- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 8 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what funding has been given to local authorities to provide supported accommodation in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
Local authorities are not given a specific budget for supported accommodation. The spending review 2004 invested £1.2 billion over three years in housing support services through the Supporting People programme to local authorities for vulnerable people, and an additional £50 million per year for preventing and alleviating homelessness. All these resources go towards supporting a variety of tenancies, including supported accommodation, but a breakdown by local authority of the total amount invested locally in supported accommodation is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 8 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many children have been in foster care in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The numbers of looked after children in foster care on the 31 March each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area, are shown in the following table.
Number of Children Looked After by Foster Carers on the 31 March
| 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 |
Aberdeen City | 210 | 156* | 119* | 132* | 97 | 124* | 157 |
Aberdeenshire | 91* | 116 | 112 | 116 | 114 | 128 | 121 |
Angus | 73 | 73 | 66 | 85 | 94 | 102 | 118 |
Argyll and Bute | 37 | 30 | 27 | 32 | 39 | 45 | 35 |
Clackmannanshire | 33 | 32 | 35 | 36 | 33 | 33 | 45 |
Dumfries and Galloway | 119 | 105 | 127 | 127 | 144 | 120 | 111 |
Dundee City | 125 | 151 | 118 | 122 | 127 | 149 | 137 |
East Ayrshire | 32 | 56 | 72 | 66 | 84 | 86 | 82 |
East Dunbartonshire | 7 | 9 | 10 | 15 | 9 | 18 | 18 |
East Lothian | 54 | 65 | 79* | 74 | 81 | 74 | 64 |
East Renfrewshire | 12 | 6 | 6 | 12 | 11 | 13 | 13 |
Edinburgh City | 304* | 330 | 326 | 318 | 339 | 370 | 349 |
Eilean Siar | 12 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 16 | 16 | 12 |
Falkirk | 91 | 87 | 98 | 84 | 107 | 104 | 104 |
Fife | 182 | 158 | 191 | 185 | 201 | 203 | 239 |
Glasgow City | 657 | 686 | 640 | 714 | 706 | 800 | 804 |
Highland | 178 | 117 | 111 | 103 | 96 | 99 | 107 |
Inverclyde | 31 | 32 | 23 | 24 | 27 | 33 | 33 |
Midlothian | 49* | 56 | 40 | 46 | 51 | 58 | 61 |
Moray | 95 | 56 | 58 | 54* | 61 | 69 | 31 |
North Ayrshire | 61 | 45 | 77 | 53 | 59 | 64 | 74 |
North Lanarkshire | 118 | 134 | 145 | 142 | 134 | 136 | 123 |
Orkney Islands | 5 | 5 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 6 |
Perth and Kinross | 64 | 48 | 53 | 66 | 63 | 54 | 65 |
Renfrewshire | 79 | 70 | 80 | 87 | 104 | 127 | 128 |
Scottish Borders | 73 | 67 | 69 | 81 | 79 | 83 | 69 |
Shetland Islands | 12 | 11 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 11 | 9 |
South Ayrshire | 18 | 32 | 34 | 50 | 54 | 47 | 46 |
South Lanarkshire | 82 | 82* | 70* | 74 | 80 | 78 | 78 |
Stirling | 61 | 61 | 59 | 56 | 56 | 57 | 52 |
West Dunbartonshire | 68 | 68 | 60 | 68 | 70 | 73 | 69 |
West Lothian | 122 | 104 | 146 | 118 | 134 | 82 | 133 |
Scotland | 3155 | 3058 | 3084 | 3170 | 3288 | 3461 | 3493 |
Notes:
Figures exclude children on short-term placements only.
*Estimated due to missing or incomplete data.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 7 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what analysis has been done of the availability of low rise buses, in light of 20% of the population having mobility difficulties.
Answer
We encourage bus operators toprovide a range of buses including low floor buses.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 7 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many foster carers there have been in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The information requested isnot held centrally.
However, the ScottishExecutive is currently collating information about the number of foster carersand any shortfall of foster carers in each local authority area in order toevaluate the impact of the extra £12 million in funding being provided toimprove local authority fostering services.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 7 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it issues to local authorities in respect of transitional arrangements for vulnerable children moving from foster care to adult status.
Answer
Regulations and guidance onthe support and assistance for young people leaving care in Scotlandcame into force on 1 April 2004. In addition, the Scottish Executive commissionedmaterials to assist local authorities in carrying out this duty effectively.These were published under the title Pathways and disseminated to alllocal authorities.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 6 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the voluntary sector regarding the operation and extent of the national concessionary travel scheme.
Answer
Voluntary organisations wereincluded in the consultation, which was run between 24 October to 5 December 2005, onthe orders for the Scotland-wide Free Bus Scheme for Older and Disabled people towhich over 130 responses were received.
In addition the Royal NationalInstitute for the Blind has been involved in discussions on the needs of the visuallyimpaired in using smartcards for the Scotland-wide Free Bus scheme for Older andDisabled people.
I have also met with the ScottishPensioners Forum where discussion included the concessionary travel scheme and howit will affect older people.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 6 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what monitoring has taken place of the existing concessionary travel scheme.
Answer
Local travel concession schemescurrently employ a range of measures for monitoring and verifying travel concessiondata. These measures include data analysis, compliance audits of bus operators andsurveys of bus services and passengers.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 6 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it is taking to ensure, so far as practicable, equity of access to transport for which the national concessionary travel scheme is available.
Answer
The Scotland-wide Free Bus Schemefor Older and Disabled People which begins on 1 April 2006 willprovide access to card holders from anywhere in Scotland to a very wide range ofservices. The scheme will encompass bus and coach available to the general public,both local registered bus services and long distance scheduled coach services.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 6 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many pregnancies there were amongst (a) 12, (b) 13, (c) 14, (d) 15 and (c) 16-year-olds in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board area.
Answer
The information requested isshown for each full financial year from 1998-99 to 2003-04 in the table Pregnanciesamongst females aged 12 to 16 years at conception from 1998-99 to 2003-04, acopy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib.number 38956).
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 6 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what research it has done into the numbers and location of people entitled to the national concessionary fare scheme who will be unable to access transport.
Answer
Research has been carried outas part of the Partnership Agreement commitment to assess improved concessions forpeople with disabilities. It aims to identifythe latent demand for transport and considers why people do not travel and whatwould encourage them to travel more. This includes issues around access to transport.
This research looking into ImprovingTransport for Disabled People is now nearing conclusion and we aim to publish inApril 2006.