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We are committed to developing Scotland as a production centre for film, TV and new media and as a location for film-making; to encouraging and promoting wider creative industries, and to supporting the promotion of Scottish films and TV programmes overseas.

Our support for the film and TV production industries, and to the wider creative industries, is channelled through Scottish Screen, Scottish Enterprise, and the Scottish Arts Council, who deliver a variety of funding schemes andinfrastructure development.

Although broadcasting itself is a reserved matter, we established the Screen Industries Summit Group (SISG) in 2003 to help orient the Scottish Executive’s strategy for Scotland’s film and television industry. SISG brings together representatives from across the screen industries including Scottish Screen, the BBC, Scottish Media Group (SMG), and the Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television (PACT). SISG was established to report to Scottish ministers. It has acted as a high-level task group to make recommendations on the key actions needed to ensure growth and sustainability for the screen industries in Scotland. SISG identified the increase in network commissioning and production in Scotlandfrom its current 3% level to a target level of 9% within five years as the keyaction point for the future growth and sustainability of the screen industriesin Scotland. We fully support this recommendation and we are working with SISG to encourage the broadcasters to increase production in Scotland.

We regularly engage with Ofcom to support the interests of the Scottish television industry. In addition, we are working with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in order to ensure that proper account is taken by the UK Government of Scottish interests in the BBC Charter Review.

Although broadcasting is a reserved matter, we engage regularly with BBC Scotland to discuss a variety of broadcasting issues. My officials last met with Senior Managers at BBC Scotland on 21 January 2005.

The UK government has signed up for Part II (general principles) of the charter with regard to Scots and Gaelic and Part III which seeks to translate the general principles into specific undertakings, for Gaelic. The Scottish Executive is committed to policies which will assist the UK government to meet the charter obligations for which it has responsibility in relation to Gaelic and Scots. The Scottish Executive considers Gaelic and Scots to be important aspects of Scotland’s distinctive linguistic and cultural heritage and seeks to give expression to the general principles in its policies. In relation to Gaelic the Scottish Executive is also taking action in areas such as education, media, public services and cultural activities. These actions include the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Bill and a National Languages Strategy. The UK government will provide a detailed report to the Council of Europe on Charter compliance in 2005.

The Executive, in partnership with the Scottish Arts Council, Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothian, EventScotland, the City of Edinburgh Council and the Association of Edinburgh’s Festivals, had already agreed to commission a study to consider the future development and growth of the Edinburgh Festivals.  This is intended to lead to the identification of a strategy to maintain Edinburgh’s competitive advantage as the leading Festivals City by the year 2020.

The proposal for an Institute for the Languages of Scotland was made by a group of Scottish language interest groups and universities on the basis of an opinion survey. The proposal is uncosted and assessing its feasibility and value for money would require substantial further work. The Executive will consider how best to proceed in the context of its commitment to develop a National Language Strategy.

There are no records of any correspondence between the office of the First Minister and Wark Clements.

The eight Scottish Fire Brigades have confirmed that they have completed visits to all eligible registered care home premises as set out in the table.

Brigade	Number of Visits
Central Scotland Fire Brigade	84
Dumfries and Galloway Fire Brigade	71
Fife Fire and Rescue Service	123
Grampian Fire and Rescue Service	255
Highland and Islands Fire Brigade	157
Lothian and Borders Fire Brigade	256
Strathclyde Fire Brigade	643
Tayside Fire Brigade	164
Total	1,753

 

This represents approximately 97% of care premises registered by the Care Commission in Scotland. The remaining 3% were not visited because they no longer offer overnight residential care, have closed, or have had some other change in status which means they did not require a visit. In approximately 76% of the visits, reports were raised about potential fire hazards but these were mainly of a minor nature. The Care Commission has moved to formal enforcement action in only one case. However, for all visits which resulted in reports being raised, the Care Commission wrote to the care provider requiring them to complete an action plan within 10 days detailing the remedial action to be taken.

The information requested is set out in the following table. Although there are 13 pools over 75 years old, some such as Portobello Swimming Pool have been extensively refurbished. In any event, the owners and operators of swimmingpools have a duty of care over users of the facility.

Local Authority	No. of pools
City of Edinburgh	5
Dundee City	1
Glasgow City	5
Inverclyde	1
Renfrewshire	1
	13

 

Scotland has national physical activity targets for adults andchildren and swimming can make a contribution to daily activity.

As part of the National PhysicalActivity Strategy for Scotland, the Scottish Executive has committed £24 million fundingto sportscotland to develop Active Schools in Scotland. Activeschool co-ordinators will build opportunities for school pupils to engage in physicalactivity including swimming.

Scottish Swimming features inthe Active Schools Training Guide offering a range of courses for potential activityleaders.

The Scottish Executive is working in partnership with Scottish Swimming, to develop a new resourcesupporting active lifestyles. The resource, for use at poolside, is directed attarget groups that may not be reached by commercial products already on the market.The first phase of the programme targets adults aged 25 to 40.

Building on the First Minister’s speech on St Andrew’s Day 2003, the Executive is committed to providing access to cultural excellence in pursuit of its wider objective to build a better Scotland. We have therefore set ourselves targets, within the Building a Better Scotland Spending Proposals 2005-2008, both for increasing access and maintaining the excellence of our cultural offering. Asregards access, our target is to increase by 3% the numbers of people takingpart in cultural activities funded by the Executive, by March 2008, maintainingthe balance of participation across the population. As regards excellence, ourtarget sets out to increase the number of cultural successes by 3%, by March2008. Our agencies are committed to playing their full part in delivering thesetargets, and delivery will be monitored. The spending proposals also specify the funding that has been committed in order to meet ourobjectives.

The Cultural Commission has been asked explicitly, in the remit for its on-going review, to take into account our top priority for “both access and excellence to be a constant throughout cultural provision in Scotland”. This imperative is also central to the ongoing cross-portfolio agenda which I am pursuing with cabinet colleagues further to the First Minister’s statement that every ministerial portfolio would make a contribution, recognising its role and responsibilities in helping to strengthen and support the development of cultural activity in this country. Ways to celebrate and promote Scotland’s cultural output, here and overseas, also feature in this broad agenda.