Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-17620

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 14 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will develop a monitoring framework for the delivery of the outcomes set out in single outcome agreements.

The Scottish Government will monitor the progress that councils and their community planning partners make in delivery of outcomes set out in single outcome agreements.

As the bodies which plan, manage and deliver local services, it is for local authorities and their community planning partners to monitor the effectiveness of these services and how well placed they are to support outcomes highlighted in the single outcome agreement on an ongoing basis.

Question reference: S3W-17677

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 November 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 14 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will announce the status of the new scrutiny bodies announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth on 6 November 2008 (Official Report c. 12077).

Question reference: S3W-17678

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 November 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 14 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that the status of the new scrutiny bodies announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth on 6 November 2008 (Official Report c. 12077) reflects the need for the bodies to be independent of ministers and free from political interference.

The government accepted the need for scrutiny to be independent in the response to the Crerar Review that we published in January 2008. The Accountability and Governance Action Group has recently provided recommendations from key stakeholders outwith government on issues such as guaranteeing operational independence from government for scrutiny bodies. The Scottish Government will publish a response to the action groups around the turn of the year.

Question reference: S3W-17621

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 14 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are baseline statistics against which progress on the outcomes set out in single outcome agreements can be measured.

Each local authority is individually responsible for measuring progress on the outcomes set out in their single outcome agreements (SOAs). The SOAs for 2008-09 provided baseline statistics for the majority of the indicators being used to monitor progress towards outcomes. The full set of 2008-09 SOAs are available on the Improvement Service website at:

http://www.improvementservice.org.uk/core-programmes/single-outcome-agreements-/

Central and local government are committed to working together further to improve the availability and timeliness of statistics for use in SOAs.

Question reference: S3W-17138

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 13 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many more accessible properties are required across Scotland according to the Scottish House Condition Survey.

The number of further, accessible households required can only be answered indirectly by the data in the Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS). The SHCS is a sample survey and therefore all figures are estimates rather than precise counts.

We estimate that there are 436,000 dwellings which have hardstanding of suitable width and step-free access for wheelchair users in Scotland. For all dwellings to be accessible in this way there are a further 1,879,000 dwellings which need to be adapted.

The SHCS found, in 2005-06, that there were 421,000 households with at least one person who has a mobility or physical impairment.

Ninety thousand of these households have access with hardstanding of suitable width and step-free access for wheelchair users; in 70,000 of these households their dwellings do not need further adaptation for them to get around their dwellings; the remaining 20,000 households do need some further adaptation to their dwelling in order to get around it.

Of the remaining 331,000 households, none of which have suitable access for wheelchair users, 229,000 households need no further adaptation to their dwelling to get around the dwelling, but 102,000 households do need further adaptation to get around their dwelling.

Question reference: S3W-17398

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 31 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 11 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what financial support has been given to organisations that promote and support volunteering in the last three years, broken down by name of organisation and amount.

All organisations which involve volunteers to some extent promote and support volunteering. The following table shows only directly-funded national organisations and projects which have the support and promotion of volunteering as a primary aim.

	2006-07 (£)	2007-08 (£)	2008-09 (£)
Volunteer Development Scotland	900,000	900,000	940,000
Network of Volunteer Centres.	2,415,000	2,533,000	3,234,000
MV Awards	796,500	796,500	Subsumed into Volunteer Centre Network grant.
Voluntary Action Fund	965,361	993,979	1,220,000
Community Service Volunteers (CSV)	75,684	81,100	81,100
CSV Retired and Senior Volunteer Programme (RSVP)	330,000	341,000	355,000
CSV Give and Take	155,000	160,000	40,000 (extension to June 2008)
CSV Give and Gain	21,194	21,500	0
CSV Dare to Care small grant scheme		35,150
British Trust for Conservation Volunteers	507,698	300,511	364,333

Question reference: S3W-17400

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 31 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 11 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide continued funding for the Retired and Senior Volunteer Programme run by the Community Service Volunteers (CSV).

I wrote to Claire Stevens, The Director Scotland of CSV, on 3 November 2008 to confirm that our funding is now to be directed to national infrastructure organisations and the remainder, the bulk of the £93 million we have provided in this spending period, will be destined to improve the enterprising performance of the third sector. The Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism confirmed this to the Parliament in the debate on RSVP on Thursday 6 November 2008.

Question reference: S3W-17136

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 11 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that housing built with the advance of up to £100 million under the Affordable Housing Investment Programme will be accessible.

Question reference: S3W-17137

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 11 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will ensure that housing built with the advance of up to £100 million under the Affordable Housing Investment Programme will meet Housing for Varying Needs standards and how this will be monitored.

It is a standard condition of grant for all new build by registered social landlords that Housing for Varying Needs essential features will be provided. This will apply to new build by registered social landlords supported by the advance of £100 million in the same way as it applies to the rest of the Affordable Housing Investment Programme.

Compliance with grant conditions is monitored as part of Post Completion Reviews.

Question reference: S3W-17399

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 31 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 11 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what support it provides for older volunteers.

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