Parliamentary questions
Ms Wendy Alexander
505 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
22 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-12838 by Johann Lamont on 16 December 2004, whether any of the five targets have been met in the last five years; if so, when and, if not, what the reasons were for the targets not being met.
Answer · Johann Lamont: The sixth report of the Planning Audit Unit provides an analysis and assessment of trends across Scotland as a whole and highlights those authorities which have met targets. Overall the report shows a general increase in the performance by planning authoritie…
22 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-12836 by Johann Lamont on 16 December 2004, how many responses there were to the consultation, broken down by category, and whether the analysis of responses will be published well in advance of the publication of the white paper.
Answer · Johann Lamont: The information requested isprovided in <i>Making Development Plans Deliver: Analysis of ConsultationResponses</i> which was published on 15 December. This can be viewed on the Scottish Executive’s website, <ahref="http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/planning…
10 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the terms are of the planned review of financial planning systems, as referred to in Building a Better Scotland — Efficient Government, Securing Efficiency, Effectiveness and Productivity.
Answer · Tom McCabe: Paragraph 36 of <i>Building aBetter </i><i>Scotland</i><i>: Efficient Government – Securing</i> <i>Efficiency, Effectiveness and Productivity </i>statesthat the Scottish Executive is currently working to develop a new approach to long-termfinancial modelling …
10 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how it envisages that planned savings, as referred to in Building a Better Scotland — Efficient Government, Securing Efficiency, Effectiveness and Productivity, will be reported to the Parliament.
Answer · Tom McCabe: Paragraph 50 of the Efficient Government Plan <i>Building</i><i> a Better </i><i>Scotland</i><i>: Efficient Government – Securing Efficiency, Effectivenessand Productivity</i> states that we willreport regularly to the Finance Committee of the Scottish Parlia…
10 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive why there are no individual costings for the five areas of reform contributing to the estimate for time-releasing savings of £300 million, as referred to in Building a Better Scotland — Efficient Government, Securing Efficiency, Effectiveness and Productivity.
Answer · Tom McCabe: We will publish technical noteson the time-releasing efficiency savings projects by April 2005.</p>
10 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive why the total cash savings identified on pages 20 to 27 of Building a Better Scotland £ Efficient Government, Securing Efficiency, Effectiveness and Productivity amount to £627.7 million when £stand alone£ savings of £1.7 billion are planned.
Answer · Tom McCabe: The cash savings on pages 20-27 do not amount to £627.7 million. The savings shown from portfolios (including procurement savings from health and local government) equal £674.7 million, shown as follows:</p><table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3> <thead…
10 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive why £745 million is referred to as the cash-saving target in Building a Better Scotland — Efficient Government, Securing Efficiency, Effectiveness and Productivity, if the target in that document over a three-year period is £1,732 million of savings.
Answer · Tom McCabe: On the basis of currently confirmedplans, £745 million is the amount of cash-releasing efficiency savings that willbe recurring annually from 2007-08 from a baseline of 2004-05.</p><p>£1,732 million is the amountof cash-releasing efficiency savings that will …
9 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the forecast overall rates income is for 2005-06 and how this estimate compares to the most recent estimated total rates income for 2004-05, given its aim of ensuring that there is no overall increase in rates burden on businesses in 2005-06.
Answer · Tom McCabe: The current forecast of non-domestic rate income (NDRI) for 2005‑06 is £1,951 million. The most recent forecast of 2004‑05 NDRI, based on notified returns submitted by local authorities in October 2004, is £1,813 million. However it is also foreca…
9 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-10335 by Mr Andy Kerr on 21 September 2004 on non-domestic rate income since 1996, whether it will publish comparable non-domestic rate income (NDRI) data for 2003-04 and estimated NDRI for 2004-05 and 2005-06.
Answer · Tom McCabe: Figures on a comparable basis to those in the answer to S2W-10335 are shown in the following table. The figures appearing in the budget documents contain prior year adjustments whereas the returns from local authorities are actual in-year receipts.</p><table …
9 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the cumulative savings, as a percentage of the Scottish Departmental Expenditure Limit for 2007-08, are as a result of the plans referred to in Building a Better Scotland - Efficient Government, Securing Efficiency, Effectiveness and Productivity.
Answer · Tom McCabe: The Scottish Executive Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) for 2007-08 is £25,718 million. This excludes the Scottish Parliament, Audit Scotland and the Contingency Fund.</p><p>We have currently identified £650 million of recurring annual cash-releasing savi…
8 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether £745 million or £1,732 million has been reallocated from administration to frontline services and, if the latter figure, what the savings items were which made this possible.
Answer · Tom McCabe: Over the three year period from 2005-06 to 2007-08, £1,732 million of efficiency savings will be invested in improving public services. From 2007-08, a minimum of £745 million a year of efficiency savings will be invested in improving public services.</p>
8 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive in what ways HM Treasury and the Gershon implementation team will be kept in touch with progress on the Executive's Efficient Government plans.
Answer · Tom McCabe: The Efficient Government Team is in regular contact with the Gershon implementation team at the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) to share information and approaches to delivering efficiency savings.</p>
8 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish a table of planned savings on a comparable basis to that in HM Treasury SR 2004 Statement, itemising planned savings as a result of its Efficient Government plans.
Answer · Tom McCabe: The Scottish Executive published a table of cash-releasing efficiency savings, by portfolio, on page 4 of <i>Building a Better Scotland: Efficient Government – Securing Efficiency, Effectiveness and Productivity</i>. Paragraph 24 of thedocument commits the Ex…
8 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether all revisions to service delivery as a result of implementing the measures contained in Building a Better Scotland — Securing Efficiency Effectiveness and Productivity will be reported in the normal supplementary estimates.
Answer · Tom McCabe: I have already made clear that we will report regularly to the Parliament’s Finance Committee on the progress of Efficient Government. I look forward to discussing further with the committee how this might best be done, though I am not immediately attracted t…
8 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the —20 million saving from improvements in prescribing practice, as referred to in Building a Better Scotland — Securing Efficiency Effectiveness and Productivity, will apply in 2005-06, if the appropriate plan is not developed until the summer of 2005.
Answer · Andy Kerr: NHS Scotland is alreadyworking on measures to improve prescribing practice and Health Department officialswill be working with the service to finalise in the new year a plan to focus effortto deliver the target efficiency improvement during 2005-06.</p>
8 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether Audit Scotland will confirm that the savings contained in Building a Better Scotland — Securing Efficiency Effectiveness and Productivity have been delivered as well as auditing the system for delivering efficiency.
Answer · Tom McCabe: We will invite Audit Scotland to audit the system for delivering efficiency savings and to confirm that the efficiency savings have been made.</p>
8 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what it means by "aggregate cumulative cash-releasing savings" and what relevance the figure of £1,732 million has for the Efficient Government initiative.
Answer · Tom McCabe: The aggregate cumulative cash-releasing savings is the total amount of cash releasing efficiency savings that will be made over the three year period, 2005-06 to 2007-08. Therefore, on the basis of the currently confirmed plans, over the three year period, 20…
6 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive in what way its plans to modernise the planning system will address existing delays in the planning process.
Answer · Johann Lamont: The Scottish Executive invited views on its proposals for reform of the development planning system in its consultation paper <i>Making Development Plans Deliver</i> which was published in April 2004. The proposals in the consultation paper were grouped under…
6 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive why it has four targets for the consideration of individual planning applications and one target for major applications.
Answer · Johann Lamont: Planning authorities are subject to a number of targets for the processing of planning applications. These are:</p><p>(1) 80% of all applications for planning permission (aggregating householder, major and other applications) must be determined within two mon…
6 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how it intends to speed up the consideration of planning applications to meet its targets.
Answer · Johann Lamont: The planning system is based on a plan-led system by which planning authorities are required to make their decisions in accordance with the development plan for the area in question. Through the <i>Making Development Plans Deliver</i> consultation, we are wor…
6 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider setting financial penalties for local authorities who do not meet targets for the publication of local and structure plans.
Answer · Johann Lamont: The recent consultation on <i>Making Development Plans Deliver</i> sets out a series of options, including financial rewards and penalties, requiring authorities to keep development plans up to date. An analysis of the responses will be published in due cours…
6 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will set target dates for the publication of all local and structure plans.
Answer · Johann Lamont: Proposals in the Executive’s recent consultation on <i>Making Development Plans Deliver</i> include the introduction of a statutory requirement to update development plans within a defined period. A white paper outlining the Executive’s proposals for modernis…
6 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish a yearly review of real and relative house price changes for different house types in the major housing markets such as Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee and a parallel analysis of whether a sufficient supply of sites is being provided to meet demand.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: A number of organisations, including private sector banks and Registers of Scotland regularly publish house price data at both a national and sub-national level. Many also disaggregate the national data by house type. As a result the Scottish Executive has no…
6 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, as part of its Efficient Government programme, it will parallel the commitment in Sir Peter Gershon's report, Releasing resources to the front line: Independent Review of Public Sector Efficiency, to ensure confidence and credibility in the planned efficiency measures by invi…
Answer · Tom McCabe: The Scottish Executive will invite Audit Scotland to scrutinise the Efficiency Technical Notes before publication.</p>
6 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, as part of its Efficient Government Review, it intends to conduct a department by department review of the effectiveness of financial management parallelling that being undertaken by HM Treasury in the rest of the United Kingdom and, if so, what the timetable is.
Answer · Tom McCabe: As a Government Department, the Scottish Executive currently has a unified finance function under a single Finance Director. </p><p>Paragraph 35 of <i>Building a Better Scotland: Efficient Government – Securing Efficiency, Effectiveness and Productivity</i> s…
6 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, as part of the Efficient Government Review, it intends to publish an equivalent Scottish analysis to that presented in tables 4.1 and 4.2 of Sir Peter Gershon"s report, Releasing resources to the front line: Independent Review of Public Sector Efficiency and, if so, what the…
Answer · Tom McCabe: <i>Building a Better Scotland: Efficient Government – Securing Efficiency, Effectiveness and Productivity</i> has a table on page 4 similar to table 4.1 of the Gershon report insofar as cash-releasing savings are concerned. Paragraph 24 of the document commi…
6 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when any Scottish-specific analysis comparable to that carried out in Sir Peter Gershon"s report, Releasing resources to the front line: Independent Review of Public Sector Efficiency, on the potential impact on jobs of planned efficiency savings will be published.
Answer · Tom McCabe: The Scottish Executive has not carried out any Scottish-specific analysis on the potential impact on jobs of planned efficiency savings. Once detailed project plans have been prepared for the implementation of Efficient Government projects, it will be possibl…
6 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will follow the model in Sir Peter Gershon"s report, Releasing resources to the front line: Independent Review of Public Sector Efficiency, by publishing, department by department, efficiency savings plans to allow transparency in their delivery and, if so, what the timeta…
Answer · Tom McCabe: The Scottish Executive will ensure transparency in the delivery of efficiency savings. </p><p>Paragraph 13 of <i>Building a Better Scotland: Efficient Government – Securing Efficiency, Effectiveness and Productivity</i> states that we will publish technical n…
6 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when it will provide a substantive answer to question S2W-10452, lodged on 9 September 2004.
Answer · Tom McCabe: I refer you to the answer to question S2W-10452 on 24 December 2004. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at <a href="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.s…
6 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when it will provide a substantive answer to question S2W-10453, lodged on 9 September 2004.
Answer · Tom McCabe: I refer you to the answer given to question S2W-10452 answered 24 December 2004 . All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website the search facility for which can be found at <a href="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk…