Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is working with NHS Lothian to deliver a number of major projects including the reprovision of the Royal Victoria Hospital and the Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Department of Clinical Neurosciences together with a range of services at the Astley Ainslie and Royal Edinburgh Hospitals. These projects together with on-going maintenance are expected to reduce identified backlog by £84 million.

The information requested contained in Table 1.

Figures on the number of students receiving bursary funds who are in receipt of Maintenance Allowance is also given in Table 2.

Table 1: Number of Students in receipt of bursaries at Colleges in Edinburgh and the Lothians (2005-06 to 2009-10)

Source: Scottish Funding Council.

Table 2: Of the students in receipt of bursaries, the number in receipt of Maintenance Allowance¹ at Colleges in Edinburgh and the Lothians (2005-06 to 2009-10)

Source: Scottish Funding Council.

Note: Maintenance allowance accounts for over half of the assistance given from the bursary fund.

We have indicated to College Principals that funding for 2012-13 will enable colleges to maintain student numbers at this year’s baseline levels.

It is the responsibility of the Scottish Funding Council to allocate funding to individual colleges. The eventual number of students then enrolled, or given financial support, is then a matter for the college.

This is a contractual matter for NHS Lothian to resolve with Consort. Progress on resolving this issue is being made and we are monitoring the situation.

The guidance for the completion of disclosure checks is contained within the Safer Pre and Post Employment Checks Partnership Information (PIN) Policy. This PIN Policy describes the process that Boards must undertake in relation to disclosure checks and applies to all directly employed staff in NHSScotland, and to temporary, locum, and agency staff. This PIN policy is currently under review to reflect the changes in legislation in respect of Disclosure and Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) checks. The current PIN Policy can be found at:

http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/publications/j9227.pdf.

The guidance contained within the Safer Pre and Post Employment Checks Partnership Information Network (PIN) Policy sets out the requirement of NHS boards to undertake disclosure checks as appropriate. The decision to conduct a disclosure check is a matter for individual employers based on their risk assessments of particular posts.

As stated in the answer to question S4W-05253 on 7 February 2012 the Safer Pre and Post Employment Checks Partnership Information Network (PIN) Policy is currently under review, as part of a planned review programme for all PIN policies.

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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-05233 on 7 February 2012. 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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-05233 on 7 February 2012. 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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

I met with the Electoral Commission on 30 January to discuss the ongoing preparations for the 2012 Local Government Elections.

As the member will know The Local Electoral Administration (Scotland) Act 2011 extended the statutory remit of the Electoral Commission to cover local government elections in Scotland. Among other things, this will allow the Commission to run public awareness and information campaigns on elections. The Scottish Government is working with the Commission and has provided it with £1.5 million to develop and deliver the campaign for this year’s local government elections.

The information campaign will begin on 19 March 2012 and will be delivered through a multi-media campaign as well as a door drop leaflet delivered to every household.

The campaign will run in two phases.

Phase 1 will focus on registration. The target audience for this phase will be all potential voters, although during this phase it will be weighted towards
under-registered groups including young people, black and minority ethnic groups and home-movers.

Phase 2 will focus on voter education and will aim to provide voters with the information they need to be able to complete their ballot paper validly using the STV system.