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-23267

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 11 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance is given to local authorities regarding the transport to school of children who use wheelchairs and whether such guidance is the same for manual and electric wheelchairs.

In Scotland, local authorities have a duty under the section 51 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 to make such arrangements as they consider necessary for the transport between home and school of pupils residing, and attending schools, in their area. In considering whether to make arrangements, authorities are required to have regard to the safety of each pupil and this includes children who are wheelchair users.

School transport guidance was issued to local authorities by the Scottish Government in August 2003. It emphasises that it is for each local authority to negotiate the terms of contract for school transport and that they should place a number of responsibilities on the contractor. These include the need to ensure that staff and vehicles meet both statutory obligations and any additional guidance issued by the local authority. Such guidance should take account of local arrangements for transporting all wheelchair users and the legislative requirements for disability, accessibility, health and safety.

Local authorities contact manufacturers directly to identify the required restraint system for each type of chair. The user manual for each wheelchair is provided to the user/carer at the time of issue. This gives manufacturer''s instructions on how to restrain wheelchair and occupant during transportation.

As part of the project to modernise NHS Wheelchair Services, national standards are being produced for NHS providers that ensure key information is passed to all wheelchair users and their carers. Information provided will include guidance on transporting manual and power wheelchairs in public or in private transport.

Question reference: S3W-23450

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 01 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 11 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-18566 by Stewart Maxwell on 16 December 2008, how many landlords have been removed from the register for the Landlord Registration Scheme since that answer was given, broken down by local authority.

No landlords have been removed from the Landlord Register since 16 December 2008.

Local authorities have a range of enforcement powers which can be used to ensure compliance with registration requirements. These include refusing to register a landlord, rent penalty notices and late application fees. As at 30 April 2009, 10 landlords have been refused registration, one landlord has had their registration removed, over 800 late application fees have been applied and over 600 rent penalty notices have been issued nationally.

Question reference: S3W-23270

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 8 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how it defines adequate taxi provision for wheelchair users.

Question reference: S3W-23272

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 8 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many houses bought from the private sector through the accelerated housing funding do not meet Housing for Varying Needs standards or the building regulations that came into force in 2007.

Eighty-nine of the 184 homes bought Off the Shelf through the accelerated Affordable Housing Investment Programme (AHIP) funding did not meet either Housing for Varying Needs Standards or 2007 Building Regulations.

The areas of non-compliance were assessed as being of low concern when letting for general use and the homes were in areas of high demand and supported by the relevant local authorities. Examples of non-compliance were areas such as electrical socket heights and drying area provision. Where there were opportunities to increase compliance, as units were still on site being completed, these were maximised.

Question reference: S3W-23271

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 8 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many houses bought from the private sector through the accelerated housing funding do not meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard.

Fifteen of the total 184 homes bought through the accelerated programme did not meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard at the time of purchase. These 15 homes were former Ministry of Defence Properties and their quality was reflected in their purchase price. These houses have since had new heating systems, kitchens and insulation and will meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard when let in late July 2009.

Question reference: S3W-23269

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 8 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how local authorities ensure that there is adequate taxi provision for wheelchair users.

Question reference: S3W-22651

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 6 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many central heating systems were installed under its central heating programme in each year since 1999 and how many have been installed in 2009.

The central heating programme did not start until 2001 and was completed for local authorities by March 2004 and housing associations by December 2004. Due to the number of properties involved Glasgow Housing Association did not finish its part of the programme until March 2007.

The number of central heating systems installed, under the central heating programme, in the private sector, is shown in the following table:

Number of Systems Installed in the Private Sector

Year	No. Systems Installed in the Private Sector
2001-02	3,560
2002-03	5,500
2003-04	10,200
2004-05	13,022
2005-06	14,053
2006-07	10,238
2007-08	14,369
2008-09	14,430
Totals	85,372

The number of central heating systems installed, under the central heating programme, in the public sector, is shown in the following table:

Number of Systems Installed in the Public Sector

Year	No. Systems Installed in the Public Sector
2001-02	4,948
2002-03	5,720
2003-04	6,588
2004-05	2,720
2005-06	1,949
2006-07	4,156
2007-08	0
2008-09	0
Totals	26,081

Question reference: S3W-22636

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 6 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the membership will be of the independent advisory panel that will advise ministers on the allocation of the Town Centre Regeneration Fund.

Question reference: S3W-22592

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 30 April 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many social rented houses were sold to tenants in each month from January 2008 to January 2009, broken down by local authority.

We do not have the requested data for the timeframe specified. We report social rented housing sales numbers, broken down by local authority, by financial year only (that is April to March). We expect to publish data for 2008-09 in autumn 2009.

The most recent available data on social rented housing sales numbers is for April 2007 to March 2008 and is presented in the following table.

Sales of Social Housing to Sitting Tenants, 2007-08

Area	No. of Sales
Scotland	7,489
Aberdeen City	476
Aberdeenshire	263
Angus	124
Argyll and Bute	86
Clackmannanshire	100
Dumfries and Galloway	169
Dundee City	247
East Ayrshire	271
East Dunbartonshire	75
East Lothian	131
East Renfrewshire	47
Edinburgh, City of	272
Eilean Siar	28
Falkirk	364
Fife	476
Glasgow City	667
Highland	246
Inverclyde	128
Midlothian	117
Moray	131
North Ayrshire	330
North Lanarkshire	822
Orkney	15
Perth and Kinross	155
Renfrewshire	243
Scottish Borders, The	110
Shetland	46
South Ayrshire	111
South Lanarkshire	630
Stirling	128
West Dunbartonshire	198
West Lothian	283

Sources: Sales 1 returns by local authorities to the Scottish Government, Communities Analytical Services (Housing Statistics). Scottish Housing Regulator RSL Annual Performance and Statistical Returns 2008.

Notes:

- These figures represent all right to buy (RTB) and voluntary sales of council and/or registered social landlord (RSL) properties in each local authority area.

- Figures will include sales of houses and flats.

- RTB sales figures include sales made on both preserved and modernised terms.

- Following housing stock transfers the figures for Dumfries and Galloway, Glasgow, Scottish Borders, Eilean Siar and Argyll and Bute represent RSL property sales only.

- The figure for Inverclyde includes an estimate of council housing sales up to the transfer of stock to housing associations at the end of 2007.

Question reference: S3W-22652

Asked by: Mary Mulligan, MSP for Linlithgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 29 April 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many central heating systems were installed under its central heating programme for local authority housing in each year since 1999 and how many have been installed in 2009.

The central heating programme did not start until 2001 and was completed for local authorities by March 2004.

The number of central heating systems installed under the central heating programme, in local authority properties, is shown in the following table:

Year	No. Systems Installed in the Public Sector
2001-02	4,007
2002-03	4,085
2003-04	3,878
Total	11,970