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The Scottish Government's Infrastructure Investment Plan published 2015 sets out priorities for investment and a long term strategy for the development of public infrastructure in Scotland. This includes capital investment that will benefit tourism, for example, Scottish Government investment in transport links, the V&A in Dundee, and financial support for Historic Environment Scotland's properties.

Our current Programme for Government includes tourism infrastructure commitments within wider Scottish Government priorities, including the Great Tapestry project in Galashiels, and we are also supporting plans for marine and forestry tourism in your regional constituency. However we do not hold information specifically on tourism infrastructure projects that have either been completed or are planned.

We recently announced the creation of our Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund, which will see £6 million invested over the next two years from 2018 to help ensure the services and facilities tourists and communities need are provided.

VisitScotland have also produced a National Tourism Development Framework which sets out actions and provides guidance to local authorities to help co-ordinate future development and growth in the visitor economy.

The Borders Railway which cost £353m has also been completed and has seen an increase in tourism visitor numbers, illustrated by a 16% rise in overall visitor spend, and I had the pleasure to meet the Borders Tourism Partnership to discuss their plans directly resulting from this investment.

The Scottish Government and our partners strongly supports the development of cycling across the whole of Scotland and of course in the Scottish Borders.

As the Scottish governing body (SGB) for the sport, Scottish Cycling is responsible for developing opportunities for people of all ages to participate. Active Schools aims to provide more and higher quality opportunities to take part in sport and physical activity before school, during lunchtime and after school, and to develop effective pathways between schools and sports clubs in the local community. The Active Schools programme delivered 2,881 participation sessions in the Borders, engaging with pupils from 24 local schools.

Through sportscotland’s Community Sport Hubs programme, five cycling clubs receive support from their local Hub in Earlston, Eyemouth, Tweedbank and two in Tweeddale.

For people who enjoy cycling as a sport as well as a hobby, we need top quality facilities and sportscotland, our national agency for sport, has been supporting Forestry Enterprise Scotland with the development of the 7 stanes mountain bike trail network which brings in around £11 million to the local economy from the 600,000 visitors.

Cycling Scotland and Sustrans Scotland have awarded Scottish Borders Council grant funding totalling £2,065,339 since 2014/15, to promote cycling through a number of initiatives. For example, since 2014/15, £67,480 was provided to increase the delivery rate of Bikeability Scotland on-road cycle training for school children. This funding is used to provide additional coordination resource, and to enable more teaching staff to train as instructors. In 2016/17, 31.1% of schools were delivering Bikeability Scotland on-road training.

Since 2014-15, Sustrans Scotland has awarded The Scottish Borders Council £634,788.00 in grant funding for Community Links projects for the creation of infrastructure that makes it easier for people to walk and cycle for everyday journeys. And from 2015/16, £345,365.00 was awarded for the creation and maintenance of the National Cycle Network, a series of traffic-free paths and quiet, on-road cycling and walking routes, that connect to every major town and city.

Additionally since 2014-15 the Scottish Borders Council has received £629,000 in Cycling, Walking, Safer Streets grants for undertaking a programme of works promoting cycling and walking for both short and long distance journeys. And since 2014/15, has received £354,783 through the Smarter Choices Smarter Places programme for a programme of works supporting smarter measures, including local mapping and signage of active travel options, personal travel planning and local branding.

Sporting and other major events play an important role in attracting overseas visitors to Scotland. The Scottish Government and VisitScotland develop bespoke marketing campaigns to actively promote the wealth of world-class major events hosted year-round by Scotland, the Perfect Stage for Events.

Major sporting events provide an important opportunity to promote Scotland in key markets. A new broadcast deal has secured several hours of live television coverage of the Scottish Open in the US, and a potential global audience of over 1 billion people will see all that Scotland has to offer during next year’s European Championships.

Scotland’s cultural major events are also globally renowned, attracting large numbers of overseas visitors. Scotland’s Winter Festivals begins this month, and is promoted to international visitors via a number of platforms including the Scotland.org website and specifically tailored social media content. Last year, more than 1.1 million people around the word viewed video content, and the midnight moment at Edinburgh’s Hogmanay is shown broadcast around the world, showcasing Edinburgh and Scotland at its very best.

The purpose of tourist signs, also known as visitor attraction signage, is to provide clear and consistent directions to enable visitors to reach tourist destinations safely by car and minimise the risk of dangerous manoeuvres. The signs are directional aids, not advertising signs, and not a substitute for effective marketing.

Any attractions requesting new tourist signs from the trunk road network would need to make an application which would then be considered under the criteria set out in the Trunk Road and Motorway Tourist Signing Guidance document which can be access through this url:

The cost to establish the London Innovation and Investment Hub, Scotland House was £1.65 million. This includes legal, design and building management fees, rent and service costs, purchasing and fit out of furniture and fittings and the purchase and installation of security, IT, telephony and audio-visual equipment. It also includes 20% VAT on all eligible charges.

The cost of establishing and running Scotland House (London) is shared between four organisations - Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and VisitScotland. These costs are attributed so that 55% is funded by Scottish Government and the remaining 45% funded by the others.

The cost to establish the Dublin Hub was £32,600 which included refurbishment of the premises where the Dublin Hub is situated.

We are developing our existing presence in Brussels into a Hub. A budget has been set aside to support the necessary transition work.

The Berlin Hub is not yet established.

Scottish Development International’s global workforce in each of the last three years is provided in the following table. The numbers provided include staff employed by Scottish Enterprise, Highlands & Islands Enterprise and the Scottish Government who are assigned to SDI.

Scottish Enterprise/SDI Staff	2014-15 (of those New Posts*)	2015-16 (of those New Posts*)	2016-17 (of those New Posts*)
Americas Field Operations	31 (1)	40 (4)	39 (0)
Europe, Middle East and Africa Field Operations	34 (1)	35 (1)	40 (1)
Asia Pacific Field Operations	37 (2)	38 (2)	32 (0)
Scotland based staff	162 (6)	161 (9)	158 (3)
Grand Total	264	274	269

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*Numbers of new posts has been provided as number of new starts data is not held in this way.

The Scottish Government recognises that youth work can make an important contribution to closing the poverty related attainment gap. The National Improvement Framework and the Pupil Equity Funding National Operational Guidance both highlight Community Learning and Development and youth work organisations as key partners for schools. Strengthening partnerships between schools and youth work practitioners to ensure positive outcomes and recognise achievements as part of a broad ranging curriculum is also a priority for Curriculum for Excellence.

The Scottish Government provides significant investment into the voluntary youth work sector through programmes such as the CashBack for Communities Youth Work Fund. A number of schools and local authorities are also using funding from the £750m Scottish Attainment Challenge to enhance partnerships with the voluntary youth work sector benefiting children and young people in areas of high deprivation

We are committed to supporting the growth of local food throughout Scotland. Our Food and Drink Marketing Advisory Service – Connect Local - recently hosted the successful Discover the Taste of the Borders, Midlothian and Edinburgh event to encourage the development of new trading relationships and increase the sale of local food and drink through independent retail outlets and seek to increase the use of local food and drink on menus in the region.

The industry-led food and drink strategy - Ambition 2030 – will deliver key commitments to promote locally sourced and produced food and drink. These will include the creation of regional Showcasing events across Scotland and the launch of a Regional Food Fund to give local producers a new opportunity to access support to generate greater interest in their produce and region. Our Programme for Government also outlines a commitment to develop a national food tourism action plan over the next year which will have a drive to promote local produce and extol the virtues of our quality and provenance at the very heart of it.

The Scottish Government believes that the best outcomes for children and young people can only be delivered when the planning of children’s services is fully inclusive, and reflects the views of a range of partners, including local authorities, health boards and national and local bodies, including the third sector. That is why we legislated and the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 (the "Act") was enacted. Part 3 of the Act places a duty on each local authority and relevant health board to jointly prepare a children's services plan covering a
3 year period. A range of other relevant national and local bodies, including the third sector, are expected to be either consulted with, or obliged to participate, at various stages of the development of the plan. The Statutory Guidance accompanying Part 3 clearly sets out the expectations with regards inclusion of the third sector. Children's services plans for all local authorities and relevant health boards are now in place for the period 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2020. In addition, the Scottish Government funds the National Third Sector GIRFEC Project, which focuses on delivering better outcomes for children and young people through supporting third sector involvement in the planning and delivery of children's services.

The Scottish Government is discussing with Creative Scotland the impact of the forecast reductions in lottery income, which also affect lottery funding for the arts, film, heritage, sport, communities and charities across the UK. There are pressures on all areas of public expenditure with the UK Government’s budget decisions to be announced on 22 November. Creative Scotland’s grant funding will be included in the Scottish Government’s draft 2018-19 budget on 14 December.