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While we appreciate the benefits that postgraduate level study can bring, the primary aim of nursing education funding is to provide an adequate supply of registered nurses for NHSScotland. However, individual Trusts have discretion to support graduate nurses for doctoral studies and may take into account the placing of such staff in under-served areas when considering whether to fund staff for these studies.

The Scottish Executive Health Department has contracts with institutions of higher education to provide nurse education and pays them an annual amount for the cost of the course, based on student numbers, but allowing for matters like accommodation requirements. The NHS either provides the accommodation or contract finance allows universities to provide their own accommodation and many improvements have been made since the contracts began.

The funding of doctoral level studies in health science subjects is the responsibility of the Medical Research Council, which allocates funding for studentships to higher education institutions throughout the UK on an annual basis.

The Executive set out its priorities for the arts and culture in the National Cultural Strategy which was launched last year. It included a key priority to maximise the social benefits of culture. The Scottish Arts Council is exploring the aspect of audience development and its important role in the social justice agenda. The Executive announced on 25 October that additional support would be given to audience development initiatives aiming to bring people into contact with the arts. I am delighted to say that this year an additional £50,000 is being devoted specifically for this purpose and a further £50,000 to projects which promote access and participation in the arts and culture by socially excluded groups. Plans for these initiatives are being taken forward by the Scottish Arts Council.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-20279.

As part of the Scottish Arts Council's £0.5 million lottery funding scheme for audience and sales development the council has funded a range of training programmes for marketing staff in arts organisations throughout the country including those in socially and economically disadvantaged communities. The most recent of these was a marketeers forum hosted by the council on 28 November where over 100 marketing officers from arts organisations attended. The council will also continue to work with local authorities to support access to the arts for socially and economically disadvantaged people and communities.

The National Cultural Strategy includes a key priority to develop wider opportunities for cultural access. Increasing access to the arts is therefore a priority for the Executive and audience development is an important aspect of this. Scottish funding bodies and public sector arts providers are aware of this emphasis and the Scottish Arts Council, as part of its £0.5 million lottery funding scheme for audience and sales development, is exploring ways to market arts events to all possible audiences including those affected by social exclusion. The local authorities' contribution is being considered by a working group of the Executive and COSLA with a view to developing guidelines setting out best practice.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-20277.

The Executive announced on 25 October that additional support would be given to audience development initiatives aiming to bring people into contact with the arts. I am delighted to say that this year an additional £50,000 is being devoted specifically for this purpose and a further £50,000 to projects which promote access and participation in the arts and culture by socially excluded groups. Plans for these initiatives are being taken forward by the Scottish Arts Council. This is in addition to the wide range of initiatives and research already funded by the council under its £0.5 million Audience and Sales Development Lottery scheme and the £120,000 voted funds allocated for audience development, including the maintenance of a full time Audience Development Officer at the council. Also, the council's social inclusion scheme has given, or is about to give, support to about 30 of the 48 Social Inclusion Partnerships to establish arts projects within local communities.

The Executive fully recognises the importance of promoting access in the arts and boosting participation, and these are areas which continue to receive considerable attention. We have allocated additional funds to the National Museum of Scotland to allow it to abolish entrance charges and to the National Institutions and National Companies for them to devote staffing and resources to valuable outreach work. The Scottish Arts Council also launched its first policy for Contemporary Popular Music in March 2001 to encourage participation and involvement in quality popular music by young Scots. A wide range of other steps, planned and being taken, are set out in the First Annual Report on the implementation of the National Cultural Strategy which was presented to Parliament in October.