Parliamentary questions

Annabel Goldie

508 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.

4 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any redundancies arising out of NHS board proposals will be compulsory or voluntary.

Answer · Andy Kerr: Employment issues are matters for individual NHS boards, however, under the Organisational Change Policy NHSScotland employers are required to work together to seek to avoid compulsory redundancy.

1 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much money was (a) available, (b) allocated and (c) spent under the Scottish Rural Partnership Fund in 2003-04.

Answer · Lewis Macdonald: For the financial year 2003-04, £3.123 million was made available to the Scottish Rural Partnership Fund. Of this, £1.741 million was awarded to support successful applicants to the 2003-2004 round, while £1.382 million was allocated to meet funding commitmen…

1 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how any unspent funding from the Scottish Rural Partnership Fund in 2003-04 was reallocated.

Answer · Lewis Macdonald: A total of £3.123 million was made available to fund the Scottish Rural Partnership Fund during the 2003-04 financial year. Some £2.186 million was spent in response to claims from successful grant applicants. The balance of funds at the end of the 2003-04 fi…

1 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what its strategy is for preparing prisoners addicted to drugs for release back into the community.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:All offenders with a substance misuse problem will be assessed on admission and referred to SPS Addiction Services. All substance mis…

1 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many returns were received by the Common Services Agency in respect of the prescription of methadone in 2003-04.

Answer · Andy Kerr: Methadone hydrochloride can be used to treat cough in terminal disease, as an analgesic and as an adjunct in the treatment of opioid dependence.The following table shows the number of prescribed items and the gross ingredient cost for all methadone pre…

24 Sep 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding it allocated in total to (a) Renfrewshire Council, (b) East Renfrewshire Council, (c) East Dunbartonshire Council, (d) West Dunbartonshire Council, (e) Argyll and Bute Council and (f) North Ayrshire Council for (i) 2003-04 and (ii) 2004-05 and, of this, how much is ring-f…

Answer · Tavish Scott: The main funding from the Scottish Executive to local authorities is allocated through Aggregate External Finance (AEF). The allocations of AEF and the element ring-fenced through specific grants, are shown in the table below.<table border=1 cellspacing=…

24 Sep 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to continue the Community Safety Partnership Award Programme beyond 2005.

Answer · Hugh Henry: Following ministers’ decisions taken in the spending review for 2004, I can confirm that we propose to continue the Community Safety Partnership Award Programme beyond 2005. The award criteria are currently under review and partnerships will be notified of th…

24 Sep 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the most recent unemployment figures are for the west of Scotland, broken down by local authority area.

Answer · Jim Wallace: There are two measures of unemployment used in the UK. Unemployment (previously know as International Labour Organisation (ILO) unemployment) and the claimant count. There are significant differences between the unemployment level derived from the ILO unemplo…

22 Sep 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-10095 by Cathy Jamieson on 17 September 2004, what steps it will take to give the reasons why cases reported to the procurators fiscal do not proceed and, in particular, the reasons for cases not proceeding in those sheriff courts where the percentag…

Answer · Colin Boyd: 13% of all cases received by procurators fiscal were marked “no proceedings” between April 2003 and March 2004. 64% of the cases marked “no proceedings” were marked in this way because:· there was insufficient admissible evidence (24% of the cases mark…

22 Sep 2004 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting time is for a patient to get an initial appointment with an audiologist after being referred by a general practitioner.

Answer · Tom McCabe: The specific information is not held centrally, but we do have data on the length of time patients wait for a first out-patient appointment with a consultant. The median waiting time for a first outpatient appointment with an ENT consultant reduced by three d…

13 Sep 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to encourage pupils to participate in after-school sports activities in the west of Scotland parliamentary region.

Answer · Frank McAveety: Over the three years to 2005-06 the Executive is investing £24 million in active schools across Scotland. This investment is designed to increase the number and range of opportunities for children and young people to become more active in and around the schoo…

8 Sep 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive which local authorities have been awarded money from its Strategic Waste Fund and how much each has received.

Answer · Ross Finnie: All 32 Scottish local authorities have now received substantive awards from the Strategic Waste Fund.The following are the awards issued to each local authority from the current allocation of £230 million to 2005-06.<table border=1 cellspacing=0 c…

30 Jun 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-7860 by Cathy Jamieson on 20 May 2004, whether staff from HM Prison Kilmarnock were involved in the transportation of prisoners to and from court prior to the implementation of the Reliance contract.

Answer · Hugh Henry: I have asked Tony Cameron,Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is asfollows:Yes.

11 Jun 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how it plans to ensure that there is a fair and sustainable policy in respect of landfill.

Answer · Ross Finnie: Provision of disposal capacity for waste is a matter for the waste industry and local authorities. The role of the Executive is to provide the regulatory and policy framework to secure sustainable management of waste. Our approach to that is set out in the Na…

1 Jun 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what procedures have been put in place to prevent people being accepted for the central heating programme and subsequently being advised that they do not meet the initial qualifying criteria.

Answer · Mary Mulligan: I have asked Angiolina Foster, the Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:The central heating programme is administered by Eaga Partnership on behalf of the Scottish Executive. Eaga’s processes to determine eligi…

1 Jun 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to change the regulations governing its central heating programme and, if so, whether it has any plans to allow mobile homes to qualify for the programme.

Answer · Mary Mulligan: The programme is kept under constant review. However, at this stage there are no plans to allow mobile homes to qualify for the programme.

1 Jun 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average number of home visits has been by (a) an engineer and (b) a surveyor prior to the approval of an application under its central heating programme.

Answer · Mary Mulligan: I have asked Angiolina Foster,the Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:Eaga Partnership, who administerthe programme on behalf of the Scottish Executive, have indicated that:Every application, that appea…

1 Jun 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications for its central heating programme have been approved and subsequently cancelled due to the applications not meeting the qualifying criteria.

Answer · Mary Mulligan: I have asked Angiolina Foster, the Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:Eaga Partnership, who administer the programme on behalf of the Scottish Executive, have indicated that, to the end of March 2004, 30 appl…

25 May 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish its review of drug treatment and rehabilitation services.

Answer · Hugh Henry: The review will be published as soon as possible. The material in the review covers a wide range of activities, from outreach workers making first contact with drug misusers, through to initiatives to encourage recovered and recovering drug misusers into trai…

25 May 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many meetings it has had with the Scottish Drugs Forum in the last year.

Answer · Hugh Henry: The Executive attends meetingsof Scottish Drugs Forum’s Board of Management in the capacity of an observer. Theboard meets quarterly. In 2003 the Executive’s observer attended all of its meetings.In addition, Executive officialsmet with staff of Scotti…

25 May 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many meetings it has had with Scotland Against Drugs in the last year.

Answer · Hugh Henry: The Executive is representedby an assessor on Scotland Against Drugs’ Steering Group which meets every six months.Last year there were two routine meetings of the steering group plus a special meetingto look at future strategy. The Executive attended all of …

25 May 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to review the functions and objectives of drug and alcohol action teams.

Answer · Hugh Henry: We are consulting Alcohol ActionTeams on the updating of the Plan for Action on Alcohol Problems. One of the proposals is to review the role and functions of these Teams. We are also consideringthe recommendations from our review of drug treatment and …

13 May 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the national curriculum provides for schools to allow pupils aged 14 and over to pursue supplementary education in further education (FE) colleges and, if so, which schools are participating in such a scheme.

Answer · Euan Robson: The circular “Guidance on Flexibilityin the Curriculum” encourages schools to use curriculum flexibility, which may includecourses at FE colleges, to meet the needs of individual pupils. The Executive is currently conducting a review of suchcollaboration betw…

4 May 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are any proposals to require people publicly-funded to deal with, or counsel, drug misusers to be subject to random drug testing.

Answer · Hugh Henry: The Executive has no plans todo so.Requirements for drug testingare contractual issues for individual employers and their employees.

4 May 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people publicly-funded to deal with, or counsel, drug misusers have been convicted of drugs-related offences in each of the last four years.

Answer · Hugh Henry: The information requested isnot held centrally.Terms and conditions of employment,including requirements for declarations of criminal convictions, are for individualemployers to determine. The Disclosure Scotland service enhances public safety byprovid…

29 Apr 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding it is allocating to Inverclyde Council in 2004-05 and how much of this is ring-fenced.

Answer · Andy Kerr: I refer the member to the answergiven to question S2W‑7915 on 13 May 2004, whichis available on the Parliament’s web‑site, the search facility for which canbe found at <a href="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa">http://www.scottis…

29 Apr 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is satisfied with the adequacy of residential care for people with hearing difficulties in the west of Scotland.

Answer · Tom McCabe: It is for local authorities andthe NHS to determine the level of provision required to meet local needs and toseek to secure an appropriate range of services.There are 528 care homes in thewest of Scotland. In the March 2003 Care Homes Census, 117 care…

29 Apr 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding it allocated to Inverclyde Council in 2003-04 and how much of this was ring-fenced.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The main central funding allocated to Inverclyde Council in 2003‑04 and 2004‑05, and the percentage which is ring‑fenced, is shown in the following table.<table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2> <thead> <tr> <td> </td…

27 Apr 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many police hours it was envisaged that the contract with Reliance Secure Management Ltd would free up.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: It is estimated that the wholetime equivalent of up to 300 police officers would eventually be released for otheroperational duties following the full implementation of the contract.

27 Apr 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether staff from HM Prison Kilmarnock have been involved in the transportation of prisoners to and from court.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:There will be people who nowwork for Reliance who were formerly employed by the Scottish Prison Service, PremierPrisons and the police but …