- Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 December 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jackie Baillie on 10 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive who is responsible for the distribution of Ethnic Minority Grant and which organisations or bodies are consulted as part of the decision-making process.
Answer
The Executive determines the policy and criteria for the Ethnic Minority Grant Scheme and Scottish Ministers make the decisions on which projects are to be funded. The scheme is administered on behalf of the Executive by the Unemployed Voluntary Action Fund (UVAF). UVAF runs the application process, makes recommendations on applications and monitors and provides support to the successful projects.
- Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 14 December 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what arrangements are in place for promoting racial equality through the funding of Social Inclusion Partnerships, how the need for any such funding has been identified, and what plans there are to establish other such Social Inclusion Partnerships in future.
Answer
Two Social Inclusion Partnerships (SIPs) have been established specifically to address the exclusion of people from minority ethnic communities. The Glasgow Anti-Racist Alliance Social Inclusion Partnership and the Frae Fife Social Inclusion Partnership receive funding of £781,000 and £165,000 respectively in 2000-01 from the Scottish Executive's Social Inclusion Partnership Fund. These funding allocations were based on the bids for Social Inclusion Partnership status which were approved by an independent advisory group. There are no plans to establish any new Social Inclusion Partnerships at this stage.
However, all of Scotland's 48 Social Inclusion Partnerships are important vehicles for addressing injustice and discrimination wherever it occurs. Area-based SIPs are already required to monitor their impact on women, people with disabilities, and people from minority ethnic communities. We are currently undertaking research to review the extent to which this has been achieved and whether more needs to be done.
- Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jackie Baillie on 14 December 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what monitoring procedures are in place to ensure that the bidding process for Ethnic Minority Grants is transparent and accountable.
Answer
The Ethnic Minority Grants Scheme is administered on behalf of the Scottish Executive by the Unemployed Voluntary Action Fund. Applications are made to the fund, whose Board of Trustees consider them before making recommendations to the Scottish Executive. Scottish Ministers make the final decision on all applications. All applicants are notified of the outcome of their application and the reasons for its success or failure. Details of successful applications for next year were announced last month and are available on the Scottish Executive website.
- Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jackie Baillie on 14 December 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with Racial Equality Councils regarding future funding arrangements.
Answer
The Scottish Executive currently has no statutory power to provide core funding to Race Equality Councils. The means by which the Executive provides other support to the black and ethnic minority voluntary sector is currently being reviewed and a report is expected by the end of January.
- Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 December 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 14 December 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what can be done to improve the way emergency services respond to 999 calls.
Answer
The respective emergency services operate to set standards or target times in responding to emergency calls. These are kept under constant review and every effort is made to maintain and, where possible, improve levels of response.
- Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 7 December 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of total police force funding was allocated to each police force in each of the last three financial years.
Answer
Funding for the police is provided annually through the Grant Aided Expenditure (GAE) process. The figures requested are shown in the following table.
Force | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 |
| Central | 4.57% | 4.61% | 4.51% |
| Dumfries & Galloway | 2.80% | 2.91% | 2.87% |
| Fife | 5.45% | 5.45% | 5.61% |
| Grampian | 8.56% | 8.55% | 8.48% |
| Lothian & Borders | 18.07% | 18.12% | 18.03% |
| Northern | 5.28% | 5.20% | 5.26% |
| Strathclyde | 47.52% | 47.47% | 47.47% |
| Tayside | 7.76% | 7.70% | 7.76% |
| Total | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| GAE Total | £691 million | £714.720 million | £741.920 million |
- Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 7 December 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with police forces regarding any impact on bail conditions of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998.
Answer
We have discussed the subject of bail with the police as part of routine and continuing discussions on a range of ECHR issues.
- Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 October 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 2 November 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with Railtrack and rail operating companies regarding the withdrawal of all direct rail services from Aberdeen to London.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has been in daily contact with Railtrack and the train operating companies concerning the operation of all passenger services in Scotland which are affected by the imposition of temporary speed restrictions across the GB railway network.
- Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 22 September 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 25 October 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what adjustments are made in the allocation of resources for hospital and community health services to take account of the additional demands associated with offshore workers and other workers resident in a health board area for a substantial part of each year.
Answer
The population figures used in the Arbuthnott revenue allocation formulae for hospital and community health services take into account all persons usually resident in an area. As such, they include offshore workers and other workers resident in a health board area at their usual area of residence.
- Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 22 September 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 25 October 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to paragraph 2.4 of the final Arbuthnott report, whether the mid-year estimate of population employed in deciding the allocation of resources for hospital and community health services and for general practitioner prescribing will be updated on an annual basis.
Answer
On 21 September I announced in-year allocations for 2000-01 and allocations for 2001-02 based on the recently published results of the Arbuthnott Review. For any subsequent allocations, I intend to take into account all of the recommended annual updates as set out in paragraph 7.12 of
Fair Shares for All: Final Report, namely:
- changes in health board population shares (based on annually updated mid-year estimates);
- changes in the age and sex structure of the population;
- changes in the indicators of morbidity and life circumstances; and
changes in the proportion of expenditure on different care programmes.
