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It is for local authorities to assess the care needs in each of their areas and recruit and register foster carers to match the need.

The Scottish Government is supporting local authorities by working with, and funding activities through, The fostering network which support the recruitment and retention of foster carers.

The Scottish Government does not centrally collect information on the number of children who are fostered outwith their local authority area.

This information would only be available by contacting individual local authorities.

The Scottish Government has met with the UK Government and discussed the issue of benefit entitlement for kinship carers numerous times since 2007 in order to try to improve financial support available. This has resulted in a number of improvements including the exempting of kinship allowances from housing and council tax benefit.

For example, if a kinship carer received a weekly payment of £100 they could be better off by up to around £37 per week depending on their individual circumstances, as a result of these changes.

Current best estimates suggest that between 40-60,000 children in Scotland may be affected by parental drug misuse. Of these, 10-20,000 may be living with at least one parent with a drug misuse problem. These figures are largely derived from Estimating the National and Local Prevalence of Problem Drug Misuse in Scotland 2006, published in October 2009 and remain largely unchanged since the last update based on 2003 data.

Information on the number of looked after children whose last accommodation type immediately prior to leaving care was “in foster care” and whose initial destination on leaving care was “home with (biological) parents” is only available since 2008-09.

During 2008-09, there were 491 looked after children who last accommodation type immediately prior to ceasing being looked after was “in foster care” and their initial destination on leaving care was “home with (biological) parents”. The equivalent figure for 2009-10 was 388 looked after children.

Please note that these figures may include some multiple counting if a child ceased being looked after more than once during the respective reporting period, and their final accommodation type and initial destination on leaving care met the specified criteria.

Of all looked after children who were “in foster care” at the end of each reporting year, the percentage that were aged 16 years or older for each of the last five years was:

31 March 2006: - 9.7%

31 March 2007: - 9.4%

31 March 2008: - 9.2%

31 March 2009: - 8.3%

31 July 2010: - 8.2%.

Please note that figures for 2006, 2009 and 2010 include a very small number of young people aged over 21 years who were still being looked after, whereas figures for 2007 and 2008 only included young people being looked after up to and including the age of 21 year olds.

Following a detailed option appraisal review the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme Board (EGIP) have confirmed that The Garngad Chord is not required in order to realise the EGIP journey time objectives.

The Scottish Government has no plans to develop the Garngad Chord.

Data on the average ratio of household income to mortgage size is not held centrally.

Data on the average proportion of household income spent on mortgages is not held centrally.

The Scottish House Condition Survey collects information on fuel bills. As this information is taken from a survey there will be an associated amount of error with each of the estimates.

The following table provides the information requested for the years which data is available. The average (mean) percentage of income spent on gas and electricity fluctuated between 4% and 7% in the years 1996 to 2009.

The average (mean) percentage of household income spent on electricity and gas.

Source: Scottish House Condition Survey.