Chamber and committees

The recentlypublished Government Economic Strategy (GES) sets out the Government’s centralpurpose of creating a more successful country with opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish, through increasing sustainable growth.The GES recognises that an efficient transport system is one of the keyenablers for enhancing productivity and delivering faster, more sustainablegrowth.

The ScottishGovernment is committed to enhancing rail services and infrastructure across Scotland, ensuring the provision of a safe and reliableservice that supports economic growth and delivers wider social inclusion andenvironmental aspirations. The transport links to south-west Scotland are being considered within the Strategic TransportProjects Review, as part of the nationally strategic transport corridor linkingGlasgow to Ayrshire and Stranraer.

The decision by StenaLine not to relocate their ferry operation from Stranraer to Cairnryan has meantthat timetable plans which were in development to cater for this change in operationwill not now be implemented.

P&O Ferries alreadyoperate from Cairnryan.

Marketing of railservices on this is the responsibility of First ScotRail under the FranchiseAgreement with Transport Scotland and the extent of marketing carried outis a commercial decision for First ScotRail.

Currently the ScottishGovernment funds four partners support projects, they are:

The Women’s Service – Edinburgh

Working with Men Project – Edinburgh

Women and Children’s Worker – West Lothian

Women’s Services Worker– Clackmannanshire, Falkirk and Stirling.

The Scottish Governmentis currently considering its allocation of funding for partner support programmesin light of the outcome of Spending Review 2007.

We are currently indiscussions with Crimestoppers Scotland about funding for next financial year.

The CrimestoppersScotland call centre is managed by the Scottish Police Services Authority (SPSA)and the costs of employing staff and providing accommodation are met from the SPSA’sGrant-In-Aid provided by the Scottish Government. The cost and management of thecall centre is therefore an operational matter for the SPSA.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-7306 on 12 December 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

There is general recognitionthat NHS Ayrshire and Arran does not have a full Parkinson’s disease serviceat present. The board has therefore set up a Parkinson’s Disease Group, which includespatient representatives, to look at the improvements which could be made to existingservices, including the development of a clear care pathway. This is linked to developmentof the board’s general neurological services following completion of its neurologicalneeds assessment.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-7306 on 12 December 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

I have asked JamesHynd, Acting Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. His response isas follows.

Communities Scotland does not record information about projects approved forHousing Association Grant (HAG) in this way. We therefore cannot give details of the number of buildings approved for HAG which were either abandoned or derelict.