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In a patient-centredNHS we would expect people diagnosed with a physical disability to receive servicestailored to their individual needs and to receive information about their condition and the health and social careservices available to them whichis accessible and appropriate.

Achieving Fair Access, our nationalguidance on improving access and removing the barriers which disabled people experiencewhen they use NHS services, was published by Fair for All – Disability inApril. It brings together good advicefrom a wide range of sources and gives details of publications and useful organisationswhich staff can follow up when they need to provide patients with more detailedinformation. The guidance will continue to be developed to reflect the growing practicalexperience of staff and when new policies are introduced. The guidance can be accessedat:

http://www.healthscotland.com/uploads/documents/4683-Achieving%20Fair%20Access%20guidance.pdf.

During this and theprevious administration the Scottish Government has provided funding to many organisationsincluding local authorities, through grant schemes and core funding, to promotenational and local action to improve the environment of our towns and cities.

Examples include ScottishNatural Heritage (SNH) “Attractive Places to Live” grants scheme 2003-07 provided£1.18 million of core funding to Greenspace Scotland. Additionally, within that period SNH gave £1.4 million funding to GreenspaceScotland to support local projects.

BTCV Scotland, KeepScotland Beautiful, and Planning Aid for Scotland together with Environmental Justice Grants of £2 million in 2007-08 arealso working to improve the local environment for communities.

Statutoryprovisions are in place so that if a proposed development is likely to resultin an increase in the number of buildings at risk of being damaged by floodingthe planning authority have to consult the Scottish Environment ProtectionAgency (SEPA) before granting planning permission. If SEPA advise againstplanning permission but the planning authority wishes to approve or recommendsconditions which the authority does not intend to apply, they are required tonotify the application to the Scottish ministers who may call it in for theirown decision.

National guidanceon addressing flood risk is set out in Scottish Planning Policy 7 – Planningand Flooding and Planning Advice Note 69 – Planning and Building standardsAdvice on Flooding.

Local authoritieshave powers under the Flood Prevention (Scotland) Act 1961 to mitigate the flooding of non-agricultural land in theirarea. It is entirely a matter for Glasgow City Council to determine, whetherand to what extent, to exercise their powers.

The Executiveannounced on 10 October further funding for the White Cart Flood Prevention Scheme, which will protect some 1,750 propertiesand businesses in Glasgow.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-2830 on 3 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.

The Scottish Governmentcarries out an annual teacher workforce, whose aim is to broadly balance the supplyof, and demand for, teachers. This year we have provided local authorities with£9 million of supplementary funding to enable them to employ an additional 300 teachersin primary and pre-school from this August. This additional funding will allow usto make an early start to meeting our early years and class size commitments inP1 to P3.

 

The reported incidentoccurred in 2001 at a private function attended by Mr Sinclair in a personal capacitywhile he was in private employment. Mr Sinclair has been Chief Executive of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission since 1 July 2003 and has held an appointment as a part time sheriff since1 July 2006. I believe he is an entirely suitable personto hold both posts.

The information requestedis not held centrally.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-1391 on 17 July 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.

Information on yearsprior to 2005-06 is not held centrally.

Under the teacherinduction scheme which has been running since August 2002, newly qualified, Scottishtrained teachers are guaranteed an offer of a one-year teaching post for their probationaryyear. After the induction scheme, teachers may apply for teaching posts with anylocal authority and local authorities may employ their own teachers and/or thosefrom other authorities.

The information requestedis not held centrally.