Chamber and committees

Support is available through the Scottish Household and Community Renewable Initiative for the installation of small-scale renewables for domestic application. More generally, the Executive provides grant funding to the Energy Saving Trust in Scotland to deliver a range of programmes and advice to promote energy efficiency in the domestic sector.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ Market Transformation Programme has been encouraging manufacturers to increase the resource efficiency of products by reducing both the “on” and “stand-by” power consumption of household appliances through the adoption of design improvements, voluntary codes of conduct, and best practice guidelines and targets.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-20549 answered on 2 December 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The meeting was held on 7 November 2005 at the society’s head offices in Alloa between a representative of the consulting engineers for the project and the society’s Director of Education and Support Services. A range of issues were discussed which will help the decision making process.

As indicated in the answer toquestion S2W-19651 on 8 November 2005, Angus Council receives additional support related tothe percentage of pupils educated in small schools. 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.

The GAE allocation relating tosmall schools is one component of the more complex local government funding formulawhich is used to calculate a single revenue grant figure for each council. Giventhe scale of the total funding involved and the wide range of factors taken intoaccount in the funding formula it is unlikely that the level of Angus Council’sfinancial settlement would be affected by the closure of rural primary schools inits area, unless the council were to close a very significant number of such schools.The current level of funding has been announced ahead to 2007-08, and it would notbe appropriate to speculate on the outcome of a future spending review.

Following completion of the evaluationof the Scottish Community and Householder Renewables Initiative (SCHRI), we willbe meeting later this year with the scheme’s delivery partners to consider how bestthe SCHRI might evolve or adapt in light of the evaluation’s conclusions; thereafter,we will consider whether further consultation on this issue may be appropriate.

Angus Council receives additionalsupport of £0.79 million in 2005‑06 as a result of a redistribution of thePrimary School Teaching Staff Grant Aided Expenditure (GAE) allocation which isbased on the 9.0% of Angus pupils who are educated in small schools i.e. where thepupil roll is 70 or less. In 2006‑07 and 2007‑08, this redistributionreallocates £0.783 million and £0.809 respectively, based on a percentage of 8.2%.Any current or future changes to this percentage will not now be made until thenext spending review, currently scheduled for 2007.

These GAE allocations are neitherbudgets or spending targets. They are a component of the more complex local governmentfunding formula which is used to calculate a single revenue grant figure for eachcouncil. It is then a matter for each individual council to decide how best to deploythese resources based on local needs and priorities.

The evaluation of the ScottishCommunity and Householder Renewables Initiative will be published on our websitebefore the end of the year.

Information on vacancies for junior physiotherapy posts is not held centrally. However, the total number of vacancies for qualified physiotherapists within NHS Scotland at the 31 March 2005 is 95 whole-time equivalent posts. Of these, 69.3 have been vacant for less than three months, 21.7 for more than three months and four vacancies have unknown duration. The over three month vacancies equate to 1% of the qualified physiotherapy establishment.

There are no immediate plans to introduce targets for renewable heat. The development of a successful biomass sector in Scotland will play a significant role in delivering increasing amounts of renewable heat. The Department of Trade and Industry and Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs very recently published their review of the UK heat sector, which is available at www.dti.gov.uk/renewables/policy_pdfs/heatreportfinal.pdf. The Forum for Renewable Energy Development in Scotland has plans to re-convene its biomass subgroup to consider the conclusions and recommendations of that review and what specific action might be appropriate in Scotland. Once we have had the opportunity to consider its recommendations and those of the UK heat sector review, the Executive will be better placed to form a view as to how we best encourage the development of this sector.

In addition to gathering information from the Medical Director and staff in written and oral reports and from escorted visits, information has been obtained by canvassing opinions and interviewing officials in local authorities who refer children to Camphill Rudolph Steiner Schools and on their policy towards Newton Dee. Background information has also been obtained from published literature and from websites.