Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 955 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S2W-20937

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 5 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what training and support it provides to voluntary organisations in respect of (a) maintaining appropriate behaviour with young or vulnerable people and (b) the operation of the disclosure system.

The Scottish Executive has established and funds the Central Registered Body in Scotland (CRBS) which provides free disclosure checks for volunteers in the voluntary sector working with children, young people and vulnerable adults. In addition, the CRBS provides a wide range of training and support services on the legislation covering the disclosure system; the responsibilities of organisations; the criteria of registration; required policies to be introduced by organisations; how to negotiate the registration process and how basic, standard and enhanced disclosures should be undertaken. The CRBS also helps organisations interpret disclosure certificates, though it does not advise on whether an individual should be recruited.

Question reference: S2W-21184

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 5 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans its (a) Education, (b) Justice, (c) Health, (d) Environment and Rural Affairs, (e) Finance and Central Services, (f) Enterprise and (g) Transport and Lifelong Learning Department and the Office of the Permanent Secretary have to simplify and reduce the length and number of the documents that they require applicants to complete in respect of (i) applications for, and approval of, grants to voluntary organisations and (ii) the monitoring of the use of grants and the benefits delivered.

A new voluntary sector grant application pack, including a range of standard grant conditions, has been rolled out across the Scottish Executive. This will help reduce the bureaucracy and workload associated with applying for Executive grants. Work is also underway on the development of a lead funder pilot which is designed to introduce a single door approach to funding and a single point of accountability, which should eliminate the need for multiple monitoring.

Question reference: S2W-20935

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 1 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to enable an individual who works for more than one organisation to make a single application for a disclosure certificate, rather than having to make multiple applications.

The Executive is currently developing plans for a new vetting and barring system for those working with vulnerable groups following the recommendations made in the Bichard report. Features planned for the new system include the continuous updating of information following an initial disclosure check and regulated access to the barred status of an individual for those with a genuine need to know. This will remove the need for multiple applications for disclosure certificates where there has been no change in that status.

Question reference: S2W-20928

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 1 December 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is in respect of providing a second year's funding to the Youth Achievement Awards promoted by Youth Scotland.

The Youth Achievement Awards were previously supported by Scottish Executive project grant under the Children and Young People’s Grant scheme. These grants (now available through the Children, Young People and Families Unified Voluntary Sector fund) support the development and evaluation of innovative ideas and are time limited.

Scottish Executive officials and Youth Scotland are currently in discussion over the future development of the Youth Achievement Awards.

Question reference: S2W-20933

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 29 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to enable the voluntary sector to offer pay and conditions comparable with those in the public or private sectors.

The Scottish Executive is not in a position to influence voluntary sector pay and conditions. However, the Executive fully recognises that pay and conditions are a crucial element of securing a viable future for the voluntary sector. The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO), on behalf of the voluntary sector, is working with the Scottish Trades Union Council (STUC) in addressing this issue as part of a Voluntary Sector Workforce Development Strategy, which has recently been developed following consultation with the sector and key stakeholders.

Question reference: S2W-20927

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 28 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what consultation has been carried out with voluntary organisations in respect of the Executive owning the intellectual property rights of material related to projects to which it contributes a grant or other financial support and what agreement has been reached on this issue.

Question reference: S2W-20929

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 28 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is in respect of providing funding for projects which have proved to be successful but require additional support to build on their achievements after their initial funding has been spent.

Many voluntary organisations benefit from continued long-term funding from Scottish Executive grant schemes. Before a decision is taken to renew funding, account is taken of the organisation’s performance with its previous grant and the success and impact of its work. More generally, each request for grant funding is considered on merit, taking account of the quality of the application, whether the proposed work programme helps deliver policy objectives, ministerial priorities, the level of resources available for distribution and competing demand.

Question reference: S2W-20930

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 November 2005
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 28 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what proposals it has to monitor and review its effectiveness in respect of the Scottish Compact with voluntary organisations.

In 2004 the Scottish Executive commissioned the consultancy firm GEN Consulting to monitor the effectiveness of the Scottish Compact. Work involved establishing a baseline of data on awareness of and compliance with the Compact by Scottish Executive Departments, non-departmental public bodies and agencies through questionnaires. The findings of the baseline research were published in 2005 and can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/03/20869/54775

A follow-up survey will be carried out in due course.

Question reference: S2O-07909

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 3 November 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects to receive the report of the recent public inquiry into the route orders for the proposed upgrade of the A80.

Question reference: S2W-19404

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 September 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 7 October 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) grant aided expenditure allocation to and (b) actual expenditure by each local authority was in respect of culture and the arts in each of the last three years.

The last three years for which information is available on both grant aided expenditure and actual expenditure in respect of culture and the arts are 2001-02 to 2003-04. Information for each of these years, by local authority, is shown in the table below.

The grant aided expenditure figures below form part of a much larger allocation process used to calculate revenue support grant by local authority. It is up to each local authority to decide how best to allocate the total amount allocated to it as revenue support grant, based on local needs and priorities.

Cultural and Related Services Grant Aided Expenditure (GAE) and Net Revenue Expenditure (NRE)

	2001-02 (£000)		2002-03 (£000)		2003-04 (£000)
	GAE	NRE	GAE	NRE	GAE	NRE
Scotland	332,652	456,879	354,463	488,205	374,313	529,308
Aberdeen City	14,901	20,617	15,885	21,839	16,779	24,113
Aberdeenshire	12,537	12,641	13,342	13,933	14,077	14,577
Angus	6,643	8,291	7,078	9,687	7,474	10,492
Argyll and Bute	5,339	6,014	5,687	6,359	6,004	6,502
Clackmannanshire	3,102	4,199	3,303	4,984	3,486	5,163
Dumfries and Galloway	9,007	10,943	9,588	14,696	10,117	15,680
Dundee City	10,476	15,905	11,162	16,435	11,787	17,941
East Ayrshire	7,205	8,406	7,675	8,976	8,104	9,483
East Dunbartonshire	6,719	9,019	7,165	8,380	7,572	9,072
East Lothian	5,107	7,473	5,436	8,300	5,736	8,379
East Renfrewshire	5,343	7,127	5,700	7,599	6,023	8,187
Edinburgh, City of	31,225	33,116	33,292	35,651	35,171	35,289
Eilean Siar	1,652	2,776	1,757	2,960	1,852	2,445
Falkirk	9,476	10,427	10,103	11,545	10,673	11,999
Fife	20,807	31,816	22,179	34,395	23,428	34,921
Glasgow City	48,120	82,773	51,263	84,007	54,122	108,937
Highland	13,402	14,499	14,267	16,953	15,056	15,590
Inverclyde	5,229	8,404	5,577	7,771	5,894	9,063
Midlothian	5,227	7,319	5,571	7,663	5,884	7,528
Moray	4,717	5,937	5,021	6,915	5,299	6,564
North Ayrshire	8,689	10,834	9,260	13,371	9,779	13,682
North Lanarkshire	20,758	34,182	22,134	35,623	23,385	36,749
Orkney Islands	1,401	2,650	1,488	3,601	1,569	3,830
Perth and Kinross	8,060	9,887	8,581	12,372	9,056	12,783
Renfrewshire	11,356	15,258	12,110	16,144	12,796	17,234
Scottish Borders	6,233	6,802	6,634	7,852	7,001	8,450
Shetland Islands	1,548	2,991	1,646	3,328	1,735	3,415
South Ayrshire	7,466	10,410	7,956	10,363	8,401	10,956
South Lanarkshire	20,085	31,022	21,403	28,719	22,603	30,241
Stirling	5,568	7,146	5,930	7,890	6,259	7,751
West Dunbartonshire	5,899	9,329	6,294	9,776	6,653	11,489
West Lothian	9,358	8,666	9,976	10,119	10,537	10,803

GAE Source: Grant Aided Expenditure Green Books.

NRE Source: LFR2 return.