Questions and answers

Question reference: S2W-20967

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 5 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how much of its funding for free personal and nursing care was allocated to the (a) West Dunbartonshire and (b) East Dunbartonshire local authority area.

West Dunbartonshire are allocated £801,000 and East Dunbartonshire £2,115,000 from the Free Personal and Nursing Care Grant Aided Expenditure (GAE) line, for people in care homes, for the current financial year, 2005‑06.

Free personal care for people at home is included in the services for home‑based elderly GAE line. From this line, West Dunbartonshire has been allocated £9,422,000 and East Dunbartonshire £8,122,000.

Local authority GAE, including community care for older people, is published on the Scottish Executive website at www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/gaestats.

Local authority revenue expenditure, known as GAE, is funded by a combination of centrally provided government funding through Aggregate External Finance (AEF) and funding raised by local authorities through council tax. Local authorities are free to spend above or below the GAE level, according to their own local needs and priorities. The money that local authorities receive through AEF is, in the main, provided by way of a block grant and not allocated to specific services.

GAE is allocated to individual local authorities on the basis of a needs-based distribution formula agreed with COSLA. GAE forms part of the complex formula used to calculate one revenue grant figure for each local authority.

Question reference: S2W-21156

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 5 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how it plans to support a sporting culture for children and young people in the (a) West Dunbartonshire and (b) East Dunbartonshire local authority area.

The Executive's aim is to increase participation in sport at all age levels and in particular instil healthy positive attitudes in our children and young people towards sport and physical activity in all parts of Scotland. To assist that objective the Executive has invested significant additional resources in the Active Schools network. Sportscotland will work with all education authorities including West and East Dunbartonshire towards achieving this objective.

The Executive has also made a significant commitment to provide more time for physical education, more teachers of physical education and more choice in physical education.

Question reference: S2W-21166

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 5 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of older people in the (a) West Dunbartonshire and (b) East Dunbartonshire local authority area have been living on low incomes in each year since 1996.

The information requested is not available.

The official source of low income data for Scotland is the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) dataset available from 1994-95. This is derived from the Family Resources Survey (FRS). The sample size of the FRS in Scotland is relatively small and can only be used to provide information for Scotland as a whole.

The following link provides the latest low income headline figures for Scotland (2003-04), together with data for previous years. This was published on 30 March 2005:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/03/29170611/06123.

Question reference: S2W-21161

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 5 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to ensure the availability of affordable, good-quality housing for people on low incomes in the (a) West Dunbartonshire and (b) East Dunbartonshire local authority area.

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

Through its development programme, Communities Scotland aims to provide affordable, good quality housing for people on low incomes in both West and East Dunbartonshire Local Authority areas. It is also the aim of Communities Scotland to provide a range of affordable housing options within these areas including social rented provision, low cost home ownership (through a combination of GRO Grant subsidy to private developers and shared ownership/equity housing provided via RSLs) and rented/low cost home ownership housing to meet special needs (elderly, disabled etc.)

Within West Dunbartonshire in the current financial year 2005-06 Communities Scotland propose to invest over £11 million in the provision of affordable housing and will achieve 142 new unit approvals. Currently this level of investment is set to rise to over £14 million in 2006-07.

Within East Dunbartonshire Communities Scotland are scheduled to invest just under £2 million in the provision of affordable housing for 2005-06 (with 111 unit approvals) and funding is predicted to increase to over £5 million for affordable housing provision in 2006-07.

A major component of affordable housing investment will take place within areas of deprivation such as Hillhead in Kirkintilloch and in Twechar, both areas of low income households. As a result of the shortage of available land for building, particularly in higher pressurised market areas such as Milngavie and Bearsden, Communities Scotland is working closely with East Dunbartonshire Council in the operation of its affordable housing policy which requires housing developers to allocate a percentage of their development for affordable units. It is expected that around 900 new affordable houses will be secured through this policy.

Question reference: S2W-21157

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 5 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how children and young people in the (a) West Dunbartonshire and (b) East Dunbartonshire local authority area will benefit from the 2014 Commonwealth Games if Glasgow's bid to host the Games is successful.

The Scottish Executive believes children and young people across Scotland, including those in West and East Dunbartonshire, will benefit from a successful bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

A successful bid will place sport at the forefront of public consciousness. It will therefore complement existing strategies aimed at encouraging all Scots to be physically active, increasing access to first class facilities and allowing all, particularly the young, to reach their potential.

Question reference: S2W-20969

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 5 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding has been allocated to the Rough Sleepers Initiative in the (a) West Dunbartonshire and (b) East Dunbartonshire local authority area since the inception of the initiative; where in these areas the money has been spent, and how successful the initiative has been.

Between 1997 and 2002, local authorities received funding from the Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) on the basis of bids made to the Executive setting out the need for such funding in their area.

RSI Funding to East and West Dunbartonshire 1997-98 to 2005-06¹

Year	East Dunbartonshire	West Dunbartonshire
1997-98	£0	£0
1998-99	£11,200
1999-2000	£34,300
2000-01	£46,000	£86,010¹
2001-02	£29,675	£104,347
2002-03	£30,000	£102,000
2003-04	£30,000	£102,000
2004-05	£31,000	£106,000
2005-06	£32,000	£110,000

Note: 1. Partnership bid with Argyll and Bute Council.

Local authorities’ activities funded as a result of RSI have now become integrated with local authorities’ wider homelessness strategies and since 2004-05 these activities have been included within their local outcome agreements, which set out on an annual basis how they are implementing these strategies.

Within these reporting arrangements, it is for local authorities to decide how and where to spend RSI funding, according to local priorities and pressures. The Executive does not hold information regarding the geographical areas in which funding is spent.

The final evaluation of the RSI was published in March 2005 (which can be found at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/03/20886/54982) and concluded that this initiative had achieved significant progress and produced tangible reductions in the need to sleep rough across the country. The evaluation concluded that the RSI enhanced services in cities and often created specific services for the first time in rural and smaller urban areas, and referred positively to services provided in East Dunbartonshire.

Question reference: S2W-20971

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 5 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to make available more affordable housing in the west of Scotland, in particular in the Bearsden and Milngavie area.

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

The Executive is making £1.2 billion available over the next three years to meet the need for affordable housing in Scotland. The affordable housing programme is being increased from 18,000 to 21,500 homes; the low cost home ownership programme (including the new Homestake programme) is being expanded, and Communities Scotland is working with local authorities to implement the Community Ownership Programme, which will increase substantially the quality and choice of affordable housing throughout Scotland, particularly in the west. Allocation of investment funding for affordable housing is guided by local authorities’ Local Housing Strategies, which are based on an assessment of local housing market areas.

Provision of affordable housing in East Dunbartonshire is being addressed by:

an increase in investment in affordable housing via Housing Association Grant and NHP (New Housing Partnership) funding. This will result in the approval of 111 new units within the current financial year.

the adoption by the Council of its Affordable Housing Policy, requiring developers of housing to allocate a percentage of their development for affordable units. Up to 922 units could be secured through the implementation of the AHP.

the council’s New Housing Development programme, which aims to deliver over 120 new homes for rent and low cost home ownership.

In addition, the council is considering applying for Pressured Area Status designation in 2006, to reduce the impact of the Right to Buy on their stock.

Question reference: S2W-20970

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 5 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what projects have been funded by the New Futures Fund in the (a) West Dunbartonshire and (b) East Dunbartonshire local authority area and how much has been allocated to each project since the inception of the fund.

Scottish Enterprise (SEn), which manages New Futures Fund, has provided funding for the following projects since its inception in 1998;

In East Dunbartonshire Lowmoss Prison Offenders project £55,000, East Dunbartonshire Council Multi Agency Drug and Alcohol Forum £129,118.

In West Dumbarton; Dumbarton Area Drug Initiative - Alternatives £74,118, NCH Action for Children Scotland - Homeless project £96,300 and West Dumbarton partnership project £536,987.

Question reference: S2W-20978

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 5 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what increases in the proportion of children who attain the appropriate levels in reading, writing and maths by the end of primary 2 and primary 7 there have been in the (a) West Dunbartonshire and (b) East Dunbartonshire local authority area since 1996.

This information is only available from 1998-99 and is contained in the Scottish Executive’s annual Statistics Publication Notice 5-14 Attainment in Publicly Funded Schools. Copies can be obtained from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre using the Bib. numbers supplied.

Title	Bib. Number
5-14 Attainment in Publicly Funded Schools 2003-04 (by June 2004)	34652
5-14 Attainment in Publicly Funded Schools 2002-03 (by June 2003)	30289
5-14 Attainment in Publicly Funded Schools 2001-02 (by June 2002)	25569
5-14 Attainment in Publicly Funded Schools 2000-01 (by June 2001)	18788
5-14 Attainment in Publicly Funded Schools 1998-99 (by June 1999) and 1999-2000 (by June 2000)	25343

Question reference: S2W-20979

Asked by: Des McNulty, MSP for Clydebank and Milngavie, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 5 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people are expected to benefit from the concessionary travel scheme for elderly and disabled people in the (a) West Dunbartonshire and (b) East Dunbartonshire local authority area.

Chamber and committees