Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-16062 on 12 September 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The Scottish Government is developing a framework for regular health assessments for all people with learning disability as part of the delivery of Equally Well: Report of the Ministerial Taskforce on Health Inequalities. This will build on developments through the learning disability enhanced service programme, which is being taken forward by 11 NHS boards. The enhanced service involves supporting the overall primary care needs of adults with learning disabilities and taking steps towards regular health assessments.

NHS boards will work in partnership with local authorities to identify and support people with learning disabilities to access health assessments.

The framework for regular health assessments for people with learning disabilities that the Scottish Government is developing will include visual impairment checks.

Furthermore, free eye examinations for all were introduced on 1 April 2006. Under the review of community eyecare services in Scotland, £2.6 million of pump priming funding has been made available to help develop eye care services in the community across Scotland, including projects for people with learning disabilities.

In the private sector, information is not held by local authority area, but by main postcode. The annual installation rate, covering the period 2004-05 until end August 2008, for the main postcode areas are shown in the following table.

Postcode Area	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	Cumulative
AB	913	935	581	983	458	3,870
DD	703	588	537	892	249	2,969
DG	599	586	335	459	198	2,177
EH	1,708	1,482	1,136	1,694	807	6,827
FK	489	503	418	675	353	2,438
G	3,409	4,067	3,194	3,987	1,745	16,402
HS	348	317	224	103	33	1,025
IV	590	533	306	406	190	2,025
KA	808	1,100	802	1,248	530	4,488
KW	333	322	66	109	41	871
KY	539	667	529	884	375	2,994
ML	712	1,007	883	1,301	546	4,449
PA	961	1,186	771	1,046	483	4,447
PH	375	361	214	343	162	1,445
TD	427	286	184	219	86	1,202
ZE	108	113	58	22	6	307
Total	13,022	14,053	10,238	14,371	6,262	57,946

Notes:

1. The managing agent contract transferred from Eaga Partnership to Scottish Gas during 2006-07, so the figure for 2006-07 includes installations undertaken by both.

2. The figure for 2007-08 includes 168 installations undertaken in the private sector by local authorities, in addition to those undertaken by Scottish Gas.

In the public sector the programme ended for local authorities in March 2004 and, therefore, no installations were undertaken by local authorities in 2004-05.

With the exception of Glasgow Housing Association (GHA), the programme for housing associations ended in December 2004. Therefore, the information provided covers 2004-05, the final year the programme was in place for housing associations, and is shown in the following table:

Local Authority Area	2004-05
Aberdeen City	1
City of Edinburgh	121
Glasgow City	388
Renfrewshire	1
Total	511

 

For GHA, the programme ended in March 2007. Therefore, the information provided covers the period 2004-05 until 2006-07 and is shown in the following table.

Local Authority Area	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	Cumulative
Glasgow City	1,674	1,949	4,156	7,779

 

For the local authorities where decriminalised parking enforcement has been in operation, the information requested is given in the following Scottish Executive/Scottish Government publications:

Criminal Proceedings in Scottish Courts, 2001 in section 10.6, on page 20;

Criminal Proceedings in Scottish Courts, 2002 in section 9.6, on page 18;

Criminal Proceedings in Scottish Courts, 2003 in table 26, on page 45;

Criminal Proceedings in Scottish Courts, 2004-05 in table 26, on page 46;

Criminal Proceedings in Scottish Courts, 2005-06 in table 31, on page 53, and

Criminal Proceedings in Scottish Courts, 2006-07 in table 31, on page 51.

Copies of these are available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. numbers 25720, 31304, 36012, 39481, 42387, 46485 respectively). Please note that Criminal Proceedings in Scottish Courts, 2006-07 (Bib. number 46485) was released as a web only publication.

Each of these publications can be found on the Scottish Government website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PubCriminalProceedings.

Six local authorities have decriminalised parking offences. Decriminalised parking enforcement was introduced in the City of Edinburgh, Glasgow City, Perth and Kinross, Aberdeen City, Dundee City and South Lanarkshire council areas as from October 1998, October 1999, October 2002, March 2003, April 2004 and February 2005 respectively.

The Serious Organised Crime Taskforce aims to identify priorities for tackling serious organised crime in Scotland by making recommendations to Scottish ministers; sharing best practice; improving co-ordination between the law enforcement agencies, and making proposals for legislation and other measures to tackle serious organised crime.

There have been a number of announcements of recommendations and priorities following taskforce discussions. For example, we have already announced our intention to bring forward proposals for offences of directing or being involved in organised crime; that we are reinvesting a proportion of proceeds of crime back into asset recovery work; that I have written to the Home Secretary with suggestions for strengthening the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and we have drawn attention to some recent successes by the agencies involved in tackling organised crime. Copies of the news releases are available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases.

We will publish our proposals for legislative change when it is appropriate to do so.

There is no such limit. Courts have regard to the specific circumstances of the offence and the individual offender, before deciding on a sentence.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-14070 on 19 June 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-14070 on 19 June 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.