Chamber and committees

There has been on-going dialogue with key stakeholders since the commencement of the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 (the Act) that has led to a number of proposals for legislative change.

More specifically, on 18 December 2007, I met with a broad group of stakeholders including Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, Independent Specialist Education Advice service, Barnardo’s, National Deaf Children’s Society, Equality and Human Rights Commission, and Children in Scotland to discuss the possible legislative implications of the Court of Session ruling relating to placing requests.

The review of the act also formed part of the agenda for my meeting with “For Scotland’s Disabled Children” on 20 March 2008.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-14067 on 19 June 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-14067 on 19 June 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Equality is a guiding principle of the skills strategy. In order to fully consider the equalities implications of each policy area on its relevant audience and to mitigate against gender segregation we will ensure that each programme underpinning this strategy will be equality impact assessed across six strands, race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, age and religion/faith, to make sure that they are appropriate. We will also ensure that they are monitored thereafter, to mitigate against any potential negative impact, to be proactive in promoting positive actions and to ensure that our policies supporting the skills strategy are as robust and effective as they can be for as many people as possible.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-13167 on 30 May 2008. 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.

For both the social and public sector the central heating programme started in September 2001.

All householders who were eligible for the central heating programme before the Cabinet Secretary’s announcement of 22 May remain eligible.

Between 1 June 2007 and 31 May 2008, 15,329 central heating systems were installed.

The following is the original answer (published on 19 June 2008); see below.

Information is held by financial year. From 1 April 2007 until 31 March 2008, 14,377 central heating systems were installed in the private sector.

From 1 April until 31 May 2008, a total of 2,691 central heating systems have been installed in the private sector.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-13935 on 16 June 2008. 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.

There are no plans at present to publish such a report. Responsibility for the implementation of community planning sits with the partnerships themselves and it is up to individual partnerships to decide how they consider financial planning, within the overall context of Scottish Government priorities.

We estimate that around 600,000 adults living in families with annual income below £16,000 are currently liable to pay prescription charges.