Parliamentary questions

Kenneth Gibson

2,008 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.

13 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider extending the central heating programme to eligible groups who have partial or inefficient heating systems.

Answer · Stewart Maxwell: I have no plans toextend eligibility for fuel poverty programmes. However, I welcome all views onhow fuel poverty can be reduced as quickly and as affordably as possible.

13 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider the eligibility of families with a child in receipt of disability living allowance for the central heating programme and, if so, when.

Answer · Stewart Maxwell: I have no plans toextend eligibility for fuel poverty programmes to this group. If the child is livingin the social housing sector he or she should already have had the opportunity tobenefit from the free central heating programme.

13 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has spent on (a) promoting and (b) advertising the central heating programme in each year since its inception, including the current financial year.

Answer · Stewart Maxwell: I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:Information is notheld centrally on the financial resources committed to promoting andadvertising the central heating programme.Adverti…

13 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has spent on (a) promoting and (b) advertising the Warm Deal in each year since its inception, including the current financial year.

Answer · Stewart Maxwell: I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:Information is notheld centrally on the financial resources committed to promoting and advertisingthe Warm Deal programme.Advertising a…

13 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider relocating some of the departments for which it has responsibility to North Ayrshire and, if so, which departments and when a decision will be taken.

Answer · John Swinney: I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-2952 on 14 August 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website the search facility for which can be found at <ahref="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.s…

9 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to introduce further restrictions on people smoking in public.

Answer · Shona Robison: Scottish smoke-freelegislation, already one of the most comprehensive in the world, has only been inplace for 18 months. Although the Scottish government remains committed to reducingthe impact of tobacco on Scotland’s health, there are currently no plans toi…

9 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it will take to enhance the training of (a) new and (b) experienced teachers in addressing the needs of children with autism.

Answer · Adam Ingram: The Executive is fundinga pioneering new project at Aberdeen University, providing £1.39 million over 2005-10,to embed inclusive approaches to teaching for pupils with additional support needs,including autism spectrum disorders (ASD), within initial teacher …

9 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it will take to ensure that all local authorities fully implement the provisions of the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 and the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006 and that parents are made aware of appropriate placements and service…

Answer · Adam Ingram: We have providededucation authorities with guidance on their duties arising from both theEducation (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 and the Scottish Schools (ParentalInvolvement) Act 2006.Theimplementation of the Education (Additio…

9 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how it intends to improve services for people with autism during the transition from childhood to adulthood.

Answer · Shona Robison: The Education (AdditionalSupport for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 requires education authorities to takespecific action, where appropriate, to help young people with additional supportneeds, including autism spectrum disorders (ASD), to make the transition f…

9 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to improve service delivery to adults with autism.

Answer · Shona Robison: The Scottish Governmentis working with the national Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Reference Group to developguidance for commissioners of health and social care services for people with ASD.The guidance will include examples of successful service models for …

9 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it believes the maximum grant available under the Warm Deal should be in order to ensure that each home of four bedrooms or less in receipt of grant will receive loft insulation with associated cold and hot water tank insulation, cavity wall insulation, draught-proofing, four ene…

Answer · Stewart Maxwell: When partnered withEnergy Efficiency Commitment (EEC) funding and, from next March, Carbon EfficiencyReduction Target (CERT) funding, the current grant should be sufficient to coverall necessary insulation measures in most cases.

9 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to ensure that vacant consultant posts in NHS Ayrshire and Arran are filled.

Answer · Shona Robison: NHS Ayrshire and Arran have recently appointed 11 consultants as a result ofrecent local recruitment campaigns and their consultant vacancy rate is falling.The Scottish Government continues to work with all health boards to reduce consultantvacancy levels and…

9 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider devolving more specialist medical training posts from Edinburgh to Ayrshire and Arran NHS board and, if so, in what specialisms.

Answer · Shona Robison: NHS Education forScotland (NES) is responsible for determining the specific allocation of specialistmedical training posts across Scotland. The Scottish Government is responsible fordetermining the overall number of training posts in Scotland informed by work…

9 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish the Facey review of the Arbuthnott Formula for resource allocation for NHSScotland.

Answer · Shona Robison: I understand thatthe NHSScotland Resource Allocation Committee is currently finalising its reportand will be submitting it to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing overthe next few weeks. No decisions have yet been made on publication.

3 Aug 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive under what circumstances a local authority can completely close a road for repair, maintenance or resurfacing work.

Answer · Stewart Stevenson: Local road authoritieshave a duty under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 to manage and maintain public roadsin their area. To carry out this duty, they also have powers under the Road TrafficRegulation Act 1984 to promote Temporary Traffic Regulation Orders (TTR…

31 Jul 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many violent incidents have taken place in prisons in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available, broken down by prison.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:The information requested isavailable from 2001. The information from 2001 is shown in the following table.<table border=1 cellspacing=0 …

31 Jul 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many households in receipt of the Warm Deal received all five measures of energy advice, cavity wall insulation, energy saving bulbs, loft insulation and water tank lagging, available under the grant, in each year since its inception.

Answer · Stewart Maxwell: I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:In addition to thefive measures listed, households can also qualify for pipe lagging and draught proofing.All dwellings benefiting from the Wa…

31 Jul 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much the Warm Deal grant has been in each year since its inception in (a) cash and (b) real terms.

Answer · Stewart Maxwell: I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:The maximum Warm Dealgrant available to eligible householders in each year since its inception in 1999-2000is £500.The value of the max…

31 Jul 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many homes have benefited from the Warm Deal in each year since its inception, broken down by local authority area.

Answer · Stewart Maxwell: I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:Information is notheld by local authority area. Information showing the total number of Warm Dealinstallations across all sectors is shown in …

31 Jul 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many households have benefited from the central heating programme in each year since its inception, broken down by local authority area.

Answer · Stewart Maxwell: I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:Information is notheld by local authority area. Information showing the total number of central heatinginstallations across all sectors is sho…

30 Jul 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what evidence it has that water metering for non-household premises will lead to lower bills and improved infrastructure.

Answer · Stewart Stevenson: The introduction ofwater metering to non-household premises was driven by customers’ responses to theformer Executives’ Paying for Water Services consultation in 2004. It wasclear at that time that customers considered metering as the fairest and most …

30 Jul 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps will be taken to ameliorate the impact of water metering on businesses that use a disproportionate and unavoidably high volume of water.

Answer · Stewart Stevenson: I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-2624 on 23 August 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at <ahref="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.…

30 Jul 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive which categories of business it expects to be (a) better and (b) worse off following the introduction of water metering for non-domestic premises.

30 Jul 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many businesses it anticipates will be (a) better and (b) worse off following the phased introduction of general water metering for non-household premises from March 2008.

29 Jun 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the current status is of the Scottish Organ Retrieval Team (SORT) and what progress SORT has made.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The Scottish Organ RetrievalTeam (SORT) continues to retrieve all organs which become available fortransplantation anywhere in Scotland.The outcome of theevaluation of the performance of SORT during the year September 2004 to August2005, when it includ…

29 Jun 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the organ donor rate per million population has been in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The deceased organ donorrate per million population in each of the last five years, by nation ofdonation is set out in the following table. The figures are based on the location of the donating hospitaland include heartbeating and non-heartbeating donors.…

29 Jun 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the budget for organ donation advertising has been in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The Scottish Executiveadvertising spend on organ donation campaigns in each of the last five years isset out in the following table:<table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3 width="35%"> <thead> <tr> <td width="44%" valign=top> Year </td>…

29 Jun 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive to what extent a policy of presumed consent would help to improve Scotland’s rate of organ donation.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: It is not clear thatchanging to a system of opting out would necessarily lead to an improvement inorgan donation rates in Scotland. Such a move would need strong support from thepublic and the health professionals involved, but the extensive consultationscarr…

19 Jun 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any agency, group or company applied for the contract for the 24-hour child protection helpline that will work with agencies and existing helplines in response to its advert setting a closing date for applications of 27 November 2006.

Answer · Adam Ingram: Yes. Five bidsfor this service were received, and the contract was awarded to Essentia Groupin January 2007 following a rigorous evaluation of tenders. The nationalservice was launched on 12 February 2007.

19 Jun 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has fulfilled its commitment to work with agencies and existing helplines to develop a 24-hour child protection scheme as part of its Child Protection Reform Programme.

Answer · Adam Ingram: Yes. A workinggroup has developed, and continues to monitor and improve, the 24-hour nationalfreephone gateway service, which offers the general public easy access to childprotection services in local agencies as part of the recently-concluded three-yearChild…