- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 4 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-19893 by Mr Tom McCabe on 10 November 2005, what steps it has taken to ensure that civil servants, especially those working in geographic information services, are made aware of the Executive’s position that the citizen entitlement card will not be linked to any national identity register or similar database.
Answer
I can confirm that civil servantsin the geographic information services are fully aware of the position that the Executive has no plans to link the citizen entitlement card to any national identityregister or similar database as confirmed in my stated answer to S2W-19893.All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the parliament’s website the search facilityfor which can be found at
www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 4 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it supports the creation of a child population register, as proposed by the Citizen Information Project within the Office of National Statistics, and to what extent devolved public services would be involved in the operation of such a register or access its contents.
Answer
I understand that the Departmentfor Education and Skills has accepted the recommendation from the Citizen InformationProject to consider whether there is scope for a child population register and iscurrently considering the position. No decision has yet been taken to establishsuch a register.
We have no plans for a children’sindex as has been legislated for in England under the Children Act 2004. Rather than hosting a single,central database with basic information on all children, our approach is that informationis shared between authenticated practitioners on a need to know basis, via the eCareFramework.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 4 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether citizen entitlement cards will be linked with address-based data in any central government data initiatives.
Answer
I can confirm the Scottish Executivehas no plans to link the citizen entitlement cards with address-based data in anycentral (UK) government data initiatives.
In relation to Scotland, thecitizen entitlement card is connected to address based data to facilitate card management.This is an essential part of any card management system and no different to existingsystems.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 13 March 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how it will take account of the views expressed in responses to its consultation on the possession of extreme pornographic material which were blocked by its IT system.
Answer
I refer to the member to the answer to question S2W-24154 on 23 March 2006. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 13 March 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how it will prevent the electronic blocking of responses to any future consultations on subjects of a sexual content.
Answer
The current process for filtering,blocking and release of e-mails is necessary to ensure that the amount of inappropriatee-mail being received by the Scottish Executive can be kept to a manageable level.However, for future consultations on subjects of a sexual nature, we will consideron a case-by-case basis whether the filter should be disapplied.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 13 March 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many responses to its consultation on the possession of extreme pornographic material will be excluded from the analysis of responses due to being blocked by the Executive’s IT system.
Answer
I am aware of one response tothe consultation on the possession of extreme pornography which was blocked by theExecutive’s IT system. Officials have been in contact with the respondent and theirresponse has now been received and will be included in the consultation analysis.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 10 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the ban on smoking in public places will cover the driver’s compartment in black taxi cabs where there is physical separation from the passenger compartment.
Answer
All public transportation vehiclesare classed as no-smoking premises under the new law. A “public transportation vehicle”under the law means any vehicle available to the public as a means of transportationand specifically includes a taxi and a private hire car. Therefore, from 26 March 2006 smokingwill not be permitted at any time in a taxi. The law will apply regardless of whetheror not there are passengers in the taxi.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 7 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding it has committed in each of the last three financial years to support the development and delivery of abuse recovery services to children who have been abused.
Answer
A number of funding streamsare available to agencies and voluntary sector organisations to support thedevelopment and delivery of local services.
One of the priorities of theChildren, Young People and Families Unified Voluntary Sector Fund is to protectchildren through effective early intervention with children and families and/orsupport when they need protection. The Unified Fund has been in existence since2004-05. The fund total for 2004-05 was £6.5 million and £7.2 million for 2005-06.
In addition one of thepriorities for the Changing Children’s Services Fund is to support packages forvulnerable children and young. Over the last three years the following havebeen spent specifically on child protection activities; 2002-03 £1,420,426 froma total fund of £27 million, 2003-04 £1,537,557 from a total fund of £41.5million, and 2004-05 £5,389,793 from a total fund of £60.5 million.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 7 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many abuse recovery services exist for children who have been abused.
Answer
This information is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 7 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to ensure that all children who have been abused have access to abuse recovery services.
Answer
The aim of the three yearchild protection reform programme, now in its final year, is that children andyoung people get the help they need when they need it. It is for local agenciesto identify the specific services required to meet the needs of children intheir area and, through mechanisms such as integrated children’s servicesplanning, ensure these are secured and delivered.
Funding is also available toagencies and the voluntary sector through the Changing Children’s ServicesFund, the Children, Young People and Families Unified Voluntary Sector Fund andthe Survivors Fund to provide services required locally.
In addition, in September2005 the National Strategy for Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse wasannounced. The aim of this work is to effect a step change in servicesresponses to survivors in Scotland.