Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-28584 on 5 October 2006. All answers 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.

Earlier this year, we publishedon our Relocation web page a list of priority locations for potential location reviews.These were identified by local authorities and local enterprise companies and includelocations in all local authority areas outside of Edinburgh City. The websiteincludes a separate list of potential priority locations for Small Unit Initiativelocation reviews covering both Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Scottish Enterprise areas.This ensures that all local authority areas outside Edinburgh havethe opportunity to be considered for relocated public sector posts. The relocationwebsite is at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/Relocation/LocationOpps.

Ensuring the provision ofeffective transport arrangements for patients, carers, visitors and staff is asignificant issue which NHS boards, working in partnership with the new regionaltransport partnerships, the Scottish Ambulance Service and others, must takeaccount of in the design and delivery of their local services. The Arbuthnottformula, under which the annual financial allocations to boards are made,already takes account of a number of transport related criteria such as localgeography and rurality.

TheTransport (Scotland) Act 2005 also requires a more strategic approachfrom transport interests and NHS boards to planning access to, and ensuring theprovision of, transport to health facilities. In relation to health the act requires:

transport partnerships, whendrawing up their regional transport strategies to consult with NHS boards intheir area;

transport partnerships toaddress within these strategies how to facilitate access to healthcarefacilities, and

NHS boards to, as far aspossible, act consistently with the regional transport strategies applying intheir area.

I believe that NHS boards, workingwith their planning partners and the Regional Transport Partnerships, have thepowers and the financial resources to ensure the smooth inter-working of thePatient Transport Service and local authority demand-responsive transportservices.

The Scottish Executive has notexamined the case for legislating to make it possible for NHS boards to regulateparking in hospitals and other parking areas under their control as car park chargingon hospital sites is a matter for local NHS boards to determine in light of localcircumstances.

Yes.

We already have a variety ofoptions utilising both public and private finance that are being used to deliverfirst class facilities.

A significant programme of Investmentin Primary Care infrastructure has been delivered since 1999.

However, we want to further improvethe way we deliver infrastructure in Primary and Community Care. We are thereforeactively progressing the Hub Initiative joint venture arrangements.

I refer the member to http://www.brbr.gov.uk/property/property_listingswhere all BRB (Residuary) Ltd property is listed.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH)receives funding for all its activities in its annual Grant-in-Aid settlement. Decisionsabout the allocation of resources within the approved budget are a matter for theboard of SNH. SNH’s plans take account of the need to provide for effective compliancemonitoring of management agreements.

As explained in the answer toquestion S2W-27584 on 17 August 2006, weare currently developing regulations undersection 39 of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, which willimplement a new regime for the reorganisation of charities, enabling charities toseek approval for reorganisation from the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator(OSCR) if their constitutions do not permit them to make the change, rather thanhaving to apply to court. These regulations will make provision about the form andmanner of applications to OSCR. We intend to consult on the new regulations laterthis year, with a view to bringing them into force and commencing the provisionsin sections 39 to 42 early next year. The exact date for commencing the regulationsis dependent on the outcome of the consultation.

Charities with the necessarypowers in their constitutions can seek the consent of OSCR to reorganise under section16. This section is already in force and OSCR is processing consents under it.

Where Scottish Natural Heritage(SNH) management agreements come to an end and are replaced by a new agreement,compliance monitoring will continue to take place to ensure that contractual obligationsare fulfilled. In other cases where an SNH management agreement ceases and is notreplaced by any other form of funding support SNH plans to continue its generalprogramme of site condition monitoring. It is for SNH to determine the appropriatelevel of resource necessary to fund these requirements within their annual grant-in-aidprovision.

We introduced the Scottish ForestryGrants Scheme in June 2003, and details of the payments made (and those to be claimedonce the work has been satisfactorily completed), up to and including Friday 18 August 2006,have been published on the webpages of Forestry Commission Scotland and can be viewedat www.forestry.gov.uk/sfgsgrantdetails.The information about grants has been provided in different views and in a separatefile to enable further analysis.

For each component of grant inany scheme, details are provided: a reference number, name of the scheme, ForestryCommission Scotland Conservancy area, applicant’s name and (where appropriate) organisation,recipient of grant, local authority area, Ordnance Survey grid reference, date approved,objective type (purpose for which the grant was given), payment date, amount paid,and any outstanding grant. The scheme closed at the end of the August.

The criteria, against which allapplications have been judged, are given in the guidance for applicants publishedon the webpages (www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-6T6CBC)together with the rules (www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-6J6MGE)used to determine in which year grants would be paid.