Tommy Sheridan

27 Nov 2002 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what level of annual pay it considers reasonable for a firefighter.

Answer · Hugh Henry: The Scottish Executive has no direct locus in fire service pay and conditions of service issues. These are matters for the local authority employers and are negotiated on a UK basis through the National Joint Council.

21 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-31153 by Malcolm Chisholm on 12 November 2002, what the current monetary value is of the nursing and midwifery student bursary; whether this bursary level adequately provides for the living costs of nursing and midwifery students that receive the bur…

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The Nursing and Midwifery Student Bursary scheme is demand-led but in 2001-02 cost £35.7 million. A non-repayable bursary of £5,430 (for students under 26 at the start of the course) or £6,115 (for students over 26) is awarded to cover day-to-day living costs…

14 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people in Scotland were the subject of interception of communications warrants in each of the last three years, and what information it has on how many of the 1,314 authorisations for interception of communications granted by the Home Secretary in 2001 were in respect of people r…

Answer · Jim Wallace: Information regarding the number of interception of communication warrants issued is contained in the reports of the Interception of Communications Commissioner, which are laid before Parliament annually and are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre.…

14 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many workers are paid less than the minimum wage and what representations it has made to Her Majesty's Government on the impact that the implementation of minimum wage legislation will have on eradicating poverty.

Answer · Iain Gray: Responsibility for employment matters, including the National Minimum Wage (NMW), is reserved to the UK Government.<P>The Scottish Executive has recently been asked to give evidence to the Low Pay Commission's fourth annual report on the NMW.

14 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many unfilled vacancies currently exist in the NHS, broken down by department and field of work; how long these vacancies have existed, and what action it intends to take to address unfilled vacancies.

Answer · Mary Mulligan: Information on vacancies for consultant medical and dental staff, nursing and midwifery staff and professions allied to medicine (PAMs) staff can be found on ISD's website accessible from the following link:<P><A HREF="http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/isd/NHSiS_re…

13 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many jobs have been transferred from the public sector to the private sector as a direct result of private finance initiative and public private partnership (PPP) projects in each of the last five years.

Answer · Andy Kerr: Exact data is not held centrally. However, we estimate that fewer than 10,000 staff have transferred in the 79 PPP deals signed so far in Scotland in the 10 years that PPP has been in existence. This represents under 2% of public sector employees in Scotland.…

13 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the level of foreign disinvestment and company closures with associated job losses was in each of the last five years and what level of public financial support was provided to each company involved.

Answer · Iain Gray: The information requested is not held centrally.<P>For internal purposes, reports of job losses by companies, local enterprise companies and newspapers are monitored. However, the Executive cannot vouch for the accuracy and completeness of this information an…

13 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many new jobs were promised by foreign investors and companies and how many such jobs were actually created in each of the last 10 years.

Answer · Iain Gray: The number of planned new jobs through foreign direct investment announced over the last 10 years is as follows:<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=7 WIDTH=217><TR><TD WIDTH="39%" VALIGN="TOP"><P>Year</TD><TD WIDTH="61%" VALIGN="TOP"><P>Total Number of Pl…

13 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the annual cost to the public sector would be of introducing the Low Pay Unit's minimum wage level of #7.32 per hour, showing the cost to local government and the NHS separately.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The information on the costs to all parts of the public sector in Scotland is not held centrally. However, as an illustration of the anticipated costs it is estimated that it would cost around an extra £189 million a year to introduce a wage level of £7.32 pe…

13 Nov 2002 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will give assurances that the children of asylum seekers living in Scotland will continue to be educated in existing state-sector schools and not through separate, segregated education.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: Immigration and asylum matters are reserved to the UK Government.

8 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there is any evidence of late payment of bills to businesses by public bodies.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The Scottish Executive and other public bodies are committed to pay invoices promptly and their internal policies require this. The Scottish Executive observes the CBI prompt payment code and British Standard 7890. Public bodies record their payment performan…

8 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is its policy that bills must be paid to businesses by public bodies within 30 days.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The <I>Scottish Public Finance Manual</I>, which defines the procurement policy for the Scottish Executive including its agencies and associated departments, requires that invoices are paid promptly, within 30 days of receipt of a valid invoice, unless otherw…

6 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding for mental health has been (a) made available and (b) spent in each of the last five years; how such funding was distributed, broken down by NHS boards and trusts, the voluntary sector and local authority social work departments; what formula is used to distribute such fundin…

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: Local authority funding for mental health services, and all other community care services, is provided on an unhypothecated basis. It is therefore up to each local authority to determine use of these resources in line with local circumstances. This year, loca…

6 Nov 2002 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it plans to take as part of its strategy against poverty that would result in an improvement in the disposable income of households in Glasgow.

Answer · Margaret Curran: The Scottish Executive is combating poverty by improving the disposable income of households in Glasgow through a range of actions. These include concessionary bus passes for older people, delivering our Warm Deal Central Heating programmes, supporting the ch…

5 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will organise a public inquiry, involving representatives of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) College Lecturers' Association, the Scottish Trades Union Congress and other appropriate bodies, into industrial relations across the further education sector, in the light …

Answer · Iain Gray: There are no plans for such an enquiry. Industrial relations and employment issues within further education colleges, which are autonomous bodies in terms of the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 1992, are for the colleges themselves to address.

5 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what powers it has to return the further education sector to local authority control and reintroduce a system of national pay and conditions bargaining and whether it plans to use any such powers to reintroduce a national pay and conditions structure covering all further education college…

Answer · Iain Gray: The Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 1992 established individual further education colleges as bodies corporate with responsibility for the contractual terms and conditions of college employees. There are no current plans by ministers to introduce …

5 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to establish a new national pay and conditions negotiating machinery within the NHS in respect of all or some of the service's employees.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: No.

1 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are approximately 290 prisoners currently held at HM Prison Cornton Vale and, if so, what the reasons are, given that the prison has a design capacity of 230.

Answer · Jim Wallace: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:<P>No, numbers are currently about 260 but they have reached that number in recent months. The courts decide how many people to send to custody. U…

1 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to reduce the number of women prisoners held at HM Prison Cornton Vale to 100 as referred to in Women Offenders: A Safer Way and, if so, when this target will be met.

Answer · Jim Wallace: The Executive has determined no such target. Decisions whether to commit people to custody or to the various and increasing alternatives to custody provided by the Executive are for the judiciary.

1 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when the transfer of 50 women from HM Prison Cornton Vale to HM Prison Greenock will take place.

Answer · Jim Wallace: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:<P>The transfer will be carefully phased over a period staring in mid-November.

31 Oct 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the article in the Sunday Mail on 27 October 2002 regarding the drop-out rates of student nurses from their courses and the relationship of these rates to bursary levels is accurate; if so, what it intends to do to address this situation, and whether it intends to introduce a livi…

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The drop-out rate of student nurses is currently 22.4%.<P>There are a number of reasons why student nurses leave their course and we are taking a number of steps to address attrition including improving financial support - the Nursing and Midwifery Student Bu…

31 Oct 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any monitoring arrangements are in place to ensure that public money committed to purchase private sector goods or services is not committed to any organisation operating a tax avoidance policy by establishing accounts in offshore tax havens and, if not, whether it will investigat…

Answer · Andy Kerr: No monitoring arrangements are in place in respect of tax avoidance schemes. However, organisations bidding for Scottish Executive contracts are expected to have met their legal obligations in respect of taxation and it is standard practice that they are aske…

28 Oct 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to secure the jobs at Richard Roberts Knitwear in Ayrshire.

Answer · Iain Gray: Since Richard Roberts Knitwear entered its consultation period, officials at Scottish Development International and Scottish Enterprise Ayrshire have been in close, regular contact with senior management at the company. A number of options were discussed with…

23 Oct 2002 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the views expressed by the Deputy Prime Minister on 22 October 2002 in the House of Commons on lack of necessity and justification for the firefighters' industrial action.

Answer · Jim Wallace: We are pleased that, through the intervention of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) and the local authority employers are meeting again this week in the National Joint Council. We hope that the resumption of negotiations and the work of …

21 Oct 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive why it does not specify that a percentage of grants awarded under the Community Safety Partnership Award Programme must be spent on counteracting racist and homophobic crime and gender-based abuse given that it does specify that 18% of the grants awarded under the programme must be spent …

Answer · Richard Simpson: It is for local Community Safety Partnerships to determine the local community safety priorities, normally following a community safety audit and consultation with the community.<P>Budget consequentials for anti-drug activities funded £750,000 (18%) of the to…

17 Oct 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what its response is to the recent study published in volume 325, issue 7368 of the British Medical Journal on the link between insulin resistance and socio-economic position in childhood and adulthood and what action it intends to take in the light of the study.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The study provides yet further evidence of the link between socio-economic circumstances and health experience, and also underscores the importance of a good start in life. These will be important themes in our forthcoming health improvement strategy.<P>Addit…

16 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how it plans to improve the current provision of free dental care and increase the number of NHS dentists throughout Scotland as a result of the Spending Review 2002.

Answer · Mary Mulligan: The Spending Review 2002 will enable us to continue to implement recommendations contained in <I>An Action Plan for Dental Services in Scotland</I>. These include improving access to NHS dental services and measures to recruit and retain NHS dentists in Scotl…

12 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, since the inception of Scottish Water, how many (a) contractors it has appointed, (b) tenders for work it has received, (c) contracts it has awarded and at what value and (d) contracts have commenced.

Answer · Ross Finnie: This is a matter for Scottish Water. The Chief Executive's response is as follows:<P>Scottish Water contracts a wide variety of services from construction to IT support to estate management. It is estimated that in relation to Scottish Water's capital program…

28 Aug 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many learning providers were recipients of Individual Learning Account (ILA) payments in each year since the scheme was introduced and how much each provider was paid.

Answer · Iain Gray: Account information held on learning providers participating in the scheme is commercially sensitive. It would, therefore, be inappropriate to provide financial details in respect of each individual learning provider.<P>According to the ILA Centre's records, …

28 Aug 2002 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it intends to take to end low pay in the health service in Scotland.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The Scottish Executive is committed to addressing low pay in the context of the UK national negotiations on pay modernisation.