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Details of our approach will be contained in the public engagement strategy, which will be published by 31 December 2010.

Israel is a party to the World Trade Organization''s Government Procurement Agreement (GPA). The GPA is an international trade agreement that applies in the UK, other EU member states and other participating countries, including Israel. It provides that EU companies have a legal right of access to contract opportunities advertised by public bodies in Israel and that Israeli companies have equivalent rights when tendering for public contracts in the EU.

Companies which have failed to comply with the law or which have committed acts of grave misconduct may be excluded from competition. It is not usually possible, however, to refuse to deal with a company simply because it has a connection to another country or because it is offering to supply goods produced in another country.

The public engagement strategy, as required under section 91 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, will be published in December 2010.

 

It is intended to allow existing projects to reapply for funding. All applications from previously supported communities will be carefully assessed, including on their achievements to date and on the robustness of their plans going forward.

Yes. It is intended to establish an existing project extension and development application process in sufficient time to ensure that those who are successful in that process will be able to continue projects at 1 April 2011.

It is intended that Keep Scotland Beautiful will provide the administration services to support the Climate Challenge Fund in 2011-12.

No changes to the objectives of the fund are planned and they remain as below.

The community must be at the heart of the decision making process of the project;

The funded activity should lead to significant CO­₂ reductions, and

The funded activity should result in a positive legacy for each community.

The Climate Challenge Fund has successfully supported applications from a very substantial number of smaller and newly established community groups. However, we plan to review the application process of the extension to the Climate Challenge Fund to ensure it is as simple as possible to access for all communities, while supporting diversity and targeting resources to those projects that comply with the criteria of the fund.

There are no plans to allow national voluntary organisations access to the 2011-12 Climate Challenge Fund.

The balance between smaller or larger grants has been driven by the applicant communities that come forward and the assessment of their applications by the independent panel. We will continue to evaluate performance of the fund and the efficiency and effectiveness of outcomes against criteria, as well as the scale of projects.

The analysis report was published on 30 September 2010 and comments were requested by 15 October 2010, with the aim of publishing the final version of the principles before the end of October 2010. On 12 October 2010, Scottish Government officials presented the analysis report to the Scottish Privacy Forum, which is run by the Information Commissioner''s Office (ICO). The report was well received at that meeting and informal comments from the Assistant Commissioner (Scotland) were favourable.

Following that meeting we have decided to delay publication until December 2010, by which time we expect to have received formal feedback from the ICO. That will ensure the greatest level of expert input and give us the opportunity to ensure our principles complement, as far as possible, the UK statutory code of practice on the sharing of personal data, on which the ICO launched its consultation on 8 October. This will mean our principles have the strongest possible support from the ICO.