Chamber and committees

We have no plans to roll outthe Disabled Students’ Allowance to non-advanced further education students at themoment. Students at further education colleges studying on advanced courses arealready eligible for the Disabled Students’ Allowance.

Further education students withdisabilities can apply for additional support towards personal study and travelrelated expenses arising from their disabilities through the Additional SupportNeeds for Learning Allowance, which forms part of the non-advanced bursary. Thisallowance is not means tested, nor are there pre-set limits on the means or levelsof funding by which these needs may be met. The allowance is paid on a discretionarybasis by colleges to eligible students.

In addition to the individualsupport provided to further education students through the Disabled Students’ Allowanceand the Additional Support Needs for Learning Allowance, the Scottish Further andHigher Education Funding Council (SFC) provides core support to colleges in respectof their students with additional support needs.

SFC published a consultationon 24 February 2006 on proposals for developing and implementing a needs-ledapproach for identifying additional support needs of college students. The consultationis on the council’s website at http://www.sfc.ac.uk/library/sfc/consultation/2006.

Theproposals set out in the consultation aim to improve the future approach to determiningwhich students should attract a premium in the core college funding. The individualneeds-assessment which is the foundation of this approach will also assist collegesin the identification of student support needs which may be met from student supportsources. We will continue to work closelywith the SFC as work in this area progresses.

Currently, the SFC provides fundingto colleges according to the student activity they deliver. If the student has additionalsupport needs then this activity is weighted to recognise that this could mean additionalcosts for the college. This additional weighting is referred to as Extended LearningSupport (ELS) and is applied to both advanced and non-advanced provision.

Similarly, if a college providesa course specifically for a group of students with similar additional support needsthen this too is weighted in recognition of the higher level of costs required torun such a course. This additional weighting is referred to as dominant programmegroup 18 (DPG18).

A number of police forces, includingFife Constabulary, are leading the way using not only the seizure of vehicles provisions,but other measures in the Antisocial Behaviour (Scotland) Act. This has helped bringrelief and respite to their communities.

Clearly antisocial behaviourdoes not recognise local boundaries and therefore we have monitoring systems inplace to ensure that the act’s provisions are used effectively across Scotland.

Inaddition to our funding of local authorities and others for specific projects toincrease car parking facilities, we have secured additional car park enhancementsthrough the ScotRail Franchise.

We are also in discussions withFirst ScotRail and Network Rail to unlock additional investment and to provide aprogramme of car parking enhancement.

The ombudsman has confirmed thatin the calendar year 2005, there were 53 cases in which she prepared a formal writtenopinion. For the earlier years, the data was not kept in comparable format, thoughthe ombudsman notes that complaints about delay have reduced significantly.

Based on the reporting periodof the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman’s Annual Reports the figures are:

2002-03	199
2003-04	320
2004-05	426

 

The ombudsman has since confirmedthat she received 553 complaints for the calendar year 2005.

The figures are given in theannual reports of the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman for 2002-03, 2003-04 and2004-05, copies of which are available in the Scottish Parliament InformationCentre (Bib. numbers 28277, 33250 and 37015). They are also available at:

http://www.slso.org.uk/reports.html.

There are no figures available.Whilst the ombudsman is empowered to investigate the handling of complaints by theLaw Society of Scotland she cannot investigate the original complaint or overturnthe decision by the professional body. An outline of the ombudsman’s role is availableat http://www.slso.org.uk/about.html.

However based on the proportionof cases investigated by the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman the ombudsman foundthat the Law Society of Scotland’s performance was satisfactory in (a) 48% of cases,2003 (b) 53% of cases, 2004 and (c) 47% of cases, 2005.

These figures are given in theannual report of the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman for 2004-05, page 23, copiesof which are available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number37015). The report is also available at http://www.slso.org.uk/reports.html.

This is a matter for the Forth Estuary Transport Authority which owns and operates the bridge.

Violence and aggression towards any NHSScotland staff is unacceptable. NHSScotland employers take a variety of measures to protect staff based on risk. This can range from withdrawal of treatment to increased security at busy times.

The Executive encourages the fullest use of all local authority resources, including school sports facilities. It is though for authorities and schools to consider locally how best to encourage such community use. In Building our Future: Scotland’s School Estate, published jointly in 2003 by the Executive and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, there was clear commitment all round to delivering better services to local communities.

The first anniversary report launched earlier this week sets out how councils, the police and other agencies across the country are making increasing use of the new powers made available to them under the Antisocial Behaviour (Scotland) Act 2004. Alongside the legislation, we have allocated £130 million to local authorities to improve or put in place services to tackle antisocial behaviour and to promote community safety.