Chamber and committees

In the press release on 21 June 2011, which accompanied the review’s publication, I welcomed the review and confirmed that, along with the Public Procurement Reform Board, I will consider the findings. Further details of the government’s response will be issued in due course.

The Scottish Government has provided Smart enabled Electronic Ticket Machines to the entire Scottish bus fleet, as part of its administration of the National Concessionary Travel Scheme, and has worked with First ScotRail on a trial of similar systems for the rail industry. A report setting out the findings of a comprehensive review to help advance Scottish Government policy towards Smart and Integrated ticketing in Scotland was published in March 2011.

We will continue to work with transport operators, local authorities and Regional Transport Partnerships to support the creation of a multi-modal smartcard ticket for use across the public transport system.

The Scottish Government has had no recent discussions with COSLA regarding funding of family mediation and couple counselling services.

The British Chamber of Commerce has estimated that the Forth Replacement Crossing will deliver economic benefits worth around £6 billion to Scotland’s economy.

In 2006, a study for the Forth Estuary Transport Authority (FETA) estimated that carrying out necessary repair work to the Forth Road Bridge without an alternative in place would result in Scotland’s economic output falling by £1 billion and turnover falling by more than £1.3 billion, when compared to the Forth Road Bridge being open and operating normally.

The methodology for producing these figures are a matter for FETA and British Chambers of Commerce.

The Scottish Government has provided funding to Relationships Scotland of £676,935, to Scottish Marriage Care of £188,732 and 13 local family mediation services across Scotland received £920,550 per annum for the last five years.

The Forth Replacement Crossing works will directly support over 1,200 jobs during its construction, as well as benefiting the economy by creating extensive supply chain and sub-contract opportunities for Scottish businesses. These figures are supplied by the contractor.

In 2006, a study for the Forth Estuary Transport Authority (FETA) estimated that carrying out necessary repair work to the Forth Road Bridge without an alternative in place would potentially result in a loss of around 3,200 jobs, some of which would have been permanent.

The Scottish Government supports organisations resolving family conflict by providing funding both locally and nationally to the figure of £1,786,217 per annum.

The Scottish Government has provided funding to two national relationship support organisations since 2007. Scottish Marriage Care has received £188,732 per annum since 2007. Relationships Scotland has received £676,935 per annum since 2007.

The Scottish Government does not directly support local authority run mediation services. Local authorities have the freedom to use their resources to meet local need, including the need for family mediation services.

The Scottish Government encourages all forms of constructive dispute resolution, including family mediation.

Creative Scotland has advised that they are not aware of any criticism from theatres of their guidance on cross border activity. Their investment advice for touring, festivals and events states that “the activity in any other UK country or countries should not be to the detriment of that carried out in Scotland”. Creative Scotland is planning to look at the ecology of theatre beginning in the autumn of this year and this will provide an ideal context for resolving any outstanding issues.