Ms Wendy Alexander

19 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to reduce the proportion of working age people living on low income in the Renfrewshire Council area.

Answer · Margaret Curran: People of working age in Renfrewshire Council area will continue to benefit from recent changes in tax and benefits. The UK Government is helping to make work pay through tax credits and the National Minimum Wage.<P>Working in partnership, the UK Government a…

19 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of working age people have been unemployed in the Renfrewshire Council area in each year since 1996.

Answer · Iain Gray: The annual average percentage of working age people who have been unemployed in the Renfrewshire Council area in each year from 1996 to 2001 is shown in the following table:<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=7 WIDTH=189><TR><TD WIDTH="30%" VALIGN="TOP"><…

19 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to reduce the proportion of unemployed working age people in the Renfrewshire Council area.

Answer · Iain Gray: Employment policy is reserved to the UK Government which takes the lead on funding and delivery of the New Deal. In Scotland it does this in partnership with the Scottish Executive and contributing Scottish organisations.<P>The whole range of New Deal program…

19 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of young people have (a) been smokers between the ages of 12 and 15 years, (b) fallen pregnant between the ages of 13 and 15 years and (c) committed suicide in (i) Scotland and (ii) the Renfrewshire Council area in each year since 1997.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: (a) Information on the percentage of young people who have been smokers between the ages of 12 and 15 years in Renfrewshire Council area is not held centrally. Information for Scotland for 1998 and 2000 on the percentage of pupils aged 12-15 years who are or …

19 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action has been taken to improve the health of young people through reductions in (a) smoking by 12- to 15-year-olds, (b) the incidence of teenage pregnancy among 13- to 15-year-olds and (c) the rate of suicides among young people in the Renfrewshire Council area in each year since 1…

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The Executive has no initiatives directed specifically at the Renfrewshire Council area. Over the whole of Scotland, we have taken the following action:<P>(a) On smoking:<P>Following publication of the White Paper <I>Smoking Kills</I> in 1998 in which young p…

19 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to bring the poorest-perfoming 20% of pupils at standard grade closer to the performance of all pupils in the Renfrewshire Council area.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: All education authorities are being asked to set for the first time, via the School Improvement Framework, a target for the average level of qualifications gained by the lowest attaining 20% of S4 pupils for the academic year 2004-05. Each education authority…

19 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to reduce the number of 16- to 19-year-olds that are not in education, training, or employment in the Renfrewshire Council area.

Answer · Iain Gray: A number of initiatives are under way, including:<P>Careers Scotland Inclusiveness projects<P>Pre-vocational programmes<P>Work Enablers<P>Get Ready for Work<P>New Deal for Young People<P>New Futures Fund projects<P>The Renfrewshire Inclusiveness project, Posi…

19 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of 16- to 19-year-olds have not been in education, training or employment in the Renfrewshire Council area in each year since 1996.

Answer · Iain Gray: This data is unavailable at regional level. At Scotland level, the percentage of 16- to 19-year-olds not in education, training or employment is 14%. However, this data should be available at local authority level from the boosted annual 2003 Labour Force Sur…

19 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of households with children have been in temporary accommodation in the Renfrewshire Council area in each year since 1997.

Answer · Margaret Curran: Information on households with children in temporary accommodation has been collected centrally since June 2000. Information is available on the position (numbers and proportions) within each local authority area at the end of June, September, December and Ma…

19 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to reduce the number of households and, in particular, households with children living in temporary accommodation in the Renfrewshire Council area since 1997.

Answer · Margaret Curran: Renfrewshire Council was awarded £258,000 in 2000 to provide 18 housing units for temporary accommodation for small family groups or single parents to reduce the need to use inappropriate bed and breakfast accommodation to house homeless families. <P>In carry…

19 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what measures have been introduced for the population of the Renfrewshire Council area to (a) ensure a reduction in (i) the proportion of women smoking during pregnancy, (ii) the percentage of low birth-weight babies, (iii) dental decay among five-year-olds and (b) increase the proportion…

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The Executive has introduced national initiatives to bring about improvement in these indicators of child and maternal health. These are implemented at local level by NHS boards and local authorities. <P>Diet and lifestyle when pregnant is a significant facto…

19 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of children have had access to quality care and early learning before entering school in the Renfrewshire Council area in each year since 1996.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: Figures on all forms of pre-school education and daycare for children under five were collected for the first time in 2001. Prior to that, figures for daycare services were collected every three years, whilst figures for pre-school education were collected an…

19 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what increases in the proportion of children that attain the appropriate levels in reading, writing and maths by the end of Primary 2 and Primary 7 there have been in the Renfrewshire Council area since 1996.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: 5-14 attainment data are available from 1998-99.<P>Data on pupils' performance up to 2000-01 is already available in the<I> 5-14 Attainment in Publicly Funded Schools News Releases </I>(Bib. numbers 25343 and 18788). The data for 2001-02 will be published on …

19 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what reduction in the proportion of children living in (a) workless and (b) low-income households in the Renfrewshire Council area there has been since 1996.

Answer · Margaret Curran: Statistics on the number of children in workless households in Scotland come from the Office for National Statistics' Labour Force Survey (LFS). Disaggregation by local authority is not available at present.<P>Estimates of persons in low income households com…

19 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what initiatives it is introducing in order to enhance capacity-building and self-sufficiency in communities in Paisley and improve social inclusion in such communities.

Answer · Margaret Curran: The Scottish Executive and Communities Scotland are funding various initiatives in Paisley to enhance community capacity building and self-sufficiency in order to make progress towards social inclusion among communities. <P>For example, over the next two year…

19 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it has taken to achieve targets to shorten (a) treatment times and (b) waiting times in the Argyll and Clyde NHS Board area.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: While it is for NHS boards and trusts to effectively manage local services, the Scottish Executive remains committed to putting the policy frameworks in place and providing the resources to ensure that waiting times are kept to a minimum at each stage of the …

19 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what form of support is available to Renfrewshire Council for public private partnership projects.

Answer · Andy Kerr: Renfrewshire Council is taking forward a schools Public Private Partnership (PPP) project. In terms of funding support for this project, the council was awarded £245,000 in February 2001 to assist them with the cost of early investigation and feasibility stud…

15 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of people in Renfrewshire have (a) misused drugs, (b) been injecting drug abusers and (c) shared needles in each year since 1996.

Answer · Hugh Henry: The 2000 national prevalence study estimated that there are 2,441 individuals who are misusing opiates or benzodiazepines within Renfrewshire. These figures do not include drugs such as psychostimulants, cannabis etc. The figures correspond to a prevalence ra…

15 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much of the #0/10/10 million to help fund child care provision in disadvantaged areas, as referred to in Building a Better Scotland: Spending Proposals 2003-2006: What the money buys, will be allocated to Renfrewshire in each year and to what projects.

Answer · Margaret Curran: The Scottish Executive is currently developing the details of the operation of this new funding. I shall make an announcement in due course.

15 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much of the #0/15/15 million to be invested in tackling anti-social behaviour and other local initiatives, as referred to in Building a Better Scotland: Spending Proposals 2003-2006: What the money buys, will be allocated to Renfrewshire in each year and to what projects.

Answer · Margaret Curran: The programmes to be supported under this package of funding are still being developed. Further announcements will be made shortly.

15 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much of the #47.5/47.5/47.5 million to support the central heating programme, as referred to in Building a Better Scotland: Spending Proposals 2003-2006: What the money buys, will be spent in each year in Renfrewshire.

Answer · Des McNulty: It is not possible to project how much of the available resources will be spent in the Renfrewshire area between 2003-06. But funding in the two years 2003-04 and 2004-05 will ensure that, by March 2004, all tenants of East Renfrewshire Council and Renfrewshi…

15 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much of the #238/248/248 million to be invested through the Communities Scotland development programme, as referred to in Building a Better Scotland: Spending Proposals 2003-06: What the money buys, will be spent in each year in Paisley North.

Answer · Margaret Curran: I expect to consider Communities Scotland's proposed development funding programme for 200-04 in February 2003, following which details will be published. The forward programme in 2004-05 and 2005-06 remains subject to ministerial approval.

15 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people are expected to benefit from the free off-peak local bus travel scheme for elderly and disabled concessionary card holders in Paisley North.

Answer · Lewis Macdonald: The information requested is not held centrally.

15 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what projections it has made of how many people will benefit from free personal care in Paisley North.

Answer · Frank McAveety: Anyone assessed as needing and receiving personal care in their own home will benefit from the removal of the local authority powers to charge for these services. Similarly, any person assessed as needing personal care as part of a care home package who would…

15 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many community safety partnerships there currently are in Renfrewshire and when each partnership was established.

Answer · Hugh Henry: Each local authority area has a community safety partnership, therefore there are two partnerships in Renfrewshire, one led by Renfrewshire Council and the other led by East Renfrewshire Council.<P>The community safety partnership in East Renfrewshire was est…

15 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of recipients of an access bursary have been domiciled in (a) Renfrewshire and (b) Paisley since the bursaries were introduced.

Answer · Iain Gray: The Young Students' Bursary is provided as an entitlement based on the level of parental income. Eligibility for the bursary is assessed as part of the overall assessment of eligibility for student support. <P>In academic year 2001-02, there were 13,579 recip…

15 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many Inclusiveness Projects there are in Renfrewshire and how much funding has been allocated to each project.

Answer · Iain Gray: There is one Careers Scotland Inclusiveness Project covering the Renfrewshire area. It has been allocated £1.2 million over the period April 2001 to March 2004

15 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many pensioners in Renfrewshire have benefited from the (a) Warm Deal Scheme and (b) central heating installation programme in each of the last five years and how many are expected to benefit in future years.

Answer · Des McNulty: The Warm Deal was introduced on 1 July 1999 and the central heating programme was introduced on 1 April 2001.<P>The information at (a) cannot be provided because the Warm Deal is not exclusively for pensioners. However, over 4,700 households in all sectors of…

15 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the current clear-up rates for recorded crime are in (a) Scotland and (b) Renfrewshire.

Answer · Jim Wallace: The information requested is given in Table 6 of the Scottish Executive statistical bulletin <I>Recorded Crime in Scotland 2001</I>, copies of which are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 20798).

15 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many of the spin out companies supported by Scottish Enterprise in the last five years have been opened in Renfrewshire.

Answer · Iain Gray: This is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise.