- Asked by: Mr Keith Harding, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jackie Baillie on 1 February 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how many and what proportion of Rough Sleeper Initiative grants in 2000-01 have been allocated and spent to date and whether all available funding will be spent by the end of this financial year.
Answer
RSI allocations were announced in the answer to question S1W-4640 and in Wendy Alexander's statement to the Parliament of 1 June 2000.Local authorities, with their partners are now taking forward the development of approved projects. Delays in progressing some of these are likely to result in slippage of spending into 2001-02. The extent of the slippage has not yet been assessed.
- Asked by: Mr Keith Harding, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Angus MacKay on 1 February 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what have been the costs to (a) it and (b) each local authority of implementing and operating the "best value" regime in each year since the system came into operation.
Answer
The implementation of Best Value has involved no significant public expenditure on the part of the Scottish Executive.
The Executive holds no information on the costs to local authorities of implementing Best Value. Such costs would be associated with the review of services and the development of new systems for the public reporting of council performance.The implementation of Best Value will, however, afford local authorities opportunities to focus resources on priority services through new approaches to service delivery and more effective performance management. In its consultation paper Best Value in Local Government: Next Steps, published in June 2000, the Executive suggested that local authorities should set themselves an annual target of redistributing 2% of their overall resources through effective implementation of Best Value.
- Asked by: Mr Keith Harding, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 1 February 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to review or extend the period allowed for charities to make returns to the Charity Commission in respect of street collections so as to bring the timescale into line with the three-month period allowed in England.
Answer
Returns in respect of street collections in Scotland are made to the local authority concerned. The Scottish Charity Law Review Commission is currently looking at all aspects of the regulation of public charitable collections. It is due to report at Easter and we shall then examine its recommendations in this regard.
- Asked by: Mr Keith Harding, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jackie Baillie on 1 February 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a detailed breakdown of Rough Sleeper Initiative grants awarded to schemes involving faith-based organisations in (i) 1997-98, (ii) 1998-99, (iii) 1999-2000 and (iv) 2001-01 showing the number of grants made and value of each grant.
Answer
RSI funding is made available to local authorities for the delivery of projects and services which the authority has assessed best meet the identified needs of people sleeping rough in their area. These projects and services are delivered by a range of providers, including both statutory and non-statutory organisations, some of which are faith-based. However, as this was not a factor which determined whether or not projects received funding, the breakdown of information requested is not available.
- Asked by: Mr Keith Harding, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 1 February 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the extra funding for local authorities announced by the Minister for Finance and Local Government on 7 December 2000 will be sufficient to prevent local authorities from making any substantial cuts in frontline services.
Answer
Our announcement provided for every local authority to receive a better than real terms increase in grant in each of the next three years. These additional resources should enable authorities to invest in improved services and infrastructure. However, it is for local authorities themselves to manage their budgets and determine their expenditure priorities.
- Asked by: Mr Keith Harding, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 12 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 26 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how many copies of its Water Quality & Standards 2002-2006: A Consultation Paper have been published; how many have been distributed, and what the total cost was of publishing, promoting and distributing the document.
Answer
The initial print run of 500 has been distributed and a further print run of 200 has been ordered to meet increased demand. The paper is also available on the Scottish Executive website and through the Stationery Office Bookshop.It is not yet possible to quote the total cost for printing and distribution because my officials are in the process of confirming the initial invoice and securing an estimate for the second print run. I anticipate, however, that the cost should be slightly less than that quoted for the Affordability of Water and Sewerage Charges consultation paper (£1601.49) due to using the same cover design.
- Asked by: Mr Keith Harding, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 12 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jackie Baillie on 26 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer by Jackie Baillie to my supplementary question to S1O-2769 on 11 January 2001 (Official Report, col. 149), how many homelessness applications to local authorities have been made in each of the last five years.
Answer
Information on the number of applications from households to local authorities under the homeless persons legislation, for the last five years, is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre in the following two statistical bulletins: The Operation of the Homeless Persons Legislation in Scotland 1988-89 to 1998-99: National and Local Authority Analyses - HSG/2000/2" (table 3) and Housing Trends in Scotland: Quarter ending 31 March 2000 - HSG/2000/7 (table 20).
- Asked by: Mr Keith Harding, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 12 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 26 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how many copies of its Affordability of Water and Sewerage Charges: A Consultation Paper have been published; how many have been distributed, and what the total cost was of publishing, promoting and distributing this document.
Answer
500 copies of this paper were printed, of which 480 have been distributed to date (17.01.01). Approximately 20 further copies have been issued by email. The paper is also available on the Scottish Executive website and through the Stationery Office Bookshop.The total cost for printing and distribution, including entry on to the Scottish Executive website and lodging with the Stationery Office Bookshop was £1601.49.
- Asked by: Mr Keith Harding, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 12 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by David Steel on 26 January 2001
To ask the Presiding Officer how many copies of the Annual Report of the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body 2000 and accompanying statistical report have been sold to date, broken down between sales to the public and sales to publicly funded organisations.
Answer
The Corporate Body distributed 1,175 copies free of charge to MSPs, Scottish MEPs, partner libraries, embassies and consulates, councils, police and Fire Boards, Health boards and Trusts and various other bodies within civic Scotland who contributed to the Consultative Steering Group report on the Scottish Parliament. Additional copies are also available from SPICe.
We understand that the Stationery Office has to date sold 45 copies to the general public.The Annual Report is freely available on the Scottish Parliament website and has had nearly 400 "hits" since publication on 22 December.
- Asked by: Mr Keith Harding, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 January 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by David Steel on 25 January 2001
To ask the Presiding Officer what the total cost was of publishing, promoting and distributing the Annual Report of the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body 2000 and accompanying statistical report and how many copies of each were printed.
Answer
The total cost of designing, printing and publishing the Annual Report of the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body and Scottish Parliament Statistics was £41,454. 2,500 copies of each publication were printed.We intend to review carefully future publications of the Annual Report and Statistics Report in view of the costs identified above.
