Chamber and committees

I have asked Angiolina Foster,Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond.

Her response is as follows:

The replacement of inefficientcentral heating systems, including warm air ducted systems, is already includedin the central heating programme for householders who are over 80 and have a partialor inefficient system. From January 2007, the programme will be widened to includethe replacement of partial and inefficient systems of householders who are over60 and in receipt of the guaranteed element of Pension Credit.

Eligible householders with warmair ducted systems can choose to replace their system with one of the systems currentlyavailable under the programme.

No. However, a patient requiresto attend the dentist at least once during the registration period in order forthe registration to be rolled-on for a further period. The registration period wasextended from 15 months to 36 months for those patients who register or re-registerwith a dentist on or after 1 April 2006. If a patient does not attend the dentist at least onceduring the registration period the arrangement will lapse and the patient will nolonger be registered with that dentist. Once a patient’s registration has lapsedit is for the dentist to decide if he/she is prepared to enter into a new registrationarrangement with the patient.

It is our intention to introduceregulations on the welfare of racing greyhounds under the Animal Health and Welfare(Scotland) Act 2006. These regulations will deal with the responsibility of the ownerof the dogs for making acceptable arrangements for their welfare when they retirefrom racing. Draft regulations will be issued for consultation before they are presentedto Parliament.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is asfollows:

The allocation of funds for thenational programme was announced by ministers on 8 May 2006. The specific allocationof £11.267 million funding to the Dumfries and Galloway Council area, which includesLoreburn Housing Association, was finalised and announced on 29 May 2006. Inadvance of the announcement, Communities Scotland staff had been in discussionswith senior staff of Loreburn Housing Association to discuss its potentialforward programme and gave a commitment to provide funding for 2006-07 tosupport disabled aids and adaptations. Between April and June the Housing Associationrequested and received funding of almost £15,000 for aids and adaptations. Thesediscussions culminated in a formal programme agreement being issued to LoreburnHousing Association on 26 June 2006 following the conclusion of exchanges with the Associationon other aspects of their programme and this included formal notification of thefunding committed for aids and adaptations within the overall allocation to theHousing Association.

Parents of children withthis benign condition are given advice on diagnosis as well as furtherinformation about the condition. Thecurrent advice and treatment include supervised‘tummy time’ while the child is awake and, reinforcing the Back to Sleepmessage, positioning the child’s head on different sides each night.

The Scottish Executive iscurrently in discussion with NHS Health Scotland to develop an information leaflet on this condition.The leaflet will be made available to parents and NHS staff.

The Trunk Road and Motorway Tourist Signposting Policy andGuidance will be published in July. It isalso intention to publish the results of the consultation at the same time.

Transport Scotland hasthe operational responsibility for this area and can be contacted for more informationif required.

Yes.

The Antisocial Behaviour (NoiseControl) Regulations 2005 do not specify the noise source other than it must beemitted from a domestic dwelling; therefore, it can include the noise caused byanimals.

There are also other legislativeprovisions and tools to tackle noise nuisance from animals and birds, for examplethe Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Civic Government Act 1982.

Action may be taken by the relevantlocal authority in these circumstances. If it is a right of way, local authoritieshave the duty and powers under the Countryside (Scotland) Act 1967, section 46,to keep any right of way free of obstruction. The authority may institute legalproceedings and generally take such steps as it deems expedient.

The Land Reform (Scotland) Act2003, section 13, provides access authorities with the duty and powers to keep openand free from obstruction any routes by which access rights may reasonably be exercised,and section 14 of the act sets out the powers and procedures for dealing with obstructions.

It is anticipated by both usand bus operators that there will be growth in the usage of long distance servicesas a result of the new Scheme. It is ultimately a commercial issue for the bus industryto decide how best to meet demand. However, Transport Scotland willbe particularly monitoring longer distance services to ensure that older and disabledpeople are able to use them, without encountering any significant problems withcapacity or being treated less favourably than fare paying passengers.

As I set out in Scotland’sCulture, published in January this year, it is the policy of the ScottishExecutive that the new cultural development agency Creative Scotland should takeover the majority of the current functions of Scottish Screen and the ScottishArts Council. We have no plans to transfer to another agency responsibility forScottish Screen’s work to increase the volume of mobile screen activityattracted to Scotland.