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The Scottish Government held a seminar in Stirling in December to update local authorities on the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Bill and, together with local authorities and others, are supporting a flood risk management conference in Glasgow in February. The Scottish Government is happy to meet any local authority at short notice to discuss flooding issues. For example, I met Scottish Borders Council on 11 September to discuss issues arising from the flooding event of the previous weekend.

The amount of flood prevention grant paid to each local authority in the last five years is shown on the following table:

Year	Council	Grant Paid
2003-04	Aberdeen	150,000.00
	Aberdeenshire	33,100.83
	Argyll and Bute	250,499.85
	East Ayrshire	2,131,814.72
	East Dunbartonshire	250,000.00
	Inverclyde	15,501.53
	North Ayrshire	321,907.77
	Perth and Kinross	1,846,224.78
	Renfrewshire	274,149.54
	West Lothian	350,000.00
	Total	5,623,199.02
2004-05	Aberdeen	93,315.00
	Argyll and Bute	854,498.80
	Dumfries and Galloway	559,530.60
	East Ayrshire	2,506,633.81
	East Dunbartonshire	414,000.00
	Edinburgh City	1,400,000.00
	Moray	1,097,253.36
	North Ayrshire	22,938.10
	Perth and Kinross	612,747.26
	Renfrewshire	29,294.40
	West Lothian	215,758.61
	Total	7,805,969.94
2005-06	Argyll and Bute	228,135.82
	Dumfries and Galloway	78,423.61
	East Ayrshire	534,338.86
	East Dunbartonshire	1,366,337.15
	Edinburgh City	1,030,697.43
	Moray	756,844.13
	Perth and Kinross	487,459.00
	West Lothian	199,000.00
	Total	4,681,236.00
2006-07	Dumfries and Galloway	19,628.52
	East Ayrshire	1,215,181.06
	East Dunbartonshire	145,835.27
	Edinburgh City	2,201,431.19
	Fife	966,200.00
	Glasgow City	2,739,077.82
	Moray	455,565.44
	Perth and Kinross	770,696.91
	South Lanarkshire	520,861.00
	West Lothian	4,221.77
	Total	9,038,698.98
2007-08	East Ayrshire	8,717,744.20
	East Dunbartonshire	74,770.35
	Edinburgh City	12,342,657.98
	Falkirk	641,279.00
	Fife	1,984,586.10
	Glasgow City	1,006,628.75
	Moray	3,536,073.69
	North Ayrshire	861,512.97
	Perth and Kinross	254,483.80
	Renfrewshire	686,677.61
	South Lanarkshire	1,034,173.17
	West Lothian	447,610.98
	Total	31,588,198.60

 

The Scottish Government has published two chapters of Guidance for Local Authorities Taking Forward Flood Prevention Schemes Under the Flood Prevention (Scotland) Act 1961 and provides advice on other flooding issues to local authorities on request.

Accessibility of new buildings and new building work to existing buildings are addressed through Scottish building regulations. These make provision for a range of physical access issues, to ensure that a building can be used and enjoyed by as wide a range of people as practical. For non-domestic buildings, Scottish building regulations are the equivalent of those elsewhere in the UK and, for domestic buildings, are the most demanding in the UK. The latest accessibility standards came into effect in May 2007.

A duty to consider the accessibility of a building also exists under equalities legislation, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 & 2005 (DDA), which is reserved to Westminster. This legislation places a duty on service providers and employers to make reasonable adjustments to the way services are delivered, or facilities are provided, to prevent discrimination against persons on the basis of disability. This could include not only alteration of physical barriers to access and use, but also the manner in which a building is managed and operated. The DDA can therefore address certain access issues which lie outwith the scope of building regulations.

The Scottish Government takes the provision of advice to disabled people very seriously, across all its areas of responsibility. Funding is provided to a wide range of organisations that provide such advice. We would highlight the following:

Health:

Self-Directed Support -

In 2008-09, through section 10 (1) of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968, the self-directed support team made grants of £210,000 available to organisations who advise people about self-directed support.

Mental Health:

Section 10 Organisations and payments 2008-09 -

Alzheimer Scotland - £100,000

Bipolar Fellowship - £27,825

Dementia Services Development Centre - £135,000

Headway - £72,500

National Schizophrenia Scotland - £74,620

Penumbra - £61,880

Penumbra Respite - £20,850

Richmond Fellowship - £31,500

Scottish Huntington''s Association - £52,000

Scottish Association for Mental Health - £88,000

Stresswatch - £11,219.

In addition, through section 16B of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978, the Scottish Government provides grants totalling £377,000 to a range of voluntary organisations which support people experiencing mental illness. The organisations that receive funding undertake various functions that include giving help and advice to members of the public who experience mental ill health and their carers. Examples of high profile organisations that receive money in this way are Alzheimer''s Scotland, Cruse Bereavement Care (Scotland), Depression Alliance Scotland and the Scottish Association for Mental Health.

Housing and Adaptations:

Glasgow Centre for Inclusive Living provides a range of independent living advice, information and training support services to disabled people in and around Glasgow, and has been funded through the Housing Voluntary Grant Scheme to develop a disabled housing register. They received £23,600 in 2008-09 and will receive £24,072 in 2009-10.

Education:

Support for Learning -

The Scottish Government fund the Scottish Sensory Centre (SSC) to promote innovation and good practice in the education of deaf, visually impaired and deafblind pupils. The Scottish Government also funds CALL Scotland, who provide specialist expertise in technology for children who have speech, communication and/or writing difficulties, in schools across Scotland. Both services are housed in the University of Edinburgh. In 2008-09, SSC were awarded £219,861 and CALL £317,760.

The Scottish Government also provided in 2008-09, £424,260 funding for the provision of Enquire, the national organisation with links to local networks. Enquire provides free and independent information and advice to families of children with additional support needs.

Disabled Children:

The Butterfly Trust - 2008-09, £64,575

Care Co-ordination Network UK - 2008-09, £47,281

Contact a Family - 2008-09, £64,062

Sleep Scotland - 2008-09, £75,030.

Lifelong Learning:

The Lifelong Learning Directorate (LLD) within the Scottish Government have for a number of years funded Skill Scotland to update the advice contained within Helping You Meet The Cost of Learning for 2008-09 - Disabled Learners. The LLD have also previously funded Skill Scotland to write the advice contained within a publication called the Employing Own Support Workers in Higher Education.

SKILL Scotland also receives a Headquarters Grant which is administered via the Lifelong Learning Directorate. The grant for 2008-9 was £52,871.

Skill Scotland is a national charity promoting opportunities for young people and adults with any kind of impairment in post-16 education, training and employment. Skill Scotland operates an information and advice service, provides volunteering opportunities, informs and influences key decision makers, runs conferences and works with its members.

Helping all young people into education, employment and training is a top priority for the government and we have a specific indicator to that effect in the national performance framework. To support delivery of this, on 28 November 2008 we launched 16+ Learning Choices, which will be rolled out across Scotland by 2010. The new model will bring a particular focus to improving outcomes for young people who leave school at the earliest opportunity and for those who need additional support to make a successful transition.

Support for people with disabilities is a matter for a number of agencies, including Skills Development Scotland, which comprises Careers Scotland, the Skills element of the Enterprise Networks and Learndirect Scotland. We have been working with Skills Development Scotland to ensure all equality issues are considered and reflected within their corporate plan, which is due for publication in April 2009.

The Government Economic Strategy (GES) sets out how we will focus on creating a more successful country through increasing sustainable economic growth. It is a wide-ranging strategy that recognises that all the arms of government need to play a role in strengthening the Scottish economy. This includes working with other public, private and third sector partners to ensure that enterprise and business development support is responsive, focused and accessible to all sectors of Scottish society, including disabled people.

Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise play a key role in delivering aspects of the GES.

Both enterprise agencies support the Equality Matters in Business project, a pioneering Scotland-wide project that aims to enhance the advice and support given to small and medium sized enterprises on the business benefits of good practice in equality and diversity. It is a two year scheme running to March 2009 which covers all strands of equality, focuses on the demand for diversity and addresses the barriers that prevent the supply of a diverse workforce.

Statistics are not available on the outcome of this project however, monitoring procedures are being put in place to record the number of businesses advised and an evaluation is currently being carried out.

I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

The Scottish Prison Service provides support for the families of prisoners in a number of ways. The majority of prisons in Scotland have Family Contact Development Officers who are an important point of contact for prisoners and their families and who are available to offer information and advice. The Scottish Prison Service also works positively with third sector partners in order to achieve the best possible outcomes for families affected by imprisonment and are currently undertaking a review of visit facilities across the estate.

VisitScotland is committed to the marketing of Scotland, at home and abroad, as a quality, value for money destination for all. Their marketing strategy is based on sophisticated research, through which they segment their marketing activity and target consumers according to the age, gender, income and lifestyle of potential visitors. They take those people with disabilities into consideration in their activities, to ensure that Scotland is also promoted as an accessible tourism destination.

As part of continuous improvement, VisitScotland and the tourism industry are exploring ways to:

attract more disabled visitors to Scotland;

extend the range and quality of information on accessibility to accommodation and tourism facilities;

gain better information about the experience of disabled visitors, and

record the numbers of employed disabled people and ensure they are equitably treated.

Examples of these activities are: the VisitScotland Disability Equality Scheme, publications for the visually-impaired, e-marketing activities, Quality Assurance scheme for those with impaired mobility.

The Scottish Government has committed over £120 million from 2008-09 to 2010-11 to tackle alcohol misuse, the majority of which has been provided to NHS boards for the provision of alcohol brief interventions and treatment and support services.

We have also recently consulted on a range of proposals to change Scotland''s relationship with alcohol and reduce alcohol-related harm and will be announcing shortly our framework for action.