The First Minister made clear, on 26 May 2011, in his statement on Taking Scotland Forward that the social wage is a policy across all public services for the benefit of the people of Scotland. It manifests itself across all areas of Scottish Government activity. This includes protecting Scottish society through measures such as; the freezing of the Council Tax until the end of this Parliament, free University education, no tolls, no tax on ill health, the reforms of the justice system and advancing the partnerships involved in the delivery of care across Scotland.

The achievement and ambition of this policy means developing the Scottish Government's social wage is the responsibility of Cabinet as a whole and not for any one Minister to take forward.

The Scottish Government intends to consult on changes to the rules of court regarding protective expenses orders during the course of summer 2011.

As stated in the response to PE1372, the Scottish Government agrees with Lord Gill’s recommendations in the Scottish Civil Court Review to replace the current tests of title and interest with a single and simpler test.

The Scottish Government intends to take forward Lord Gill’s recommendations as part of a planned programme of reform under its Making Justice Work programme. This will include legislation, beginning in the early years of the Parliament.

In addition to our ongoing capital grant to Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT), the Scottish Government has agreed to make a substantial capital contribution for modernisation of the Glasgow subway. Initial funding will be applied in the current financial year, with at least £6 million of the capital funding to SPT for 2011-12 intended for subway modernisation. This will allow SPT to proceed this year with elements of the modernisation programme, including the upgrading of Hillhead station and the introduction of improved ticketing infrastructure across the network.

The Scottish Government is giving active consideration to how best Scotland can make an input to this summit. Details have not yet been determined but we would be happy to provide the member with an update in due course.

The Scottish Government is giving active consideration to Scotland’s involvement in this summit, but a decision has not yet been taken as to Ministerial representation at the event. We would be happy to update the member in due course.

The Scottish Government acknowledges that there is a need to look at the regulation of letting agents, and will consider this issue as part of the development of a strategy for the private rented sector this year. The strategy will be conducted in partnership with stakeholders represented on the Scottish Private Rented Sector Strategy Group.

As part of the group’s consideration of this issue, findings from the soon to be completed national review of the landlord registration system will be examined.

The information requested is not held centrally. Currently, the only information held centrally on hate crimes recorded by the police is that of racist incidents. Data on hate crimes is held by each of the eight Scottish police forces.

We are already taking action to reduce our dependence on oil. We are committed to implementing an extensive set of actions to reduce carbon dependency in Scotland to support the delivery of the Scottish Government's emissions reduction targets. Our low carbon economic strategy is a key component of the broader approach to secure the transition to a low carbon economy in Scotland and meet Scotland’s climate change targets.

Making the transition to a low carbon economy will also require maximising our existing resources in the North Sea. We need to be smarter about how we use our remaining reserves and deliver a step-change reduction in energy use. Our energy efficiency action plan describes a programme of activity to improve energy efficiency in households, business and the public sector.

These actions will go a long way to minimise the impacts of our declining future oil resources.

On 18 May 2011, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) published a report, Hate Crime in Scotland 2010-11, which provides details of the initial decisions taken on how to proceed with hate crime charges. The publication includes information on the number of charges prosecuted in court but not on the number of convictions, since the information COPFS hold on convictions is not complete. A copy can be found at:

http://www.copfs.gov.uk/Publications/2011/05/Hate-Crime-Scotland-2010-11

The Scottish Government court proceedings database contains data on persons proceeded against in court to the end of March 2010. The Offences (Aggravation by Prejudice) (Scotland) Act 2009 commenced on 24 March 2010 so there are not yet any prosecutions or convictions recorded on the Scottish Government Court Proceedings database under this act. The Scottish Government plans to publish information on prosecutions, convictions and sentencing for the financial year 2010-11 in December 2011.