- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 28 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive when the final report of the Tolled Bridges Review will be published.
Answer
The final report of the Tolled Bridges Review will be published following its consideration by ministers in late summer 2005.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 28 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to support disabled people who wish to live independently.
Answer
There are a number of strategies in place to assist disabled people to live independent lives, whether for housing, health, transport, employment or lifelong learning.
Supporting People, which delivers housing support services to people with disabilities and other service users, allocated approximately £138 million in 2003-04 to directly support nearly 6,500 disabled people across Scotland to live independently in their own homes.
Direct Payments allow disabled people to buy the community care they are assessed as needing. Being self-directed, it gives users choice and control over the services they receive, with £8.3 million in 2003-04 providing care for 912 users including disabled people.
Free Personal and Nursing Care is available for disabled and non-disabled people aged 65 and over and the Executive committed £250 million from 2002 to 2004 with a further £147 million for 2004-05 and £153 million for 2005-06. There will also be free local off-peak bus travel across Scotland for older and disabled people from April 2006.
The European Social Fund helps people with disabilities back into the labour market. Measure 2.1 aims to improve social inclusion in target groups such as disabled people by supporting access to training, employment and income earning opportunities and by addressing the key barriers they face.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 28 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to develop a network of independent living centres across Scotland.
Answer
Local independent living support is funded by local authorities and there are no plans to develop a national network.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 25 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will adopt the recommendations made in Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People, published by the UK Cabinet Office in January 2005.
Answer
We note the UK Government’s report with interest. It has no specific recommendations for action by the Scottish Executive. We are continuing to pursue a range of activities to support disabled people and, where appropriate, to work with the UK Government.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 24 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it issues to local authorities on priorities for the replacement or refurbishment of schools.
Answer
Although the Scottish Executive has published guidance on School Estate Management Plans as part of the series of School Estate Strategy publications, it remains the statutory responsibility of education authorities to assess the needs and prioritise competing demands for investment in their school estates.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 October 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 26 January 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what performance indicators are in place to monitor the promotion of direct payments by local authorities.
Answer
The Executive is promoting uptake of direct payments in a range of ways, including extending to include older people with effect from April 2005. While there are no performance indicators in place to monitor the promotion of direct payments by local authorities at present, consideration is being given to using performance indicators to monitor future uptake.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 October 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 24 December 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average value is of a direct payment made (a) to parents of children with disabilities and (b) generally.
Answer
The information sought is contained in the following table:
Direct Payments Recipients and Value of Payments, Year to 31 March 2004
| Aged 0-15 Years | All |
No. of Clients | Value of Payments (£000) | Average Value (£000) | No. of Clients | Value of Payments (£000) | Average Value (£000) |
Scotland | 19 | 73 | 3.8 | 912 | 8,338 | 9.1 |
Source: SEHD annual survey ofdirect payments.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 02 December 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Elish Angiolini on 16 December 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service ensures that appropriate training is provided for procurators fiscal in dealing with domestic abuse prosecutions.
Answer
Training on the range of issues which arise in the prosecution of cases involving domestic abuse forms part of the core induction which is undertaken by all new prosecutors. This training, which includes input from Scottish Women’s Aid, is designed to equip prosecutors with a sound knowledge of the particular legal issues which arise frequently in these prosecutions as well as an awareness and understanding of the wider issues about victims experiencing domestic abuse in Scotland.
We are also currently working with Scottish Women’s Aid to develop advanced training for all staff within the prosecution service who work with victims and witnesses experiencing domestic abuse. This will build on the core training course to ensure that staff develop a high degree of proficiency in the preparation and prosecution of such cases
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 02 December 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 15 December 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-12289 by Cathy Jamieson on 30 November 2004, whether it intends to routinely collect statistics on the number of convictions relating to cases of domestic abuse.
Answer
Offence aggravator codes for domestic abuse were incorporated into the Integration of Scottish Criminal Justice Information Systems (ISCJIS) data standards in 2002. In future it will therefore be possible separately to identify convictions where such an aggravator has been recorded against the offences involved, though the availability of complete data will depend upon the rollout of ISCJIS to cover all courts and on consistent recording practices being followed by the police, procurator fiscals and the courts.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 November 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 14 December 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what funding NHS Argyll and Clyde has allocated for the provision of community mental health teams in the Lomond area and when such funding was allocated.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-12408, answered on 6 December 2004. 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.