Michael Matheson

2 Aug 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding has been allocated to implement its policies on architecture in each of the last five years.

Answer · Patricia Ferguson: The funding directly allocated to activities in support of the policy on architecture in each of the last five years is as follows:</p> <table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3> <thead> <tr> <td> <p>Financial Year</p></td> <td> <p align=…

28 Jul 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to ensure physical activity for every child and youth in day care and in school.

Answer · Andy Kerr: We are seeking to ensure that every child in Scotland has access to services that support them in being physically active. Services should be at a level that children can meet the minimum activity required for health. The Executive has invested £24 million in…

28 Jul 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to introduce a sports and physical activity Bill.

Answer · Patricia Ferguson: No.</p>

28 Jul 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what long-term media strategy it is using to encourage participation in sport and physical activity and how much it has spent on this in each of the last five years.

Answer · Patricia Ferguson: The healthy living media strategy, launched in January 2003, is a multi-strand communications and marketing campaign which promotes participation in physical activity and sport. The campaign consists of advertising, PR, information leaflets, packs, website, s…

27 Jul 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding it has allocated in each of the last five years to generating ideas and developing local initiatives in respect of sport and physical activity.

Answer · Patricia Ferguson: All Scottish Executive funding for sport is channelled through <b>sport</b>scotland, the national agency for sport in Scotland. Over the last five years, <b>sport</b>scotland has invested exchequer and National Lottery funds as set out in the following table …

27 Jul 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what its policy is on grass roots sport and what approach it will take to implement this policy at community level.

Answer · Patricia Ferguson: The national strategy for sport in Scotland, which is owned by all the key agencies and partners in sport including the Scottish Executive, is set out in Sport 21 2003-07. Several of the targets contained in Sport 21 focus on developing participation in sport…

27 Jul 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what strategies it is using to promote Scotland’s natural features as a means of encouraging and promoting physical activity.

Answer · Peter Peacock: The Scottish Executive has introduced a range of strategies to encourage physical activity, sport and the use of Scotland’s natural features, such as the National Physical Activity Strategy, our policy on Active Schools and the Healthy Living Campaign.</p> <p…

27 Jul 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what mechanisms are in place to monitor physical activity participation within the population.

Answer · Andy Kerr: There are three national surveillancetools used to monitor physical activity levels in Scotland. Theseare: the Scottish Health Survey which monitors overall levels of physical activityin Scotland among adults; the Health Education Population Survey which moni…

1 Jul 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will give a detailed breakdown of the level of funding allocated to the Scottish Institute of Sport in each of the last three financial years, giving the source of funding in each case.

Answer · Patricia Ferguson: The Scottish Institute ofSport is funded by <b>sport</b>scotland solely from the Lottery Sports Fund. TheInstitute’s award for 2003-04 was £3.7 million, for 2004-05 was £4.01 millionand for 2005-06 is £4.113 million.</p>

30 Jun 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, with regard to its consultation paper, Reforming Complaints Handling, Building Consumer Confidence: Regulation of the Legal Profession in Scotland, what the estimate is of the costs of option D, setting up an independent complaints handling body, referred to in paragraph 5.17.

Answer · Hugh Henry: Such a body would cost a minimumof £2.1 million per year to run<b>, </b>but that figure is based solely on the currentannual costs of the complaints handling functions of the Scottish Legal ServicesOmbudsman<b> </b>and the Law Society of Scotland.</p><p>It wo…

30 Jun 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, with regard to its consultation paper, Reforming Complaints Handling, Building Consumer Confidence: Regulation of the Legal Profession in Scotland, whether the estimate of costs in paragraph 5.15 includes the establishment and start-up costs of a new single gateway with substantive compl…

Answer · Hugh Henry: No. The estimate relates to annualrunning costs on current workload.</p>

30 Jun 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, with regard to its consultation paper, Reforming Complaints Handling, Building Consumer Confidence: Regulation of the Legal Profession in Scotland, whether it will provide a breakdown of the calculations of the cost of option C, referred to in paragraph 5.15, and what consultation it had…

Answer · Hugh Henry: The basis for the estimate isexplained in paragraph 5.15. As the number of staff in the Ombudsman’s office hasrecently been increased, the budget for 2005-06 is now £0.4 million.</p><p>On that basis the annual runningcosts of option C on current caseload woul…

30 Jun 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, with regard to its consultation paper, Reforming Complaints Handling, Building Consumer Confidence: Regulation of the Legal Profession in Scotland, how it calculated the estimate of additional resources of100,000 for the office of the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman, referred to in par…

Answer · Hugh Henry: The estimate of £0.1 millionis based on the assumption that the additional functions associated with the optionB gateway of sifting complaints, forwardingthem to the professional bodies for substantive action/investigation and monitoringprogress would require…

30 Jun 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many letters it has received from members of the public on the (a) Law Society of Scotlands complaints handling function, (b) Faculty of Advocates complaints handling function and (c) Scottish Legal Services Ombudsmans complaints oversight function in each year since 1999.

Answer · Hugh Henry: The figures are as follows:</p><table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3 width=567> <thead> <tr> <td> <p>Year</p> </td> <td> <p>Law Society of Scotland</p> </td> <td> <p>Faculty of Advocates</p> </td> <td> <p>Scottish Legal Services …

30 Jun 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive why, in its consultation paper, Reforming Complaints Handling, Building Consumer Confidence: Regulation of the Legal Profession in Scotland, it makes no reference to the Working Group for Research into the Legal Services Markets in Scotland.

Answer · Hugh Henry: The Working Group has been reviewingthe legal services market from the perspective of competition primarily. The consultationpaper on the other hand seeks views on the complaints handling system as part ofa reform process, which builds on the original inquiry…

30 Jun 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, with regard to its consultation paper, Reforming Complaints Handling, Building Consumer Confidence: Regulation of the Legal Profession in Scotland, what information it has on how many of the respondents to the Which? survey, referred to in footnote 3 to paragraph 1.2, were from Scotland …

Answer · Hugh Henry: This information is given inthe survey which appeared in the July 2004 edition of <i>Which?</i>, a copy of whichis available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 37018).</p>

14 Jun 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish an up-to-date list of departments and agencies which it is considering for relocation, detailing the locations to which they may be moved.

Answer · Tavish Scott: The Scottish Executive has publishedan up-to-date list of departments and agencies being considered for relocation,on its website at:</p><p><ahref="http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/Public-bodies/Relocation/Introduction">www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/…

14 Jun 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to relocate the headquarters of the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency and, if so, to what location.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: We hope to establish a multi-agency law enforcement campus to bring together key agencies engaged in the fight against serious and organised crime. The SDEA would be part of this. A possible site has been identified near Gartcosh, but a final decision will be…

2 Jun 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had any dialogue with public private partnerships in relation to pricing policies for the use of school sports facilities.

Answer · Peter Peacock: It is for the local authority, as procuring authority in a schools PPP project, to set out its requirements regarding all aspects of community use of school facilities. The details are for agreement between the authority and the PPP service provider. The Scot…

2 Jun 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many school playing fields have been sold by public private partnerships, broken down by local authority area.

Answer · Peter Peacock: The Scottish Executive does not collect information on the sale of such local authority fields.</p>

2 Jun 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many school playing fields have been sold to private developers, excluding public private partnerships, in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.

Answer · Peter Peacock: The Scottish Executive does not collect information on the sale of such local authority fields.</p>

2 Jun 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how it plans to support higher levels of physical activity in schools.

Answer · Patricia Ferguson: The Executive is committed to increasing levels of physical activity amongst our school children in line with the targets set out in our Physical Activity Strategy and Sport 21: The National Strategy for Sport in Scotland. We aim to achieve this through a twi…

2 Jun 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what strategy it has to encourage greater community use of school sporting facilities.

Answer · Peter Peacock: The Executive encourages the fullest possible use of all local authority resources, including school sporting facilities. It is though for authorities and schools to consider how best to encourage such community use. In <i>Building our Future: Scotland’s Scho…

2 Jun 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the minimum maintenance requirements are for school playing fields.

Answer · Peter Peacock: The Scottish Executive does not set maintenance requirements for school playing fields. Management and maintenance of the school estate, including school playing fields, are matters for local authorities.</p>

2 Jun 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had any discussions with the National Playing Fields Association Scotland in the last 12 months and, if so, what the outcome of these discussions was.

Answer · Patricia Ferguson: The Director of the National Playing Fields Association met with an official from the Executive’s Sports Division together with officials from <b>sport</b>scotland<b> </b>in February 2005. They discussed a range of issues relating to playing fields. The meeti…

1 Jun 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the development officer responsible for outdoor education at Learning and Teaching Scotland has commenced employment and, if not, when the expected commencement date is and what the reasons are for any delay.

Answer · Peter Peacock: Learning and Teaching Scotland have conducted the application process and negotiated a start date of 19 September 2005 with the preferred candidate.</p>

25 May 2005 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made in respect of its National and Regional Sports Facilities Strategy.

Answer · Patricia Ferguson: Since writing to all successful applicants notifying them of their allocation and the conditions under which the Stage One offer was made, <b>sport</b>scotland have been holding regular meetings with all successful applicants to review progress, provide addit…

18 May 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many outdoor education centres there are and what the average waiting times are for accessing courses, broken down by local authority.

Answer · Peter Peacock: This information is not held centrally. Schools in Scotland currently offer a wide variety of outdoor education opportunities to pupils through a variety of local authority, voluntary, charitable and private providers.</p>

18 May 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what its policy is in respect of outdoor education.

Answer · Peter Peacock: There is no existing detailed policy on outdoor education in Scotland. It is not a subject in itself, but provides a setting for delivery of some aspects of the curriculum such as personal and social development, environmental studies and the expressive arts.…

18 May 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when the national development officer at Learning and Teaching Scotland will publish a report on outdoor education.

Answer · Peter Peacock: It will not be the role of the development officer to produce a report as such. The role will rather be one of identifying and disseminating good practice, and encouraging authorities to review and enhance provision. The development officer will communicate h…