- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many eligible applicants have waited for at least six months for (a) the provision of free central heating and insulation under its central heating programme and (b) grants to have their homes insulated under the Warm Deal scheme in each year since the initiatives were introduced, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
I have asked Angiolina Foster,Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:
Information is not held centrallyin the form requested. The average waiting time for both programmes is six months.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) average and (b) longest waiting times have been for the (i) assessment of eligible applications and (ii) installation of central heating under its central heating programme in each year since its introduction, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
I have asked Angiolina Foster,Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:
Information is not held centrallyin the form requested. The average waiting time for the central heating programmeis six months.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many children, who would previously have been dealt with by a children鈥檚 hearing panel, it estimates will not now be dealt with as a result of the decision by the Principal Reporter of the Scottish Children鈥檚 Reporter Administration to prioritise cases by risk, in light of the decision of Scottish ministers to refuse a request for 拢20 million of additional funding to support its front-line services.
Answer
We are not in a position to providesuch an estimate.
While there has been a steepincrease in the number of referrals in the last year in particular, the percentageof those going to a hearing has remained proportionately similar. At present only10% of referrals to the Children鈥檚 Reporter go to a Children鈥檚 Hearing.
That is why the multi-agencyMinisterial Task Group was set up in the summer. The new model being developed bythe group will help referring agencies to ensure that children receive the helpthey need when they need it without having to await the outcome of a reporteror hearings decision. It will also help agencies to identify when compulsory measuresmight be needed to ensure appropriate referrals are being made.
The SCRA plans to introduce itscase filtering tool because of the increasing number of referrals where there isno need for compulsory measures of supervision. The tool is intended to help reducethe risk to children by ensuring reporters and hearings can focus on those mostin need of compulsion.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any of its external consultants will be used to validate offence ground referral datasets produced by the Scottish Children鈥檚 Reporter Administration.
Answer
No.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what requests it has received from the Scottish Children鈥檚 Reporter Administration for additional funding to support front-line services between February and November 2006.
Answer
Scottish Children鈥檚 ReporterAdministration submitted four proposals forfunding. All were in response to requests from the Scottish Executive.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what additional financial resources it plans to allocate to the Scottish Children鈥檚 Reporter Administration in each of the next three years to address the rising number of referrals on both offence and non-offence grounds.
Answer
The SCRA鈥檚 overall annual grant-in-aid has increased by over拢10 million since 2001 to over 拢24 million in 2006-07 and 2007-08. It is not possibleto provide details of grant-in-aid funding beyond 2007-08 until the outcomes of the next Spending Review are known.
Consideration is currently beinggiven to three proposals for additional funding and the SCRA will be informed of the outcome in due course. We monitor resourcing requirements, in close liaisonwith the SCRA management, in order to optimise the administration鈥檚 effectiveness.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the number of children referred to the Scottish Children鈥檚 Reporter Administration in the last six months on offence grounds has increased compared with the corresponding six months of 2005.
Answer
This information is not yet available.
We expect the SCRA to publishthe second quarterly performance monitoring report in respect of 2006-07 early inDecember, thereafter it will be laid in the Scottish Parliament InformationCentre in the normal way.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 22 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) average and (b) longest waiting times have been for the (i) assessment of eligible applications and (ii) awarding of grants under the Warm Deal scheme in each year since its introduction, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
I have asked Angiolina Foster,Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:
Information is not held centrallyin the form requested. The average waiting time for the Warm Deal programme issix months.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 21 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has a budget allocation for commemorating Scotland鈥檚 war veterans and, if so, what this has been in each year since 1999.
Answer
The Executive does not have adedicated budget allocation for veterans commemorations. However, we are happy toconsider requests for financial support for veterans commemorations on a case-by-casebasis. My answer to question S2W-27577 on 21 August 2006,provides details of the funding allocated to such commemorations in each year since1999.All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament鈥檚 website, the search facilityfor which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 21 November 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it can commission any medal in respect of the Scottish Arctic convoys and, if so, whether it will consider commissioning such a medal.
Answer
Matters concerning the commissioningof medals for military service are reserved, initially, to the Ministry of Defence,and Scottish ministers have no locus to intervene in the these decisions.
In recognition of service inthe Arctic during the Second World War, the UK Government has specially commissionedthe Arctic Emblem to commemorate the service of Merchant Seamen and members of theArmed Forces in the Arctic Region between 3 September 1939 and 8 May 1945.
