- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 April 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 10 May 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it will take in response to concerns about current treatment and resource provision in respect of myalgic encephalomyelitis, as referred to in a recent report published by the 25% M.E. Group, Severely Affected M.E. Analysis Report on Questionnaire Issues January 2004.
Answer
The 25% M.E. Group is a UKbody, and the report referred to is not exclusive to Scotland. It also toucheson a number of issues reserved to Westminster. The Executive issued the report of a short lifeworking group, set up to make recommendations for improving services, to NHS boardsin February 2003, and is currently seeking progress reports on action takensince.
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 April 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 7 May 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what its funding priorities are in respect of rural village halls.
Answer
TheExecutive recognises the important role that rural village halls play in the lifeof their local communities. They are oftenthe focus of a rural community’s social and community activities – allowing groupsto meet locally and providing other services such as internet access or advice surgeriesthat may not be easily accessible otherwise.
We want to ensure that communities across rural Scotland learnfrom each other. With funding from the Scottish Executive Rural Voices programme in 2003-04, the Collieston community in Aberdeenshirespoke to a wide range of village hall committees to learn from their experience.We will be working with Collieston in the next few months to build on this workand produce comprehensive guidance for rural communities across Scotland on developingvillage halls.
The Local Capital Grants Schemeis designed to assist local voluntary and community organisations to provide newor upgrade existing community facilities for educational, social and recreationalactivities. Projects can apply for 50% of eligible costs up to a grant limit of£100,000.
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 April 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 7 May 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive when it will reply to my letter of 5 March 2004 regarding Sativex spray prescription for people with MS.
Answer
A reply to this letter was issuedon 2 April 2004.
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 April 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Mary Mulligan on 6 May 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) children and (b) elderly people are in fuel-poor households in (i) Glasgow, (ii) Edinburgh, (iii) Aberdeen, (iv) Stirling, (v) Inverness and (vi) Scotland as a whole.
Answer
The local authority estimatesof the number of children and elderly people in fuel poor households in the localauthority areas of Glasgow City, City of Edinburgh and Aberdeen, and for Scotland as a whole, are taken from the 2002 Scottish House ConditionSurvey (SHCS) as given in the table below.
| | Number of Children Living in Fuel Poor Households (000s) | Number of Adults Aged 60 Years or Over Living in Fuel Poor Households (000s) |
| (i) Glasgow City | 9 | 24 |
| (ii) City of Edinburgh | 4 | 20 |
| (iii) Aberdeen | 1 | 6 |
| (vi) Scotland | 46 | 247 |
Information is not availablefrom the SHCS for Stirling and Inverness because the survey is only designed to report at localauthority level rather than areas within local authorities. The closest equivalentare the estimates for the Stirling and Highland local authorities which are as given below.
| | Number of Children Living in Fuel Poor Households (000s) | Estimated Number of Adults Aged 60 Years or Over Living in Fuel Poor Households (000s) |
| Stirling | <> | 3 |
| Highland | 4 | 18 |
The 1996 SHCS did not providedata at local authority level. However, as can be seen below, the national estimates for the number of children and elderly people living in a fuel poor householdhave dropped dramatically.
| | Number of Children Living in Fuel Poor Households in 1996 (000s) | Number of Adults Aged 60 Years or Over Living in Fuel Poor Households in 1996 (000s) |
| Scotland | 284 | 517 |
In this case we have been ableto provide actual numbers of children and adults aged over 60 living in fuel poorhouseholds. Normally we report on the number of fuel poor households.
Fuel poverty as a whole has droppedfrom 738,000 households in 1996 to 286,000 households in 2002.
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 April 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 6 May 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many of its staff have been (a) investigated, (b) suspended, (c) dismissed, (d) prosecuted and (e) convicted for involvement in fraud in each of the last four years and how much money was involved in each case.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has robust systems in place that are designed to minimise the possibilityof fraud and, when necessary, to highlight that fraud may have occurred. In thelast four years while there have been detailed examinations of potential financialirregularity, no Scottish Executive employees have been investigated, suspended and dismissedfor fraud.
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 April 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Mary Mulligan on 6 May 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many local authorities have published a housing strategy and how many of the published strategies contain policies for reducing the incidence of empty houses.
Answer
I have asked Angiolina Foster,Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to reply. Her response is as follows.
The Housing (Scotland) Act2001 invites local authorities to submit a local housing strategy to Scottish ministersand to provide a copy to anyone else on request. There is no formal requirementfor local authorities to “publish” a local housing strategy.
To date, nine local authoritieshave submitted a local housing strategy to Communities Scotland for assessment.Eight of these have been assessed:
City of Edinburgh Council, EastLothian Council, Glasgow City Council, Highland Council, Midlothian Council, NorthLanarkshire Council, South Ayrshire Council and West Lothian Council. The remainingstrategy was received recently and is awaiting assessment. All local authoritiesrequire to have submitted their local housing strategy by 30 April 2004.
The issue of empty houses hasbeen dealt with differently in each of the strategies assessed to date.
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 April 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 6 May 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how much each of its (a) departments, (b) agencies and (c) non-departmental public bodies have spent on (i) advertising and (ii) information campaigns in each year since 1990-91 and what its estimate is for such costs for 2003-04.
Answer
The information in the form requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
| Health Dept | Spend (£) | Justice Dept | Spend (£) |
| Alcohol | 833,139 | Domestic Abuse | 355,197 |
| Breathing Space | 85,469 | Fire | 326,527 |
| Drug Misuse | 879,631 | Re-offending | 25,830 |
| Flu& Pneumococcal | 498,508 | Safer Scotland | 259,297 |
| Healthy Eating/Living | 1,850,335 | Total | 966,851 |
| Organ Donation | 148,164 | |
| Total | 4,295,246 | |
| ELLD | Spend (£) | Education | Spend (£) |
| Broadband | 213,336 | Care | 490,036 |
| Regional Selective Assistance | 78,594 | Child Protection on Internet | 99,338 |
| Total | 291,930 | Children’s Hearings | 217,158 |
| | Home Reading | 155,739 |
| | Total | 962,631 |
| SERAD | Spend (£) | Development | Spend (£) |
| Cattle Tracing | 56,170 | Digital Scotland | 240,498 |
| Environment | 574,133 | Drink Drive | 243,471 |
| SEERAD | 31,488 | Drug Drive | 307,343 |
| Total | 661,791 | Foolsspeed | 410,898 |
| | Road Safety (WHO) | 23,537 |
| | Race | 510,531 |
| | Travel Awareness | 265,927 |
| | Young Driver | 71,044 |
| | Total | 2,073,249 |
| FCSD | Spend (£) |
| Dog Fouling | 72,302 |
| Total | 72,302 |
| Grand Total | 9,324,000 |
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 April 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 6 May 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether a family's ability to buy healthy food is taken into account by its measurements of child poverty.
Answer
The Households Below AverageIncome (HBAI) statistics which are published annually give a range of measures oflow income, including the widely accepted threshold of 60% of the median UK householdincome. The HBAI measures are adjusted for inflation and housing costs and equivalisedto take account of the number of people in the household. No other adjustments aremade.
A copy of the latest HBAI figuresfor 2002-03 can be found at the following address:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/pages/news/2004/03/SEHBAIf.aspx.
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 October 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 26 April 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it has taken to encourage Lothian University Hospital NHS Trust to reduce the current #10 per day parking charge at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary (ERI) for (a) NHS staff, (b) other ERI staff and (c) visitors.
Answer
I issued revised guidance to the NHS on hospital car park charging on 1 April 2004.
The guidance states that car park charging should not be introduced as a means of generating income but charging may be justified if it is to cover any significant costs in providing or improving parking facilities such as maintenance, administration and security costs. Charging might also be justified if it is used to better manage car parking facilities by discouraging unauthorised users (e.g. fly-parkers) although in so doing, measures taken to discourage unauthorised users must not be detrimental to the car parking arrangements for staff, patients and visitors. Widespread charging of excessive rates to staff, patients or visitors cannot be justified.
The guidance covers all hospitals in Scotland, although legal restraints covering the NHS mean that it cannot be applied to existing contracts, such as that at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE) between Lothian NHS Board and Consort Healthcare Ltd. It will, however, cover all such contracts when they are revised or renewed.
Brian Cavanagh, Chairman of Lothian NHS Board has indicated that he has already raised the issue of car parking charges at RIE with Consort Healthcare as he recognises its importance for staff, patients and their families. Mr Cavanagh wishes to ensure that it is an issue NHS Lothian can positively address as part of the refinancing discussions with Consort Healthcare due to take place later this year on the funding arrangements at RIE.
Lothian NHS Board has negotiated concessionary rates at the hospital for members of staff, visitors who have to remain on site for considerable lengths of time and for patients who have to make numerous, repeat visits.
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 April 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 22 April 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is in respect of whether prison governors are entitled to be represented by a trade union of their choice.
Answer
The Executive is committed to working in partnership with trade unions not only in the justice services but across all it does. Prison governors and other staff members of the Scottish Prison Service are entitled to be members of any trade union of their choice. The interests of prison governors are already represented by one of the recognised trade unions for the purposes of collective bargaining.
