Chamber and committees

The progress reports cover all relevant aspects of the tram project and are not specifically structured on the basis of each grant condition.

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.

Details are as follows:

Representatives of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games earlier this year held in principle discussions with officials of Edinburgh City Council, Historic Scotland and the Scottish Government.

Following careful consideration of the proposal to display the Olympic symbols at Edinburgh Castle, Historic Scotland concluded that the proposal was not conducive to the successful operation of Scotland’s most popular heritage attraction.

Historic Scotland is an executive agency of the Scottish Government charged with safeguarding the nation’s historic environment. All functions performed by the agency are carried out on behalf of Scottish ministers.

The identification of a suitable location is primarily a matter for Edinburgh City Council. The Scottish Government stands ready to provide appropriate assistance as required.

The Scottish Government is committed to making the most of the opportunities that the 2012 Olympic Games could present for Scotland in the next year.

We will use the inspiration provided by the 2012 Olympics, the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Ryder Cup etc. to encourage all Scots to be more active and help to make Scotland more physically active.

We will be building on our activity and investment in Community Sports Hubs within local communities and the Active Schools Network, which has delivered over five million opportunities for young people to be active last year. We will also be working in partnership with a number of organisations in support of events which will take place in Scotland next year in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics. These include Sport Relief, National School Sports Week and the World Active Ageing Congress. In addition, over 800 schools across Scotland have registered on the London 2012 Get Set programme.

In June 2011, a number of healthcare professionals attended a Healthcare Improvement Scotland event in Dundee to discuss how best to help people with functional symptoms referred to neurological services. The event concluded with health boards asking for help to identify the size of the problem and for some recommendations for ways to help these people so that they could respond appropriately. As a result, Healthcare Improvement Scotland convened a short life reference group for functional neurological symptoms. The group is currently producing a report which will be published in early 2012. At this stage, Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s functional symptoms work will not extend to people with ME-CFS.

In September 2010, the Scottish Government published a Scottish Good Practice Statement (SGPS) on ME-CFS, for use by general practitioners, as part of the process of ensuring that people with ME-CFS receive better and more consistent standards of care, including quicker and more reliable diagnosis.

The Scottish Government strongly encourages both employees and employers alike to consider the full range of assistance available to working families, including childcare vouchers. We will convene a national summit with Scotland’s business community to explore new ways of incentivising and encouraging more flexible working in support of families. The summit will provide an opportunity to further promote childcare vouchers.

In the meantime, the Scottish Government continues to fund the Scottish Childcare/Family Information Service website which provides web-based and telephone advice to families on a range of issues, including childcare vouchers. HMRC’s website also offers advice to both employers and employees on this issue.

The Scottish Government is not proposing to incorporate the UNCRC into Scots law. One reason for this is because Scottish ministers have other considerations and obligations to take into account in the exercise of their functions some which relate to human rights under ECHR and rights under the Equalities Act 2010. The proposed due regard duty was considered to provide an appropriate balance in requiring ministers to weigh up the requirements of UNCRC against these other considerations and obligations.