- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 August 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 11 December 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what recourse an individual has in terms of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 sections 1, 12, 12A and 13A if a local authority delays providing permanent care in a nursing home once that individual has been assessed as requiring such care.
Answer
If an individual believes that a council is not meeting any of its obligations adequately, he or she can pursue the matter through the local authority's complaints procedure with the council's Monitoring Officer or the Local Government Ombudsman, or ultimately through the courts if he or she believes that the council is not meeting its statutory obligations.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 27 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 11 December 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-10882 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 16 November 2000, whether it has obtained assurances that jobs at Burtons Biscuits are secure given the intention of Hicks, Muse, Tate and Furst to rationalise production across various sites and what its understanding is of the term "rationalise" in this particular context.
Answer
The Scottish Executive understands that the company is continuing to consider its future business strategy following the takeover.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 6 December 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what criteria are used in awarding flood prevention grants to local authorities.
Answer
To be eligible for grant, flood prevention schemes must first be confirmed by Scottish Ministers under the provisions of the Flood Prevention (Scotland) Act 1961. In addition, councils must demonstrate value for money by submitting an investment appraisal in which costs should not exceed benefits.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 6 December 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what advice it has given or plans to give to local authorities regarding applying for flood prevention grants.
Answer
Advice on flood prevention grant is given to councils on a scheme-by-scheme basis. When a flood prevention scheme is confirmed by Scottish Ministers under the Flood Prevention (Scotland) Act 1961, advice is issued to the council concerned on the grant application procedures. Among other things, this advice covers design standards, the need to consider environmental issues and cost benefit requirements.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jackie Baillie on 5 December 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what the basis is of its estimate that 70,000 pensioners will benefit from its proposed central heating scheme.
Answer
The scheme will give central heating to pensioner households that do not have it: we estimate that 70,000 pensioner households meet this criterion.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 October 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 5 December 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-9571 by Iain Gray of 18 September, whether it will monitor the provision of day care centres in each local authority as part of its commitment to keeping older people within their own homes and in their communities for as long as possible.
Answer
The Scottish Executive Social Work Statistics Division carries out a full census of day care centres in local authority, private and voluntary sectors to monitor provision and usage of day care services across Scotland. The next census is to be carried out in March 2001.
In addition, the Scottish Executive will monitor the quality of day care centres through the new Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care. From 2002, the commission will have responsibility for regulation and inspection of day and home care in each local authority area.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Iain Gray on 4 December 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how many drug-related deaths there were in 1999 and how many deaths resulted from alcohol abuse, according to the International Classification of Diseases coding, in the same period.
Answer
There were 340 drug-related deaths and 1,103 alcohol-related deaths in Scotland during 1999.
Under the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), drug-related deaths may be coded to a number of categories. Information on a specific group of these codes is published each year in a short paper prepared by the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS). The total given above was taken from the latest paper, which was published in August 2000. A copy of this paper may be found in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. no. 8433) or on the GROS website (www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/grosweb/grosweb.nsf/pages/99ddeaths).
As with drug-related deaths, alcohol-related deaths may be coded to a number of ICD categories. The total above covers deaths from the following underlying causes (the relevant ICD codes - Ninth Revision - are given in brackets): alcoholic psychoses (ICD9 291), alcohol dependence syndrome (ICD9 303), non-dependent abuse of alcohol (ICD9 305.0), alcoholic cardiomyopathy (ICD9 425.5) and chronic liver disease and cirrhosis with a mention of alcohol (ICD9 571.0 - 571.3).
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 27 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 30 November 2000
To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Executive has any concerns about the level of morale in Scotland's prisons.
Answer
We recognise that the Scottish Prison Service is currently facing up to a challenging agenda for change.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 02 October 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 29 November 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, with regard to the reports in the Scotland on Sunday and Business AM of a possible takeover of Dawson International by Prada, what representations have been made to the Department of Trade and Industry and what steps have been taken to safeguard jobs in the Borders' cashmere industry should any takeover succeed.
Answer
Company take-overs are a commercial matter for the companies concerned. The Scottish Executive will make representations about the employment consequences of company takeovers. Dawson management say that an offer has recently been made for the company but have not named them. In the event of a takeover the Executive will be entering very early discussions with the acquiring company to discuss their intentions, especially where there are concerns about future employment to establish whether public support would help in creating or safeguarding employment.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 29 November 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of any research in Scotland with regard to the administering of drugs by concealing them in food or drinks in residential and nursing homes.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is not aware of any current research in this area.Arrangements are in place for the regular announced and unannounced inspections of all care homes, the medical records kept and the procedures followed for the safe administration of medicines. These protections will carry forward to our planned arrangements for the future regulation of care in care homes.
