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Scottish ministers responded on 12 March 2009 to the interim Digital Britain report. That response can be found on the Scottish Government''s website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/127313/0079137.pdf.

Since the final Digital Britain report was published on 16 June 2009, Scottish ministers have responded to the following consultations which arose from that report:

Consultation on amendments to the community radio licensing regime (25 August 2009)

Consultation on sustainable, independent and impartial news in the Nations, locally and in the regions (22 September 2009)

Consultation on potential reclassification of production companies owned by Channel 3 licence holders (28 January 2010 “ this response can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/ArtsCultureSport/arts/Broadcasting)

A Consultation on a direction to Ofcom to implement the Wireless Spectrum Modernisation Programme (4 February 2010)

Implementing a landline duty: consultation on draft legislation and impacts (4 February 2010).

Scottish ministers also intend to respond to the UK Government''s Consultation on proposals for a Next Generation Fund, for which the closing date is 1 April 2010.

Scottish ministers have met UK Government Ministers twice since the publication of the final Digital Britain report to discuss issues relating to Digital Britain. Mike Russell, the then Minister for Culture, External Affairs and the Constitution met Si´n Simon MP, the then UK Government Minister for the Creative Industries, on 2 November 2009 and Jim Mather, the Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism met Stephen Timms MP, UK Government Minister for Digital Britain, on 22 February 2010. The meetings covered a range of issues on which there will be ongoing dialogue between the UK Government and the Scottish Government.

The 2001 digital inclusion strategy Connecting Scotland''s People “ published under the previous administration “ was reviewed in 2006 before being superseded by the 2007 Digital Inclusion in Partnership strategy, also produced under the previous administration. We are currently reviewing our digital inclusion policy to ensure alignment with the Scottish Government''s purpose and objectives and in light of recent policy initiatives in UK and Europe.

The actions in the 2001 Digital Inclusion Strategy Connecting Scotland''s People “ published under the previous administration “ were superseded by the actions in the 2007 Digital Inclusion in Partnership Strategy, also produced under the previous administration. It therefore would not be appropriate for me to comment on the achievements of the previous administration.

The 2001 digital inclusion strategy Connecting Scotland''s People “ published under the previous administration “ was reviewed in 2006 before being superseded by the 2007 Digital Inclusion in Partnership strategy, also produced under the former administration. We are currently analysing a range of initiatives and developments to inform Scottish requirements for promoting digital inclusion.

The total cost of National Conversation events, branding and publications is £394,737 to date. The National Conversation successfully engaged over 5,000 people at public events across Scotland and stimulated a wide ranging public debate involving academics, media, faith groups, business, voluntary organisations, trade unions, young people and ethnic minority communities. The debate also prompted over 600,000 hits on the National Conversation web pages.

The National Conversation was supported by a number of Scottish Government publications which examined the effect of constitutional change across a range of issues of importance to the people of Scotland, and culminated in the publication of a White Paper Your Scotland Your Voice on St Andrew''s Day 2009.

The member will also be aware of the published costs of approximately £625,000 incurred by the UK Government and the Scottish Parliament to support the work of the Commission on Scottish Devolution, and to produce the UK Government''s response which was set out in the publication of Scotland''s Future in the United Kingdom.

The Scottish Government along with others across the public sector continue to support the traditional arts industry throughout Scotland. The Scottish Arts Council, as the main funding body for the arts in Scotland, supports a variety of traditional arts organisations through its foundation, project and flexible funding arrangements. It also provides support for individual traditional artists through creative and professional development funding. In future Creative Scotland will assume this role. The Traditional Arts Working Group has recently published its report providing recommendations for the future public sector support of the traditional arts in Scotland. The Scottish Government has welcomed the report and will be responding in full to the recommendations later this year. The report is published at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/01/28100441/0.

Arrangements for the administration of the alternative programme to the Graduates for Business scheme, which Scottish Enterprise plans to have in place by the end of June, will be a matter for the agency itself.

As there are no restrictions in place as regards trading with Israel, the Scottish Government had no concerns regarding the trade mission and considered that no specific guidance was necessary in this instance.

Scottish Enterprise is the lead agency for the Graduates for Business Scheme.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-30954 on 3 February 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.