- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 September 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Johann Lamont on 15 September 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what its target deadline is for the implementation of Glasgow Housing Association’s second stage stock transfer.
Answer
The Scottish Executive does nothave a specific target deadline for second stage transfers (SST) to take place,but would like to see early progress over the coming months. The joint team on financial issues is currently consideringthe implications of different options with regard to timing.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 September 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Johann Lamont on 15 September 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a breakdown of the purposes for which its funding to Glasgow Housing Association has been used since the association’s inception.
Answer
Scottish Executive funding toGlasgow Housing Association (GHA) has been used to support the delivery of GHA’sbusiness plan. A copy of the business plan is available at:
http://www.gha.org.uk. In particular, some of this ScottishExecutive funding has been directly targeted at funding the installation of centralheating systems for tenants and the costs associated with the demolition of redundantstock.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 September 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Johann Lamont on 15 September 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has received any representations from Glasgow Housing Association in respect of the capital and revenue costs and funding requirements of the second stage transfer of its housing stock and, if so, whether it will publish details of these representations.
Answer
Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) has made representations tothe Scottish Executive about the financial implications of second stage transfers(SST). Following these representations, ministers set up the Ministerial ProgressGroup on SST to bring together key partners – GHA, local housing organisations,the Scottish Executive, Communities Scotland and Glasgow City Council – in orderto consider how best to move SST forward. In addition, a joint team of officialsfrom these organisations is currently looking at the complex financial issues raisedby SST. Its report will be made available in due course and will include informationabout the points raised by GHA.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 August 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 15 September 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many businesses have applied to receive funding through the business learning accounts programme and how many applications were successful.
Answer
Businesses did not “apply” fora business learning account (BLA), instead they were identified by Business advisorsas meeting the criteria for BLAs and were invited to undertake a Training NeedsAnalysis (TNA) to identify their training needs before committing to a BLA.
Six hundred and eighteen TNAswere undertaken and 422 BLAs opened.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 September 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 14 September 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how successful educational maintenance allowances have been for 16 to 18-year-olds in schools.
Answer
Twenty-three thousand, sixhundred and fifty students received Education Maintenance Allowance payments inScotland in 2004-05. Statistics for 2005-06 will be published in November. Qualitativeresearch on the pilot programmes showed increased participation in learning.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 September 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 14 September 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive who is responsible for inspecting the standard of cleanliness of each NHS hospital.
Answer
Domestic services managers foreach NHS hospital are required to monitor performance to ensure compliance withthe NHSScotland National Cleaning Services Specification. The monitoring processis supported by audits carried out by peer review teams representing infection controlprofessionals, the public and colleagues with responsibility for estates managementand managers with domestic services expertise. In addition, Health Facilities Scotlandcarry out random sample testing of results across NHSScotland. On 28 August 2006, HealthFacilities Scotland published the first quarterly report on compliance against nationalstandards. This information is available from their website
www.hfs.scot.nhs.uk/guest/HaiInitiatives.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 September 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 14 September 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average S1 and S2 class sizes in maths and English have been in each year since 1997.
Answer
Class size data forsecondary is not routinely collected as part of the annual school censusexercise, but in order to estimate thenumber of additional Maths and English teachers required to meet our S1/S2 classsize commitments a special collection was made in 2003.
Informationon the average class size of S1/S2 Maths and English classes is therefore onlyavailable for 2003. It is published onthe Scottish Executive website and can be accessed using the followinghyperlink http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2003/11/18511/28927.
As there are no interimtargets, we have no plans to collectthis information again until school census week in September 2007.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 September 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Johann Lamont on 13 September 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive where the capital and revenue costs of Glasgow Housing Association’s second stage stock transfer are accounted for in the association’s business plan.
Answer
All elements of GlasgowHousing Association’s (GHA) business plan are relevant to determining the costsof second stage transfer (SST) since the prices set for individual transferswill be driven primarily by disaggregation of that business plan. In addition, GHAhas allocated a specific sum of £6 million within its business plan for costsassociated with taking forward SST.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 September 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Johann Lamont on 13 September 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive when the group examining Glasgow Housing Association’s second stage stock transfer will report its findings.
Answer
It is hoped that the reportof the joint team on financial issues will be finalised in the next few weeks. Itwill be made publicly available in due course.
- Asked by: Alex Neil, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 September 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Johann Lamont on 13 September 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what its estimate is of the capital and revenue costs of implementing the second stage transfer of Glasgow Housing Association’s housing stock.
Answer
The costs of second stagetransfer (SST) will vary significantly according to a large number of factors,including in particular the number and shape of transfers and the timing ofthese transfers. A joint team of officials from Glasgow Housing Association(GHA), Communities Scotland, Glasgow City Council and the purchasers arecurrently considering the financial implications.
