- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 February 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 13 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any monies paid into the Scottish Consolidated Fund as balancing payments, as referred to in section 5.3 of HM Treasury's Funding the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales and Northern Ireland Assembly: A Statement of Funding Policy, will be used to offset fire boards expenditure on pensions.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-23095.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 February 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 13 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive when it last met HM Treasury to discuss balancing payments to the Scottish Consolidated Fund, as referred to in section 5.3 of HM Treasury's Funding the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales and Northern Ireland Assembly: A Statement of Funding Policy, to redress any imbalance in housing benefit and council tax benefit costs between Scotland and England.
Answer
Scottish Executive officials have been in correspondence with officials in HM Treasury about the adjustments to the Scottish Assigned Budget that will be necessary in respect of differences in Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit costs between Scotland and England. These will be made to the Scotland Departmental Expenditure Limit for 2002-03.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Iain Gray on 6 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive how much the administration of its central heating programme will cost in total.
Answer
The programme is administered by local authorities and housing associations for their own houses as part of the day to day administration of their stock. The amount of fees payable to Eaga for administering the programme in the private sector will depend on the number of systems installed, which in turn depends on the number of eligible households coming forward. It is therefore not possible at present to estimate the total cost, but fees for work in each dwelling will represent less than 7% of the average grant.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive how many general dental practitioners in Lothian have closed their patient lists.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally. As independent contractors dentists can choose whether to treat individual patients, and some will only treat adult fee-paying patients privately.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what the target waiting time is for patients who have been referred to a hospital to receive information regarding their status on the waiting list.
Answer
There is no national target waiting time for patients referred to hospital to receive details of their appointment with a consultant. The Electronic Clinical Communications Implementation Programme, which is currently being piloted, will support electronic booking of hospital appointments. This will enable patients, where appropriate, to receive details of their hospital outpatient appointment before leaving the GP surgery.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 8 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list bids whose applications for funding to (a) the Public Transport Fund and (b) the Integrated Transport Fund were refused.
Answer
The following local authority bids were not awarded funding from Round 4 of the Public Transport Fund:East Renfrewshire Council - A77 Fenwick Road Giffnock Reconfiguration.Renfrewshire Council - Paisley Town Centre Quality Bus project and Paisley Interchange study.Argyll & Bute Council - Lismore and Luing Ferry Services project development work. East Renfrewshire Council - Transportation Study for Glasgow Southern Circumferential Route.Orkney Islands - Public Transport Interchange project.Perth & Kinross Council - Interchange and cycle measures studySouth Ayrshire - Multi-modal travel study.Highland Council - Great Glen Transport Axis and Inverness City Centre Improvements Study.Aberdeen City Council - Urban Realm study.East Dunbartonshire Council- Integrated Community Access Plans study Fife Council - Forth Bridgehead Transportation studyNorth Lanarkshire Council - Safer Routes to School project and Quality Bus Corridors StudyWest Lothian Council - Airdrie Bathgate Railway Line reopening studyWESTRANS - park and ride strategy for West of Scotland developmentThere is no bidding process for the Integrated Transport Fund (ITF). ITF funds are allocated at the discretion of ministers.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 8 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive how may general medical practitioners in Lothian have closed their patient lists.
Answer
Nine practices in the area of Lothian NHS Board have indicated that they are not currently accepting new patients.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 18 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 1 February 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it has given to its staff on the operation of the concordats between it and departments of Her Majesty's Government and on the operation of the Memorandum of Understanding between Her Majesty's Government, Scottish ministers and the Cabinet of the National Assembly for Wales.
Answer
No specific guidance has been issued to Scottish Executive staff on the operation of the Memorandum of Understanding between the UK Government and the devolved administrations and the concordats between Scottish Executive and UK Government Departments, as these documents themselves constitute guidance to staff.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 30 January 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what further special support it plans to offer West Lothian in light of the recent large scale redundancies and labour market statistics showing an increase in the claimant count level in the area.
Answer
As I announced to Parliament in December, the Executive is making £6 million available to help implement the West Lothian Action Plan for economic development. This fulfils the commitment to provide up to £10 milion following the Motorola closure last year.In addition, a wide range of specific support measures has been implemented to assist those affected by redundancies in the area. The Motorola Taskforce has already assisted in the redeployment of approximately three-quarters of former employees. Similarly, NEC employees will have access to a number of forms of assistance such as an on-site response team, counselling and high quality training. The unemployment rate in West Lothian remains below the Scottish average.
- Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 January 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 30 January 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what analysis of any impact on the supply chain of the closures of the Motorola plant in Bathgate and the NEC plant in Livingston was undertaken by the Partnership Action for Continuing Employment team in West Lothian.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-21949.
