Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Executive is currently considering its response to the No 10 Strategy Unit report Net Benefits: A sustainable and profitable future for UK fishing. The introduction of individual transferable quota (ITQ) is one of the recommendations within the report. No decision on the implementation of ITQ has been made. The Scottish Executive working closely with a range of key stakeholders, will carefully consider a range of economic and other data before reaching a view.

The overall time lost due to sickness absence for the three years 2000-01 to 2002-03 for which pilot data is available is set out at Section A of the May 2004 publication entitled NHSScotland Occupational Health and Safety Minimum Dataset Pilot Data. The pilot data is provided by organisation type, Scotland, acute trusts, primary care trusts and health boards and special health boards not providing health care and can be accessed on the Information Statistics Division of NHS National Services Scotland website at http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/files/040525_web.pdf.

The numbers of applicant households on waiting lists for each local authority are published on an annual basis for 2000-01 onwards in the quarterly Scottish Executive Statistical Bulletin (Housing Series) Housing Trends in Scotland. Table 16 in the latest bulletin HSG/2004/4 published August 2004 shows the snapshot position as at 31 March 2004 as well as changes to the lists during 2003-04. This publication can be accessed on-line through publications section of the Scottish Executive housing statistics branch website (www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/housing/hsbref). The published figures for 2000-01, 2001-02 and 2002-03 can also be found on the housing statistics website in the housing trends bulletins HSG/2001/6, HSG/2002/3 and HSG/2003/4 respectively.

This data collection began in 2001 and data are not centrally available prior to that date. The numbers reported to the Scottish Executive are for applicant households and do not specify the number of people within each household.

The projections of the numbers of households by local authority area for the relevant years are available in the data library section of the Scottish Executive housing statistics branch website:

(http://www.scotland.gov.uk/about/DD/EAS/00014844/DataLibrary.aspx).

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive, Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

The Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 introduced the Scottish Secure Tenancy (SST)  for tenants of local authorities and registered social landlords, including housing associations registered with Communities Scotland. Under the SST landlords must give tenants not less than four weeks notice in writing, before increasing rents or other charges. Prior to increasing rents landlords must first consult with those tenants who would be affected. Landlords are required to have regard to the views expressed by those consulted.

Individual policy areas in the Scottish Executive taking part in the Scotland in the Netherlands programme will follow up the ministerial programme. The nature of the follow up will vary depending on the individual activity. In some cases the follow up activity may be an influencing of future policy decisions based on knowledge gained through the Dutch experience. In other cases follow up may be of a more tangible nature such as the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s intention to offer a further scientific seminar in Scotland next year, as they did following the Scotland in Sweden programme in 2002.

Councillor Milligan is planning to visit international ports, airports and other gateways throughout Scotland. He will travel to London and Dover to see analogous facilities there. He will also make short visits to cities in Northern Europe and North America to compare facilities there with those in Scotland. Other visits may be planned at a later stage.

Councillor Milligan will present his finding by the end of the year. This is not a long timescale and he has not been asked to produce any interim report.

Such follow-up activity would be undertaken by specific policy areas of the Executive along with their counterparts in the region visited. As such, no specific report, covering the areas where follow-up activity has taken place, is available.

The Scottish Executive has developed a framework for evaluation of all aspects of a promotional programme abroad, including post event follow up. The framework is being used during the Scotland in the Netherlands programme which is currently underway. The report will be available in spring 2005 and this will be used to further develop the framework if necessary.

The following table shows the number of single and joint degree chemistry graduates from those higher education institutions offering chemistry degree programmes between 1998-99 and 2002-03, the latest year for which this information is currently available.

Chemistry Graduates from Scottish Higher Education Institutions 1998-99 to 2002-03

	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03
Total	457	431	454	417	382
University of Abertay	*	*	*	*	*
The Robert Gordon University	9	15	16	13	14
The University of Paisley	35	23	25	22	23
Glasgow Caledonian University	33	28	20	21	21
Napier University	12	11	21	15	5
University of Edinburgh	71	95	89	79	59
University of Glasgow	65	51	61	63	73
University of Strathclyde	88	81	81	82	78
University of Aberdeen	41	37	35	26	11
Heriot-Watt University	41	35	39	45	37
The University of Dundee	14	8	13	10	5
University of St Andrews	40	39	34	32	38
The University of Stirling	*	*	*	*	*
Bell College	0	0	0	0	11

Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency.

Note: Some cells have been suppressed to protect confidentiality. Suppressed cells are denoted by an asterisk.

Scotland and Poland enjoy strong historic ties and I am pleased to note that partnerships continue to flourish today between our two countries across manysectors.

The Scottish Executive has participated in a wide range of activity to increase links between Scotland and Poland. The Scottish Executive EU Office liaises closely with the Polish national representation in Brussels (where the Pomerania and Malopolska regions recently opened offices in Scotland House) and with regional offices in Poland with a view to identifying potential opportunities for partnerships between organisations in the two countries. Officials have also visited Poland to increase awareness of Scotland in Polish administrations and to widen and deepen contacts with Poland.

In June 2004, the Scottish Executive welcomed two secondees from the Polish School of National Administration and held a seminar to introduce Polish stagiaires in Brussels to Scotland House and to the Fresh Talent initiative.A Polish scientist was amongst those invited to attend a bioscience workshop organised by the Executive in June under the “crossroads for ideas” public diplomacy campaign in conjunction with FCO and the British Council.

Polish journalists have been invited to visit Scotland in October to learn about the International Image project announced by the First Minister in July.

Scottish Development International is working in partnership with a range of agencies including UK Trade & Investment, Scottish Council for Development and Industry and the Euroinformation Centres to promote business opportunities in Poland and the other new member states. This includes supporting companies on trade missions and attending exhibitions. Companies attended two events in Poland last year with attendance at a further three planned for this year.

I did not attend the informal EU Council of Health Ministers and neither I, nor my deputy, will be attending the EU Council on 4 October. The Working Time Directive is a reserved matter but Executive ministers have participated in developing the UK line.