- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 7 April 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether free personal care includes assistance with trimming nails.
Answer
Yes. Schedule 1 of the Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002 states that keeping fingernails and toenails trimmed should not be charged for.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 7 April 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether local authorities are obliged to provide free assistance with trimming nails where an individual has been assessed as requiring such assistance.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-11224 on 7 April 2008. 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.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Adam Ingram on 13 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-9940 by Adam Ingram on 29 February 2008, whether the policy of free school meals for P1 to P3 pupils will be extended beyond the end of the current academic year.
Answer
Under the terms of our concordat with local government, local authorities will provide free school meals to all P1 to P3 pupils from August 2010, if the evaluation of the current trial is positive and the necessary legislation is passed by the Parliament.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 13 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how the new Forth Road Bridge will be paid for if funding is not forthcoming from the Scottish Futures Trust.
Answer
Transport Scotland is currently reviewing the funding options available for the Forth replacement crossing.
A decision on this matter will be made later in 2008.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Bruce Crawford on 13 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what average number of parliamentary questions were answered on (a) Mondays, (b) Tuesdays, (c) Wednesdays, (d) Thursdays and (e) Fridays since June 2007.
Answer
This information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
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.
All answers to oral parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s Official Report website, the search facility for which can be found at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/index.htm.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Adam Ingram on 13 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-9940 by Adam Ingram on 29 February 2008, whether funding for free school meals for P1 to P3 pupils beyond the 2007-08 academic year would come from existing local authority funding allocations or whether it would provide additional funding.
Answer
We will be providing local government with record levels of funding over the period covered by the spending review 2008-11. The vast majority of the funding will be provided by means of a block grant. It is the responsibility of each local authority to allocate the total financial resources available to it on the basis of local needs and priorities having first fulfilled its statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities including the Scottish Government''s key strategic objectives and the full terms of the concordat, which includes the provision of free school meals for P1 to P3 from 2010.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 12 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether PFI is still an option for public building contracts.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to introducing an alternative funding mechanism to the traditional costly standard form of PFI, in the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT). We have already stated that PPP could continue as one of several delivery options open to public sector bodies whilst the SFT is being developed. Where PPP is to be used, the preferred option is for procuring bodies to follow the non-profit distributing (NPD) model. This provides for capped equity returns thus ending the very high gains seen in the standard PFI model via the secondary market. The NPD model was piloted successfully in the Scottish schools projects and is now being developed in the health and transport sectors.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 11 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many PFI projects have commenced since May 2007, broken down by (a) name and (b) location of project.
Answer
The standard form of PFI developed across the UK has not been used in Scotland for any projects which have commenced from May 2007 onwards. Whilst the Scottish Futures Trust is being developed we are now using as a preference, the non-profit distributing (NPD) model of PPP. Since May 2007, only one NPD project has commenced, the Tayside mental health development in Perth.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 11 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that the Scottish Futures Trust is legally competent within the powers of the Scottish Parliament.
Answer
In taking the Scottish Futures Trust forward we will take the appropriate professional advice. We have every intention of introducing a body that is legally competent.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 10 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how it plans to prevent high-sided and heavy vehicles from crossing the Forth Road Bridge when weather and weight restrictions are in place.
Answer
Responsibility for the operation of the Forth Road Bridge, including the management of traffic on the crossing, is a matter for the Forth Estuary Transport Authority (FETA) in the first instance.
I understand that FETA is convening a working group to discuss the issue of crossings by high-sided vehicles and other unusual loads during high winds. That group will include representatives from the City of Edinburgh and Fife Councils, Lothian and Borders and Fife Constabularies, and Transport Scotland.