- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 04 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Iain Gray on 18 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what information has been sent to the residents on the Anderston estate in Glasgow to advise them of the transfer of their houses from Scottish Homes to Communities Scotland.
Answer
None of Scottish Homes houses at any time transferred to Communities Scotland. All Scottish Homes tenants were supplied with a newsletter in September 2001, which explained the future for Scottish Homes and its remaining tenants. A copy of the newsletter has been put in the Parliament's Reference Centre.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 15 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what monitoring the Scottish Legal Aid Board carries out on legal aid applications by people from ethnic minorities.
Answer
The Scottish Legal Aid Board, at present, does not hold information on the ethnicity of applicants. Applications for advice and assistance are monitored by gender only and this is reported in the board's annual report.As a public body, under the recently laid Race Relations Act 1976 (Statutory Duties) (Scotland) Order 2002, the board will be required to publish a race equality scheme setting out how they intend to fulfil their duties under the order. All bodies have until 30 November 2002 to comply with the order.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 February 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 13 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-20841 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 24 December 2001, whether higher education institutions will be given greater flexibility in the use of Hardship Funds.
Answer
Institutions already have a significant degree of flexibility in the use of Hardship Funds. Institutions themselves decide how to disburse the Hardship Funds to individual students within guidelines laid down by the Scottish Executive. For example, institutions are allowed to offer short-term repayable cash advances; to use up to 10% of their total Higher Education (HE) allocation to provide scholarships or bursaries and to provide payments of up to £3,500 per year to individual students without recourse to the Executive. Each institution is also free to determine its own "means-test" and the frequency of instalments. Institutions have also now been advised that they may vire up to 20% of their Mature Students' Bursary Fund (MSBF) allocation to their HE Hardship Funds, provided that this is consistent with the objective of targeting support on assisting mature students with childcare costs. This will enable institutions to adjust the distribution of their funding allocations based on their actual student population in the current academic year, as MSBF is phased in.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 February 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 13 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-20841 by Ms Wendy Alexander on 24 December 2001, whether it plans to take any further action in order to achieve greater alignment of financial support for students in further and higher education.
Answer
Since autumn 2001, both the thresholds for parent and spouse contributions and the amounts available for support for students over 18 have been the same regardless of whether the student is on a further or higher education course. We are considering whether there are additional changes which should be made to the support arrangements in order to achieve further alignment.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 February 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Iain Gray on 7 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-20259 by Iain Gray on 6 December 2001, what progress has been made on the target of Eaga Partnerships (Scotland) to install 3,500 heating systems under the Central Heating Installation Programme by March 2002.
Answer
Good progress has been made. Over 1,400 central heating systems have now been installed and Eaga hope to install 3,500 heating systems by March 2002.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 February 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 7 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-19963 by Nicol Stephen on 11 December 2001, what progress has been made on the audit of current levels of swimming provision and opportunities for school pupils and when the results of its survey will be announced.
Answer
The final response to the questionnaire was received in mid-February and the results are being analysed. I expect to report on the results in the next few weeks.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 February 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Simpson on 28 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive when the report of the Ministerial Working Group on Women's Offending will be available.
Answer
The Ministerial Working Group's report was published today, and is available on the Scottish Executive website.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 February 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Mary Mulligan on 26 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-20235 by Nicol Stephen on 17 December 2001, what plans it has to expand the Glasgow City Council and Greater Glasgow NHS Board Fruit Plus initiative to all pre-school and primary school children across Scotland.
Answer
The NHS in Scotland provides the conduit for the bulk of the £26 million per annum Health Improvement Fund resources, which includes priorities to improve the diet of children through supporting the provision of fruit in pre-school settings and breakfast clubs and fruit/salad bars in school settings. NHS boards have received their allocations and notification of the priority topics and it is for boards, in partnership with other local interests, to determine how best to meet local needs to improve community health in their local areas. I look forward to receiving the evaluation report from the pilot Fruit Plus initiative in Glasgow, which is partly funded through the Health Improvement Fund.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 February 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 20 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what involvement the trade unions have had in developing the new Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework.
Answer
The Scottish Trade Union Congress (STUC) is represented on the Joint Advisory Committee which is overseeing the development of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 February 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 19 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients will be able to be treated at the new cancer centre at Gartnavel.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-22733.