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Scottish Trade International (STI) and Locate in Scotland (LiS), which are both joint ventures between the Scottish Executive and Scottish Enterprise, have close working relationships with British Trade International, and its export and inward investment bodies - Trade Partners UK (TPUK) and Invest UK. Indeed, STI delivers all TPUK services in Scotland. This ensures that there is co-ordination of trade development and the promotion of foreign direct investment in Scotland.

The Scottish Executive is also represented on the Board of British Trade International.

The Scottish Executive is committed to providing better public services for the people of Scotland. Quality schemes such as Charter Mark and Investors in People have a part to play, and the Executive facilitates the exchange of best practice and promotes quality schemes through its Quality Networks. The Executive itself is an Investor in People and we encourage Scottish public service providers who wish to attain these and other externally assessed accreditations. There were 56 Scottish Charter Mark winners in 2000, up from 44 the previous year. We want to ensure that the steady increase in Scottish organisations securing these accreditations continues and we are developing programmes to raise further the profile of quality schemes within the Scottish public service.

Statistics on these specific areas are not currently available to track progress. In Scotland, young people under 16 who offend are dealt with by the Children's Hearing system and those over 16 are normally prosecuted through the criminal justice system. However, recent trends from monthly statistical returns for the level of casework activity of Reporters, collected by the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration, indicate that the number of young people detained in custody by the police aged under 16 has declined in recent years.

Our aim is to significantly reduce the number young people involved in crime. The Children's Hearing system exists in part to divert those under 16 from the court system. It is generally regarded as successful and its aims receive broad-based support. This is why the Scottish Executive is developing a scheme to test, on a pilot basis, whether the offending behaviour of a significant number of 16 and 17-year-olds could be dealt with effectively within the Children's Hearing system. Also, earlier this year, the Scottish Executive announced a three-year £20 million investment programme to enable local authorities to set up multi-agency youth crime teams and to develop community-based programmes to reduce offending among persistent young offenders.

Scottish Trade International (STI) delivers all Trade Partners UK services to companies in Scotland, and is the sole organisation to do so. The Trade Division of the newly formed Scottish Development International, which will encompass all Scottish Enterprise's overseas international development activities, will retain this responsibility.

During 2000-01, STI delivered almost 400 TPUK services to firms in Scotland.

The Executive supports a number of organisations which aim to establish the needs of deaf people and develop strategies to meet identified local needs, including information access. The organisations work with other agencies to encourage development and arrange implementation of appropriate services.

The Programme for Government sets out our commitment to launch a new generation of walk-in/walk-out hospitals (also known as ambulatory care and diagnostic centres) by 2002. Various parts of NHSScotland are currently developing such initiatives.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-18332.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-18286.

The Scottish Executive is committed to promoting social inclusion and citizenship for all young people. £20 million has been committed over the next three years to provide programmes to tackle persistent offending so that fewer young people will graduate to the adult criminal justice system. Drug use by children or their families has been identified as an important factor which affects offending behaviour. A further £18 million has therefore been allocated over the next three years to tackling drugs misuse by or affecting children, young people and families through the Changing Children's Services Fund.

In addition, over the next three years, some £87 million will be spent on facilities and programmes for sport in schools and outdoor adventure through the New Opportunities Fund, with a particular emphasis on offering positive alternatives to youth crime and anti-social behaviour.

The Committee on Overseas Promotion (COP) is the formal organisation for the partnership between Invest-UK and all the national and regional inward investment agencies in the United Kingdom, including Locate in Scotland (LiS).

COP has developed agreed procedures governing how the necessary degree of co-ordination, with regard to the handling of potential international mobile projects, is carried out on a day to day basis.

The Scottish Executive, through LiS, keeps in contact with the UK Government to discuss inward investment-related issues at the regular meetings of COP.

Additionally, LiS officials maintain regular contact with Invest-UK on a number of operational issues. For example, senior LiS officials will be attending the two day COP meeting in November to discuss likely forward trends and marketing strategy.