- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 29 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of the population have been in receipt of income support in each year since 1999, also broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The following table shows thepercentage of population aged 16 to 59 claiming Income Support by Scottishlocal authority.
Percentage of the PopulationAged 16 to 59 Claiming Income Support, 1999-2006
| Local Authority | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 |
| Aberdeen City | 5.6 | 5.9 | 6.1 | 6.4 | 6.4 | 6.3 | 5.9 | 5.8 |
| Aberdeenshire | 3.3 | 3.5 | 3.6 | 3.7 | 3.6 | 3.4 | 3.3 | 3.2 |
| Angus | 4.9 | 5.2 | 5.4 | 5.5 | 5.6 | 5.5 | 5.2 | 5.1 |
| Argyll and Bute | 5.5 | 5.5 | 5.6 | 5.7 | 5.6 | 5.4 | 5.2 | 5.0 |
| Clackmannanshire | 8.2 | 8.4 | 8.8 | 8.6 | 8.7 | 8.3 | 8.0 | 8.1 |
| Dumfries and Galloway | 5.5 | 5.6 | 5.8 | 5.9 | 5.9 | 5.8 | 5.7 | 5.7 |
| Dundee City | 10.1 | 10.2 | 10.4 | 10.6 | 10.5 | 10.5 | 10.0 | 9.7 |
| East Ayrshire | 8.4 | 8.6 | 8.8 | 8.8 | 8.7 | 8.8 | 8.5 | 8.4 |
| East Dunbartonshire | 3.7 | 3.8 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 3.9 | 3.8 | 3.7 | 3.6 |
| East Lothian | 5.9 | 5.8 | 5.7 | 5.8 | 5.6 | 5.3 | 5.1 | 5.1 |
| East Renfrewshire | 4.1 | 4.2 | 4.2 | 4.3 | 4.3 | 4.1 | 3.9 | 3.8 |
| Edinburgh, City of | 6.7 | 6.7 | 6.7 | 6.6 | 6.5 | 6.2 | 6.0 | 5.9 |
| Eilean Siar | 5.0 | 5.1 | 5.0 | 5.1 | 5.1 | 5.0 | 4.7 | 4.5 |
| Falkirk | 6.8 | 7.1 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 6.9 | 6.6 | 6.4 | 6.2 |
| Fife | 6.4 | 6.4 | 6.5 | 6.5 | 6.6 | 6.4 | 6.2 | 6.2 |
| Glasgow City | 16.2 | 16.5 | 16.4 | 16.2 | 15.5 | 14.8 | 14.1 | 13.7 |
| Highland | 5.6 | 5.8 | 5.8 | 6.0 | 5.9 | 5.8 | 5.5 | 5.5 |
| Inverclyde | 11.5 | 11.6 | 11.7 | 11.9 | 11.5 | 10.9 | 10.5 | 10.3 |
| Midlothian | 6.4 | 6.3 | 6.4 | 6.4 | 6.2 | 6.1 | 5.8 | 5.5 |
| Moray | 4.5 | 4.7 | 4.8 | 4.7 | 4.5 | 4.3 | 4.2 | 4.1 |
| North Ayrshire | 9.4 | 9.6 | 9.8 | 10.0 | 9.7 | 9.5 | 8.9 | 8.8 |
| North Lanarkshire | 9.5 | 9.7 | 9.9 | 9.9 | 9.8 | 9.3 | 9.0 | 8.7 |
| Orkney Islands | 3.2 | 3.2 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.3 | 3.2 | 3.2 |
| Perth and Kinross | 4.6 | 4.7 | 4.9 | 4.7 | 4.7 | 4.6 | 4.5 | 4.4 |
| Renfrewshire | 8.4 | 8.6 | 9.0 | 8.9 | 8.9 | 8.4 | 8.0 | 7.9 |
| Scottish Borders | 4.3 | 4.5 | 4.7 | 4.9 | 4.8 | 4.5 | 4.4 | 4.4 |
| Shetland Islands | 3.3 | 3.5 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.4 | 3.4 | 3.4 | 3.4 |
| South Ayrshire | 6.7 | 6.8 | 6.9 | 7.1 | 7.1 | 6.9 | 6.9 | 6.6 |
| South Lanarkshire | 7.9 | 8.0 | 8.2 | 8.2 | 8.1 | 7.8 | 7.3 | 7.1 |
| Stirling | 5.8 | 5.7 | 5.7 | 5.7 | 5.6 | 5.4 | 5.2 | 5.2 |
| West Dunbartonshire | 10.9 | 11.1 | 11.2 | 11.4 | 11.4 | 10.8 | 10.5 | 10.3 |
| West Lothian | 6.9 | 6.9 | 6.9 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 6.7 | 6.5 | 6.4 |
| Scotland | 7.8 | 8.0 | 8.1 | 8.1 | 8.0 | 7.7 | 7.4 | 7.2 |
Source: Benefit claimants fromDWP Information Directorate: Work and PensionsLongitudinal Study. Populations from GRO(S) mid year population estimates.
Note: August snapshot for allyears except May 2006.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 24 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many eligible applicants it estimates will have to wait until after the winter for (a) the provision of free central heating and insulation under its central heating programme and (b) grants to have their homes insulated under the Warm Deal scheme, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
I have asked Angiolina Foster,Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:
Information is not kept in theform requested covering local authority area but by main postcode area.
The central heating and WarmDeal Programmes are demand-led. The number of people waiting and the length of timeeach individual has to wait are dependent on the number of eligible applicants andthe target number of installations in any one year. The average waiting time iscurrently around six months. Where householders require gas connections, electricalupgrades, building warrants etc it may, in some circumstances, take longer for themto receive the measures.
The target number of centralheating and warm deal installations in 2006-07 is 12,000 and 12,800 respectively.However, to address the continuing high demandwe are allocating an additional £5 million, between now and the end of this financialyear, to help up to 5,000 more householders benefit from these successfulprogrammes.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the number of children referred to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration in the last six months on offence grounds has increased compared with the corresponding six months of 2005.
Answer
This information is not yet available.
We expect the SCRA to publishthe second quarterly performance monitoring report in respect of 2006-07 early inDecember, thereafter it will be laid in the Scottish Parliament InformationCentre in the normal way.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what additional financial resources it plans to allocate to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration in each of the next three years to address the rising number of referrals on both offence and non-offence grounds.
Answer
The SCRA’s overall annual grant-in-aid has increased by over£10 million since 2001 to over £24 million in 2006-07 and 2007-08. It is not possibleto provide details of grant-in-aid funding beyond 2007-08 until the outcomes of the next Spending Review are known.
Consideration is currently beinggiven to three proposals for additional funding and the SCRA will be informed of the outcome in due course. We monitor resourcing requirements, in close liaisonwith the SCRA management, in order to optimise the administration’s effectiveness.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any of its external consultants will be used to validate offence ground referral datasets produced by the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration.
Answer
No.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on possible sales of children’s hearing centre premises by the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration to address a financial shortfall resulting from the decision of Scottish ministers to refuse a request for £20 million of additional funding to support its front-line services.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is unawareof any such proposal.
The SCRA is being resourced bythe Scottish Executive to upgrade and, where necessary, replace hearings centres.
Where a centre is no longer fitfor purpose and has been replaced by new premises, the Executive may agree to thereceipt from the sale of the old building being retained by the SCRA.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many children, who would previously have been dealt with by a children’s hearing panel, it estimates will not now be dealt with as a result of the decision by the Principal Reporter of the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration to prioritise cases by risk, in light of the decision of Scottish ministers to refuse a request for £20 million of additional funding to support its front-line services.
Answer
We are not in a position to providesuch an estimate.
While there has been a steepincrease in the number of referrals in the last year in particular, the percentageof those going to a hearing has remained proportionately similar. At present only10% of referrals to the Children’s Reporter go to a Children’s Hearing.
That is why the multi-agencyMinisterial Task Group was set up in the summer. The new model being developed bythe group will help referring agencies to ensure that children receive the helpthey need when they need it without having to await the outcome of a reporteror hearings decision. It will also help agencies to identify when compulsory measuresmight be needed to ensure appropriate referrals are being made.
The SCRA plans to introduce itscase filtering tool because of the increasing number of referrals where there isno need for compulsory measures of supervision. The tool is intended to help reducethe risk to children by ensuring reporters and hearings can focus on those mostin need of compulsion.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what requests it has received from the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration for additional funding to support front-line services between February and November 2006.
Answer
Scottish Children’s ReporterAdministration submitted four proposals forfunding. All were in response to requests from the Scottish Executive.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how regularly it monitors the number of referrals to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration on (a) care and protection and non-offence grounds and (b) offence grounds and how many referrals there were in each category in the last six months, also showing how these figures compare with the corresponding six months in 2005.
Answer
The SCRA publish data quarterlyas well as an annual report which are analysed by the Scottish Executive to informaction.
The information requested onthe number of referrals for the six months in 2005 can be found in the ScottishChildren’s Reporter Administration Annual Report for 2005-06 which was publishedon 16 November. A copy is available in the Scottish Parliament InformationCentre (Bib. number 40988).
As regards data for the lastsix months, this information is not yet available. We expect the SCRA to publishthe second quarterly performance monitoring report in respect of 2006-07 early inDecember, thereafter it will be laid in Scottish Parliament Information Centre in the normalway.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has received from the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland in respect of a request from the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration for £20 million of additional funding to support front-line services.
Answer
The Executive has not receivedany representations from the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland in respectof additional funding for the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration.
