SECTION 1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK

THE CHAMBER

IN COMMITTEE
This week’s likely highlights in the Committee Corridors include: 
 

SECTION 2 – NEWS

Golf tourism on fairway to success
Golf tourism in Scotland is flying high with a £200 million increase in revenue over the last four years.  Tourism and Sport Minister, Frank McAveety, said the figures have risen from £100 million to £300 million and has stressed the importance of promoting Scotland as a must-visit golfing destination.

Through the Clubgolf initiative - launched last year by the First Minister and fully endorsed and supported by the Scottish Golf Union, the Scottish Ladies Golfing Association, sportscotland and the PGA - the Executive aims to give Scottish youngsters the opportunity to play the game.

Clubgolf's targets for 2009 include:

• Introducing 50,000 nine year olds to Clubgolf every year through schools;

• 50,000 9 to 15 year olds retained in the Clubgolf programme at any time;

• 200 Clubgolf centres (school, club and community linked centres delivering Clubgolf programmes);

• 20 new junior Clubgolf facilities; and

• 40 affiliated Junior Golf facilities (existing driving ranges and commercial facilities using the Clubgolf brand).

The Executive is providing funding of £500,000 per year for Clubgolf through sportscotland until 2009.

Full Story

Manufacturing Advisory Service
A Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) is to be established in Scotland to provide practical, hands-on advice to companies, Parliament has been told. It has also been announced that the Executive will examine the case for a Scottish Institute of Marketing to assist businesses more effectively.

The announcement follows a call from the Scottish Manufacturing Steering Group for the Executive to examine manufacturing support. Having done so, the Executive decided that a Manufacturing Advisory Service to support Scotland's small and medium sized manufacturing companies should be established. The MAS will focus on best practice, communication, and specialist skills and training, aiming to improve productivity and innovation.

The new service will link closely with the Business Gateway, and details on implementation and introduction will be worked out in the coming weeks with Scottish Enterprise and external stakeholders.

Full Story

SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS

Wednesday’s Chamber Business is devoted to a debate on the Holyrood Inquiry Report.

This will be the Parliament’s opportunity to debate the findings of Lord Fraser’s inquiry into the building of the new Scottish Parliament.  As has already been extensively covered in the media, Lord Fraser:

• Found there to be no single "villain of the piece" when it came to the problems which plagued the building of the Scottish Parliament.

• Cleared the late First Minister Donald Dewar of misleading MSPs.  His report finds that Mr Dewar relied on inaccurate information from civil servants.

• Named Sir Muir Russell, former head of the Scottish civil service, as a man with responsibility.

• Said that, in future projects, Ministers must have more control and must be properly briefed by civil servants.

The report’s recommendations include:

• Where a competition is held for the selection of a designer, consultant or contractor for a public building project, there should be a full and transparent record of all aspects of the competition from start to finish;

• Where the best design solution is seen to be one of an internationally renowned "signature" architect linking with a Scottish-based practice, a full and rigorous evaluation should be undertaken to confirm a compatibility of working cultures and practices;

• Construction management as a procurement route should be used sparingly for any public building project, as all risk lies with the client and ultimately the taxpayer;

• No-one should be put in charge of any public project without a demonstrable appreciation of what is required under EU procurement rules;

• Where independent professional advisers have been retained, their views should not be filtered by the civil service, but should be put to ministers;

• Where civil servants are engaged on public projects, governance should be clear;

• Section 21 of the Scotland Act 1998 should be amended to give the Scottish Parliament's Corporate Body wider powers of delegation than exist at present;

• The considerations of the security and safety of public buildings should not be regarded as late "add-ons" to the design, but primary integral parts of the user brief and the assessment of any proposed design;

• The parliament was commended for the fact that changes had been made to the oral questioning of the Presiding Officer. Lord Fraser said if that change had not been made since embarking on the inquiry, he would have wanted to recommend the change; and

• Where an architect, consultant or other contractor is comparably employed, full contracts, guarantees and bonds should be secured at the outset to prevent risks to the public purse emerging.

Lord Fraser has also added that he will not draw a line under his conclusions until he has seen the BBC documentary on the project, The Gathering Place. BBC Scotland had refused to hand over untransmitted footage as a matter of policy and a spokesman said it did not accept the assertion that the process could not be completed without access to the tapes.

Click here to read the Fraser report in full

With the later than normal conclusion of the afternoon debate, there will no Member’s Business.

THURSDAY sees an Executive debate entitled A Sporting Scotland is a Successful Scotland.

With a summer of Euro 2004 and the Olympics, a weekend of Ryder Cup golf and the Paralympics now underway, the debate is timely.

While, at the time of writing, no motion has been published, it is likely that this will be an opportunity to debate how the Executive is working to support sport in Scotland and deliver on the commitments it made in the Partnership Agreement, which include:

• The development of six indoor multi-sport facilities across Scotland, including a national indoor arena of competitive standard and two municipal stadia;

• Promoting golf internationally and ensuring that international competitions such as the Ryder Cup are used to support the development of young golfers and increase the opportunity for young Scots to learn golf (See News section above);

• Working with sportscotland to complete the physical education and sports programme of new and refurbished sports facilities, including swimming pools;

• Improving support for clubs and groups which provide coaching for sports and encouraging them to provide coaching facilities for school children;

• Developing an accreditation scheme to allow greater numbers of people to act as coaches and physical activity trainers and promoting New Deal programmes which provide opportunities to train as sports assistants; and

• Promoting local community sports strategies.

This is followed by First Minister’s Question Time.

In the afternoon, after Question Time (for the departments featured in the themed section this week, see Section 1 above), the Chamber debates Stage 1 of the Breastfeeding etc. (Scotland) Bill.

A Member’s Bill, it was introduced by Elaine Smith MSP in December 2003 and seeks to make it an offence to prevent or stop someone from feeding milk to children under the age of two in a public place or on licensed premises. It also seeks to impose on Ministers a specific duty to support and encourage breastfeeding of children by their mothers.

Click here to read the Bill as introduced
Click here to read the Policy Memorandum

The day is then rounded off with a Member’s Business debate on the Scotland’s Regiments from Murdo Fraser (CON).

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