Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executive is takingforward a wide range of activities which aim to encourage Scotland’speople to lead a healthier lifestyle and I refer the Member to the First Minister’s Health Improvement Annual Report Delivering a Healthy Scotland:Meeting the Challenge, published on 5 December 2006,for an overview of this work. The report can be found at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/11/29141927/0.

In relation to the specifictopic of childhood obesity, I refer the member to the answer to questionS2W-30184 on 6 December 2006. Allanswers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’swebsite, the search facility for which can be found at:

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

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is asfollows:

Information is not held centrallyin the form requested covering the Stirling parliamentary constituency but by postcode area. Inthe FK postcode area a total of 1,603 households in the private sector are nowcentrally heated as a result of the central heating programme.

From 1999 to 2004 Stirling Councilbenefited from the Lottery funded School Sport Coordinator Programme and also theActive Primary School Pilot Programme (Exchequer funded). Since 2004, sportscotlandhave provided investment to local authorities through Active Schools. Stirling currentlyhas the following seven full-time and six part-time staff supporting school sport.

School Sport Coordinator Programme	1999-2004	£40, 250
This consisted of 2 awards - £28,590 (actual award was £73,080) and £11,660 (original award £11,805). This was a rolling programme which due to its nature is difficult to split into annual years.
Active Primary School Pilot Programme	2001-02	£75,000
	2002-03	£90,000
	2003-04	£103,698
Active Schools	2004-05	£233,340
	2005-06	£233,340
	2006-07	£234,180

 

Schoolsport in Stirling has also benefited from investment which targets deprived anddisadvantaged communities. In 2002, Stirling Council received a three year socialinclusion partnership award for £31,000 for the Sportstart Programme. This programmeis part of their Active Communities Plan and is an innovative programme which deliversphysical activity opportunities in Stirling’s regeneration areas. In 2005 the programme was extendedand received an award through sportscotland’s Community Regeneration Fund of £51,000over three years. This revised programme is fully integrated with the work of theActive Schools Team. The proposed programme will operate for three blocks throughoutthe year, using sport and physical activity as a means of developing and equippingyoung people with the basic skills, attitudes and behaviours to encourage life-longparticipation together with developing a local coaching base.

Investmentin school sport in Stirling includes a facilities award of £200,000 in 2000 to Balfron High School underthe sportscotland lottery Community and School Facilities programme.

StirlingCouncil also receives investment into Clubgolf, a Scottish Executive priority togive every child in Scotland the opportunity to experience golf and through this toencourage participation in the sport and improve performance. Stirling Council benefitfrom a Regional Development Manager Post which also covers the Falkirk, Clackmannanshireand West Lothian Areas. Within Stirling Council, Clubgolf is fully integrated withinthe Active Schools Plan and is currently being delivered in four of the six clusterareas. The sportscotland investment for this programme was:

		Staffing	Development Budget
Clubgolf	2004-05	£35,000	£15,000
	2005-06	£36,000	£2,000
	2006-07	£37,000	£15,000

 

Stirling Council were also involvedin piloting the programme Developing the potential of Young People in Sports, receiving£55,277 (lottery funded) in March 2002, running to March 2005. This programme linkedin with schools to identify and develop sporting talent.

Finally, Stirling Council receiveda TOP Award of £60,220 (Lottery funded) in 2002. TOP is a four year programme whichis run in partnership with the Youth Sport Trust. The aim of the programme is tosupport primary school aged children in increasing their physical activity and skilllevel, encourage their involvement in sport and enhance the existing PE curriculumboth in the school and local community.

We do not yet know the detailedproposals to be included in the bill and therefore do not know to what extent theywill have a bearing on Scotland and in particular its effect on devolved matters. Weare working with the UK Government as thedetail of the proposed bill develops to consider the extent to which it might providean appropriate vehicle to deliver measures to tackle climate change extending toScotland. Where any such measures are proposed which fall within devolved competencea legislative consent motion will be required, however matters are currently atan early stage of development and we do not expect to bring forward a legislative consent motion in respect of the bill beforethe Scottish elections in May.

The number of doctors in NHS Forth Valley hasincreased over time, as shown in the following table. The overall picture for Scotland isalso given. Latest available data is at 30 September 2005.

Table 1:Medical Staff¹ by Time and NHS Board

Headcountat 30 September

	1997	1999	2005	Change 1997-2005	Change 1999-2005
Scotland	11,734	12,135	14,133	20.4%	16.5%
Forth Valley	511	526	627	22.7%	19.2%

Source: ISD Scotland.

Note: 1 Includes doctorsworking in General Practice (including performer registrars, performerretainees and performer salaried GPs), Hospital, Community and Public HealthServices of the NHS.

NHSScotland 2006 workforcedata will be published by ISD Scotland on 30 January 2007and will be available at:

www.isdscotland.org/workforce.

Statistics are only availableby local authority area and cannot be broken down to reflect the number of cardholderswithin particular parliamentary constituencies.

However, at 5 January 2007 thenumber of national entitlement cards, which give an entitlement to Scotland-widefree bus travel, issued to Stirling Council residents over the age of 60 was 13,638.

I refer the member to the answerto question S2W-30465 on 21 December 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

New public sector buildings,including hospitals, are eligible for assistance from the Carbon Trust’s designadvice scheme, which aims to improve the energy efficiency of buildings at thedesign stage.

Eligible public sectororganisations, including local authorities, the NHS and Scottish Water, canapply for funding though the central energy efficiency fund (CEEF) for theinclusion of energy efficiency measures in new builds which will achieve higherenergy efficiency standards than those required under Scottish Buildingregulations.

The numbers of applications forlicences to shoot red-breasted mergansers and goosanders received in the last threeyears are as follows:

	2003	2004	2005
Mergansers	5	6	9
Goosanders	15	12	16

 

There was one formal inspectioncarried out in each of the last three years. Many of the areas covered by licence applications are well known to andvisited by our advisors, Scottish Natural Heritage, Fisheries Research Servicesand The Scottish Agricultural Science Agency, through their other duties. Site visitsare normally conducted for a first application, or where circumstances have changed,or where doubt exists over the validity of the information supplied.

Licence holders are requiredto submit returns which are monitored to ensure that they comply fully with anylicence conditions or the licence would be invalid and subject to revocation. Non-compliancewould be taken into account when considering any future application.