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Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S2W-20835

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 18 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 9 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what strategies it has to tackle (a) coronary heart disease, (b) stroke, (c) diabetes, (d) cancer, (e) smoking-related illnesses and (f) alcohol-related illnesses and what resources have been directed towards addressing each of these.

The specific strategies inplace to address coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, smoking andalcohol use are:

A CHD and Stroke Strategywas published in October 2002 and updated in 2004. An additional £40 millionover three years was allocated to assist with implementation of the strategy.

The Scottish DiabetesFramework was published in April2002. The diabetes programme budget for the period 2003-04 to 2007-08 is £3.8 million.

Scotland’s cancer strategy Cancer in Scotland: Action for change,published July 2001, set out the strategic direction for improvements in cancerservices. An additional £25 million per annum investment has built capacity indiagnostic and treatment services, for example at least 300 additional staffand new equipment.

A Breath of Fresh Air forScotland, the first ever TobaccoAction Plan designed specifically for Scotland, was published in January 2004. It covers a wideprogramme for action including smoking prevention and education, protection andcontrols and the expansion of high quality smoking cessation services. Inaddition it also addressed the issue of second-hand smoke. This led to theintroduction of the Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) Act 2005, whichwill see the comprehensive introduction of smoke-free public places in Scotlandin March 2006. We will provide an additional £2 million in 2006-07 and £4 millionin 2007-08 for smoking cessation, and £6 million over three years for local authorityenforcement of the smoking ban.

The Plan for Action onalcohol problems, published in 2002,sets out the framework of action to reduce alcohol-related harm. An updatedplan will be published soon: this will build on progress to date and set outfurther actions for the next three years. £9.9 million has been allocated toNHS boards in the current financial year to tackle alcohol problems.

Most health expenditure isallocated to directly to NHS boards and it is their responsibility to ensurethat appropriate care is offered to patients in their area. The resourcesavailable to the Executive to support specific programmes represent only asmall percentage of total expenditure on any condition or service.

Question reference: S2W-21169

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 8 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what policies to tackle youth crime in the (a) West Dunbartonshire and (b) East Dunbartonshire local authority area it (i) has implemented and (ii) is planning to implement and what associated investment is needed to implement such policies.

It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to ensure the delivery of a range of programmes to tackle and reduce offending amongst young people. Information on the services being delivered in East and West Dunbartonshire can be found on Scotland’s youth justice website at www.youthjusticescotland.gov.uk. Details of the funding being made available to support these services can be found in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 38237). In addition to this funding, the following GAE resources have been identified to support the delivery of core youth justice services:

	East Dunbartonshire	West Dunbartonshire
2005-06	£394,000	£834,000
2006-07	£405,000	£856,000
2007-08	£407,000	£862,000

Both East and West Dunbartonshire are participating in phase one implementation of Intensive Support and Monitoring Services. The Executive is providing dedicated funding to the sum of £752,252 this year and next to support this intervention.

Question reference: S2W-21004

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 8 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to increase the employment rates of disadvantaged groups, such as lone parents and ethnic minorities, in the (a) West Dunbartonshire and (b) East Dunbartonshire local authority area.

Question reference: S2W-21009

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 8 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to reduce the number of 16 to 19-year-olds who are not in education, training or employment in the (a) West Dunbartonshire and (b) East Dunbartonshire local authority area.

A wide range of mainstream and targeted policies spanning early years, education, children’s services, regeneration, enterprise and lifelong learning are contributing to reducing the size of the not in education, employment or training (NEET) group in West Dunbartonshire and East Dunbartonshire.

Careers Scotland (CS) deliver targeted advice and support to help prevent young people from becoming NEET and support young people NEET to progress towards the labour market. In West and East Dunbartonshire, enhanced CS resource is available in six secondary schools with the aim of improving school leaver destinations. Activate, an early intervention programme for pupils who may face difficulties in moving into work, runs in 10 schools and has achieved a positive outcome rate of 91% with the first 202 pupils participating. Young people facing significant barriers to entering the labour market can access one to one support from the CS key workers who operate in West and East Dunbartonshire.

Question reference: S2W-21008

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 8 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to reduce the proportion of unemployed working age people in the (a) West Dunbartonshire and (b) East Dunbartonshire local authority area.

Information about current activity was given in the answer to question S2W-20976 on 2 December 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

In addition, the Department for Work and Pensions’ Pathways to Work programme, which aims to help those on Incapacity Benefit into jobs, will be extended to West and East Dunbartonshire from April 2006.

A priority of the Executive’s Community Regeneration Fund is to help people back into work. £13,368,000 from the Fund has been allocated to West Dunbartonshire and £828,000 to East Dunbartonshire. The Executive is also investing £7 million in Clydebank Rebuilt Urban Regeneration Company to help bring about the economic, social and physical renewal of Clydebank.

West Dunbartonshire is one of seven local authority areas targeted under the Executive’s Closing the Opportunity Gap for reducing the numbers of people claiming work-related benefits by 2010. This will be supported by the Executive’s Employability Framework, which we are developing and plan to launch early in 2006.

Question reference: S2W-20874

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 18 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 8 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of 16- to 19-year-olds have not been in education, training or employment in the (a) West Dunbartonshire (b) East Dunbartonshire local authority area in each year since 1996.

The official source for data for 16 to 19-year-olds not in education, training or employment (NEET) is the Labour Force Survey. Data on those who are NEET is not available at a Local Authority level from the LFS prior to 2003. Data for 2003 and 2004 is shown in the table 1:

Table 1 Proportion of 16 to 19-Year-Olds Not in Employment, Education or Training, West Dunbartonshire and East Dunbartonshire, 2003-04.

	2003	2004
West Dunbartonshire	16.6%	17.7%
East Dunbartonshire	8.5%	9.8%

Source: Annual Scottish Labour Force Survey.

Question reference: S2W-21130

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 25 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 7 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what measures have been introduced in the (a) West Dunbartonshire and (b) East Dunbartonshire local authority area to (i) ensure a reduction in (1) the proportion of women smoking during pregnancy, (2) the percentage of low birth-weight babies and (3) dental decay among five-year-olds and (ii) increase the proportion of women breastfeeding and whether any such measures have led to measurable improvements in these indicators in each area over the last five years.

Question reference: S2W-20974

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 7 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to improve the performance of the poorest-performing 20% of pupils at standard grade to bring them in line with the performance of other pupils in the (a) West Dunbartonshire and (b) East Dunbartonshire local authority area.

The Executive is implementing a range of commitments set out in Ambitious, Excellent Schools to heighten expectations, strengthen leadership and raise ambition; give more freedom for teachers and schools; provide greater choice and opportunity for pupils and better support for learning and ensure tougher, intelligent accountabilities. This sets the framework for local authorities to enable all young people to achieve their full potential. West Dunbartonshire and East Dunbartonshire Councils are responsible for this within their local areas.

Question reference: S2W-20833

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 18 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Johann Lamont on 7 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) households and (b) pensioners' homes in the (i) West Dunbartonshire and (ii) East Dunbartonshire local authority area benefited under the central heating programme in (1) 2002-03, (2) 2003-04 and (3) 2004-05 and how many are expected to benefit in (A) 2005-06 and (B) 2006-07.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is as follows:

Eaga Partnership Ltd administers the central heating programme for pensioners’ homes in the private sector. However, in the private sector the information requested is not held by local authority area, but by main postcode. Therefore, it is not possible to supply the information requested in relation to installations undertaken by Eaga.

The central heating programme is a demand led scheme, the number of installations in any particular area is dependent on the number of eligible applicants applying to the programme.

In respect of those installations undertaken by local authorities and housing associations, the information requested is set out in the following tables.

Central Heating Installations by Local Authority Area 2002-03 to 2004-05

Local Authority	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
East Dunbartonshire	0	0	0
West Dunbartonshire	76	54	0
Total	76	54	0

Replacement of Partial Central Heating Installations by Local Authority Area 2002-03 to 2004-05

Local Authority	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
East Dunbartonshire	0	0	5
West Dunbartonshire	0	3	129
Total	0	3	134

Question reference: S2W-21133

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 25 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 7 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of older people in the (a) West Dunbartonshire and (b) East Dunbartonshire local authority area received intensive home care in each year since 1996.

The percentage of older people in East Dunbartonshire and West Dunbartonshire local authority areas receiving intensive home care in the week ending 31 March each year since 1998 is:

	Year
	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
East Dunbartonshire	0.6%	0.6%	0.7%	0.7%	0.8%	0.8%	0.8%	0.8%
West Dunbartonshire	1.4%	1.5%	1.4%	1.6%	1.8%	2.4%	2.9%	2.9%

Notes:

1. Older people means people aged 65 or over.

2. Intensive home care means 10 or more hours per week.

3. Data on intensive home care is not available prior to 1998.

Parliament dissolved ahead of election

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