- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 April 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 10 May 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many intelligence-led enforcement actions there were within the four police divisions in Glasgow city centre in each year since 1999.
Answer
This information is not held centrally. The deployment and utilisation of resources in the Strathclyde force area is a matter for the Chief Constable.
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 April 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 5 May 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many violent assaults involved the use of a knife, expressed also as a percentage of the total number of violent assaults, broken down by (a) local authority and (b) police force area, in each year since 1999.
Answer
The recorded crime statistics available centrally on crimes of assault recorded by the police do not distinguish the circumstances of the assault, such as the type of any weapon involved.
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 15 April 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 28 April 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to reduce poverty among the 42% of all households with a disabled person which have an income of £10,000 or less per annum.
Answer
The Executive believes that employment is the best route out of poverty for the vast majority of people, and that meaningful employment allows people to sustain themselves and their families in a lifestyle free from poverty. That is why the Executive’s new Closing the Opportunity Gap approach puts employability at the very heart of the Executive’s efforts to tackle poverty and disadvantage.
However, we fully appreciate that disabled people and their families, like other vulnerable groups in society, can face particularly significant barriers to accessing employment. That is why we are developing an Employability Framework that aims to improve the co-ordination of services that can improve the employment prospects of those in our society facing the greatest barriers to employment, including disabled people. Indeed the proportion of people with a disability in employment in Scotland increased by 10% between February 1999 and February 2004.
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 15 April 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 27 April 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to improve education and training opportunities for disabled people over the next five years.
Answer
The Scottish Executive believes everyone should have a chance to learn regardless of their personalcircumstances. In 2003-04 activity by students on further education programmes,specifically designed for their additional support needs, increased by 9% on theprevious year.
Ourrecent guidance document Partnership Matters, assists those agencies involved in making and managing support arrangements forstudents with disabilities and additional support needs at college. The guidanceencourages key partners to form local partnerships and develop agreements on supportingstudents in further education.
Thereare a number of other initiatives designed to improve opportunities, such as:
- The Educational (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004, due to commence by the end of this year, will create a stronger, better system for supporting all children and young people who may need additional support, for whatever reason, to benefit from school education. It makes provision for improving transition from school with a view to ensuring that there is a continuum of support for these young people going into further education.
- From 2005-06, the Disabled Student Allowance will be extended to both full and part-time Scottish postgraduate students who fund their own tuition and living costs.
The Get Ready for Work trainingprogramme for 16 to 17-year-olds aims to raise the skills of young people with additionalsupport needs, including those with disabilities. In addition, Training for Work (TfW), Scotland's voluntarytraining programme underwent a refocus in 2004-05 and now has a much clearer emphasison vocational training towards a specific employment goal. TfW plays a strong supportingrole in the wider Welfare to Work and social inclusion agendas by offering immediateaccess to training for the most disadvantaged, including disabled people.
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 15 April 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 27 April 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to improve employment opportunities for disabled people over the next five years.
Answer
I refer the member to the answerto question S2O-5932 on 24 March 2005 which is available on the Parliament’s website, the searchfacility for which can be found at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/sch/search.
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 15 April 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 27 April 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with Scottish Enterprise about promoting employment opportunities for disabled people.
Answer
Our enterprise strategy,
ASmart, Successful Scotland, makes it clear that action is required by a numberof agencies, including the Enterprise Networks, to tackle the barriers and specialcircumstances faced by disabled people, in becoming economically active.
We are discussing with the Enterprise networks,Jobcentre Plus and other agencies, how our proposed employability framework canhelp improve employment opportunities for those at a disadvantage in the labourmarket, including disabled people.
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 April 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 27 April 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost was of overseas visits by ministers in (a) 1999, (b) 2000, (c) 2001, (d) 2002, (e) 2003 and (f) 2004.
Answer
I refer to the answers to questionsS1W-29052 given on 9 September 2002, S2W-2904 on 25 September 2003 and S2W-9345 on 25 June 2004 for information regarding the costs of overseas travelundertaken by ministers for the period from 1 July 1999 to31 March 2004. Costs of ministerial visits overseas for the financialyear 2004-05 will be published in the summer.
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 April 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 27 April 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what the maintenance costs were for (a) Victoria Quay and (b) all other Executive-run offices and buildings in (a) 1999, (b) 2000, (c) 2001, (d) 2002, (e) 2003 and (f) 2004.
Answer
The information requested isset out in the following table.
Maintenance Costs (£Million)
| Financial Year | Victoria Quay | All Other Buildings |
| 1999-20001 | n/a | n/a |
| 2000-011 | n/a | n/a |
| 2001-02 | 0.7 | 1.2 |
| 2002-03 | 0.7 | 1.3 |
| 2003-04 | 0.4 | 1.4 |
| 2004-052 | n/a | n/a |
Notes:
1. Maintenance costs cannot beseparated out for these years.
2. Expenditure totals for 2004-05are not yet available.
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 April 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 27 April 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what costs it incurred in (a) travel, (b) accommodation and (c) subsistence expenses as a result of claims made by UK government officials in (i) 1999, (ii) 2000, (iii) 2001, (iv) 2002, (v) 2003 and (vi) 2004.
Answer
The information requested cannotbe identified from claims data held. In general, the costs of UK governmentofficials would be met by the relevant UK Department.
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 April 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 27 April 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost was in respect of office upgrades for Executive-run offices and buildings in (a) 1999, (b) 2000, (c) 2001, (d) 2002, (e) 2003 and (f) 2004.
Answer
The cost of office upgrades (excludingmaintenance and repairs) carried out in core Scottish Executive buildings since1 April 1999 is shown below. Line (a) gives the aggregate cost forall work except the major refurbishment of St Andrews House which is shown in line(b).
Costs (£ Million)
| | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 |
| (a) | 0.85 | 0.63 | 1.49 | 2.33 | 2.33 | 1.40 |
| (b) | 6.26 | 4.20 | 5.86 | | | |
Expenditure on upgrade projectscomprises both capital and current expenditure under present accounting rules.
