Question S1W-32559: Irene McGugan, North East Scotland, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 11/12/2002

To ask the Presiding Officer, with regard to point 7 of the action plan in the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) language policy, why letters received by the SPCB in Scots have been replied to in English.

Answered by David Steel (08/01/2003): The Scottish Parliament welcomes correspondence in any language. The SPCB has decided that when it wishes to reply to correspondence it will normally reply in the language used by the correspondent. When the correspondent uses Scots, the SPCB policy is to reply in English, as this constitutes no barrier to communication and facilitates best use of resources.

Question S1W-32558: Irene McGugan, North East Scotland, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 11/12/2002

To ask the Presiding Officer, with regard to point 7 of the action plan in the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body language policy, whether it is now policy to respond to letters in the language in which they were written and, if so, whether there are any exceptions to doing so and under what circumstances any such exceptions occur.

Answered by David Steel (08/01/2003): The Scottish Parliament welcomes correspondence in any language. The SPCB has decided that when it wishes to reply to correspondence it will normally reply in the language used by the correspondent. When the correspondent uses Scots, the SPCB policy is to reply in English, as this constitutes no barrier to communication and facilitates best use of resources.

Question S1W-32560: Irene McGugan, North East Scotland, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 11/12/2002

To ask the Presiding Officer, with regard to point 7 of the action plan in the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) language policy, what translation facilities are available to the SPCB to enable responses in Scots.

Answered by David Steel (08/01/2003): Further to the answers given to questions S1W-32558 and S1W-32559 today, the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) has no contracted services to enable responses in Scots to be produced.

As the member knows, the SPCB has approved the funding necessary to translate her report on Scotland's languages into Scots as well as Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Gaelic, Punjabi and Urdu. She will also be aware of the extra-contractual arrangements being made to produce the Scots version of that report.

Question S1W-31627: Michael Russell, South of Scotland, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 15/11/2002

To ask the Scottish Executive what funds have been made available to support the production of education resources that encourage language diversity in each year since 1999, as referred to in key priority 2.1 of strategic objective 2 of Creating our Future: Minding our Past.

Answered by Elaine Murray (26/11/2002): As stated in the second annual report of Scotland's National Cultural Strategy, published 12 November 2002, core funding of £80,000 from the Scottish Arts Council, with £30,000 for establishment costs, has secured the new body, Scottish Language Dictionaries, offering a definitive resource relating to the Scots language.

The first annual report of the strategy referred to Stòrlann - a national resource for Gaelic teaching materials. In 1999-2000 the Executive provided £80,000 to Stòrlann; in 2000-01 £120,000 in 2001-02, £145,000, and in 2002-03 £160,000.

I can also report that since 1999 the Scottish Arts Council has granted a total of £2,312,392 towards education resources designed to encourage language diversity in Scots and Gaelic. This breaks down into £409,321 in 1999-2000; £545,013 in 2000-01; £746,233 in 2001-02, and (to date) for 2002-03, £611,825.

Further support of resources encouraging language diversity and learning is evidenced in the Executive's specific funding of Gaelic-medium education, modern language teaching resources, and of Glasgow's International Language School: £7,902,000; £1,145,532, and £962,000 respectively covering the three-year period from April 1999 to March 2002.

Question S1W-27078: Irene McGugan, North East Scotland, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 26/06/2002

To ask the Presiding Officer whether the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body will ensure that Scots, English and Gaelic appear on all signage in the new Parliament buildings with equal prominence.

Answered by David Steel (02/08/2002): The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body discussed signage at its meeting on 1 July, and decided that signage in the public areas in the new parliamentary buildings will be in English, Gaelic and Braille, and will also include symbols where appropriate.