- Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Glasgow Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 16 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what provision will be made for additional support nurses for sufferers from Parkinson’s disease following the announcement of its health strategy.
Answer
The planning of theworkforce, including specialist Parkinson’sdisease nurses, is a matter forNHS boards who are responsible for planning services in their area based on clinicalneed. Services for people with long-term conditions are also for NHS boards to planand fund from the budgets made available to them by the Scottish Government.
- Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Glasgow Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 14 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many full-time equivalent staff will be required in 2008-09 for the reporting and monitoring of local authority grants that were previously ring-fenced.
Answer
The bureaucracy and central monitoringassociated with the grants that are to be rolled up into the local government financesettlement with effect from 2008-09 will be removed completely. In its place, progressand achievements towards the national outcomes and commitments will be monitoredin accordance with the reporting and oversight arrangements as set out in the concordatbut it is not possible to quantify the total staff input at this time.
- Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Glasgow Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 14 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how regional priorities will be assessed in funding social enterprises from the new Scottish Investment Fund.
Answer
We are currently developing theobjectives of the new Scottish Investment Fund in consultation with the third sector.This process will be informed by the independent evaluation of Futurebuilders Scotland. Weintend to publish details of the new fund in March 2008.
- Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Glasgow Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 14 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has modelled the economic impact of the council tax freeze across different council tax band rates.
Answer
Yes. Scottish Government modellingshows that on average households in Scotland across all council tax bands will be better off witha council tax freeze.
- Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Glasgow Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 14 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how it will report on its progress against its objective of achieving economic growth at UK levels by 2011.
Answer
How the Scottish Government willmeasure and report on progress towards the economic growth target is set out ina technical note published on the Scottish Government’s website, available at
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/11/30090722/2.
- Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Glasgow Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 14 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what arrangements it will put in place to administer the new Scottish Investment Fund.
Answer
We are currently developing theobjectives of the new Scottish Investment Fund in consultation with the third sector.This process will be informed by the independent evaluation of Futurebuilders Scotland. Weintend to publish details of the new fund in March 2008.
- Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Glasgow Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 10 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to build 30,000 affordable homes in the next three years.
Answer
The Scottish Government has madeno commitment to build 30,000 affordable homes over the next three years. Our spending plans for affordable housing over the period2008-11 are 19% higher than the spending plans of the last administration for theperiod 2005-08. With that additional funding, we expect to approve more new affordablehouses over the period 2008-11 than will be approved over the period 2005-08. Preciselyhow many more will depend on how the social housing sector responds to the proposalsin our discussion document, “Firm Foundations: the future of housing in Scotland”, forachieving better value from available public expenditure.
- Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Glasgow Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 10 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the existing M74 project completion date of 2011-12 remains in place.
Answer
The final tender for the M74was submitted on 9 November. It is important that this is properly assessed to ensurethat it delivers value for money. The intention remains to complete the projectby 2011-12 subject to the outcome of the tender assessment.
- Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Glasgow Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 8 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what savings will result in 2008-09 from reduced bureaucracy associated with the reporting and monitoring of local authority grants that were previously ring-fenced.
Answer
The Scottish Governmentexpects substantial benefits will flow to local authorities following itsdecision to substantially reduce the bureaucracy and central monitoringassociated with former ring-fenced funding streams. No targets have been setfor the savings that will accrue, but any efficiencies that are released willbe available to local authorities to invest in front line service provision.
- Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Glasgow Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 8 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how it will report on its progress in meeting its target of 2% efficiency savings over the next three years.
Answer
We will publish anEfficiency Outturn Report in the autumn every year which will give details onthe level of savings we have delivered each year against our target of 2%.
