Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S3W-26076

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 July 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 17 August 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have applied to the Open Market Shared Equity Pilot scheme since it was expanded across Scotland in March 2009, broken down by local authority area.

Since the launch of the temporary expansion of the Open Market Shared Equity Pilot scheme (OMSEP) on 31 March 2009, as at 31 July 2009 the following number of people have returned a completed application form:

Local Authority	Number of Completed Application Forms Returned
Edinburgh and the Lothians, Fife and Scottish Borders
Edinburgh	670
East Lothian	96
Fife	117
Midlothian	80
Scottish Borders	17
West Lothian	296
Grampian
Aberdeen City	105
Aberdeenshire	38
Moray	3
North
Eilean Siar	3
Highland	94
Orkney	7
Shetland	0
Tayside and Forth Valley
Angus	19
Clackmannanshire	5
Dundee	46
Falkirk	50
Perth and Kinross	35
Stirling	56
West
Argyll and Bute	11
Dumfries and Galloway	41
East Ayrshire	12
East Dunbartonshire	21
East Renfrewshire	12
Glasgow	219
Inverclyde	15
North Ayrshire	20
North Lanarkshire	56
Renfrewshire	18
South Ayrshire	38
South Lanarkshire	55
West Dunbartonshire	22
Total	2,277

Question reference: S3W-26077

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 July 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 17 August 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have purchased properties under the Open Market Shared Equity Pilot scheme since March 2009, broken down by local authority area.

Since the launch of the temporary expansion of the Open Market Shared Equity Pilot scheme on 31 March 2009, as at 31 July 2009 the following number of people have purchased properties:

Local Authority	Number of Purchases
Edinburgh and the Lothians, Fife and Scottish Borders
Edinburgh	94
East Lothian	22
Fife	3
Midlothian	15
Scottish Borders	2
West Lothian	52
Grampian
Aberdeen City	30
Aberdeenshire	3
Moray	0
North
Eilean Siar	0
Highland	38
Orkney	2
Shetland	0
Tayside & Forth Valley
Angus	0
Clackmannanshire	2
Dundee	0
Falkirk	6
Perth and Kinross	8
Stirling	19
West
Argyll and Bute	1
Dumfries and Galloway	5
East Ayrshire	3
East Dunbartonshire	4
East Renfrewshire	2
Glasgow	12
Inverclyde	5
North Ayrshire	0
North Lanarkshire	5
Renfrewshire	0
South Ayrshire	4
South Lanarkshire	2
West Dunbartonshire	3
Total	342

Question reference: S3W-26062

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 July 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 3 August 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to address the conclusion of the recent ODS Consulting research on tackling community regeneration that “equalities issues are understated in the Fairer Scotland Fund”.

The desk-based research conducted by ODS Consulting was commissioned to inform debate at a conference held in June to examine the long-term impact of national area based regeneration programmes.

In our Fairer Scotland Fund (FSF) guidance, issued on 22 February 2008, Community Planning Partnerships were asked to provide information on their intentions to involve communities of place and interest, including key equalities groups, in developing their FSF linked plans. These plans are now embedded in the 32 single outcome agreements (SOAs) with each partnership.

Decisions on the strategic deployment of the FSF rest with local authorities and their community planning partners who are required to work pro-actively to promote equality and eliminate discrimination in all their functions.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with our partners in local government to ensure that issues of equality are a core consideration in taking forward SOAs and programmes of activity aimed at delivering outcomes linked to the FSF within them.

Question reference: S3W-25968

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 July 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 3 August 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many enquiries there have been to the online House Key service by people seeking housing support.

Question reference: S3W-26061

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 July 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 3 August 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to address the conclusion of the recent ODS Consulting research on tackling community regeneration that “community members have found it harder to influence decisions, with a feeling that the process [of community planning] is more high level and “top down” than in some previous programmes”.

The desk-based research conducted by ODS Consulting was commissioned to inform debate at a conference held in June to examine the long-term impact of national area based regeneration programmes.

In keeping with previous approaches, such as Social Inclusion Partnerships and the Community Regeneration Fund, the Scottish Government continues to view the involvement of local communities in the Fairer Scotland Fund (FSF) as essential to the achievement of sustainable area regeneration.

In order to increase the pace of change and enhance local autonomy after the end of the FSF ring-fence, Community Planning Partnerships are being asked to use their collective mainstream resources, engaging with communities themselves, to bring about the improvement required in our most deprived areas.

The Scottish Government is committed to enabling and promoting community engagement. It is for each Community Planning Partnership to decide how it should engage with its communities. To help, the Scottish Government continues to promote the National Standards for Community Engagement, which have been endorsed by Audit Scotland as good practice, and it has invested in the development of the VOICE (Visioning Outcomes In Community Engagement) database tool which helps people use the standards to plan, monitor and evaluate their community engagement practice.

We are also investing in a national programme to develop learning materials for community engagement practitioners to ensure that they have the skills they need to engage with communities.

Question reference: S3W-25967

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 July 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 3 August 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost was, including staffing costs, of setting up the House Key online service.

The House Key website was originally launched in May 2006 by the Elderly Accommodation Counsel, with the help of an £18,000 grant from the Scottish Government.

A tendering exercise was conducted to bring the service onto the Scottish Government website and improve it to meet Scottish Government website standards. The indicative cost of using internal Scottish Government staff was estimated to be £14,000, considerably cheaper than the lowest external bid of £233,000, so internal staff were used, making use of capacity released by the ending of the Supporting People grant scheme.

Question reference: S3W-26058

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 July 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 30 July 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people it estimates will benefit from the insulation measures provided through the Energy Assistance Package.

Question reference: S3W-26060

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 July 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 27 July 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people it estimates will benefit from the central heating installation measures provided through the Energy Assistance Package.

The Energy Assistance Package presents a holistic approach to tackling fuel poverty by providing a range of people with a range of services at each stage including: income maximisation, energy efficiency advice and social tariff checks at stages 1 and 2, standard insulation measures at stage 3, and enhanced measures to improve the energy efficiency of the home at stage 4 including where appropriate, new central heating systems.

Information on the numbers receiving assistance at each stage of the package, including those who have received heating systems, will be published monthly on the Energy Saving Trust webpage once this becomes available “ see here:

http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/scotland/Scotland/Energy-Assistance-Package/Programme-Statistics.

Question reference: S3W-26059

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 July 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 27 July 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people it estimates will benefit financially from the benefit and tax credit checks and advice on low-energy tariffs provided though the Energy Assistance Package.

It is estimated that up to 50,000 people will be referred at stage 2 for benefit health checks and advice on social tariffs in the first year of the package. We intend to publish statistical information monthly on the Energy Saving Trust website “ see here:

http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/scotland/Scotland/Energy-Assistance-Package/Programme-Statistics.

This information will include outcomes of the impacts of this advice when it becomes available.

Question reference: S3W-25297

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 21 July 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-24792 by Fergus Ewing on 22 June 2009, which sheriff court would deal with cases from local authority areas that do not have a sheriff court, in particular East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Midlothian and North Ayrshire.

In general, the sheriff court that has jurisdiction in a repossession case is dependent on the location of the property in question.

Normally, cases relating to properties in East Dunbartonshire will be dealt with at either Glasgow or Dumbarton Sheriff Courts, depending on the location of the property and the sheriff court boundaries that it lies within.

Similarly, cases relating to properties in East Renfrewshire will generally be dealt with at Paisley Sheriff Court.

Cases relating to properties in Midlothian will normally be dealt with at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

Cases relating to properties in North Ayrshire will generally be dealt with at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court.