Chamber and committees

The mental well-being of childrenand young people is a cross-Executive priority with action underway in a range ofareas of policy and practice. Getting it Right for Every Child is the Executive’sover-arching programme of reform for children’s services which will ensure thatall agencies working with young people will join up, plan together and meet allthe needs of the child. Many schools involved in the Schools of Ambition programmeare tackling improvements in pupil confidence and self-esteem as part of their whole-schooltransformation.

The Scottish Health PromotingSchools Unit (SHPSU) is working to ensure that every school works toward becominga health promoting school by 2007. The Schools (Health Promotion and Nutrition)(Scotland) Bill, currently being considered by parliament, is intended to buildon this work and go further by placing health promotion - including the promotionof positive mental health - at the heart of all schools’ activities.

Children and Young People’s Mental Health: A Framework for Promotion, Preventionand Care, which was published in 2005, established an integrated approach to positive mentalhealth promotion, prevention of mental illness and early care and treatment of mentalhealth problems amongst children and young people in health, education and socialservices.

Improvingthe mental health of children and young people is one of the six priority areasfor action under the Executive’s National Programme for Improving Mental Healthand Well-being.

These key interventions designedto promote the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people are supporteddirectly and indirectly by a range of other initiatives, funded by the Executive.

The Executive has provided dedicatedfunding to local authorities to tackle antisocial behaviour (ASB) since 2004-05.Argyll and Bute Council’s ASB funding between 2004-05 and 2006-07 was as follows:

2004-05 – £184,000

2005-06 – £204,700

2006-07 – £247,000.

Local authority funding to tackleASB in 2007-08 has yet to be released.

The information is availableon the Scottish Executive website at the following link http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/09/25160444/0.

The information can be foundin tables 1 and 2. Table 1 gives the number of people receiving direct paymentsand table 2 gives the total and average value of these payments.

The focus of the ScottishExecutive’s monitoring activity on direct payments is to increase uptake ofsuch payments amongst eligible groups and, from 2006 onwards, to ensure thatlocal authorities provide the necessary local infrastructure to support thisaim.

The Scottish Executive alsofunds the Consortium of Direct Payments Support Organisations to bring aboutimproved information, training and advice at local level. Their remit involvesworking in partnership with local agencies, service providers, and localorganisations to deliver improved person-centred services, including promotingthe participation of service users and their carers in the planning,development and delivery of services.

The following table providesthe available information on the value of fixed penalty notices fornon-endorsable stationary traffic offences received by District Courts across Scotland andthe value sent to the Exchequer. It is not possible to separate out parkingoffences from other stationary traffic offences.

Fixed Penalties for Non-EndorsableStationary Traffic Offences, 2003-04 to 2004-05

Scotland	2003-04	2004-05
Value of fixed penalties received	£1,202,733	£1,124,984
Value of fixed penalties sent to the Exchequer	£1,091,770	£1,019,416

Notes:

1. In 2003-04, thisinformation was not available for Argyll and Bute, Dumfries and Galloway, East Renfrewshire, Eilean Siar, Fife and Stirling. North Ayrshire could not provide data on the valueof these fixed penalties received since the information could not be separatedfrom the value of fixed penalties received for non-endorsable (mostly moving)traffic offences.

2. In 2004-05, informationwas not available for Argyll and Bute, Dumfries and Galloway, Eilean Siar, Fife and Stirling. West Dunbartonshire could not provide thisdata since the information could not be separated from the values for othertypes of fixed penalty.

3. Excludes the value of penaltycharge notices which are collected through decriminalised parking enforcementschemes under the Road Traffic Act 1991. Revenue from penalties collected underthese schemes is retained by the local authority. Decriminalised parkingenforcement is in operation in Aberdeen City, City of Edinburgh, Dundee City, Glasgow City, Perth and Kinross and South Lanarkshire.

Transport Scotland continuesto have dialogue with train manufacturers, rolling stock leasing companies, NetworkRail and First ScotRail about the specification of a fleet of rolling stock fora range of projects (including Airdrie to Bathgate rail link) and other passengergrowth initiatives.

Our current timescales suggestthat the rolling stock procurement plan will be complete during 2007 to facilitatethe procurement process, and will take cognisance of Parliament agreeing the Airdrieto Bathgate Railway and Linked Improvements Bill. Delivery will be on a phased basiscommencing in late 2009.

Transport Scotland hasthe operational responsibility for this area, and can be contacted for more informationif required.

Work is in hand to ensure thatrolling stock manufacturers are ready to produce the trains we will require fora variety of projects across Scotland including those for Airdrie to Bathgate shouldParliament approve the bill.

The procurement process itselfwill be carried out with the co-operation of the franchise operator, First ScotRail,in consultation with Transport Scotland, commencing in 2007. The rolling stock will be availablefor the projected completion date of the Airdrie to Bathgate rail line.

I refer the member to thequestion S2W-27986 answered on 14 September 2006. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website the searchfacility for which can be accessed at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

I refer the member to the questionS2W-27986 answered on 14 September 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions areavailable on the Parliament’s website the search facility for which can beaccessed at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The information requested isnot held centrally.