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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S3W-13739

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 17 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what the Private Sector Housing Grant (a) was for 2007-08 and (b) is for 2008-09, broken down by local authority.

Private Sector Housing Grant allocations for 2007-08 and 2008-09 are as detailed in the following table.

The baseline allocations include the Scottish Government’s contribution towards Care and Repair running costs of approximately £2.4 million a year.

Private Sector Housing Grant	Baseline Allocation 2007-08 (£ Million)	Baseline Allocation 2008-09 (£ Million)
Scotland Total	67.45	67.34
Aberdeen City	2.66	2.78
Aberdeenshire	1.26	1.22
Angus	1.02	1.05
Argyll and Bute	3.15	3.18
Clackmannanshire	0.57	0.54
Dumfries and Galloway	2.22	2.20
Dundee City	2.12	2.19
East Ayrshire	0.96	0.96
East Dunbartonshire	0.80	0.79
East Lothian	1.48	1.36
East Renfrewshire	0.65	0.55
Edinburgh, City of	6.82	7.00
Eilean Siar	3.35	3.33
Falkirk	1.01	1.01
Fife	1.44	1.41
Glasgow City	10.22	10.66
Highland	4.32	4.35
Inverclyde	1.28	1.20
Midlothian	0.51	0.51
Moray	1.25	1.28
North Ayrshire	1.18	1.22
North Lanarkshire	3.26	2.56
Orkney Islands	1.13	1.12
Perth and Kinross	1.71	1.76
Renfrewshire	1.66	1.70
Scottish Borders	1.19	1.26
Shetland Islands	0.99	0.98
South Ayrshire	1.16	1.17
South Lanarkshire	4.87	4.77
Stirling	1.11	1.17
West Dunbartonshire	0.89	0.82
West Lothian	1.23	1.22

Question reference: S3W-13743

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 10 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many incidents of abuse of the Blue Badge scheme have been reported in each of the last five years and what enforcement measures have been taken.

The information is not held centrally. This is a matter for individual local authorities.

However, the member may be interested to learn that Audit Scotland recently published details of possible fraud on the Blue Badge Scheme in their report on the National Fraud Initiative. As a result of a pilot scheme on data matching with some local authorities, 960 Blue Badges were cancelled, mainly where the holder had died and the badge had not been returned. Audit Scotland have decided to make this a mandatory part of the National Fraud Initiative in order that all local authorities will be involved in the next round.

The report can be found at:

http://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/docs/central/2008/nr_080515_national_fraud_initiative.pdf.

Question reference: S3W-13741

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 9 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it has taken to tackle any abuse of the Blue Badge scheme.

Question reference: S3W-13742

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 9 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what future plans it has to amend the Blue Badge scheme to cut down any abuse of the scheme.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-13741 on 9 June 2008.

Powers exist under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 available to local authorities to make all disabled parking bays legally enforceable.

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.

Question reference: S3W-13511

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 6 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many copies of Choosing Scotland’s Future: A National Conversation have been purchased at a cost of £10 from Blackwell's bookshops.

To date, 172 copies of Choosing Scotland’s Future have been sold by Blackwell’s bookshops. About 90 further copies have been sold via wholesalers and at the Edinburgh Book Festival.

Over 3,000 free copies were distributed to key stakeholders and public libraries following the launch of the paper, and a number of hard copies have been distributed internally within the government for use by policy officials with their stakeholders. The document is also available to download for free on the government’s National Conversation website – to date it has been downloaded over 9,200 times, and has been read online around 30,730 times.

Question reference: S3W-13560

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 5 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether all ambulances from the Vale of Leven, Helensburgh and Arrochar are double-crewed.

The Scottish Ambulance Service has confirmed that all traditional Accident and Emergency Units (AEUs) are rostered to be double crewed. However, in exceptional circumstances, such as short notice sickness absence, a single manned unit AEU may be deployed.

The statement to Parliament on 4 June by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing made clear the position of the Scottish Government on these matters.

In addition there are single crewed Paramedic Rapid Response Vehicles at the Vale of Leven.

Question reference: S3W-13397

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 5 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been screened for thrombophilia since May 2007.

This information is not held centrally. We have accepted the advice from the National Screening Committee that population screening for thrombophilia should not be offered. As with all the topics on which it offers advice, however, the committee keeps the evidence base under review.

It is usual in Scotland, however, for adult relatives of those with Factor V Leiden, the most common genetic mutation which gives rise to thrombophilia, to be offered genetic testing and given appropriate advice in the light of the result of that test.

Question reference: S3W-13557

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 5 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what the overtime budget was for the Scottish Ambulance Service for 2007-08 and what it is for 2008-09.

Question reference: S3W-13559

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 5 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether all ambulances are double-crewed, and what the reasons are for its position on the matter.

The service operates a range of vehicle types deployed according to the clinical condition of the patient. Rapid Response Vehicles tend to be single responders, accident and emergency units should be double crewed, as should mid tier and urgent tier units.

The statement to Parliament on 4 June by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing made clear the position of the Scottish Government on these matters.

Question reference: S3W-13554

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 5 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many paramedics are rostered on each ambulance across each shift pattern in the Vale of Leven, Helensburgh and Arrochar stations.