- Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 23 April 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what the job titles and grades have been of members of staff on its special task forces for large-scale redundancies and whether any such members of staff have experienced being made redundant.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-24654.
- Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 23 April 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive how the success of its special task forces for large-scale redundancies is measured and what the success rate of each such task force has been.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-24654.
- Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 23 April 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the staff working on its special task forces for large-scale redundancies are employed on a full-time basis with pension and salary and, if so, how much it has spent on salaries for such employees on each task force.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-24654.
- Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 23 April 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what resources are made available to its special task forces for large-scale redundancies when deployed to businesses.
Answer
The national response to large-scale redundancy situations is the Executive's PACE (Partnership Action for Continuing Employment) framework. This initiative provides a national strategic framework for partnership working across key public sector agencies.Local response teams have been set up in each local enterprise company area, involving key local and national agencies. These teams have responsibility for implementing a wide range of early interventions to alleviate job losses where possible and, in the event of a redundancy situation arising, for implementing a local action plan targeted at finding alternative employment or training opportunities for those affected.Under the auspices of the PACE framework, a wide variety of interventions are used to support a redundancy situation and are tailored to meet individual needs and local circumstances. There are no restrictions in terms of age limit to receipt of this support.The membership of each team varies from area to area but the key agencies involved are the local enterprise company, local authority and Jobcentreplus. Other agencies (such as Careers Scotland, Benefits Agency, etc.) are called upon as required. All agencies involved are committed to ensuring sufficient resources, experience and knowledge to support the process. Given the wide range of agencies involved, information on job titles, grades, work patterns, pension and salary details of each member of the local response teams is not held centrally. Each local response team is tasked with putting in place an effective system across all agencies to allow for the tracking of individuals affected. As each redundancy situation is unique, the local response team will assess individual circumstances and sets its targets accordingly. Following the report of the 2001 Review of PACE, work is in hand to develop a monitoring and evaluation framework to learn from the experience of the PACE teams and continue to improve PACE performance.
- Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 23 April 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether action taken by its special task forces for large-scale redundancies include in all cases offering retraining to all staff in the target business, irrespective of age.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-24654.
- Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 4 April 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it can clarify what was meant by its spokesman's comment that "the situation was under review" as reported in The Scotsman on 14 March 2002 in relation to the incomplete work of the Bathing Waters Review Panel.
Answer
No decision on identifying further bathing waters will be made until the form of the proposed revision of the Bathing Waters Directive (76/160/EEC) becomes clear. This situation is being kept under review.
- Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 4 April 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether its forthcoming Bathing Water Strategy will result in the award of designated status to the eight currently undesignated beaches which were recently presented with a Seaside Award.
Answer
The intention of the Bathing Water Strategy is to co-ordinate action towards fulfilling the Scottish Executive's commitment to achieve European standards at Scotland's 60 existing bathing waters.
- Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 4 April 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Bathing Waters Review Panel will have any input into the forthcoming Bathing Water Strategy and whether the strategy will set out a programme for completing the unfinished work of the Bathing Waters Review Panel as required by the European Directive on Bathing Waters 76/160/EEC.
Answer
The Bathing Waters Review Panel was convened by The Scottish Office specifically to review nominations for the 1998 round of bathing water identifications. The Scottish Executive has no plans to reconvene the panel. We consulted widely when preparing the Bathing Waters Strategy, including all parties with an interest in bathing waters.The European Directive on Bathing Waters does not specifically require us to make further identifications.
- Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 26 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive when the bathing waters panel will next meet.
Answer
There are no plans to convene the bathing waters panel.
- Asked by: Fiona McLeod, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by David Steel on 26 March 2002
To ask the Presiding Officer what environmental protocols exist in regard to catering practices in the Parliament; how often these practices are monitored and by whom, and whether the conversion from crockery to plastic containers in the restaurant salad bar is compliant with any such environmental protocol.
Answer
The Parliament's Facilities Management Office is responsible for environmental issues within the Parliament and regularly discusses these with contractors at monitoring meetings. The Parliament's catering contractor, Sodexho, currently arranges for recycling of glass bottles, plastic cups and aluminium cans. Sodexho is also proactive in working with Parliament staff to ensure that the management and disposal of recyclable items is dealt with in an environmentally friendly way. The conversion from crockery to plastic containers used in the salad bar was implemented to ensure the quality of the product provided. Previously, the prepared salads deteriorated after a short time, leading to high wastage rates. The replacement sealed tubs stop this deterioration and are also more convenient if the food is taken away. The tubs, once used, are sent for recycling.The SPCB's specification for the Holyrood catering contract places great importance on environmental performance, and this represents a key part of the evaluation process.
