- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 12 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-23500 by Mr Tom McCabe on 9 March 2006, how it monitors the impact of its procurement methods on the Scottish economy and on small and medium-sized enterprises.
Answer
The Scottish Executive doesnot formally monitor the impact of its procurement methods on the Scottisheconomy or on small and medium-sized enterprises; public procurement processesare regulated by European Directives which promote fair and open competition,and do not permit consideration of the impact on the Scottish economy whenawarding contracts.
The Executive has, however, takenmeasures through commissioning the recently published Review of Public Procurement in Scotland Report andthrough on-going dialogue with businesses and their representativeorganisations to ensure that public sector procurement processes are open tosmall and medium-sized enterprises and to social enterprises.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 12 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to maximise the involvement of small and medium-sized enterprises in PPP projects.
Answer
I refer the member to the answerto question S2W-23499 on 9 March 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions areavailable on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can befound at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 12 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether Communities Scotland operates a quality assessment system for local housing strategies and, if so, what the assessment criteria are and whether any submitted local housing strategies have failed an assessment.
Answer
I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to reply. Her response is asfollows.
Communities Scotlandassesses local housing strategies against seven critical areas approved by ministers,and agreed with COSLA. These include market analysis, needs assessment andproblem identification, resourcing, and monitoring and evaluation.
In assessing against thesecriteria, Communities Scotland gives each local housing strategy a grade on aseven point scale which ranges from “outstanding” to “generally weak”. Thesegrades were developed in consultation with local authorities in an earlierpilot exercise.
During 2003-04 all 32 localauthorities submitted a local housing strategy to Communities Scotland forassessment. More than two-thirds achieved an overall grading of at least “good”,which is the mid point on the scale. Of the remainder, Communities Scotland areateams work with local authorities to improve their strategies.
The overall aim is toprovide a benchmark for local authorities to continuously improve their local housingstrategies, and support those which need to make significant improvements. Moreinformation on the assessment criteria and examples of good practice areavailable on the Communities Scotland website at
www.lhs.communitiesscotland.gov.uk.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 12 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-13891 by Malcolm Chisholm on 8 February 2006, whether new measures to mitigate any effects arising from the withdrawal of section 54 of the Housing Act 1988 are now in place and, if so, what the measures are.
Answer
I have asked Angiolina Foster, the Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her reply is asfollows:
The phasing out of Section54 (Tax Relief Grant) was completed on 31 March 2005.A further transitional arrangement has been put in place for tax year 2005-06whereby corporation tax liabilities of eligible registered social landlords(RSLs) will be funded by Communities Scotland up to a maximum of £100,000. Thereafter,Communities Scotland will deal with any issues of financial viability ofindividual RSLs if they occur.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 11 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question SW2-23823 by Tavish Scott on 7 April 2006, how many (a) road traffic accidents and (b) fatalities and serious injuries there were on the A726 between Strathaven and East Kilbride in each of the last 10 years.
Answer
Data about personal injury roadaccidents are collected by the police and reported to the Scottish Executive usingthe STATS 19 statistical report form. The following table gives the numbers of roadaccidents which were identified in these returns as occurring on the A726 betweenStrathaven and the junction at the south-east of the Birniehill roundabout in East Kilbride,from 1995 to 2004, and the associated numbers of fatalities and serious injuries.
It should be noted that the statisticsgiven below are based upon the data which are held in the Scottish Executive’s roadaccident statistics database and which were collected by the police at the timeof the accident and subsequently reported to the Executive. They may differ fromany figures which the local authorities would provide now, because they do not takeaccount of any subsequent changes or corrections that local authorities may havemade to the statistical information, for use at local level, about the locationof each accident, based upon their knowledge of the roads and areas concerned.
Year | Injury Accidents | Fatalities | Seriously-Injured Casualties |
1995 | 19 | 0 | 4 |
1996 | 18 | 0 | 5 |
1997 | 20 | 0 | 13 |
1998 | 18 | 1 | 4 |
1999 | 16 | 1 | 4 |
2000 | 10 | 0 | 3 |
2001 | 13 | 1 | 4 |
2002 | 18 | 0 | 5 |
2003 | 17 | 2 | 1 |
2004 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
Provisional numbers of road accidentsand casualties in 2005 as a whole will be published in June.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 11 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-23824 and S2W-23825 by Tavish Scott on 15 March 2006, whether the A726 is a trunk road or a local road and who has responsibility for the safety audit.
Answer
The A726 comprises both trunkand local road sections. The trunk road section runs from Phillipshill Interchangeto Birniehill Roundabout, linking the Glasgow Southern Orbital with the A725 EastKilbride Expressway. It is managed and maintained by Amey Infrastructure Serviceson behalf of Transport Scotland.
The remainder of the A726 isa local road and is the responsibility of the appropriate local road authorities,South Lanarkshire, East Renfrewshire and City of Glasgow Councils. Each roads authority is responsiblefor safety on the section of road for which it is responsible.
Transport Scotland hasthe operational responsibility for this area and can be contacted for more informationif required.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Johann Lamont on 11 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-14467 by Johann Lamont on 14 March 2005, whether it will provide details of the (a) number and (b) value of indemnity payments made to those who have suffered loss as a result of an inaccuracy in a land certificate in each of the last three years for which information is available.
Answer
The information on indemnitypayments is as follows:
| 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 |
No. of Payments | 86 | 77 | 83 |
Value of Indemnity Payments | £410,417 | £446,978 | £394,174 |
Average Payment | £4,772 | £5,805 | £4,749 |
No. of Applications for Registration in the Land Register | 342,408 | 359,711 | 370,349 |
% of Payments to Applications | 0.03% | 0.02% | 0.02% |
No. of Registered Titles | 1,074,000 | 1,166,000 | 1,256,000 |
Ratio of Payments to Registered Titles (rounded) | 1:12,500 | 1:15,100 | 1:15,100 |
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Johann Lamont on 11 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to S2W-14465 by Johann Lamont on 14 March 2005, whether Registers of Scotland is on target to begin the roll-out of the Automated Registration of Title to Land (ARTL) from November 2006.
Answer
Yes. The ARTL projectremains on target to accept the first applications for registration of anelectronic deed in November and for live operation to be available throughout Scotland byApril 2007.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Johann Lamont on 11 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to S2W-14490 by Johann Lamont on 14 March 2005, what progress Registers of Scotland has made in meeting its target to eliminate stocks of domestic first registration applications over one year old.
Answer
In 2004-05, ministers set atarget to eliminate stocks of domestic First Registrations over 1 year oldduring the next three years with a milestone reduction of 25% from the stockposition at 31 March 2004 by 31 March2005. Registers of Scotland met this target. The 2005-06 target was to achieve a62% stock reduction against the 31 March 2004 baseline by 31 March 2006.Registers of Scotland achieved a 52% reduction.
Experience in workingtowards these targets demonstrated that factors outwith the control of theRegisters of Scotland may influence the time taken to complete domestic FirstRegistrations. The target for 2006-07 has therefore been amended to “achieverecording and registration turnaround times averaging no more than 100 workingdays for all domestic first registrations”.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Johann Lamont on 11 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many registration of title applications are outstanding and, of these, how many have been outstanding for more than (a) six months, (b) one year, (c) two years, (d) three years, (e) four years and (f) five years.
Answer
The length of time that anapplication for registration takes to process depends on its complexity andfactors such as the availability of supporting documentation from applicants,the completeness of neighbouring titles and whether there are associatedapplications that should be processed at the same time. The current totals ofapplications for registration in the Land Register that are in the course ofbeing processed are as follows:
Age Band | Stock | Relative Intake |
<6 months | 69,491 | 189,832 |
6-12 months | 31,942 | 183,797 |
1-2 years | 39,624 | 362,371 |
2-3 years | 21,433 | 342,482 |
3-4 years | 8,138 | 283,905 |
4-5 years | 1,880 | 246,967 |
> 5 years | 327 | |
Over the period 2005-06 Registersof Scotland have specifically addressed arrears of the oldest casework. Thenumber of cases older than three years has dropped from 14,128 to 9,345.