Seòmar agus comataidhean

http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Final costs for the visit are not yet available. They will be proactively published on the Scottish Government's website.

Addressing social isolation and loneliness is key to improving wellbeing and supporting people to participate in their community. That is why we created a £500,000 Social Isolation and Loneliness Fund (2016-17) to support 36 community-based projects tackling social isolation and its impact. We have also supported projects that tackle these issues through our Equality Budget (£20.3m) and Empowering Communities Fund (£20m).

On 19 April 2017 we hosted wide range of stakeholders as part of our collaborative work to develop and shape a National Strategy to reduce social isolation and loneliness and encourage increased social engagement. We plan to bring forward a consultation on the development of a National Strategy in the summer.

I have been informed by the Electoral Commission that there was no cost in creating the Snapchat geofilter, other than staff time.

CodeClan has received over £2 million in public sector support to date, to help offset its start-up and initial operating costs.

There was on-going engagement with stakeholders throughout the development of the draft Climate Change Plan, culminating in a major cross-sector stakeholder engagement event on 8 December 2016.

There is no evidence that elections in Scotland have been subject to outside interference, either by electronic or other means.

The security of elections is a matter for returning officers and electoral registration officers in consultation with Police Scotland. There are regular meetings between Electoral Administrators, the Electoral Commission and Police Scotland where any threats to the integrity of elections are discussed.

Cyber-security advice for political parties and individual candidates at elections is available from a number of sources, including the National Cyber Security Centre, which was established earlier this year to offer expert, trusted and independent guidance on cyber-security to UK industry, government departments, the critical national infrastructure and private SMEs.

Legislation approved by Parliament last Autumn will mean up to 54,000 low income households living in properties in Bands E to H will be entitled to a council tax reduction equal to the increased charge arising from the way council tax is calculated on such homes.

It is estimated that there are around 89 properties in North Ayrshire who have a rateable value below £18,000 in 2016-17 and will have a rateable value above £18,000 in 2017-18, but it is not possible to confirm how many of these properties are eligible for or are currently claiming Small Business Bonus Scheme relief.

The Scottish Government’s IT Investment Board oversee alignment, assurance and support for the deployment of information systems, and the wider use of information technologies, across the Scottish Government. The board, chaired by the Director Digital and comprising senior representatives from Finance, Procurement, HR, IT and Business areas, reports to the Scottish Government’s Place Board and through that to the Directors-General and the Permanent Secretary.

The Information Services and Information Systems division has responsibility for development and support of the organisation’s IT infrastructure. Assurance for that infrastructure is the responsibility of the Scottish Government Chief Technology Officer with an external assurance role provided by the technology systems integrator partner.

All Scottish Government procurement activities are governed by a system of Delegated Purchasing Authority. This applies to the procurement of IT, including “tendering processes”, and involves Delegated Purchasing Officers given authority to award contracts at specified value levels. These arrangements apply to procurement agreements let by the Scottish Government on behalf of Scottish public bodies as a whole, and the Scottish Government’s own specific procurement requirements.

The Scottish Government’s Programme and Project Management Centre of Expertise provides advice on good practice in Programme and Project Management and manages the provision of independent assurance for major projects undertaken by all organisations to which the Scottish Public Finance Manual is directly applicable.

Accountable Officers have a personal responsibility for the propriety and regularity of the finances under their stewardship and for the economic, efficient and effective use of all related resources and are personally answerable to the Parliament for the exercise of their functions. Under delegation from their Accountable Officers the Senior Responsible Owners of are accountable for their successful delivery individual projects or programmes. .

The Scottish Government has an internal audit function and a comprehensive independent assurance framework in place for IT projects and infrastructure developments; including Gateway Reviews and the Technology Assurance Framework which includes Digital First Assessments and a set of mandatory independent stop/go gates at key stages of major programmes or projects.

The Office of the Chief Information Officer is responsible for the Technology Assurance Framework across the Scottish Government and its Agencies. The internal audit function is provided by the Director of Internal Audit with an audit of the Scottish Government’s programme and project management independent assurance review process conducted in 2016.

I am responsible for policy around digital and data. The recently published Digital Strategy “Realising Scotland's full potential in a digital world” laid out the Government’s approach on the use of public data and big data. Delivering these elements of the strategy is led by the Scottish Government’s Chief Statistician.