- Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 October 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 6 November 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-18121 by Ms Wendy Alexander on the 27 September 2001, whether it will give a breakdown of the results of the court actions raised against graduates to recover student loans in (a) 1998-99, (b) 1999-2000 and (c) 2000-01.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-18956.
- Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 October 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 6 November 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it has issued to education authorities on the duties and responsibilities of teaching staff in relation to the supervision or support of children with special needs during non-teaching periods of the school day.
Answer
The Executive has not issued guidance on this issue.Under the implementation agreement, A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century, teachers are not expected to be routinely involved in the direct and regular supervision and support of pupils during non-teaching periods. These duties are usually undertaken by a range of support staff, including classroom assistants and special needs auxiliaries.However, the report of the Discipline Task Group makes it clear that schools should ensure shared responsibility between staff for supervision of pupils during non-teaching times of the day.
- Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 October 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Iain Gray on 1 November 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it has issued to local authorities to help reduce the number of injuries resulting from the use of fireworks during this year's Guy Fawkes celebrations.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1O-03987.
- Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 October 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 23 October 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it has issued to education authorities on permitting children with dyspraxia, autistic spectrum disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder to be exempted from foreign languages study.
Answer
The Executive has not issued guidance to exempt pupils with these special educational needs from foreign language study. Scottish ministers are committed to taking forward entitlement to language learning for all children and young people. Whether or not particular pupils with special educational needs study foreign languages is a matter for the pupils, parents and school to consider.
- Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 October 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 23 October 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to provide a "diagnostic centre" for children who are believed to have some form of autistic spectrum disorder, dyspraxia or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Answer
The Executive has no such plans.
- Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 September 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 3 October 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will carry out an investigation into why the average cost of providing a local authority residential care place for older people and people with dementia in the South Lanarkshire council area in both 2000-01 and 2001-02 was, according to the South Lanarkshire Joint Community Care Plan 2001-04 Summary of Expenditure 2000-01 and Purchasing Intentions 2001-02, more than double that for an independent or voluntary sector residential care place.
Answer
It is for each council to demonstrate to electors and auditors that it is achieving Best Value in its use of resources.
- Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 September 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Angus MacKay on 3 October 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what standard penalty clauses have been included in its Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts and how many have been invoked since May 1999.
Answer
The Treasury Taskforce Standardisation of PFI Contracts has been available since July 1999. A copy is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 16339). It is broadly indicative of the type of provisions contained within PFI contracts although the Executive's contracts predate it. Payments under a PFI contract are routinely adjusted to reflect performance against it.
- Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 September 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Angus MacKay on 3 October 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will detail any financial penalties imposed on private sector firms in each of the last five years for failures to deliver in relation to key performance indicators in (a) Private Finance Initiative and (b) Public/Private Partnership projects.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-18247.
- Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 September 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Angus MacKay on 3 October 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how many Private Finance Initiative projects have been managed by it and the Scottish Office in each of the last 10 years; what its estimate is of the cost savings made in each project compared with the public sector alternative, and what outstanding payments will be made in relation to each project in each of the next 15 years.
Answer
The Scottish Executive (and formerly the Scottish Office) has managed three Private Finance Initiative (PFI) projects in the last 10 years: Skye Bridge (signed 1991); M6 (signed 1997); Kilmarnock Prison (signed 1997). The Executive's policy is that PFI should only be used where it represents best value for money. To test for value for money, bids received are compared to a Public Sector Comparator (PSC) which represents an estimate of the whole life cost of procuring of the specified services by conventional means.
In the case of the Skye Bridge, a PSC was not calculated, as the project would not have gone ahead other than under private finance. Government guidance published in 1995 also accepted this as a reason for not producing a PSC.
The following table shows the cost savings by comparing the PSC with the PFI bid for the M6 DBFO and Kilmarnock Prison projects.
| | PSC (£ million) | PFI (£ million) | Saving (£ million) |
M6 DBFO | 210 | 193 | 17 |
Kilmarnock Prison | 263 | 130 | 133 |
Outstanding payments to be made in relation to each project are matters of commercial confidentiality.
- Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 September 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 3 October 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how many hospital patients categorised as delayed discharges are currently awaiting transfer to (a) local authority and (b) private residential or nursing homes and how many additional bed spaces will now be made available as a result of the recent agreement reached between it, Scottish Care and CoSLA on the funding of private care home places, broken down by health board area.
Answer
Most recent figures from Information and Statistics Division's
Patients Ready for Discharge in the NHSScotland show that, at 15 July 2001, there were 98 patients delayed in Scottish hospitals and awaiting a place in a local authority residential or nursing home and 425 delayed and awaiting a place in a private home. These can be broken down by health board area as follows:
Health Board area | No. delayed awaiting place in local authority residential or nursing home | No. delayed awaiting a place in private residential or nursing home |
Argyll and Clyde | 19 | 78 |
Ayrshire and Arran | 1 | 2 |
Borders | 1 | - |
Dumfries and Galloway | - | - |
Fife | 11 | 17 |
Forth Valley | 10 | 11 |
Glasgow | 19 | 94 |
Grampian | 5 | 12 |
Highland | 1 | 10 |
Lanarkshire | 4 | 37 |
Lothian | 18 | 125 |
Orkney | 4 | - |
Shetland | - | - |
Tayside | 1 | 15 |
Western Isles | 4 | 24 |
Total | 98 | 425 |
Estimates of the number of beds made available as a result of the talks between the Executive, Scottish Care and CoSLA are not available centrally.
