Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-14190 on 25 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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-14190 on 25 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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-11560 on 17 April 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can found at http://scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The Scottish Government has taken steps to improve opportunities for asylum seekers and their families in areas which are currently within our remit. For example, we announced in August 2007 that the children of asylum seekers would have the same access to higher and further education as Scottish children. The regulations came into force on 1 December 2007.

The successful applications to the Race, Religion and Refugee Funding Stream 2008-11 will be announced shortly. This will include a number of projects aimed at improving opportunities for asylum seekers and their families such as increasing employability and facilitating access to services.

Any course of NHS treatment which has begun while a person is in the asylum process must be completed or continued without charge until the person leaves the country.

NHS treatment must be given in an emergency and for certain infectious and contagious conditions. Advice on contraception and sexual health is also provided.

Therefore, for all practical purposes, failed asylum seekers who have previously been resident in Scotland will remain in the care of the NHS in Scotland until arrangements for their return home can be made.

Only four years of data is available for the number of liquor licences suspended. This is because this information was not collected before 2003. The number of off-sales liquor licences suspended in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 is given in the following table:

Local Authority	2003	2004	2005	2006
Aberdeen City	0	0	0	0
Aberdeenshire	0	0	0	0
Angus	0	0	0	1
Argyll and Bute	0	0	0	0
Clackmannanshire	0	2	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway	0	0	0	0
Dundee City	2	0	0	0
East Ayrshire	0	0	0	0
East Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	2
East Lothian	0	0	0	0
East Renfrewshire	0	0	0	0
Edinburgh, City of	3	1	1	1
Eilean Siar	0	0	0	0
Falkirk	0	2	0	0
Fife	0	0	0	5
Glasgow City	0	1	1	1
Highland	0	0	0	0
Inverclyde	0	0	0	0
Midlothian	0	0	0	0
Moray	0	0	0	0
North Ayrshire	0	0	0	1
North Lanarkshire	1	0	4	2
Orkney Islands	0	0	0	0
Perth and Kinross	0	0	0	0
Renfrewshire	0	0	0	0
Scottish Borders	1	0	0	0
Shetland Islands	0	0	0	0
South Ayrshire	0	0	0	0
South Lanarkshire	0	1	1	1
Stirling	0	0	1	0
West Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	0
West Lothian	0	0	0	1
Scotland	7	7	8	15

 

The legislation under which these licences were granted does not make provision for the revocation of a licence. However, legislation has recently been passed which does make such a provision and will come fully into force in 2009.

Reducing the incidence of illegal sales to underage drinkers is a key priority for the Scottish Government as evidenced by our decision to roll-out alcohol test purchasing arrangements across Scotland. The benefits of this are now being seen as licensing boards the suspend licences of rogue retailers caught breaking the law.

In addition, the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 increases the penalties associated with underage sales from a £1,000 fine to a £5,000 fine or a three month jail sentence or both. The act also introduced Licensing Standards Officers who will ensure that licensed premises are operating in accordance with their licence conditions. The 2005 act comes fully into force in September 2009.

The second annual progress report on Scotland''s Climate Change Programme is now available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/05/20102350.

Agenda for Change is designed to be consistent across all staff covered by the new system. It uses the same job evaluation process to assess each job and the same job profiles are used throughout the NHS.

Outcomes are checked both at local and national level before bandings are confirmed. Any staff member who feels that the system has not been applied correctly to them has the right to request a review of their banding.

In addition, discussions in partnership between NHS employer and staff side representatives are currently going on about what high level monitoring can be put in place to assure staff and the service that the Agenda for Change system has been applied consistently throughout NHSScotland.

I am pleased to announce todaythe publication of the Report on the Review of Property Asset Management and ourapproach to the relocation of public bodies.

The main findings of the AssetManagement Review are:

The Scottish Government occupies709 buildings totalling, 723,054m² and there is a wide variety of managementarrangements of these assets;

Two-thirds of organisations surveyeddo not have an asset management plan or strategy in place, and

There is no single IT asset datasystem that holds key data about the whole estate.

Based on these findings, themain recommendations are to:

Ensure, by end April 2008, thatall parts of Scottish Government have in place an Asset Management Plan.

Ensure that, in future, we willmaintain a single comprehensive database of property information.

Put in place a central team thatwill maintain a strategic overview of the whole estate, perform a challenge functionand identify the best opportunities for the future use property assets.

As a result of the publicationof this report, I am also announcing the Scottish Government’s approach to the locationof public service delivery organisations. The relocation policy will be taken forwardwithin the context of the government’s purpose and the five strategic objectives.It will seek to deliver better use of the government estate and ensure that opportunitiesto disperse public bodies are taken where a clear business case can be demonstrated.The policy will ensure that due account is given to the relevant environmental considerationsof the Greener Scotland programme.

The key principles of the relocationpolicy are:

Achieving efficiency and bestpractice asset management. There will be a presumption in favour of the choice representingbest value for money for the Scottish Government as a whole, providing that thismeets the requirements of the organisation, unless clear reasons for an alternativeare agreed and articulated by ministers.

In pursuing value for money onaccommodation decisions we will continue to pursue our policy of no compulsory redundancies.

Major estate management decisionsand all proposed changes of location will be overseen by Scottish ministers.

The Cabinet Secretary for Financeand Sustainable Growth will approve all new commitments, confirm location decisions,and arbitrate in any disputes relating to the existing estate.

Location and asset managementdecisions will be transparent (with the exception of commercially sensitive data)and made public, and staff and unions will continue to be consulted.

The full Report on the Reviewof Property Asset Management and our approach to the relocation of public bodiesare released today on the Scottish Government’s website.

The Scottish Government has consideredthe Crerar Review and its recommendations carefully and has paid close attentionto the comments made in the parliamentary debate on 3 October 2007. Government andParliament have an opportunity here to make a real difference to the way servicesare provided, and so need to make sure action taken in response to the review isright and will lead to significant improvement. The government has today publisheda detailed response to the Crerar recommendations. The response will be sent toall those who contributed to the Crerar Review, and a copy has been made availableon the government’s official website. The government has accepted most of the recommendationsin the review, either in full or in principle, but has identified some recommendationswhere further work is required before a commitment can be given. To reach a viewon these, and to turn the other recommendations into action, the government willwork closely with the Parliament, with COSLA and with Audit Scotland, taking accountof the views of other stakeholders - most notably those representing the publicand service users. The government has established five fixed-term action groupsto consider the recommendations in detail and provide ministers and the Parliamentwith proposals for improving the scrutiny and complaints handling landscape.