Questions and answers

Question reference: S4W-23143

Asked by: Angus MacDonald, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 November 2014
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 14 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what information it can provide regarding the Minister for Environment and Climate Change's recent visit to Chile.

I visited Chile between 21 and 26 October 2014 to undertake a series of engagements aimed at strengthening Scotland’s international position as a major salmon producer, a world leader in tackling climate change, and an innovative centre for developing wave and tidal renewable energy. I also took the opportunity to promote cultural issues.

During my visit to the Aqua Sur aquaculture conference I held bilateral talks with Mr Raul Sunico, Chilean Undersecretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture and Ms Elisabeth Aspaker, Norwegian Minister of Fisheries and Minister for Coordination of Nordic Affairs. I also met informally with Mr Ingi Johannsson, Icelandic Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources and Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture. The focus of our discussions was on strengthening links and securing the best interests of a sustainable and flourishing aquaculture sector. My officials will be taking forward a number of action points from these meetings with the aim of achieving closer cooperation and stronger international relations. I also met with a number of Scottish companies which are looking to get a foothold and then establish themselves in the Chilean market to explore ways in which the Scottish Government and its agencies can assist them.

In Santiago I met with Ms Jimena Jara, Undersecretary of Energy and elected officials, including Ms Carolina Toha, Mayor of Santiago, and Senator Ossandon, Chair of the Senate’s Transport Committee to discuss areas of mutual interest which included climate change, renewable energy, sustainable transport and economic development. I also met with Mr Eduardo Bitran, Executive Vice President of CORFO, Chile’s Economic Development Agency, as well as chief executives of leading businesses from across a range of sectors to explain Scotland’s position regarding renewable energy, particularly onshore wind and wave and tidal technologies. I believe that there is real potential for promoting Scotland’s interests and our expertise and research and development capabilities in what is a significant emerging market. Recent studies suggest that Chile has the greatest potential for wave power of any nation globally.

At the end of my visit I was honoured to attend a concert which had been arranged in a refuge, Villa Jorge Yarur Banna, for abused girls aged 6-18 who have survived abuse, with the performance provided by the third sector organisation Musica Para Todos, which is modelled on the Scottish charity Live Music Now. This organisation puts on concerts to audiences who would have no other means of hearing live musical performances and it was truly inspirational to see the positive impact it had on the residents of the villas. Finally, I attended the Homeless World Cup to show my support for the Scotland team, one of many nations represented in the tournament and was delighted to watch them win 6-4 against Austria.

Throughout my visit I was greatly encouraged and heartened by the level of interest in Scotland and what Scotland is achieving across many sectors of relevance to Chile. I am optimistic that these first steps towards establishing closer ties will bear much fruit in the future.

Question reference: S4F-02378

Asked by: Angus MacDonald, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 November 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 November 2014

To ask the First Minister what response he has received from the Prime Minister to his recent correspondence regarding European Council fisheries negotiations.

Question reference: S4W-22763

Asked by: Angus MacDonald, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 4 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what the impact would be on its poverty strategy of the UK Government's proposal to include a seven-day waiting period before entitlement to universal credit commences, and what representations it has made about this.

The increase in waiting days will cause more hardship and worry for newly unemployed people and their families.

Actions such as this will have negative impacts on the ability of families to manage household budgets, which is a key outcome of the revised Child Poverty Strategy for Scotland.

The Deputy First Minister has written to the Prime Minister requesting a halt to the roll out of universal credit in Scotland pending the conclusion of the process to deliver substantial new powers to the Scottish Parliament.

Question reference: S4W-22727

Asked by: Angus MacDonald, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 27 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the cost of rural crime in 2013.

Question reference: S4W-22635

Asked by: Angus MacDonald, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 September 2014
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 16 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with Falkirk Council regarding the (a) recycling rates and (b) availability of its collection service for food waste.

The Scottish Government has ongoing dialogue with Falkirk Council and other local authorities regarding recycling and the implementation of the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012.

To improve recycling rates and to maximise the recycling services available to residents, the Council introduced a three-weekly collection of non-recyclable waste in May 2014. This was the first such collection in the UK and was supported by Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) by funding for temporary staff to support the implementation. In addition ZWS provided £750,000 of funding for Falkirk to roll out their food waste collection in 2012.

The food waste collection service is now being made available to properties throughout the Falkirk Council area.

Question reference: S4W-22576

Asked by: Angus MacDonald, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2014
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 6 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what safeguards have been introduced to ensure that Scotland Excel assesses tenders and awards contracts fairly and equitably.

All public bodies, including Scotland Excel, must act in accordance with the EU treaty principles of transparency, proportionality, equal treatment, non-discrimination and mutual recognition. When awarding contracts worth more than the EU thresholds, they must also comply with the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2012, which transpose the 2004 European Public Procurement Directive. The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 will introduce regulation for lower value contracts which are not regulated by the EU directives.

In order to help public bodies to comply with this legal framework, we publish a range of procurement guidance. This is available on the Scottish Government website.

If a firm feels that a public body has not acted in accordance with the relevant legislation, we offer a voluntary and informal advice, support and dispute resolution service through our Single Point of Enquiry for procurement.

Parties may also have recourse to the courts, and can lodge a complaint with the European Commission.

Question reference: S4T-00796

Asked by: Angus MacDonald, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 September 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 September 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what recent representations it has made to the UK Government regarding the removal of the right of householders in Scotland to object to fracking taking place beneath their homes.

Question reference: S4W-22503

Asked by: Angus MacDonald, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 August 2014
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 24 September 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken in co-operation with public bodies, including local authorities, to help them comply with their climate change duties.

I work closely with senior public sector figures in my role as chair of the Public Sector Climate Leaders Forum (PSCLF). The remit of the PSCLF is to provide strategic leadership on public sector climate action, including measures undertaken by individual bodies to comply with their public bodies duties.

The forum is supported by a network of Climate Champions and the Climate Leaders Officer Group (CLOG) which is made up of representatives of key public sector stakeholders. The CLOG has an operational delivery role to promote and develop climate change support and improvement across the public sector.

The Scottish Government also funds the Sustainable Scotland Network, Resource Efficient Scotland and Adaptation Scotland programmes which provide practical support to the public sector to help compliance with their climate change duties.

Guidance to support public bodies in exercising their duties under the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 is available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/02/04093254/0

Question reference: S4W-22506

Asked by: Angus MacDonald, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2014
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 23 September 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what funding has been provided by the VisitScotland Growth Fund, broken down by local authority area.

VisitScotland have run two growth fund programmes during this administration.

The current VisitScotland Growth Fund programme, which runs from 2014-15, has to date approved £288,486 of funding to 12 tourism industry partnerships.

During the previous growth fund programme (2011–14), £1,109,268 of funding was awarded to 30 groups throughout Scotland.

Details of the awards, provided by VisitScotland, including a breakdown by local authority, where applicable, are in the following tables:

2014-15 Growth Fund:

Area/Local Authority	Recipients name	Project Description	Amount
Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire	Golf Aberdeen City and Shire	Campaign aimed at increasing awareness of the region as a golfing destination and increasing golfing visitors through familiarisation trips, website creation, event and exhibition attendance, print and online marketing.	£22,500
Argyll and Bute	Gardens of Argyll and Bute	To increase visitor numbers to Argyll and Bute gardens and increase the number of gardens in the group, carried out through the use of websites and social media in conjunction with Argyll and the Isles Tourism Cooperative.	£12,202
Dumfries and Galloway	South of Scotland Golfers' Association	To promote Dumfries and Galloway as a region with a varied and good value golf product using online and print marketing.	£10,000
East, Mid and West Lothian	Visit West Lothian	Promotion of West, Mid, and East Lothian as a key stopover and destination to the group tour market.	£11,900
East Lothian	East Lothian Golf Tourism Alliance	Promotion of East Lothian’s golf product, bringing in ancillary services such as food and drink and accommodation.	£22,280
Edinburgh, City of	Marketing Edinburgh	The development of the North American market to secure additional business for the members of Marketing Edinburgh Ltd and the city of Edinburgh as a whole.	£39,100
Highland	Cairngorms Business Partnership	Cairngorms Business Partnership series of themed mini-campaigns, either product (e.g. cycling) or location specific (e.g. Aviemore).	£35,000
Perth and Kinross	Golf Perthshire	Maximising the golfing legacy from The 2014 Ryder Cup in Perthshire.	£15,414
South Ayrshire	South Ayrshire Council Year 3	Arts and cultural festival designed to complement the creativity and variety of the work of Robert Burns and his legacy. Specific activity includes newly designed programme, targeted distribution strategy and new outdoor display elements.	£14,000
Stirling	Destination Stirling	Establishment of a new destination organisation, set up on the back of a Scottish Enterprise funded strategy and with backing from VisitScotland and Stirling Council, to take advantage of 2014 opportunities.	£26,000
Stirling	Breadalbane Tourism Co-operative	Campaign designed to build on Ring of Breadalbane Explorer hop-on, hop-off bus and promote ‘Rings’ beyond the bus, such as walking and cycling (on and off-road) routes.	£10,000
National	The Scottish Licensed Trade Association	To promote a positive image of Scottish pubs by telling ‘little heard of stories’ associated with pubs across the length and breadth of Scotland using a variety of marketing and communication tools.	£60,000
National	Sail Scotland	To increase visitors from key target markets through consumer exhibitions and promotional marketing.	£22,500

2011-14 Growth Fund:

Area	Group Name	Project Description	Amount
Aberdeenshire	Deeside and Cairngorms Ltd	Activity aimed at improving consumer information and interest in the area. It incorporated website development; facilitating interaction via smartphones; a Victorian Heritage Trail marketing initiative; data collection and e-flyers; and the reintroduction of Deelicious magazine for the area.	£21,000
Argyll and Bute	Ardnamurchan Tourist Association	To attract new visitors to Ardnamurchan outwith the summer months through a PR campaign and online advertising in specialist walking and photograph publications and mainstream media. The group also wanted to increase online presence through website redevelopment.	£8,176
Argyll and Bute	Oban and Lorn Tourism Association	This campaign aimed to raise awareness of Oban as the Seafood Capital of Scotland and associated tag line – Closer Than You Think – and to grow website traffic and the overall online community.	£21,000
Argyll and Bute	Bute Marketing	A marketing plan to attract additional visitors through a joined-up approach and targeted marketing.	£37,000
Argyll and Bute	Holiday Mull and Iona	To enable the provision of detailed information via website and a printed guide for Mull and Iona. Distribution of the guide and a PR campaign to guide people to available offers on the islands and prompt people to register their details on the Mull and Iona website.	£7,500
Argyll and Bute	Argyll and the Isles Tourism Cooperative Ltd	To raise awareness of the region as a high quality destination to consumers.	£63,500
Argyll and Bute, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire	Love Loch Lomond	The first year (2011) of a projected three year project focusing on off-season activity to encourage visitors both to stay and spend in the area around Loch Lomond.	£40,200
Argyll and Bute, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire	Love Loch Lomond	Funding given in 2013 to build on the success of 2012 campaign, focusing on opportunities provided by the Year of Natural Scotland. The core target markets were UK Younger Domestic Explorers and Mature Devotees segments (Scotland, Northern England and the Midlands), and near European touring markets.	£42,500
Dumfries and Galloway	7stanes	To grow the family and beginner markets during 2013 as part of the overall strategy to become self-funding and to keep, strengthen and grow their specialist mountain bike user market.	£33,000
East Lothian	East Lothian Golf Tourism Alliance	To maximise awareness of East Lothian’s world class golf product in key markets using multiple channels and provide a clear booking method to convert interest into bookings. Utilise the opportunity to boost business in the area and to receive worldwide media exposure from the Open having been held Muirfield in 2013.	£38,750
Edinburgh, City of	Festivals Edinburgh	Funding given in 2011 to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the London Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Year of Creative Scotland, including targeting international markets to encourage extension visits; and to support the growing staycation market.	£65,000
Edinburgh, City of	Festivals Edinburgh	Funding given in 2013 to enable Festivals Edinburgh to target two key markets; German cities with direct routes to Edinburgh, and Northern English cities (Manchester and Newcastle)	£65,000
Falkirk	Falkirk and District Town Management	Visit Falkirk aimed to attract visitors into the Falkirk region (rather than just the town) using new itineraries in conjunction with business offers, with key attractions as the hook. The primary market was families within suitable drive time, and emphasis on cross-selling attractions and changing people’s perceptions of the Falkirk area.	£51,000
Fife	Fife Golf Partnership	To promote Fife as a golfing destination, expanding beyond just St Andrews and maximizing the potential of the region. To be done through a mix of promoting itineraries and packages, golf trails, golf events, trade show attendance and digital marketing.	£32,000
Glasgow City	Glasgow City Marketing Bureau	With key industry groups in the city (Glasgow’s Leading Attractions, Restaurant Association, and Mackintosh Heritage) target the Northern Irish market for Autumn and Spring campaigns in partnership with Stena Line.	£55,000
Highland	Destination Loch Ness	To further develop online activity, targeting visitors from England and Central Scotland with social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.	£17,300
Highland	Cairngorms Business Partnership	The project sought to enhance the visitor experience by providing a one stop shop to the Cairngorms National Park.	£59,570
Highland	Celtic Fringe Tourism Association	A tie up between Celtic Fringe Wester Ross Tourism Association and the Gairloch Business Association to promote the area under the Wild About Gairloch theme for 2012-13. Matching events and activities throughout the year with online accommodation offers and promoted through advertising and PR.	£8,368
Highland	Cairngorms Attractions	To attract more families from the Younger Domestic Explorer segmentation on short breaks from mainstream Scottish cities in the central belt, and to raise the profile of the Cairngorms Attractions Group attractions as a source of family entertainment in the Highlands for those visiting the area.	£15,000
Highland	Highland Golf Links	Funding given in 2011 for joint marketing activity focused on search engine optimization for the website, the development of stay and play packages, a PR campaign and trade show and consumer exhibition attendance.	£50,000
Highland	Highland Golf Links	Funding given in 2012 for further development of stay and play packages and trade and corporate market awareness and visits.	£41,000
Highland	Scottish Snowsports Marketing Group	To develop existing and new market segments (committed skiers and boarders and people who enjoy outdoor activities but have not yet tried snowsports).	£24,000
Moray	Banffshire Coast Tourism Partnership Limited	To develop Banffshire Coast as a high-quality and attractive destination through improving the quality of the visitor experience and quality of tourism operators; fostering joint working; providing training and business support; identifying new products to fill gaps; raising the profile of the area; developing baseline information and monitoring improvements; and working towards a Destination Management structure.	£10,000
North Ayrshire	VisitArran	Marketing campaign designed to address falling visitor numbers to the island. It used a range of channels to target specific audiences with the aim of building on both new and existing markets.	£40,000
Perth and Kinross	Perthshire Business Tourism Group	Funded in 2011, the initiative brought together a range of accommodation, venue and activity providers and producers in the area to promote Perthshire as an attractive and competitive rural business environment destination for meetings, conference, events and incentive market.	£18,500
Perth and Kinross	Perthshire Business Tourism Group	Further funding in 2012 to specifically target two identified markets - Germany and the Aberdeen business market – through a mix of business events, familiarisation trips, PR and online activity.	£15,300
South Ayrshire	South Ayrshire Council Year 1	Funded in 2011 to undertake arts and cultural festival and complementary marketing activity to celebrate Robert Burns in a modern and contemporary way. Specific activity included creation and development of an interactive festival website; collaborative working with local businesses and local and national media and radio advertising.	£25,000
South Ayrshire	South Ayrshire Council Year 2	Funded in 2013 for the Burns an’ a’ that! Festival which reflected a wide genre of musical, arts and cultural, literary, food and drink and children’s events to both commemorate the significance of Robert Burns in history and reflect the contemporary modern icon.	£14,886.6
West Lothian	Visit West Lothian	To establish West Lothian as a key stop-off destination to the group tour industry by engaging with this industry by developing a persuasive package to tap into this market.	£5,760
National	Wild Scotland	Provide opportunities for Scottish wildlife and adventure tourism businesses to market to UK consumers through developing new and maintaining existing relationships with UK media; developing high quality video content and engaging more actively with consumers.	£7,044
National	Cruise Scotland	Promoting Scotland to cruise ship operators and itinerary planners to encourage them to include more Scottish ports of call in future itineraries.	£11,375
National	Connoisseurs Scotland	Group of luxury hotels across Scotland, promoting luxury accommodation, fine dining and spas, targeting the Spanish and French markets through press and trade agents. Also looking to target customers through use of smartphone technology by both app and optimised website development.	£34,212
National	Thistle Marketing Group	To promote Thistle – Scotland’s Best Holiday Parks (4 and 5 star VS properties) as representing the best holiday and touring parks in Scotland, offering quality and value for money.	£14,412
National	Scottish Country Sports Group	To promote Scotland as a destination to enjoy high quality Country Sports breaks, through revamping of its portal to make it easier to access information and convert bookings. The target market was UK and European Country Sports enthusiasts with a focus on Germany, Spain, Portugal and Scandinavia.	£18,750
National	Scottish Racing	To attract new and previous audiences to Scottish racing, while at the same time, promoting other local attractions and overnight stays. To be achieved through TV and radio advertising along with PR and social media activity.	£65,000
National	Go Rural Ltd	To encourage visitors out of Scottish cities and into rural areas of Scotland. From an agritourism project from the Scottish Enterprise Rural Leadership programme.	£33,164

Question reference: S4W-22505

Asked by: Angus MacDonald, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 August 2014
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 23 September 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the success of the VisitScotland Growth Fund.

VisitScotland’s Growth Fund supports the development of collaborative marketing campaigns, delivered by its industry partners. It plays an important part in supporting the wider work of the organisation through its role in stimulating collaboration between industry, engendering partnership working with VisitScotland and achieving strategic alignment to grow tourism in Scotland.

The growth fund provides the single funding opportunity for VisitScotland to support locally-led collaborative marketing initiatives. It is an effective platform for leveraging additional, and more focused marketing investment, aligned with national strategy, for example, the tourism industry-led Tourism Scotland 2020 strategy, and helps improve the marketing effectiveness and competitiveness of individual businesses within groups, by encouraging a more strategic, focused approach to marketing.

The fund was reviewed by VisitScotland during 2013, with the aim of managing considerable demand for funding support, with a priority on collaboration, new ideas and growth. As a result, the current growth fund programme, which runs from 2014-15, is being delivered and managed on a more strategic and proactive basis, identifying gaps and opportunities across Scotland and supporting areas and sectors with potential for growth.

A rigorous and challenging application, monitoring and evaluation process has been introduced to ensure funding is allocated to groups more likely to deliver innovative new activity and more sustainable growth as well as return on investment.

The current growth fund programme has approved £288,486 of funding to date to 12 tourism industry partnerships. This has enabled £632,414 of investment to be made in marketing campaigns so far, involving 668 businesses across Scotland.

Chamber and committees