Chamber and committees

The ScottishGovernment has been working with Irvine Bay Urban Regeneration Company (URC)and local partners, including North Ayrshire Council, Communities Scotland andScottish Enterprise Ayrshire, to assist in the development of comprehensiveregeneration proposals for the Irvine Bayarea of North Ayrshire. Irvine Bay URC submitted a revised business plan to the Scottish Government at the end of June for consideration. Decisions on anyfuture investment will be taken in light of that business plan in the contextof the forthcoming spending review.

The ScottishGovernment has already been working with Irvine Bay Urban Regeneration Companyand local partners, including North Ayrshire Council, Communities Scotland andScottish Enterprise Ayrshire, to assist in the development of comprehensiveregeneration proposals for the Irvine Bayarea of North Ayrshire. The Minister for Communities and Sport will shortly be meeting withrepresentatives from Irvine Bay URC including, I would hope, representativesfrom North Ayrshire Council.

Scottish Governmentofficials are in regular contact with representatives of Irvine Bay Urban RegenerationCompany and the Minister for Communities and Sport intends meeting representativesof Irvine Bay URC shortly.

Scottish governmentofficials already meet frequently with a wide range of older people’s representativesto be able to implement the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007 effectively and they will continue to do so.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-1114 on 27 June 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.

Reducing incidencesof abuse is everyone’s responsibility. In addition to the legislation outlined inthe answer to question S3W-1114 on 27 June 2007, the Scottish Government sponsors the Care Commissionand the Scottish Social Services Council to ensure that national care standardsare met and that staff are appropriately trained. We also fund the Scottish Helplinefor Older People and Age Concern Scotland’s Elder Abuse project so that advice isreadily available to those who need it. On a preventative level, a substantial campaignto combat ageism is on-going and we are actively considering what further supportscan be offered to carers.All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

I refer the memberto the answers to questions S3W-1115 and S3W-1118 both answered on 27 June 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.

The Scottish Governmentrecognises the important role that advocacy and similar support services can providefor those who may need such assistance. Various grant schemes operated by the ScottishGovernment provide considerable financial support to a range of national and localorganisations to support and advise the elderly, including those in receipt of homecare services.

For those people with a mental disorder, including dementia,the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 places a duty on NHSboards and local authorities to ensure the provision of appropriate independentadvocacy service for all. A number of local advocacy projects are also supportedthrough the Mental Health Specific Grant scheme.

The Adult Supportand Protection (Scotland) Act 2007 also contains a duty on councils to considerthe importance of providing appropriate services to an adult at risk, includingadvocacy, when it is considering intervening to protect the adult from harm.

The Scottish Governmentrecognises the reality of elder abuse and is tackling this through implementingthe Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007 andthe Protecting Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007. Theformer will introduce a wide range of measures to support adults who are subjectedto abuse wherever this takes place, whilst the latter prevents unsuitable individualsfrom entering the workforce. The report findings will be taken into account in thiswork.

Discussions on the Scottish Structural Funds Programmes, including the exchange of information on progress with European Commissionnegotiations, have taken placeon a number of occasions between officials of the Scottish Executive and the relevantUK Government Departments. In addition, Scottish Executive officials met with theirEuropean Commission counterparts in early June to discuss the fine detail of thefour proposed Scottish Operational Programmes. These discussions went well withgood progress being made towards final agreement on the programmes.