- Asked by: Susan Deacon, MSP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Mary Mulligan on 23 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to ensure that local lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organisations can participate in the community planning process.
Answer
Equal opportunities runs throughcommunity planning. Under the community planning legislation (section 59 of theLocal Government in Scotland Act), Scottish ministers, local authorities and allother bodies participating in community planning should do so in a manner whichencourages equal opportunities and the observance of equal opportunities.
The statutory community planningguidance highlights this duty and the importance of mainstreaming equal opportunitiesin community planning. Detailed guidance on how to mainstream equalities is beingprepared by the Scottish Equalities Co-ordinating Group. The guidance specificallysuggests that community planning partnerships consult and co-operate with equalitiesgroups, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organisations.
- Asked by: Susan Deacon, MSP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Mary Mulligan on 23 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will ensure that the status of LGBT Youth Scotland, as the only lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth organisation, is recognised in future funding decisions.
Answer
Any application form submittedto the Executive for funding by LGBT Youth Scotland will be considered against allother applications. Funding streams are, however, limited and there is no guaranteethat an application will result in an award of funding.
The Scottish Executive is currently providing funding of £44,000 over three years from 2002-05to LGBT Youth Scotland for a project to establish structures and mechanisms forconsultation with LGBT young people.
- Asked by: Susan Deacon, MSP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 08 September 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 22 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-387 by Allan Wilson on 9 June 2003, what monitoring arrangements are in place regarding the impact on its social inclusion policies of closures of local post offices under the Urban Network Reinvention Programme.
Answer
The Executive is keeping underreview the impact on social inclusion policies of both the Department of Tradeand Industry’s Urban Network Reinvention Programme and our own £2 million developmentfund for urban post offices.
- Asked by: Susan Deacon, MSP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 September 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 16 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of the Scottish Water #1.8 billion investment package, announced on 2 September 2003, will be used to tackle odour emissions at waste water treatment units.
Answer
I have asked Dr JonHargreaves, Chief Executive of Scottish Water to respond. His response is asfollows:
It is not practicable toprovide an overall figure for investment in odour control measures, as thisfunding is not identified separately in our investment programme but containedwithin the budgets of individual projects and the Scotland-wide maintenancebudget, which covers a wide variety of investment.
- Asked by: Susan Deacon, MSP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 September 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 11 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to tackle odour emissions from waste water treatment works.
Answer
The Scottish Executive isclosely monitoring the implications of a 23 May 2003decision of the High Court (in England) on the applicability to waste water treatment worksof the nuisance provisions of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
In the event of the watercompany being granted leave to appeal against this decision, and the House ofLords then upholding its appeal, the Scottish Executive would then considerwhether to consult on legislative change.
The Scottish Executive alsointends to consult on a voluntary Code of Practice that will provideadvice and guidance to local authorities, the water industry and the publicregarding the successful resolution of odour and other nuisance problems fromwaste water treatment works. The draft voluntary Code of Practice is due to befinalised and issued for public consultation towards the end of the year.
- Asked by: Susan Deacon, MSP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 11 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 1 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-868 by Nicol Stephen on 14 July 2003, what consultation procedure it will use for its proposals for a strategic transport authority and which organisations and individuals will be consulted
Answer
We expect to publish aconsultation document in due course – issued to a wide range of interestedparties, including COSLA, local authorities, transport partnerships,Strathclyde Passenger Transport, operators, user groups and others who haveexpressed an interest in the development of Scottish transport. Anyorganisation or individual is welcome to contribute to the consultation.
- Asked by: Susan Deacon, MSP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 27 June 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 24 July 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to ensure the sustainability of debt advice and what funding allocations will be in place after 2004 to support and promote money advice schemes.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has committed £500,000 annually to March 2005 to fund Money Advice Training Resources Information and Consulting Services (MATRICS) central support organisation. This compliments the additional £3 million per annum from 2002 committed to increase the provision of frontline money advice to help implement the Debt Arrangement and Attachment Act. In 2002-03 this resulted in an increase of 120 money advisers across Scotland.
- Asked by: Susan Deacon, MSP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 27 June 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 24 July 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what mechanisms are in place to work with the Department of Trade and Industry to introduce fairer credit schemes and protect consumers from excessively high interest rates.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-1282 today. 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/search_wa.
- Asked by: Susan Deacon, MSP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 27 June 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 24 July 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive when it last met Her Majesty's Government to discuss tackling the increase in the number of people with debt problems in Scotland.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the UK Government on a wide range of issues, including the issue of debt and consumer protection. The Department of Trade and Industry is currently performing a comprehensive review of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, and the Scottish Executive is in contact to ensure Scottish aspects are considered.
- Asked by: Susan Deacon, MSP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 June 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Frank McAveety on 26 June 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish the key performance targets that it has set for Historic Scotland for 2003-04.
Answer
I have set Historic Scotland the following key performance targets for 2003-04.
| Key Performance Area | Target |
| Protecting Scotland's Built Heritage |
| Number of monuments scheduled | 217 |
| Weighted number of listed building resurvey units | 125 |
| No. of weeks in which 80% of Scheduled Monument Consent cases resolved | 9 |
| Percentage of Listed Building Consent cases resolved within 28 days | 97% |
| Number of condition surveys completed for properties in care | 65 |
| Promoting and Presenting the Built Heritage |
| HS market share compared to other paid visitor attractions in Scotland* | 55% |
| Performance rating from the Mystery Visit programme (using three-year rolling average) | 87% |
| Average retail spend per visitor | £2.35 |
| Agency Management |
| Percentage efficiency gains/savings on non-grant expenditure | 1% |
Note:*A basket of 30 properties is used.
