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The full published text of the Los Angeles Times quotes the First Minister as saying any adoption of the Euro would only be ‘if economic conditions were right and subject to a referendum of the people of Scotland’. This is entirely consistent with the position laid out in previous and subsequent interviews and is consistent with the White Paper, Your Scotland, Your Voice published in November 2009.

As I set out in my speech to the David Hume Institute on 2 February 2012, Scottish Government policy is to retain sterling as part of a formal monetary zone with the UK and not to join the Euro.

I refer the Member to the answer to question S4W-09092 on 9 November 2012. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

I refer the Member to the answer to question S4W-09092 on 9 November 2012. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

I refer the Member to the answer to question S4W-09092 on 9 November 2012. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

<>Staff across the Scottish Government support Ministers in work on constitutional policy, including preparing for the implementation of the Scotland Act 2012 and the independence referendum in relation to their own policy areas, as and when required. For details of the staffing of the Elections and Constitution Division as at 31 March 2008, 2009 & 2010 and 30 September 2010, I refer the Member to the answer to question S3W-36766 on 17 November 2010. That information is available from: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx?SearchType=Advance&ReferenceNumbers=S3W-36766.

Furthermore, more current details of Scottish Government staff supporting constitutional reform has been published on the Scottish Government website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/constitution/About/constitution-SG-staffing.

The Scottish Government has also published a list of workstreams supporting constitutional reform, including implementation of Scotland Act provisions. The titles of those workstreams, along with their remit and their start date are available on the Scottish Government website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/constitution/About/Workstreams.

The workstreams and projects have been established in response to the Scottish Government’s mandate to hold a referendum on independence and to implement the major provisions of the Scotland Act 2012.

There has been no external recruitment for constitutional policy since 2007, and no external appointments to the Scottish Government have been made.

An application for funding from Homecoming has been received for the re-enactment event on 28 to 30 June. This is currently being assessed by the Homecoming Scotland team at VisitScotland along with the 164 other applications received. The request is to support marketing activity for the event.

The EKOS Ltd report Homecoming Scotland 2009- Economic Impact (March 2010) provided an assessment of events coverage and marketing aspects. The key lessons for Homecoming 2014 are that coverage is most common in countries with a strong tourism or Diaspora link with Scotland and that the development of themes provide broad “hooks” for wider participation in the celebration. This is one of the reasons that Homecoming 2014 is under-pinned by the themes of Food and Drink, an Active, Creative, Natural Scotland and Ancestry.

The Scottish Government has allocated a core budget of £5.5m to VisitScotland to deliver Homecoming Scotland 2014. £1.75m of these funds will support UK and international marketing and communications activity which will begin early in 2013. Decisions on how these funds are spent across all markets, including Scotland, are operational matters for VisitScotland and I have asked the Chief Executive of VisitScotland to provide you with more information on this aspect of your question.