Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order makes a scheme for the establishment of a new area tourist board for the local government areas of Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City, Moray, Angus, Dundee City, Argyll and Bute, Clackmannanshire, Dumbarton and Clydebank, Falkirk and Stirling, Highland, Fife, the Orkney Islands, Perthshire and Kinross, the Shetland Islands, and the Western Isles (“the Board”.) The Board is to be called “the Scottish Network 2 Tourist Board”.

The following existing tourist boards for these areas shall be wound up with effect from 1st April 2005:

• The Aberdeen and Grampian Tourist Board

• The Angus and City of Dundee Tourist Board

• The Argyll, the Isles, Loch Lomond, Stirling and Trossachs Tourist Board

• The Highlands and Islands Tourist Board

• The Kingdom of Fife Tourist Board

• The Orkney Tourist Board The Perthshire Tourist Board

• The Shetland Tourist Board

• The Western Isles Tourist Board

Article 3 provides that the scheme set out in the Schedule to the Order shall have effect from 1st April 2005, but provides that the scheme shall have effect from the date of coming into force of the Order, namely 1st December 2004 in relation to–

(a) the constitution of the Board;

(b) the carrying out by the Board of any functions necessary to bring the scheme into operation on that date; and

(c) any functions necessary to wind up the existing boards on 1st April 2005.

The scheme deals with–

• The membership of the Board and the controlling body of the Board

• The Proceedings of the Board

• The Board’s duty to keep accounting records

• Additional functions and powers of the Board

• Conditions on which the Board may be a member of a company

• The staff employed by the Board and the transfer of the staff employed by the existing tourist boards to the employment of the Board

• The transfer of the property, rights and liabilities of the existing boards to the Board

• The revocation of the Orders establishing the existing boards.