- Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 March 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 23 March 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how often and by what means it has communicated its decision on Aberdeen City Council’s bid for a 50-metre swimming pool for the city.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2O-12443 on 22 March 2007, which is available on the Parliaments website:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-07/sor0322-02.htm#Col33490.
- Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 09 March 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Johann Lamont on 21 March 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has for future pensions provision for fire and rescue services’ staff.
Answer
Pension costs are met in fullfrom grant aided expenditure. The Government Actuary’s Department is currently undertakingan audit of Scottish fire services pension commitments and the results of this exercisewill inform funding decisions taken as part of the forthcoming spending review.
- Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 February 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 27 February 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-31407 by Patricia Ferguson on 13 February 2007, whether it has made any representations to the UK Government on the implications for sports projects, such as the 50-metre swimming pool for Aberdeen, if sports lottery funding is diverted to pay for additional costs of the London 2012 Olympic Games and, if so, what the outcome was.
Answer
Scottish ministers have a goodworking relationship with their UK counterparts and will continue to engage constructivelywith them to maximise the benefits of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games forScotland and to minimise the impact of any reduction in lottery funding for sportand the other good causes.
We have already secured the agreementof the UK Government that Scotland’s share of the £340 million Lottery Sports Fund contributiontowards the games funding package will be retained and spent in Scotland on Scotland’s eliteathletes.
- Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 February 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Des McNulty on 16 February 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many central heating programme contractors have been (a) approved and (b) appointed by Scottish Gas and where they are located, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is asfollows:
Scottish Gas has appointed34 contractors and a further seven are currently in the registration processfor inclusion on the programme. Information on the location of Scottish Gascontractors is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 February 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Des McNulty on 16 February 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many installations under the central heating programme and Warm Deal have been completed in each year since inception of the central heating programme, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is asfollows:
Information is not held bylocal authority area. Information showing the total number of central heating andWarm Deal installations is shown in the following tables:
Central Heating InstallationsAcross All Sectors: 2001-02 to 2006-07
| Year | Totals |
| 2001-02 | 8,508 |
| 2002-03 | 11,220 |
| 2003-04 | 16,788 |
| 2004-05 | 15,207 |
| 2005-06 | 16,002 |
| 2006-07 | 9,769 |
| | 77,494 |
Warm Deal InstallationsAcross All Sectors: 2001-02 to 2006-07
| Year | Totals |
| 2001-02 | 40,877 |
| 2002-03 | 29,992 |
| 2003-04 | 27,520 |
| 2004-05 | 19,013 |
| 2005-06 | 15,500 |
| 2006-07 | 8,100 |
| | 141,002 |
- Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 February 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Des McNulty on 15 February 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many central heating programme and Warm Deal installations have been (a) approved and (b) installed since the operation of the programme transferred to Scottish Gas, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
I have asked Angiolina Foster,Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is as follows:
Information is not held by localauthority area. The total number of Warm Deal and central heating installationsapproved and installed by Scottish Gas is shown in the following table.
Warm Deal and Central Heating-Approvalsand Installations
| Central Heating Approved | Central Heating Installed | Warm Deal Approved | Warm Deal Installed |
| 742 | 1,478 | 96 | 112 |
- Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 25 January 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 13 February 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what the implications are for sports projects, such as a 50-metre swimming pool for Aberdeen, if sports lottery funding is diverted to pay for cost increases of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Answer
No decision has yet been takenby the UK Government on how to fund the additional costs of the London 2012 OlympicGames. At present there are no implications for any projects, including the 50-metreswimming pool being considered by Aberdeen.
The 2012 Olympics present a oncein a lifetime opportunity for everyone in the UK and the Scottish Executive willcontinue to work closely with the UK Government to maximise the potential benefitsfor Scotland.
- Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 February 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 12 February 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-12521 by Malcolm Chisholm on 8 December 2004, how many people under 60 receive the disability living allowance and how much it would cost to include them in the central heating programme, broken down into private tenants, owner occupiers and social housing tenants.
Answer
In May 2006, Department of Workand Pensions (DWP) figures show that in Scotland about 190,000 (189,390) people under 60 received disabilityliving allowance.
We have completed the centralheating programme in the Social sector with the exception of Glasgow Housing Associationwhich will complete its work next month. Through this programme we have now offeredfree central heating to all public sector tenants who did not have it - regardlessof their age or benefits entitlement.
From responses to the ScottishHouse Condition Survey between October 2003 and September 2004, the latest periodfor which information is available, we estimate that in 2003-04 there were about5,000 private tenants or owner occupiers in Scotland in receipt of Disability LivingAllowance in which all occupants were under 60 and who had no or poor quality centralheating. About 20% of these were private tenants and 80% were owner occupied.
The most complete informationabout the cost of central heating grants is from Communities Scotland for the financialyear up to end September 2006. The average grant for the central heating programmewas £3,419. Therefore the cost of extending the programme to these groups wouldbe around £17 million of which about 20% would be for private tenants and 80% owneroccupied.
The Scottish House ConditionSurvey is a sample survey and estimates from the survey are subject to samplingerror. Because of the very small numbers of respondents to the survey in these groupsthere is a wide range of uncertainty around the estimated £17 million cost. The95% confidence interval for the estimated cost lies between £5 million and £29 million.
- Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 25 January 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 8 February 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many dentists have been deemed to be no longer NHS-committed as a consequence of at least 10% of patients not visiting the dentist in the last 15 months, where all other criteria are met, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-31413 on 8 February 2007. 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.
- Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 25 January 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 8 February 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is satisfied that the policy which means that dentists are no longer considered to be NHS-committed as a consequence of at least 10% of patients not visiting the dentist in the preceding 15 months is helping retain access to NHS dentistry for patients.
Answer
The policy which the member describesis not the policy of the Scottish Executive. It is, however, the policy of the ScottishExecutive to require dentists within NHS committed practices to maintain their registrationbase, unless there are exceptional circumstances, in order to ensure that the additionalresources we have provided are focused primarily on practices which treat all categoriesof patients on the NHS.
