- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 July 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 3 August 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will undertake an independent and detailed assessment of the costs and benefits to Scotland of the 2012 Olympic Games being hosted in London.
Answer
The Scottish Executive doesnot intend to undertake such an assessment at present when the event will nottake place for seven years.
The Scottish Executive will,however, aim to maximise the potential business, tourism, sporting and culturalbenefits to Scotland which will arise from London hosting the Olympics;and will monitor and evaluate the economic and other impacts on Scotland ofsuch an important event.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 July 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 3 August 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish a list of the (a) learning providers who have enrolled in the new Individual Learning Account scheme, (b) number of learners that each provider has so far assisted and (c) organisations that have either refused to participate or withdrawn from participation (i) since the scheme started and (ii) compared with the original scheme.
Answer
There are currently 183 registeredILA Scotland learning providers, including further education colleges, highereducation institutions, private and community-based learning providers. Thisincludes a number of individual outreach learning centres formally registered underthe aegis of a single learning provider. A full list of the currentlyregistered ILA Scotland learning providers is available on the scheme websiteat:
www.ilascotland.org.uk.Since the launch of the ILAScotland low income funding offer in December 2004 over 10,000 learners haveopened learning accounts. To date 3,500 learners have booked learning and 2,500learners have begun learning with ILA Scotland assistance. It is not intendedto publish information on the number of learners being assisted at the level ofeach individual learning provider as a matter of course, although information onthe overall number of learners assisted by ILA Scotland will be provided on aregular basis via the ILA Scotland website.
Learning providers are notindividually invited to participate in the scheme. The registration process isopen to any learning provider to apply provided they hold one or more of the specifiedquality standards. Registration is also subject to additional quality checks. Itis for each individual learning provider to decide whether to submit anapplication to participate in the scheme. There have been two applications todate from learning providers which were withdrawn before they had formallycompleted the registration process.
The eligibility criteria forlearning providers to participate differ significantly between the first ILAscheme and ILA Scotland. The registration process for learning providers is considerablymore rigorous and more restrictive for ILA Scotland than for the originalscheme, taking full account of lessons learned regarding quality assurancerequirements. This limits the number of potentially eligible learningproviders. It is thus not possible directly to compare learning providerparticipation in ILA Scotland with the original scheme.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 July 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 3 August 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on which sporting events will take place in Scotland as part of the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Answer
Hampden Park will be used to stage several matches in the Olympicfootball tournament.
Details of the venues to beused in the Games are contained in London 2012’s candidature file. Since thebid was submitted, the International Olympic Committee has decided to drop twosports (baseball and softball) from the 2012 programme and not to add inreplacements.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 July 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 3 August 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what categories of prisoner are held at HM Prison Kilmarnock.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron,Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is asfollows:
Any male prisoner.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 July 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 3 August 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on when the draft code of practice for ministerial appointments to public bodies will be finalised and who is required to approve it.
Answer
Under section 2(4) of the Public Appointments and Public Bodies etc. (Scotland) Act 2003, the Commissioner for Public Appointmentsin Scotland must consult the Parliament and the ScottishExecutive and invite other persons to make representations as part of herpreparations for the Code. The actual arrangements for discharging thisobligation and the date on which the Code will be finalised are both mattersfor the Commissioner.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 July 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 1 August 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what methodology and detailed research formed the basis of the statement by the First Minister that the G8 summit will bring £500 million of benefit to Scotland.
Answer
The statement made was based on consideration of evidence from the 2004 G8 summit held at Sea Island, Georgia and our conviction that Scotland will benefit by at least as much, given the great efforts made by Scottish business supported by the Scottish Executive, the enterprise networks, local government and others to ensure that we maximise the immediate and longer-term economic and business opportunities arising from the summit.
The Executive has commissioned a study to estimate the direct and indirect benefits of the summit, the results of which will be published later this year.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 29 July 2005
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Current Status:
Awaiting answer
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it would expect the Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise to agree to meet the sponsors of a £16 million investment project designated for an umployment blackspot in Lanarkshire.
Answer
Awaiting answer
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 July 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 28 July 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a list of all the costs that it has incurred in relation to the G8 summit at Gleneagles.
Answer
Final estimates of the costsof the G8 summit are not yet available. Information will be published later in the year.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 June 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 26 July 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any agreement exists, or has existed, between HM Chief Inspector of Prisons and Premier Custodial Group Ltd that staffing details at HM Prison Kilmarnock are not to be published in any inspection report into that prison and, if such an agreement does exist, or has existed, whether it considers it to be in the public interest and whether it was (a) aware of such an agreement and (b) involved in the discussions leading to the agreement.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is not aware of any such agreements but such information,which may be made available for the purposes of inspection, is one of the confidentialmatters in the contract between the Scottish Prison Service and Kilmarnock Prison Services Ltdand for that reason is not published.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 June 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 26 July 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will recommend to the management of HM Prison Kilmarnock that it adopts the recommendations and suggested best practice contained within Professor Kevin Powers Review of the Suicide Risk Management Strategy at HMP Kilmarnock and whether it will take action to ensure that these become contractual obligations when the contract to manage HM Prison Kilmarnock is due for renewal.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish PrisonService (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:
No. The SPS sees no need to doso. The Report is a matter for the Company, which commissioned it. It is not possibleto say what discussions may be held when the contract is due for renewal around2024.
