Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S2W-26625

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 19 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been invested by Communities Scotland and its predecessor organisation in housing association stock in the (a) Argyll and Bute Council area, (b) West Dunbartonshire Council area and (c) Dumbarton parliamentary constituency in each year since 1999.

I have asked Angiolina Foster,Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her answer is as follows:

Investment by Communities Scotland,and its predecessor organisation, in Housing Association stock in the (a) Argylland Bute Council area; (b) West Dunbartonshire Council area, and (c) Dumbarton parliamentaryconstituency in each year since 1999 is set out in the following table:

Location	1999-2000 (£ Million)	2000-01 (£ Million)	2001-02 (£ Million)	2002-03 (£ Million)	2003-04 (£ Million)	2004-05 (£ Million)	2005-06 (£ Million)	Total
Argyll and Bute Council	5.653	4.435	4.057	3.642	7.288	10.690	14.979	50.744
West Dunbartonshire Council	6.707	8.385	10.108	7.808	7.650	9.008	12.658	62.324
Dumbarton Parliamentary Constituency	2.990	3.556	3.615	3.825	4.262	6.879	14.996	40.123”

Question reference: S2W-26623

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 19 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to ensure the availability of affordable, good quality housing for those on low incomes in the Dumbarton parliamentary constituency.

The main source of new affordable,good quality housing in the Dumbarton constituency is Communities Scotland’s AffordableHousing Investment Programme. This programme includes their Core Development Programmeand the Community Ownership Programme.

The Dumbarton constituency willthis year benefit from over £10 million of investment from the Core DevelopmentProgramme. This will include the expected approval of 48 new units of affordablerented housing. In addition, five units of shared equity housing funded from theHomestake scheme (located in Alexandria) will go on sale.

West Dunbartonshire Council hasyet to take a final decision on making an application to join the Community OwnershipProgramme. It has been consulting with tenants and residents over its intentionto do so. It has also been developing linked proposals to bid for resources fromthe Early Action Fund of the Community Ownership Programme.

Where areas are proposed forsignificant levels of investment, involving demolishing existing stock and buildingnew homes, local housing associations will be working with the Council and localresidents to develop area-based regeneration plans.

For existing social rented housing,the Scottish Executive has a policy objective of ensuring that stock owned by localauthority landlords, and registered social landlords (housing associations) meetthe Scottish Housing Quality Standard by 2015.

Question reference: S2W-26627

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 19 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding has been allocated to the rough sleepers initiative in the (a) Argyll and Bute and (b) West Dunbartonshire local authority area since the inception of the initiative and how successful the initiative has been.

The Rough Sleepers Initiative(RSI) was launched in 1997. Between 1997 and 2002 local authorities received fundingfrom the Rough Sleepers Initiative on the basis of bids made to the Executive settingout the need for such funding in their area.

Local authorities’ activitiesfunded as a result of RSI have now become integrated with local authorities’ widerhomelessness strategies and since 2004-05 these activities have been included withintheir local outcome agreements, which set out on an annual basis how they are implementingthese strategies.

The final evaluation of the RSIwas published in March 2005 (which can be found at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/03/20886/54982)and concluded that this initiative had achieved significant progress and producedtangible reductions in the need to sleep rough across the country. The evaluationconcluded that the RSI enhanced services in cities and often created specific servicesfor the first time in rural and smaller urban areas.

The following table shows theallocations of funding to Argyll and Bute and West Dunbartonshire authorities under the RSI:

Year	Argyll and Bute	West Dunbartonshire
1997-98	0	0
1998-99	0	£11,200
1999-2000	£8,000	£34,300
2000-01	£274,880	£86,010
2001-02	£114,480	£104,347
2002-03	£114,480	£102,000
2003-04	£114,480	£102,000
2004-05	£114,480	£106,000
2005-06	£124,000	£110,000
2006-07	£125,000	£111,000

Question reference: S2W-26626

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 19 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been invested in local authority housing stock in the (a) Argyll and Bute and (b) West Dunbartonshire local authority area in each year since 1999.

Housing Revenue Account (HRA)capital expenditure, as recorded on the councils’ HRA returns, is shown in the followingtable.

Council	1999-2000 (£ Million)	2000-01 (£ Million)	2001-02 (£ Million)	2002-03 (£ Million)	2003-04 (£ Million)	2004-05 (£ Million)	2005-06 (£ Million)
Argyll and Bute	4.1	3.2	3.2	3.5	3.5	3.6	3.1
West Dunbartonshire	8.2	8.2	7.2	6.8	8.8	11.6	13.7

Council

1999-2000

(£ Million)

2000-01

(£ Million)

2001-02

(£ Million)

2002-03

(£ Million)

2003-04

(£ Million)

2004-05

(£ Million)

2005-06

(£ Million)

Argyll and Bute

4.1

3.2

3.5

3.6

3.1

West Dunbartonshire

8.2

7.2

6.8

8.8

11.6

13.7

Note: The figures for 2005-06are estimates.

Question reference: S2W-26442

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 15 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to address delayed discharge from hospitals in Argyll and Bute.

Question reference: S2W-26443

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 15 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it will take to improve the delivery of care services for elderly people in Argyll and Bute.

Question reference: S2W-26444

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 14 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding it has allocated for social work services in Argyll and Bute for each year since 1999.

The GAE allocations for socialwork services in Argyll and Bute for each year since 1999 are shown in the following table.

Year	Amount Allocated (£ Million)
1999-2000	20.660
2000-01	21.208
2001-02	23.187
2002-03	26.204
2003-04	32.955
2004-05	33.958
2005-06	35.191
2006-07	38.729
2007-08	40.347

These allocations are based onthe total social work Grant Aided Expenditure (GAE) lines for each year. It shouldbe noted that these GAEs are not budgets or spending targets but part of the morecomplex local government funding formula used to calculate one block grant figurefor each council. It is then up to each council to decide how best to allocate theirresources based on their local needs and priorities.

Specific Grant for Social WorkTraining of £5.5 million per annum is currently allocated to local authorities.This is ring fenced funding to improve the quality of social work service provisionby increasing the availability of training for relevant staff.

SpecificGrant Funding Awarded to Argyll and ButeCouncil

	Annual Grant Award (£)
1999-2000	65,000
2000-01	35,968
2001-02	41,000
2002-03	35,968
2003-04	98,968
2004-05	98,968
2005-06	98,968
2006-07	98,968

Question reference: S2W-25895

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 6 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive when it last met the Committee of Scottish Clearing Banks to discuss bank arrestment and what issues were raised.

Question reference: S2W-25893

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 6 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review the Debt Arrangement Scheme to enable more debtors to be included.

A debtor eligible for the DebtArrangement Scheme must apply for a debt payment programme through an approved moneyadviser.

A lower than expected numberof money advisers have become approved. In order to increase take up by debtorsit will be necessary to first increase the number of approved advisers.

With that in mind, the Executivereviewed the Debt Arrangement Scheme between December 2005 and February 2006. Asa result of that review the Executive announced on 24 May 2005 that the Scheme wouldbe amended to allow for a payment programme to include debt relief.

This reform is expected to leadto an increase in the number of approved money advisers, and thereby enable moredebtors to be included in the scheme.

Question reference: S2W-25891

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 May 2006
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 6 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many money advisers are accredited to provide advice on the use of debt arrangement schemes.