- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 14 January 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 24 January 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive when it will establish its group to look into bioethoanol and biodiesel as alternative sources of energy.
Answer
The Executive is already represented on the Official Low Carbon Group and the Ministerial Low Carbon Group. These groups oversee the implementation of the UK Powering Vehicles Strategy, which aims to promote the development and take-up of new vehicle technologies and cleaner fuels, including biofuels in Scotland.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 14 January 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Euan Robson on 21 January 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will place a copy of the draft Annual Report of the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration (SCRA) in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre along with correspondence between it and the SCRA relating to the annual report.
Answer
Scottish ministers are required to lay copies of the Annual Report in the Parliament and this will be done for the 2003-04 report as has been done with all previous reports. Although my officials saw an early draft of the report, this was indicative only and was withdrawn by SCRA on the basis that it was undergoing further development including validation of the data. Consequently, there was no correspondence relating to its publication.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 14 January 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Euan Robson on 21 January 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish the Annual Report of the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration.
Answer
As has been the case since it was established in 1995, publication of annual reports is a matter for the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 December 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 20 January 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what its policy is in respect of the provision of financial support for the development and marketing of new visitor attractions.
Answer
Unless required to do so bythe Executive as part of our broader promotion of Scotlandstrategy, VisitScotland does not provide financial support for the developmentof visitor attractions. However, groups of businesses can apply for localmarketing funding from the VisitScotland Challenge Fund, which is designed tocomplement the VisitScotland national marketing strategy, and to support groupsof businesses in promoting high quality visitor experiences to identifiedconsumer groups.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 17 December 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 19 January 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-12844 by Rhona Brankin on 16 December 2004, whether the statement that "funding will be available to local authorities from 2006 onwards to assist further roll-out" indicates that no additional funding has been made available to date.
Answer
Direct payments are made in lieu of services which a local authority would normally provide itself. No additional funds have been made available to local authorities for the period up until 2006. From 2006-07, £1.8 million, and for 2007 onwards £2 million will be made available to local authorities to increase uptake by having a dedicated worker in each local authority area to develop support organisations further and to train personal assistants and their employers.
Details of the local government finance settlement to 2007-08 are available from the following links, where the additional provision has gone into the GAE forServices for People with Disabilities:
http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/sehd/publications/bulletin/HD150.pdf. www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/gaestats.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 17 December 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 19 January 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-12844 by Rhona Brankin on 16 December 2004, how much funding will be available to assist the roll-out of direct payments from 2006 onwards, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-13078, answered on 19 January 2005. 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/wa.search.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 December 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 19 January 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review the working of NHS Lanarkshire.
Answer
NHS Lanarkshire is already subject to review by its auditors and by Audit Scotland; is held to account through financial and performance monitoring by the Executive and is subject to and annual accountability review which this year will be chaired by ministers. We have no plans for further reviews at this time.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 December 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Johann Lamont on 17 January 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive when it now expects to reach a decision on the planning application by Eden Waste Recycling Ltd for a landfill site at Greengairs in Lanarkshire.
Answer
The final decision is dependent on the satisfactory conclusion of a legal agreement between the applicant and North Lanarkshire Council. I understand the council hopes to conclude this agreement by early February. On receipt of the agreement Scottish ministers will make every effort to issue an early decision.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 20 December 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will fund conservatoire teaching in drama schools.
Answer
In the current year, the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) provided funding of £5,027,000 to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD). This provides funding for 594.6 places (full-time equivalent), divided as follows.
RSAMD: Funded Full-Time Equivalent Places (2004-05)
| Conservatoire Music | Taught Post-graduate | 55.5 |
| Undergraduate | 228.2 |
| Creative Arts and Hospitality | Taught Post-graduate | 25.6 |
| Undergraduate | 204.7 |
| Education | Undergraduate | 80.6 |
Source: SHEFC.
The funding and places allocated by SHEFC to the RSAMD now fall within three of SHEFC’s main funding bands: Conservatoire Music; Education (at RSAMD, BEd Music/Combined Degree with Music), and Creative Arts and Hospitality (at RSAMD, funding courses such as Acting, Contemporary Theatre Practice, and Technical and Production Arts).
SHEFC allocates student places and funding by broad subject areas and the institutions themselves decide how they allocate places to individual courses. Legislation precludes ministers from directing funds to particular institutions or courses of study.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 16 December 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people in each local authority area are defined as carers; how many people in each local authority area have been assessed under the extended right to assessment for informal carers in the Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002 and how carers have been made aware of this right; how many people have accessed direct payments to purchase services directly under the act, and how much additional funding it provided to local authorities for undertaking their responsibilities under the act.
Answer
The questions on numbers of carers and carers’ assessments are addressed in recent written answers. I refer the member to the questions S2W-11761 answered on 9 November 2004 and S2W-12399 answered on 2 December 2004. 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/webapp/wa.search.The Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002 requires local authorities to offer direct payments in order to purchase services in lieu of those which a local authority would normally provide itself. Information about the number of carers in receipt of direct payments is not held centrally, but a total of 912 people received direct payments in the year to 31 March 2004. A breakdown of numbers receiving direct payments by local authority area can be accessed from table number 8 of the statistics release Direct Payments Scotland 2004, available at the following website:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00370-00.asp.Funding will be available to local authorities from 2006 onwards to assist further roll-out.
