- Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 19 June 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what action will be taken to increase the acreage of willow coppice.
Answer
Encouragement to undertake short rotation coppicing (SRC) is available under the Scottish Forestry Grants Scheme. In addition, payments for set aside land, which can include production of SRC, are also contained within the Arable Area Payment Scheme.
- Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 05 June 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 19 June 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive why grants for establishing willow coppices in Scotland are lower than the equivalent grants in England.
Answer
The level of grant available in Scotland for short-rotation coppice (SRC) in the new Scottish Forestry Grants Scheme (SFGS) is £600 per hectare, but on land set aside as part of the Arable Area Payment Scheme, the SFGS grant is £400 per hectare.Within the Arable Area Payment Scheme, payments for set aside land can include the production of SRC. The currently payment levels are £205.80 per hectare for Less Favoured Areas and £223.97 per hectare for Non Less Favoured Areas.The Forestry Commission grant level for SRC in England is identical to Scotland. However, in England there is also a scheme called the Energy Crop Scheme (ECS) which offers £1,600 per hectare for SRC on ex-livestock land and £1,000 per hectare on all other land types. This scheme is operated by the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and is part of the wider England Rural Development Programme.
- Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 May 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Mary Mulligan on 18 June 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of households living in fuel poverty contain older people.
Answer
According to the 1996 Scottish House Condition Survey, 332,000 pensioner households were estimated to be in fuel poverty out of a total number of 738,000 households estimated to be in fuel poverty.
- Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 May 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Mary Mulligan on 18 June 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many households are in fuel poverty and what criteria it uses to define fuel poverty.
Answer
According to the 1996 Scottish House Condition Survey, 738,000 households in Scotland were estimated to be in fuel poverty. The definition for fuel poverty is "a household is in fuel poverty if, in order to maintain a satisfactory heating regime, it would be required to spend more than 10% of its income (including Housing Benefit or ISMI (Income Support for Mortgage Interest)) on all household fuel use".
- Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 May 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 11 June 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to increase the number of NHS chiropodists by expanding training places.
Answer
The allocation of places to specific subject areas is rightly a matter for individual institutions.Higher education institutions are autonomous bodies and legislation precludes ministers from directing funds to particular institutions or courses. The Scottish Higher Education Funding Council is responsible for allocating places to broad subject groups and for taking a strategic overview of provision in key areas.
- Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 May 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 3 June 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how it will increase the ability of GPs to commission NHS chiropody services directly and expand demand-led chiropody services.
Answer
The planning and provision of NHS chiropody services is a matter for NHS Boards. GPs are already directly involved in the planning of local NHS services through Local Health Care Co-operatives. This role will be strengthened through the development of Community Health Partnerships as described in Scotland's Health White Paper Partnership for Care.
- Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 May 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 3 June 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHS chiropodists there are in each NHS board area.
Answer
The information requested in available on the ISD website, tables F1 and F2. In these tables chiropodists are termed podiatrists.
http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/isd/NHSiS_resource/Workforce/workforce_statistics.htm.
- Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 May 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Mary Mulligan on 2 June 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of households living in fuel poverty contains dependent children.
Answer
Using tables on household type and differences in the proportion of income spent on energy by household characteristics in the Scottish House Condition Survey, 1996, approximately 172,700 households with children are estimated to live in fuel poverty, out of a total of 738,000 households in fuel poverty.
- Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 May 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Mary Mulligan on 2 June 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have benefited from its (a) Warm Deal initiative and (b) Central Heating Installation Programme since 1999.
Answer
The Scottish Executive does not hold information on the composition of households that benefit from the Warm Deal and so cannot provide the information requested. All of the households that benefit from the part of the Central Heating Installation Programme, which is managed by Eaga, include as householder or their spouse a person aged 60 or over, but information in respect of household composition is not held for those parts of the programme managed by local authorities or Communities Scotland.
- Asked by: Alex Johnstone, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 May 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Mary Mulligan on 2 June 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of households that have benefited from the Warm Deal initiative and the Central Heating Installation Programme since 1999 contain (a) older people and (b) dependent children.
Answer
Information is held by household and so it is not possible to identify the number of individuals that have received measures.The number of households to benefit from each of the programmes is as follows:Warm Deal
| | 1999-2000* | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | Total |
| Local Authority Programme | 22,318 | 22,600 | 18,549 | 8,578 | 72,045 |
| Eaga Managed Programme | 16,131 | 26,555 | 22,328 | 21,755 | 86,769 |
| Total | 38,449 | 49,155 | 40,877 | 33,333 | 158,814 |
Note:*The Warm Deal commenced in July 1999 as the successor to the Home Energy Efficiency Scheme.Central Heating Installation Programme
| | 2001-021 | 2002-03 | Total |
| Local Authority Programme | 4,007 | 4,1492 | 8,156 |
| Eaga Managed Programme | 3,559 | 5,5003 | 9,059 |
| Housing Association Programme (managed by Communities Scotland) | 941 | 1,624 | 2,565 |
| Total | 8,507 | 11,273 | 19,780 |
Notes:1. The Central Heating Installation Programme commenced in April 2001.2. The local authority figure for 2002-03 includes 349 households where work was commenced, but not all the work had been completed by 31 March 2003. These 349 units have been attributed to the total for 2002-03 and will not be included in the figures for 2003-04.3. The figure for the Eaga managed Central Heating Installation Programme includes 800 households in which a central heating system has been installed, but other further measures, advice or inspection has still to be completed. These 800 units have been attributed to the total for 2002-03 and will not be included in the figures for 2003-04.
