Parliamentary questions
Johann Lamont
1,407 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
20 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how its skills strategy will address disproportionate levels of unemployment among disabled people.
Answer · Maureen Watt: A key challenge of the skills strategy is that we encourage the integration of employment and skills services to facilitate the journey individuals make from long-term unemployment to sustained employment and in-work progression. This includes working jointly…
20 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how its skills strategy will address gender segregation in employment.
Answer · Fiona Hyslop: Equality is a guiding principle of the skills strategy. In order to fully consider the equalities implications of each policy area on its relevant audience and to mitigate against gender segregation we will ensure that each programme underpinning this strateg…
20 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive which meetings have been held between the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning and equalities organisations since May 2007.
Answer · Adam Ingram: Since May 2007, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning has met with a range of organisations to promote and improve Scottish education and lifelong learning and the outcomes for our children and young people. Addressing inequalities is, of …
20 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive which equalities organisations it met in developing its skills strategy.
Answer · Maureen Watt: Equality is a guiding principle of the Skills Strategy and, during the development of this strategy, Scottish Government officials met with representatives from the Commission for Racial Equality.</p>
17 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing or the Minister for Communities will convene a meeting with Glasgow Housing Association, local housing organisations and community-controlled housing associations to discuss the findings of the Mazars report and the response of the Scott…
Answer · Stewart Maxwell: Ministers have no plans to convene such a meeting. Ministers met with both Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) and the Glasgow and West of Scotland Forum in June. Both have committed to discuss the issues raised in the Mazars report and explore the areas identi…
16 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the inherited unsustainable commitments referred to in the Minister for Communities’ announcement of Housing Association Grant allocation on 30 May 2008.
Answer · Stewart Maxwell: The inherited unsustainable commitments referred to in the Affordable Housing Investment Programme announcement are commitments made to pay out Housing Association Grant (HAG) at levels per home which had increased in real terms by 35% in the four years betwe…
12 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many households entitled to central heating units in 2008-09 under the existing central heating programme will cease to be entitled under the proposed new scheme.
Answer · Stewart Maxwell: All householders who were eligible for the central heating programme before the Cabinet Secretary’s announcement of 22 May remain eligible.</p>
12 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many central heating units under the central heating programme were fitted from May 2007 to May 2008.
Answer · Stewart Maxwell: Between 1 June 2007 and 31 May 2008, 15,329 central heating systems were installed.</p> <p align=left ><i>The following is the original answer (published on </i><i >19 June 2008</i><i>); see below.</i><i ></i></p> <p >Information is held by financial year.…
12 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many central heating units under the central heating programme were fitted in each year from May 1999 to May 2007.
Answer · Stewart Maxwell: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-13167 on 30 May 2008. 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…
5 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when a report on the spending plans of community planning partnerships will be published.
Answer · John Swinney: There are no plans at present to publish such a report. Responsibility for the implementation of community planning sits with the partnerships themselves and it is up to individual partnerships to decide how they consider financial planning, within the overal…
5 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many spending plans of community planning partnerships it has approved.
Answer · John Swinney: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-13935 on 16 June 2008. 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/w…
5 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many spending plans of community planning partnerships have been submitted for approval.
Answer · John Swinney: None. Responsibility for the implementation of community planning sits with the partnerships themselves and it is up to individual partnerships to decide how they consider financial planning, within the overall context of Scottish Government priorities.</p>
5 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the average rent per week for housing association properties in England.
Answer · Stewart Maxwell: The Scottish Government does not collect information about weekly rents for housing association properties in England. This information is available in table 6.3 of Housing Statistics 2007, published by the Department for Communities and Local Government and …
5 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average rent is per week for housing association properties in Scotland.
Answer · Stewart Maxwell: Statistics on Scottish Registered Social Landlords are published by the Scottish Housing Regulator. The most up to date information on housing association rents was provided in the Review of Scottish Registered Social Landlords 2006-07, which gave the average…
5 Jun 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many adults living in families with incomes below £16,000 per annum are currently paying prescription charges.
Answer · Shona Robison: We estimate that around 600,000 adults living in families with annual income below £16,000 are currently liable to pay prescription charges.</p>
29 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many students were lone parents but not in receipt of Lone Parents Grant for each academic year from 2001-02 to 2007-08.
Answer · Fiona Hyslop: The number of lone parent students who were not in receipt of lone parent grant is not held centrally.</p>
29 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how information is gathered on the financial circumstances of people who become lone parents after they graduate.
Answer · Fiona Hyslop: Information on the financial circumstances of graduates who become lone parents is not collected centrally by the Scottish Government. However HM Revenue and Customs, who have responsibility for collecting the student loan debt, obtain financial information f…
29 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many disabled students did not apply for the disabled students allowance for each academic year from 2001-02 to 2007-08.
Answer · Fiona Hyslop: The Scottish Government has no way of ascertaining how many disabled students chose not to apply for the Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) for each academic year from 2001-02 to 2007-08.</p> <p >However, the following table shows the number of higher educati…
29 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many disabled students were not eligible for the disabled students allowance for each academic year from 2001-02 to 2007-08.
Answer · Fiona Hyslop : The number of disabled students who applied and were not eligible for the Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) for each academic years from 2001-02 to 2007-08 is provided in the following tables. The statistics contained within the tables are broken by the reaso…
29 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive in what circumstances disabled students are not eligible for the disabled students allowance.
Answer · Fiona Hyslop: Students who are not eligible to apply for the disabled students allowance (DSA) are:</p> <p >· those who do not meet the residence conditions as set out in the Students’ Allowance (Scotland) Regulations 2007 (as amended);</p> <p >· those who are studying…
27 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether all equality impact assessments on the draft spending plans of community planning partnerships will be made publicly available.
Answer · John Swinney: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-13467 on 4 June 2008. 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…
27 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in the event of there being no written evidence that equality impact assessments have been carried out by community planning partnerships on their draft spending plans, these plans will be referred back for this process to take place.
Answer · John Swinney: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-13467 on 4 June 2008. 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…
27 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in the event of there being no written evidence that equality impact assessments have been carried out by community planning partnerships on their draft spending plans, these plans will not be signed off by the Scottish Government.
Answer · John Swinney: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-13467 on 4 June 2008. 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…
27 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there is written evidence that community planning partnerships have carried out equality impact assessments on their draft spending plans.
Answer · John Swinney: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-13467 on 4 June 2008. 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…
27 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether community planning partnerships have carried out equality impact assessments on their draft spending plans.
Answer · John Swinney: Responsibility for the implementation of community planning sits with the partnerships themselves and it is up to individual partnerships to decide how they consider financial planning, within the overall context of Scottish Government priorities.</p> <p >T…
27 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether all equality impact assessments on draft single outcome agreements will be made publicly available
Answer · John Swinney: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-13462 on 9 June 2008. 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…
27 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in the event of there being no written evidence that equality impact assessments have been carried out by local authorities on their draft single outcome agreements, these draft agreements will be referred back for this process to take place.
Answer · John Swinney: I refer the member to answer to question S3W-13464 on 13 June 2008. 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.se…
27 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in the event of there being no written evidence that equality impact assessments have been carried out by local authorities on their draft single outcome agreements, these draft agreements will not be signed off by the Scottish Government.
Answer · John Swinney: It is intended that single outcome agreements (SOAs) will develop over time and equality impact assessments will be part of that process. The Scottish Government would not delay signing off an SOA at this stage because the EQIA is not complete. However, we ar…
27 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there is written evidence that local authorities have carried out equality impact assessments on their draft single outcome agreements.
Answer · John Swinney: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-13462 on 9 June 2008. 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…
27 May 2008 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether local authorities have carried out equality impact assessments on their draft single outcome agreements.
Answer · John Swinney: Councils have a duty to properly assess their activities for equalities impact. It is not for the government to compel a council to undertake an EQIA. However as the Scottish Government is engaged with local authorities in the development of single outcome ag…