- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 April 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 May 2018
To ask the Scottish Government, further to its report, Impact of Aspects of the Law of Evidence in Sexual Offence Trials, published in September 2007, what plans it has to conduct a further evaluation, including on the issue of sexual history or character evidence.
Answer
As the question notes, the operation of the law in the area of the use of character evidence and sexual history evidence was subject to a full and independent evaluation in 2007. The law in this area has not changed substantively since the 2007 evaluation.
However, in December 2015 a commitment was provided to parliament to undertake a small high level data collection project to review the usage of section 274/275. This exercise concluded in June 2016 and the results can be found here: http://www.parliament.scot/General%20Documents/20160624CSfJtoConvenerILR.pdf . The Scottish Government is working with Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service to interrogate this data further. This exercise will inform any future consideration of the operation of the law in this area.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 March 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 18 April 2018
To ask the Scottish Government when the Aspiring Communities Fund will open for applicants at stage 2; how many applications it expects; how much funding will be made available for this, also broken down by how much will be ring-fenced for applicants that have completed the stage 1 process, and whether any funding will be made available to stage 1 applicants that are not successful at stage 2.
Answer
The date for Aspiring Communities Fund applications for existing Stage 1 projects to progress to Stage 2 is still under consideration. The fund currently supports 60 Stage 1 projects and it is expected that the majority of these projects will apply for Stage 2 funding. The level of funding available is still to be determined. Those projects that are unsuccessful in acquiring Stage 2 funding will be signposted to alternative funding sources.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 March 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 18 April 2018
To ask the Scottish Government when the Aspiring Communities Fund opened for applicants at stage 1; how many applications were (a) received and (b) granted, broken down by (i) name of organisation and (ii) amount granted, and what criteria were used to determine whether to approve a grant.
Answer
The Aspiring Communities Fund opened for Stage 1 applicants in February 2017.
a) the total number of Stage 1 applications received was 108.
b) The total number of Stage 1 projects approved was 60.
Eligibility of organisations was determined through their completion of a pre-eligibility checklist. All eligible proposals were then carefully checked and scored against the Fund’s criteria and scoring framework. All eligible applications were then considered by an independent panel.
Name of successful organisation and amount granted is listed in the following table:-
LEAD ORGANISATION NAME | TOTAL GRANT APPROVED |
Aberlour Childcare Trust | £23,622 |
Active Communities | £21,493 |
AddAction | £47,335 |
Aspire2Access | £19,286 |
Bethany Christian Trust | £43,947 |
Brag Enterprises Ltd | £34,201 |
Broadford and Strath Community Company Ltd | £32,500 |
Calman Trust | £23,265 |
Cernach Housing Association | £23,380 |
Childcare in the Community | £48,739 |
Churches Action for the Homeless (CATH) | £39,021 |
Citizens Advice Edinburgh | £23,254 |
Cloch Housing Association | £35,845 |
Coalfields Regeneration Trust | £38,064 |
Community InfoSource | £38,191 |
CVS Inverclyde | £30,682 |
Cyrenians | £13,609 |
Darvel Community Trust | £33,354 |
Deaf Connections | £49,874 |
Deveron Projects | £44,081 |
Dundee and Angus ADHD Support Group | £42,000 |
Dundee International Women's Centre | £49,101 |
Edinburgh Food Project | £8,667 |
Elderpark Housing Association | £22,335 |
FEAT Trading CIC | £9,343 |
Forward Coupar Angus | £20,585 |
Furniture Plus Ltd | £15,400 |
Galgael Trust | £14,325 |
Glasgow Homelessness Network | £17,878 |
Glen Housing Association | £13,585 |
Healthy n Happy CDT | £43,179 |
Inch Park Community Sports Club | £19,448 |
Irvine Community Sports Club | £12,000 |
Kirkcaldy YMCA | £49,182 |
Letham Community Sports Club | £28,865 |
Midlothian Voluntary Action | £20,266 |
Money Matters Money Advice Centre | £47,783 |
Nari Kallyan Shangho (NKS) | £30,081 |
North Lands Creative Glass | £17,508 |
Ore Valley Housing Association | £13,175 |
PAS (Planning Aid for Scotland) | £31,791 |
RAMH | £20,492 |
Regenfx Youth Trust | £28,694 |
RockSolid Dundee | £15,204 |
Sacro | £47,768 |
Simon Community Scotland | £8,698 |
Studio Pop CIC | £48,875 |
Support in Mind Scotland | £31,183 |
SURF | £39,304 |
The Ayrshire Community Trust | £36,644 |
The New Tannahill Centre | £50,000 |
The Pollokshields Trust | £46,788 |
The Village Storytelling Centre | £33,621 |
The Yard Adventure Centre | £40,445 |
Third Sector Dumfries & Galloway | £25,415 |
Tollcross Housing Association | £49,000 |
Toonspeak Young People's Theatre | £23,073 |
Visibility | £12,126 |
Voluntary Action Orkney | £26,390 |
With Kids | £47,945 |
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 March 2018
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 28 March 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support the Fife economy.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 28 March 2018
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 March 2018
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 13 March 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Scottish Youth Theatre regarding its future.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 13 March 2018
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 March 2018
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 14 March 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what assistance it can provide to Cowdenbeath FC with its Club 135 campaign, Honour the Past, Ensure a Future, which aims to secure the future of the club.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 14 March 2018
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 January 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 7 February 2018
To ask the Scottish Government how many responses it has received to each of its two consultations on proposals to classify 15 special protection areas (SPA) in the Scottish marine area, and when it expects to make a decision on formal classification.
Answer
Scottish Natural Heritage and Joint Nature Conservation Committee undertook the two consultations on 15 proposed SPAs on behalf of Scottish Ministers, and they received a total of 1356 responses. Scottish Ministers will make a decision on their classification by the end of 2018.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 1 February 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the reports that 79 jobs at the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) are at risk because of restructuring plans, and what discussions it has had with NTS regarding (a) these plans and (b) staff numbers.
Answer
The National Trust for Scotland is an independent charity. As such it is for the organisation’s Trustees to make judgements about its operational structure. The Scottish Government is aware of the proposed changes and we understand that the Trust will be engaging with its stakeholders as its local and national operations develop.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 1 February 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken in response to each of the "issues for consideration" that were set out at chapter six of A Retrospective 2014/15 Evaluation of the Youth Music Initiative.
Answer
Creative Scotland administer the Youth Music Initiative (YMI) on behalf of the Scottish Government. Following the 2014-15 Evaluation Creative Scotland appointed consultants to work closely with key stakeholders, including Scottish Government officials, to help ensure the new direction and focus of the refresh of the YMI was informed by this evaluation. I have therefore asked Creative Scotland's Chief Executive, Janet Archer, to respond to the member with the detailed information requested.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 29 January 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many and what percentage of (a) disabled and (b) non-disabled children and young people have received support from (i) the youth music initiative programme and (ii) each Sistema Scotland project (A) in and (B) out of school in each of the last five years, broken down by (1) gender, (2) age, (3) social grade, (4) Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) cohort, (5) constituency and (6) parliamentary region.
Answer
Creative Scotland administers the Youth Music Initiative (YMI) on behalf of the Scottish Government. YMI projects are required to complete an End of Project Monitoring Report on their activities and participants, with information submitted to Creative Scotland and an external research agency. Projects report on their activities to engage young people from the YMI fund’s priority groups which are defined as:-
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looked-after children and young and care leavers,
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resident in areas of social and economic deprivation ranking high in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation,
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from minority ethnic backgrounds,
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have a disability and/or additional support needs,
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at risk of offending or who have previously offended,
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young carers or young parents, and those
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in the early years (0-5 years) of their life.
During 2015-16, a new outcomes-focused evaluation model was introduced to gather information about the impact YMI has for young people, communities and the youth music sector. The model records the number of local authorities and school-based projects pro-actively targeting YMI’s priority groups.The most recent YMI Impact Report (2015-16) is available on the Creative Scotland website and may be found here:- http://www.creativescotland.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/36878/YMI-2015-16-Impact-Report.pdf.
The report highlights the main areas of focus for local authority projects were young people in disadvantaged areas (96 projects) and young people with additional support needs (58 projects). The report found that a high proportion of school-based targeted projects were aimed at young people living in deprived areas, many of whom did not normally engage, or get the opportunity to engage, in music making activities. Out of school projects also reported on the priority groups that they actively engaged and the total number of young people taking part, with children in the early years of their life (actively engaged by 9 projects / total 28,853 participants) and young people living in deprived areas (actively engaged by 21 projects / total 10,628 participants) as the main areas of focus.
With regards to the detailed information relating to Sistema Scotland I have asked Sistema Scotland's Chief Executive, Nicola Killean, to respond to the member.
