Mr Lloyd Quinan

28 Nov 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what measures are in place to address learning difficulties among prisoners.

Answer · Jim Wallace: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:<FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=2><P>Learning difficulties in prisoners are addressed by screening prisoners for basic skills levels and prioritising acce…

28 Nov 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners are undergoing a programme of communication therapy.

Answer · Jim Wallace: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:<FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=2><P>This information is not available.

28 Nov 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether data is collected on the prevalence of speech and language difficulties among the prison population.

Answer · Jim Wallace: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:<FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=2><P>This data is not gathered.

28 Nov 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what measures are in place to assess whether or not a remand prisoner has communication difficulties.

Answer · Jim Wallace: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:<FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=2><P>People on remand are not routinely screened for difficulties with communication due to the short length of time in cu…

28 Nov 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what measures are in place to assess whether or not a prisoner has communication difficulties.

Answer · Jim Wallace: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:<FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=2><P>Prisoners are encouraged to access the learning opportunities provided and the Basic Skills Agency Assessment is used…

20 Nov 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the current membership is of the Glasgow Housing Partnership Steering Group.

Answer · Jackie Baillie: The Glasgow Housing Partnership Steering Group was set up to develop a framework within which a transfer proposal could be developed. The work of the steering group ceased to function on the publication of the framework document <I>Better Homes Stronger Commu…

17 Nov 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make available to the Parliament the minutes of any meetings it has had with the Department of Social Security regarding any implications which housing benefit reform will have for the proposed housing stock transfer in Glasgow.

Answer · Jackie Baillie: Our <I>Memorandum of Understanding</I> with the UK Government sets out the principles underlying our working relationship with Whitehall Departments and ensures good communication where one administration's work may have a bearing upon the responsibilities of…

16 Nov 2000 · SPCB Written Question

To ask the Presiding Officer what recruitment processes are used to appoint Scottish Parliament staff and where and for how long each post created to date was advertised.

Answer · David Steel: The SPCB became an employer in its own right on 1&nbsp;April 2000. For staff appointed prior to that date, recruitment was conducted on behalf of the SPCB by the Scottish Office/Scottish Executive.<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">All recruitment to posts in the Scottish Pa…

16 Nov 2000 · SPCB Written Question

To ask the Presiding Officer how many people are employed solely to produce the core parliamentary publications and how many work only on (a) internet publication and (b) paper publication.

Answer · David Steel: The only staff employed solely to produce core parliamentary publications are those in the Official Report. No staff work solely on either the internet or the paper publication of core parliamentary publications.

16 Nov 2000 · SPCB Written Question

To ask the Presiding Officer how much the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body has spent to date on producing core Parliamentary publications and publishing them on the Internet.

Answer · David Steel: The SPCB has a contract with TSO for the provision of print and electronic information publishing services. We currently operate on a management fee basis, which includes the page layout, construction and HTML mark-up of all core parliamentary publications. T…

15 Nov 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when the report of the Voluntary Issues Review Group dealing with Part V of the Police Act will be published.

Answer · Jim Wallace: I refer the member to the answer I gave to question S1W-11272 today.

15 Nov 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what assurances it can give voluntary organisations at this time that they will not be charged for compulsory Scottish Criminal Records Office checks.

Answer · Jim Wallace: I refer the member to the answer I gave to question S1W-11272 today.

15 Nov 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has made a decision regarding the levying of Scottish Criminal Records Office checks on voluntary organisations.

Answer · Jim Wallace: The Part V Voluntary Issues Review Group, which is chaired by Jackie Baillie, has been examining a number of issues, of which charges is one, related to the possible impact on voluntary organisations of the introduction of criminal record checks under Part V …

15 Nov 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will place in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre a copy of the minutes of all meetings to date of the Voluntary Issues Review Group.

Answer · Jim Wallace: I am arranging for copies of the minutes of the meetings of the Part V Voluntary Issues Review Group, which Jackie Baillie chairs, to be placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre.<FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=2><P>I expect the group to report by the end of the ca…

15 Nov 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a progress report on the work of the Voluntary Issues Review Group.

Answer · Jim Wallace: The Part V Voluntary Issues Review Group which is chaired by Jackie Baillie has almost completed its task and I expect it to report by the end of the calendar year on the outcome of the its deliberations.

15 Nov 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many times has the Voluntary Issues Review Group has met to date and, for each meeting, (a) what was on the agenda, (b) what decisions were taken and (c) what action was taken.

Answer · Jim Wallace: The Voluntary Issues Review Group which is chaired by Jackie Baillie has met on seven occasions. It has discussed a number of issues related to the impact on voluntary organisations of the criminal record checks which will become available under Part V of the…

9 Nov 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive which organisations have been invited to respond to the Learning Disability Review; what the timescale is for the review's consultation process; when the review's recommendations will be implemented, and what are the estimated financial implications of the review.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: We distributed 9,000 copies of the <I>Learning Disability Review</I> to approximately 800 statutory and non-statutory organisations across health, social work, housing, education, employment, leisure and recreation, and organisations representing people who u…

9 Nov 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the source is of the additional funding to implement the Equality Strategy announced by the Minister for Social Justice on 8 November 2000.

Answer · Jackie Baillie: Additional funding for Equalities was allocated following the spending review earlier this year and published in the Executive's spending <I>plans Making a Difference</I>.

9 Nov 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether each of its departments will have to allocate funding from existing budgets to implement the Equality Strategy.

Answer · Jackie Baillie: Implementation of the Equality Strategy will be mainstreamed across the Executive and the funding for equalities will assist this process. As equality is mainstreamed it will be resourced through departmental allocations.

9 Nov 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the financial structure is in place to implement its Equality Strategy across all departments.

Answer · Jackie Baillie: I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-11116

6 Nov 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive which voluntary organisations will be consulted with regards to the record of needs process.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: Enable is consulting with a number of voluntary organisations as part of their work on preparation of a draft consultation paper. These voluntary organisations are set out below:<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Barnardos<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Capability Scotland<P ALIGN="JUSTI…

6 Nov 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the timescale is for consultation with voluntary organisations with regard to the record of needs process.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: A range of preliminary meetings is being undertaken by Enable, which has been commissioned by the Executive to assist with the review of the Record of Needs process. Voluntary organisations will be included in these initial discussions. Thereafter, full consu…

6 Nov 2000 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister what progress has been made on the levying of a fee on voluntary organisations for Scottish Criminal Records Office checks.

Answer · Henry McLeish: Jim Wallace set up a Voluntary Issues Review Group last year to examine the possible impact of the introduction of criminal record checks under Part V of the Police Act 1997 on voluntary organisations. The group, which is chaired by Jackie Baillie, has made g…

26 Oct 2000 · SPCB Written Question

To ask the Presiding Officer whether the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body has any plans to cease the duplication of internal parliamentary documents on paper, leaving only the documents published on the Intranet, and to use any money saved to invest in a superior search engine for the Parliament's website.

Answer · David Steel: I refer the member to my answers to questions S1W-10654 and S1W-10655. The SPCB is constantly looking for ways in which services can be provided in the most cost-effective manner. For reasons of accessibility to the public, most of the Parliament's publicatio…

26 Oct 2000 · SPCB Written Question

To ask the Presiding Officer whether the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body has any plans to question Parliament staff and MSPs on what they need by way of paper documents which are duplicated on the Intranet and whether it will adjust its mailing lists accordingly.

Answer · David Steel: <I>The Information Systems Manager maintains a close watch on Parliament staff requirements for paper documents before authorising payment of invoices, to ensure that only those that are needed are produced. This figure fluctuates depending on the perceived i…

26 Oct 2000 · SPCB Written Question

To ask the Presiding Officer how much money the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body has spent to date on producing and sending out internal Parliament documents which are duplicated on the Intranet.

Answer · David Steel: Most of the Parliament's publications are made available both on the Internet (not the Intranet) and in printed form. This is to ensure that information about the Parliament and its work is accessible equally to all parts of society. Print publication costs f…

27 Sep 2000 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will outline any emergency initiatives available to local authorities in the event of a rapid increase in homelessness.

Answer · Jackie Baillie: Local authorities have a wide range of duties and responsibilities for housing homeless people. The delivery of these duties is supported by detailed guidelines set out in the Code of Guidance on Homelessness (available in SPICE). The Code includes guidance o…

23 Aug 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients have been treated for cataracts at the Vale of Leven District General Hospital in 1999-2000.

Answer · Susan Deacon: This information is not held centrally. Management responsibility for the Vale of Leven Hospital rests with Argyll and Clyde Acute NHS Hospitals Trust. The information requested can be obtained from the Trust and I have asked its Chairman to respond directly.

23 Aug 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients have been referred to the Royal Alexandra Hospital, Paisley in 1999-2000.

Answer · Susan Deacon: This information is not held centrally. Management responsibility for the Royal Alexandra Hospital rests with Argyll and Clyde Acute NHS Hospitals Trust. The information requested can be obtained from the Trust and I have asked its Chairman to respond directl…

26 Jul 2000 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive to detail the services and provisions available across Scotland to those diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

Answer · Iain Gray: Services for individuals diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder are provided by health boards and local authorities, based on their assessment of the needs of their respective areas. <P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Voluntary organisations also give services to people w…