Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-24728

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 18 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people it anticipated would apply for bankruptcy through low income, low assets (LILA).

Question reference: S3W-24729

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 18 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average debts are for people who have applied for bankruptcy through low income, low assets (LILA).

A review of the low income, low asset (LILA) route into bankruptcy, published in October 2008, is available on the Accountant in Bankruptcy website at www.aib.gov.uk.

Based on a sample of 2,011 debtors who became bankrupt between 1 April 2008 and 31 July 2008, the report found that the average LILA debtor has around £17,288 of debt and the majority of debtors owe between £5,000 and £19,999.

A further review of the LILA route into bankruptcy is currently underway and is due to report findings by August 2009.

Question reference: S3W-24732

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 18 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it will cost the Accountant in Bankruptcy to administer the Debt Arrangement Scheme.

The estimated cost of developing the Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS) case management system to meet the immediate demands of changes to regulations is £32,000.

This figure also provides for an assessment on the future suitability of the DAS IT system which, in technology terms, is aging. This work would be required irrespective of any changes to DAS.

Based on 3,000 DAS applications per annum, the estimated costs to operate the DAS scheme will be around £500,000 per annum. That figure is based on total cost and includes all support costs, a proportion of accommodation, management, governance and control etc.

Question reference: S3W-24734

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 18 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whom it consulted on the Debt Arrangement Scheme (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2009 (SS1 2009/234).

There was no formal consultation on the Debt Arrangement Scheme (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2009 (SS1 2009/234). The Accountant in Bankruptcy did however run a series of workshops with stakeholders and met regularly with the money advice sector at various stages during the regulation making process.

Stakeholders included representatives from:

HM Revenue and Customs

Eversheds

Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation

Lloyds TSB

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland

Money Advice Scotland

Citizens Advice Scotland

Glasgow City Council

South Lanarkshire Council

North Lanarkshire Council

Highland Council

Dumfries and Galloway Citizens Advice

Argyll and Bute Council

Fife Council

North Ayrshire Council

Accountant in Bankruptcy

Question reference: S3W-24735

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 18 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive who the members of the Debt Action Forum are.

The Debt Action Forum (DAF) was a group of stakeholders and academics invited by Scottish ministers to consider measures that might create a coherent debt package to respond to the current financial climate. Minutes of the DAF meetings are available on the Accountant in Bankruptcy website at www.aib.gov.uk.

The members are:

Fergus Ewing, MSP	Minister for Community Safety (Chair)
Gillian Thompson	Accountant in Bankruptcy
George Way	Law Society of Scotland
Ann Condick	The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland
Susan McPhee	Citizens Advice Scotland
Yvonne Gallacher	Money Advice Scotland
Lindsay Montgomery	Scottish Legal Aid Board
Anne Feeney	Confederation of Scottish Local Authorities
Adrian Stalker	QC
George Gretton	The Scottish Law Commission
Frank Johnstone	Finance and Leasing Association
Karen Titulaer	British Bankers Association / Committee of Scottish Clearing Bankers

Question reference: S3W-24678

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 17 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the lowest hourly pay rate is for NHS staff and how many staff are employed at that rate.

Question reference: S3W-24676

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 17 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHS staff have a pay rate of under £7 per hour, broken down by NHS board.

Only points one and two on the 56 point Agenda for Change salary scale are below £7 per hour and are currently £6.76 and £6.94 respectively. Both of these rates are already substantially more than the minimum wage of £5.73 per hour. It should also be noted that all Agenda for Change staff receive incremental progression as well as cost of living increases. These are, therefore, the bottom points on scales which staff move up as their experience increases. From modelling data available centrally, it is estimated that some 8,000 staff in NHSScotland are currently on these two pay points.

It is not possible from the information held centrally to break this number down according to NHS board.

Question reference: S3W-24677

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 17 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what it would cost per annum to implement a minimum pay rate of £7 per hour for all NHS staff.

There are various approaches which could be adopted to ensure that no NHSScotland staff member received less than £7 per hour.

Depending on which approach was chosen, it is estimated that it would cost between £3.1 and £7.3 million to introduce a £7 per hour minimum wage in NHSScotland in the 2009-10 financial year. There may also be further additional costs of up to £3.4 million in 2010-11.

Question reference: S3W-24571

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 11 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding was made available for each local authority to carry out home improvement grants from 2005-06 up to and including 2009-10.

From 2005-06 to 2009-10, the Scottish Government has made available the amounts shown in the following table to each local authority by means of Private Sector Housing Grant, for investment in private sector housing within their area. The funding is available, not only for home improvements, but also for other assistance such as repairs and disabled adaptations and non-grant investment such as providing information and advice and funding local Care and Repair organisations. The proportion of funding spent on each form of assistance is at the discretion of local authorities in line with local and national priorities.

Local Authority	2005-06 (£ Million)	2006-07 (£ Million)	2007-08 (£ Million)	2008-09 (£ Million)	2009-10 (£ Million)
Aberdeen City	2.857	2.775	3.404	2.784	2.788
Aberdeenshire	1.574	2.562	1.583	1.220	1.331
Angus	1.047	1.500	1.301	1.047	1.056
Argyll and Bute	3.549	3.826	3.997	3.182	3.066
Clackmannan	0.560	0.576	0.716	0.537	0.517
Dumfries Galloway	3.555	4.459	2.808	2.200	2.165
Dundee	2.386	2.532	2.701	2.190	2.171
East Ayrshire	1.895	1.414	1.217	0.961	0.981
East Dunbarton	0.797	1.003	1.009	0.787	0.839
East Lothian	1.196	1.810	1.857	1.363	1.328
East Renfrew	0.887	0.863	0.795	0.555	0.594
Edinburgh	7.806	7.633	8.789	6.996	7.173
Eilean Siar	4.377	4.303	4.539	3.326	3.155
Falkirk	0.761	1.258	1.380	1.008	1.022
Fife	1.775	2.374	1.813	1.415	1.611
Glasgow	11.461	11.874	13.075	10.664	10.609
Highland	5.226	5.737	5.484	4.354	4.253
Inverclyde	1.277	1.367	1.599	1.199	1.178
Midlothian	0.296	0.711	0.649	0.514	0.522
Moray	1.119	1.541	1.588	1.280	1.248
North Ayrshire	1.711	2.034	1.501	1.216	1.224
North Lanark	5.017	3.574	3.940	2.561	2.620
Orkney	1.396	1.445	1.427	1.124	1.072
Perth and Kinross	1.917	2.310	2.181	1.760	1.750
Renfrewshire	2.149	2.065	2.218	1.704	1.759
Scottish Borders	1.893	1.713	1.551	1.262	1.253
Shetland	0.956	1.978	1.469	0.981	0.926
South Ayrshire	1.107	1.676	1.475	1.166	1.195
South Lanark	5.193	8.642	6.344	4.775	4.771
Stirling	1.205	1.129	1.426	1.168	1.131
West Dunbarton	1.656	1.357	1.246	0.818	0.808
West Lothian	1.224	1.592	1.552	1.218	1.219
Total	79.825	89.633	86.634	67.335	67.335

Question reference: S3W-24574

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 11 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many households were awarded home improvement grants in each year from 2005-06 up to and including 2009-10, broken down by local authority.

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