- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 August 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 6 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what the specific legal liabilities are for the buyer and seller in relation to property sales questionnaires.
Answer
The draft regulationswhich were the subject of recent consultation did not include proposals for specific legal liabilitiesfor a buyer or a seller in relation to a property sale questionnaire (PSQ), giventhat it was expected that PSQs would be referred to by solicitors acting on behalfof buyers in the missives of sale as a matter of conveyancing practice.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 August 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 6 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it will take in the next four years to provide equal access for men and women to justice and safety, in line with the Equal Opportunities Commission’s Gender Agenda targets.
Answer
I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-3626 on 6 September 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 August 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 6 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that the surveyors undertaking single surveys do not have conflicts of interest.
Answer
The draftregulations which were the subject of recent consultation provide forstrict criteria for approved providers and the intention is that they shouldmeet or match the professional standards, liability and redress provided bychartered surveyors. For a buyer to rely on a single survey, the provider’sterms and conditions of contract would have to make suitable provision and ifnecessary that would be ensured by legislation.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 August 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 6 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it will take in the next four years to close the income gap between men and women to meet the Equal Opportunities Commission’s Gender Agenda targets.
Answer
We welcome the wide-ranging10-year targets for each of the goals within the Equal Opportunities Commission’sGender Agenda, which was made publicly available on 23 August 2007.
As required by the Gender Equality Duty, which came intoforce in April 2007, the Scottish Government has published its Gender Equality Scheme,setting out the Government’s high level objectives for delivering on gender equality.These include objectives on some of the 10-year targets within the Gender Agenda.For example, there are objectives on closing the gender pay gap, addressing occupationalsegregation, ending pregnancy discrimination at work and violence against women.The scheme is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib.number 42934).
We will, however,be considering how best to engage with the targets as set out by the EOC in thecoming months, this will be best achieved as part of the annual reporting processrequired by the Gender Equality Duty and our own commitment to revise the schemein light of the priorities of this administration. We will be revising and reportingon our Gender Equality Scheme between December 2007 and March 2008.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 August 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 6 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether purchasers’ information packs will be provided free, or at a reduced rate, to sellers on low incomes.
Answer
The draftregulations which were the subject of recent consultation proposed thatevery seller who marketed their property for sale would be under a duty toprovide, upon request, a single survey and a property sale questionnaire, whichwould form a purchaser’s information pack (PIP). They did not propose that PIPswould be provided free or at a reduced rate to sellers on low incomes, butrather that the market would decide the fees for PIPs.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 August 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 6 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it will take in the next four years to modernise public services so that they respond to men and women’s needs and meet the Equal Opportunities Commission’s Gender Agenda targets.
Answer
I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-3626 on 6 September 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 August 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 6 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it will take in the next four years to promote sharing power equally between men and women in all areas of life, in line with the Equal Opportunities Commission’s Gender Agenda targets.
Answer
I refer themember to the answer to question S3W-3626 on 6 September 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions areavailable on the Parliament's website the search facility for which can befound at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 August 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 6 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what contribution students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland make towards Scottish university education and what implications the agreement recently signed with the Northern Ireland administration will have for this.
Answer
Students domiciledin England, Wales and Northern Ireland are liable for a tuition fee of £1,735 peryear for general degree courses and £2,760 for medical courses. There are currentlyno plans to change this and no agreement in this area has been signed.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 August 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 6 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to make changes to the infrastructure of the direct payments scheme and to further encourage local authorities to support them.
Answer
New national guidanceon self-directed support which issued in July tasks local authorities with developinglocal infrastructures and is designed to increase uptake. This can be accessed on
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/181224.
Along with my CabinetSecretary and ministerial colleagues, I am in dialogue with a range of stakeholdersto gather evidence and views on how we use the strategic spending review to setplans that will enable us to fulfil our purpose and achieve our strategic objectives.Increasing the uptake of self-directed support will be part of that consideration.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 August 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 6 September 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to institute an expiry time limit on single surveys.
Answer
The draftregulations which were the subject of recent consultation proposed that thesingle survey should be no more than 12 weeks old when the property was firstmarketed. However, there was no proposed time limit on the information in the singlesurvey. Rather, it was suggested that this should be a matter for the market,reflecting the need for flexibility to address the circumstances of particularcases.
