- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 June 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 5 July 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has appointed an external auditor to report on the current situation with the education budget of Scottish Borders Council; if so, what the remit for the auditor is, when the auditor will report and to whom, whether the report will be made public, and whether the audit will be independent of the council's own inquiry on this matter.
Answer
The Accounts Commission for Scotland has the overall responsibility for issues concerning the accounts of local authorities in Scotland, including the responsibility for the appointment of auditors. The Controller of Audit may decide to make a report to the Accounts Commission on a particular matter arising out of or in connection with the accounts of any local authority, or the Accounts Commission may ask him to produce such reports as it requires. This is a matter for them.Any report made by the Controller of Audit to the Accounts Commission shall be copied to any local authority named in the report and to any other person as the Controller of Audit or the Accounts Commission think fit. The local authority would be obliged to pass copies of the report to each member of the authority and make additional copies available for public inspection.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 June 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 5 July 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-16177 by Peter Peacock on 19 June 2001, whether the #27.5 million for flood prevention and coastal protection schemes allocated to local authorities under section 94 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 is additional money to that which was to have been allocated to local authorities under section 94 before the #27.5 million was announced.
Answer
Since 1999-2000, £4 million has been earmarked each year within the total provision for local authority non-housing capital for these schemes. An additional £15.5 million was secured for the Spending Review period, bringing the total available for 2001-04 to £27.5 million.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 June 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 5 July 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether Scottish Borders Council has complied with the requirement in paragraph 8 of Circular 5/2000, Pre-Budget Statement - Additional Financial Resources for Schools, and published locally information on what has been achieved through the allocation of its additional #416,000.
Answer
The council have not published the necessary information by 29 June 2001, the date mentioned in Circular 5/2000 as the latest date by which information should be published. I expect that information to be made available as soon as possible.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 June 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 5 July 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what penalties would be incurred by a local authority should they breach the conditions set out in Circular 5/2000, Pre-Budget Statement - Additional Financial Resources for Schools.
Answer
The circular does not identify specific penalties.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 June 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 4 July 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware that Scottish Borders Council is considering (a) cutting #65,000 from its footwear and clothing grant fund, (b) cutting #40,000 from its further education bursaries budget, (c) cutting #10,000 from its budget for grants to village halls and (d) substituting sandwich lunches for school meals, along with various other measures, in order to address the projected #3.9 million overspend in the council's education budget and, if so, what action it will take.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-16415 on 3 July 2001.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 June 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 4 July 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S1W-15933 and S1W-16185 by Mr Jim Wallace on 5 and 19 June 2001 respectively, why budgetary issues do not fall within the scope of those parts of the remit of the Criminal Justice Forum which require it to take an overall view of the issues facing the criminal justice system as a whole and to advise Scottish ministers on issues of concern to the criminal justice system as a whole.
Answer
While there is no bar to members of the Criminal Justice Forum expressing views on resource aspects of issues affecting the criminal justice system, the main purpose of the forum is to consider general issues of criminal justice but not the budgets of Scottish criminal justice agencies.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 June 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 4 July 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-16185 by Mr Jim Wallace on 19 June 2001, what issues of concern the Criminal Justice Forum has raised to date.
Answer
The forum has discussed or is continuing to discuss the Report of the McLean Committee on Serious Violent and Sexual Offenders, fines enforcement, the implications of the European Convention on Human Rights on the criminal justice system, the use of short sentences, alternatives to custody, violent crime and youth crime.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 June 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jackie Baillie on 4 July 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-16178 by Jackie Baillie on 14 June 2001 and with reference to The Housing Needs of Elderly People in Scotland by Hart and Chalmers and published in 1990, whether it will provide details of any more recently commissioned reports on such needs and, if there are no such reports, whether it will now commission such a report.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has not published any further research on very sheltered housing since its 1991 report entitled The Housing Needs of Elderly People in Scotland and is not aware of any other research on this specific area of housing. There are no plans to commission any further reports at this time while we consider the various elements of care mosaic through the work of the Care Development Group, the Regulation of Care Bill, the consultation on the Long Term Care Bill and the implementation of Supporting People. All have implications about how and where care is offered to older and disabled people and will inform expectations about future needs for sheltered and very sheltered housing.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 June 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 3 July 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what monitoring it is undertaking of the current situation with the education budget of Scottish Borders Council.
Answer
Councils are independent of central Government control and are locally accountable.The Scottish Executive expects local authorities to manage their budgets on the resources available to them.The Accounts Commission for Scotland has the overall responsibility for issues concerning the accounts of local authorities in Scotland. The Controller of Audit may decide to make a report to the Accounts Commission on a particular matter arising out of or in connection with the accounts of any local authority, or the Accounts Commission may ask him to produce such reports as it requires. This is a matter for them.I understand that the council are considering a range of measures which might be taken to address the deficits they have identified. There are no plans to make additional funds available to Scottish Borders Council.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 June 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 3 July 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether additional funding will be made available to Scottish Borders Council if the consequence of the projected #3.9 million overspend in their education budget were to be cuts in staffing, school closures and cuts in the provision of other education services.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-16415.
