameworks of Achieving Our Potential, Early Years and Equally Well. In addition, each of the shared risk assessments conducted by scrutiny bodies, which determine priorities for inspections and external audits of local authorities, includes an assessment of risks in relation to the protection and welfare of vulnerable groups in that council area.

Tourism and export figures are affected by a variety of factors, including exchange rates.

The Scottish Government publish export statistics on an annual basis in the Global Connections Survey and publish manufactured exports data on a quarterly basis. The ONS publish quarterly estimates of Overseas Travel and Tourism that include Scottish estimates Scotland.

These statistics show that the value of exports from Scotland and the number of tourists visiting Scotland have both been relatively strong in recent years, despite a very challenging environment in many of our trading partners.

This reflects the success of both SDI international, which has worked hard to explore new markets for Scottish products, and Visit Scotland which has effectively promoted Scotland as an attractive destination for tourists.

We vigorously oppose any changes to the welfare system which further reduce the income of the most vulnerable people in Scottish society.

The Scottish Government is taking a number of steps to ensure measurement of children’s healthy development, for example: national mental health indicators have been established; work is being commissioned to review assessment of attachment for Looked After Children; actions will be taken forward by NHS boards and other responsible organisations to assess the nutritional needs of children and to support parents to provide a healthy diet; there is a National Care Standard for Early Education and Childcare that children and young people have access to a well-balanced and healthy diet; the Growing Up in Scotland survey has collected information on maternal attachment, breastfeeding, weaning and the home learning environment, and work is underway to agree the core issues which should be addressed and recorded at the 24 to 30 month review which is being introduced.

The substantive grant conditions have not been relaxed. Ministers have approved changes to two grant conditions with the agreement in each case of the City of Edinburgh Council. In October 2010, the council sought approval to waive the 30 days formal notice required to give ministers prior to any termination of the tram contract. Ministers agreed to that request.

To allow the council time to conclude their negotiations with their contractors and obtain the agreement of their full council, ministers agreed with the City of Edinburgh council to extend the grant agreement from 31 March 2011 to 31 August 2011.

The Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth was first made aware that the Edinburgh tram project would not meet its planned opening date of January 2011, in March 2010.