- Asked by: Ben Wallace, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 July 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jackie Baillie on 17 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what meetings it has had with the Ministry of Defence and the Homelessness Task Force regarding the resettlement of former services personnel.
Answer
The Homelessness Task Force, which I chair, is considering, amongst other things, the need for improved housing provision, advice and support for the resettlement of people leaving institutions, including the armed forces. The Task Force has been collecting evidence on ways to improve assistance to vulnerable service personnel prior to discharge, at the point of discharge, and after discharge.
There are no firm figures on the number of people with armed forces' experience who are presently homeless. There is however clear evidence that a significant proportion of homeless men have had a career in the services. In Scotland, the National Monitoring and Interim Evaluation study of the Rough Sleepers Initiative showed that 13% of people using RSI services had past experience of the armed forces. In England, it is estimated that between a fifth and a quarter of rough sleepers have been in the services at some point in their lives.
Currently DD Circular 26/1993 provides guidance to local authorities on housing for people leaving the armed forces. This circular encourages local authorities to give fair and sympathetic consideration to applications for housing from ex-service personnel. (A copy of the circular has been placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre.) The Code of Guidance on Homelessness also identifies people recently discharged from institutions as potentially vulnerable, and therefore in priority need.
The Homelessness Task Force is examining improvements in the definition of priority need categories including its extension to include vulnerable ex-service personnel. This would be in line with proposals in England.
The Task Force will be setting out its key recommendations in its report at the end of this year. It will be seeking support from the Ministry of Defence, the Armed Forces and its Resettlement Services, and the ex-service benevolent sector for these recommendations.
- Asked by: Ben Wallace, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 July 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jackie Baillie on 17 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive when it last met representatives of the Army Benevolent Fund, the British Legion and SSAFA Forces Help to discuss issues relating to the resettlement of ex-servicemen.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-17163.
- Asked by: Ben Wallace, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 July 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jackie Baillie on 17 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how many former armed forces personnel are at present homeless in Scotland.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-17163.
- Asked by: Ben Wallace, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 May 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 30 July 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHS operations have taken place in private hospitals in each year from 1995 to date.
Answer
Reliable data on numbers of operations on NHS patients undertaken in private hospitals are not available.
- Asked by: Ben Wallace, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 February 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 24 July 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people are currently in training to be general practitioners.
Answer
The number of GP Registrars employed in general medical practices in NHSScotland at 1 October 2000 was 261. This is the latest information available for those who can be identified as being in training to become general practitioners.
- Asked by: Ben Wallace, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 25 June 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 17 July 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how much was spent on long-term care for the elderly in (a) Scotland and (b) each local authority area in each year from 1997 to 2001 and what percentage each local authority's expenditure was of its social services budget.
Answer
Local authority net revenue expenditure on social work, including nursing and residential care for older people, is given in section 6 of the volumes Rating Review: Actuals of Income and Expenditure published by CIPFA (Scottish branch) for years 1996-97 to 1999-2000. Copies are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. no.'s 7544, 7545, 7548 and 14654).
- Asked by: Ben Wallace, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 25 June 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 12 July 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how much was spent on caring for young and disabled people in (a) Scotland and (b) each local authority area in each year from 1997 to 2001 and what percentage each local authority's expenditure was of its social services budget.
Answer
This information is not held centrally. Information on local authority expenditure on children's services as a whole is given in section 6 of the volumes Rating Review: Actuals of Income and Expenditure, published by CIPFA. Copies are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. no's 7544 (1996-97), 7545 (1997-98), 7548 (1998-99) and 7547 (1999-2000).
- Asked by: Ben Wallace, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 June 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 4 July 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the First Minister or the Minister for External Affairs will attend the Conference of Constitutional Regions in Liege on 25 November 2001 and, if so, what related initiatives it intends to participate in.
Answer
The second Conference of Presidents of regions with legislative power, held under the auspices of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe, is scheduled to take place in Liege on 15/16 November of this year. The Deputy First Minister attended the first such conference in Barcelona last November. A decision about the Executive's representation at this year's event will be taken nearer the time when the details of the conference and the agenda have been finalised.
- Asked by: Ben Wallace, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 May 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Angus MacKay on 11 June 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has carried out a survey of the potential costs of the introduction of the euro to (a) each local authority, (b) schools and (c) the NHSiS.
Answer
It is not possible to estimate the cost of an introduction of the euro.The cost of a changeover would depend on the timing, the overall approach and individual management decisions.
- Asked by: Ben Wallace, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 05 April 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Angus MacKay on 11 June 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how much was spent by local authorities on personal social services, net of any income received from charges made for such services, in (a) 1995-96, (b) 1996-97, (c) 1997-98, (d) 1998-99 and (e) 1999-2000.
Answer
The information is contained in the table.
| Social Work Expenditure |
| | £ million |
| 1995-96 | 1,031.645 |
| 1996-97 | 1,068.976 |
| 1997-98 | 1,086.659 |
| 1998-99 | 1,135.295 |
| 1999-2000 | 1,200.379 |
Source: As reported by local authorities in their Local Financial Returns 1995-2000.Notes: These figures are total Net Expenditure.1999-2000 data are provisional and may be subject to change.
