Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-11705 on 23 April 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Since June 2003, every Scottish local authority has had a duty to offer people with learning disabilities and other disabled and elderly people who meet local authority eligibility criteria for community care, the opportunity to receive self-directed support (direct payments). They can receive the practical help that they need to enable them to manage the care package day-to-day. The flexibility achieved is such that those with complex needs can also have self-directed support using the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 to safeguard their interests. The Scottish Consortium for Learning Disability has produced An easy guide to direct payments (2005) for people with learning disabilities which is available at http://www.scld.org.uk/library-publications/scld-publications.xhtml.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-11705 on 23 April 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The criteria applied to moderating the National Conversation website are:

1. All submitted comments are to be pre-moderated before publication.

2. All published comments are liable to be removed from the site at any point after internal reconsideration or on receipt of a reasonable complaint.

3. No registration is required for submitting comments but contributors are asked to provide a name, location and e-mail address. Name and location are optional and will be displayed. E-mail addresses will not be displayed but failure to provide an e-mail address may result in rejection.

4. Anything considered abusive, indecent, unlawful or defamatory will be rejected.

5. Comments considered inappropriate in terms of language (e.g. language that would not be permitted within the parliamentary context), and irrelevant in terms of subject matter, will be rejected.

6. Comments containing obscenities and bad language (whether words are modified by asterisks or not) will be rejected.

7. Any comment including an active hyperlink will be rejected.

8. The terms and conditions on privacy and usage which apply to the main site www.scotland.gov.uk also apply to the National Conversation site.

No additional resources have been allocated to the National Conversation. The maintenance of the website is included as part of the overall responsibilities of the web team within the communications directorate.

Comments posted on the Ministers'' Blog section are moderated using the criteria developed for the National Conversation website. Comments posted also help to inform the development of the conversation more generally.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-11333 on 23 April 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Comments submitted to the Ministers'' Blog section of the National Conversation website have been pre-moderated since the launch of the website in August 2007.

Minutes of the working group will be published on the Scottish Government website within three months of each meeting. It is intended that Scottish Government papers from the meetings will also be published.

To date, Scottish Government expenditure on the Working Group on Scotland without Nuclear Weapons has totalled £41.60.

Calculating the costs associated with officials making arrangements for the working group on Scotland is not possible, as relevant staff have undertaken such work alongside a range of other duties and the time spent on any given day on such work would have varied considerably.