- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 8 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware that Lothian Buses student ridacards exclude thousands of mature students as they are only available to students aged between 16 and 25; what its policy position is in this respect; what representations it has received to extend the scheme to all students regardless of age, and whether there is any region where such exclusion is not practised.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is aware of the campaign currently being run by Edinburgh University Students Association and has received a number of related letters and pre-printed postcards. The Executive provides help with travel costs for mature students under further and higher education funding. Beyond that, student discounts for travel are commercial decisions made by travel operators at their discretion and information on such schemes is held by the operators concerned and not the Executive.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 7 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-25757 by Peter Peacock of 23 May 2002, the report prepared for Audit Scotland in November 2004, which investigated complaints surrounding Scottish Borders Council's stewardship of its Common Good Fund by Scottish Borders Council, and Petition PE875 by Miss Mary Mackenzie in respect of common good assets, whether it now considers that there should be a Scotland-wide register and record of all moveable and heritable common good assets, including details of the local authorities that have the stewardship of the assets and providing easy public accessibility to the register.
Answer
We have no plans to commission a national register of common good assets held by local authorities. It is the responsibility of local authorities as trustees to manage assets held for the common good according to sound asset management principles.
All moveable and heritable common good assets which are the property of the local authority are accounted for within the audited accounts of each authority. Local authority accounts are subject to annual audits by Audit Scotland, and these are accessible by law to any member of the public. Any member of the public can access local authority accounts and performance outcome information under section 101 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, section 13 of the Local Government in Scotland 2003 and also under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
All local authorities are also required, by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 2003, to adhere to proper accounting practice, including having in place asset management plans. These plans are intended to ensure sound financial stewardship of all assets including common good assets and I would support any moves by local authorities which provide greater transparency in their financial governance.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 May 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by John Scott on 6 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what arrangements are in place to allow security staff who are instructed to take their lunch at 11.30 am to eat at Holyrood, given that the garden level restaurant does not serve meals until 12.00 noon.
Answer
The lunch service in the Garden Restaurant with effect from 31 May, commenced earlier at 11.30 am. As a consequence, the breakfast service will closes earlier at 10.15 am.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 1 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many rural second and holiday homes there were in each year since 1999, expressed also as a percentage of total housing and broken down by ward.
Answer
The information requested can be found in the Communities Scotland Research Report No.58 The Impact of Second and Holiday Homes in Rural Scotland which is available publicly.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Duncan McNeil on 30 November 2005
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it considers that the release of street names in members’ travel claim forms, where the destination is a home visit to a constituent, breaches confidentiality between the constituent and the member and whether the provision of such information is in breach of the Data Protection Act 1998.
Answer
The SPCB recognises the need for confidentiality and trust between an MSP and a constituent. Where a street number and name are known to be that of a constituent, the SPCB would redact the number but leave the street name. If the street contained only two houses both the number and street name would be redacted. The SPCB relies on members to advise parliamentary officials as it would not be self evident whether an address is that of a constituent or a business address.
In deciding what information to release on allowances, the SPCB seeks to act within the provisions of the relevant legislation, including the Data Protection Act.
The member will also be aware that the SPCB has created a joint member/official working party which can consider a range of issues, including this, in accordance with the approved remit and to make recommendations to the SPCB.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by John Scott on 23 November 2005
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will take steps to ensure that the distinctive Scottish-definitive stamps, the lion rampant (first class) and saltire (second class) are available to MSPs in book and self-adhesive format.
Answer
Currently Royal Mail only produce non self-adhesive Scottish-definitive stamps in sheets of one hundred. They are sold in four different denominations; £0.21, £0.30, £0.42 and £0.68. MSPs have the option to request Scottish-definitive or self-adhesive British-definitive stamps when ordering through the Parliament post office or Parliament mailroom.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 07 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 22 November 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-12173 by Mr Andy Kerr on 23 November 2004, what progress has been made with the research projects in relation to excess winter mortality and whether the findings will be made public.
Answer
No specific study has been undertaken in relation to winter mortality. However, the Scottish Executive is funding two major research projects evaluating the impact of the central heating programme.
The first is a long-term project being undertaken by the University of Edinburgh and TNS Social Research looking at the impact of the programme on the health of recipients. This work is expected to be completed towards the end of 2006.
The second is an annual survey of households included in each of the first three years of the programme. This research showed that in the first year of the programme nearly 90% of the people surveyed who were in fuel poverty were lifted out of it after receiving the programme.
Once the findings of these research projects are finalised they will be made available to the public.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 07 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 21 November 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many excess winter deaths have been attributable to influenza in each year since 1999, broken down (a) by NHS board area and (b) into people aged (i) 60 to 74, (ii) 75 to 84 and (iii) 85 and over.
Answer
The numbers of deaths registered in the winter months (December to March) where influenza is recorded as the underlying cause of death are shown in the following table.
Because of the small numbers involved NHS board and age breakdowns have not been provided.
Deaths Registered with Influenza1 as the Underlying Cause
| | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 |
| December to March | 142 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 5 |
Note: 1. 1999 data ICD9 code 487. 2000-2004 data ICD10 codes J10 and J11.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 21 November 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding was made available to each local authority to assist private residential homes to train staff to achieve Scottish Vocational Qualification standard certification in each year since 1999.
Answer
The funding that local authorities make available to assist private residential homes to train staff to achieve Scottish Vocational Qualification standard is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 07 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 17 November 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to ensure that fewer people die this winter from cold-related illnesses than in previous years, despite the forecast of a particularly harsh winter.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is taking action on a number of fronts.
The Chief Medical Officer will issue guidance to older people to keep warm, use the winter fuel payment to ensure their homes are adequately heated and to wear sufficient warm clothing when they go outside. He will also remind neighbours, relatives and carers to check up regularly on older people during cold weather.
The Scottish Executive supports an annual influenza vaccination campaign to vaccinate those aged 65 and over and those in risk groups under 65. This campaign includes a central information letter which is sent to all those aged 65 and over across Scotland reminding them that they are eligible for free flu immunisation.
In addition, the Executive’s central heating and Warm Deal programmes provide free central heating for pensioners who have none or whose system is irretrievably broken; to those over 80 whose systems are partial or inefficient, and insulation measures for all pensioners. The central heating programme also provides energy efficiency advice on keeping warm and keeping bills down, and the offer of a benefits health check to ensure that people are claiming the all the benefits to which they are entitled.
