- Asked by: Mr Keith Harding, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 15 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to encourage local authorities to improve the speed with which they settle payments to private suppliers and contractors.
Answer
Payment arrangements are a matter between local authorities and individual suppliers. As noted in my response to question S1O-332, I spoke to Councillor Norman Murray, President of CoSLA, asking him to draw to the attention of councils the requirements of the Late Payment of Commercial Debt (Interest) Act 1998 and the importance of paying their bills on time. CoSLA wrote to all local authorities advising them of this on 1 October.The latest available information on the performance of councils in paying invoices within 30 days was published in the recent Accounts Commission pamphlet Benefits, Finance and Housing 1998-99. It reported that 19 councils had improved in terms of the percentage of invoices which they had paid on time during 1998-99, compared to the previous year.
- Asked by: Mr Keith Harding, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 14 January 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 14 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-3438 by Mr Sam Galbraith on 11 January 2000, how much of the savings generated by the abolition of assisted places in schools have been utilised to fund Scottish Opera and the National Stadium Project at Hampden.
Answer
The package to assist Scottish Opera will draw on £1.1 million savings resulting from the phasing out of the assisted places scheme. No savings from the assisted places scheme have been used to provide funding for the National Stadium Project at Hampden.
- Asked by: Mr Keith Harding, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 14 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how much each local authority has had to pay out in interest payments on overdue debts to firms with less than 50 employees in each year since the Late Payment Act 1998 came into effect.
Answer
This information is not held centrally. Payment arrangements are a matter between local authorities and individual suppliers.
- Asked by: Mr Keith Harding, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 14 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to encourage local authorities to provide full access to their records for the Accounts Commission, in order that it can monitor more effectively local authorities' settlement of payment to private suppliers and contractors.
Answer
Section 100 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 provides auditors a right of access to all documents relating to the accounts of a local authority. Section 1 of the Local Government Act 1992 provides that the Accounts Commission may require local authorities to publish annually performance information including invoice payment.
- Asked by: Mr Keith Harding, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Frank McAveety on 9 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to ask all local authorities to undertake investigations into possible benefit frauds by their employees.
Answer
Social security benefits including housing and council tax benefits are reserved matters and are the responsibility of the DSS. The Secretary of State for Social Security has said that the Benefits Agency will continue to work with councils to stamp out fraud and that the Department of Social Security will work in partnership with others to win the fight against fraud. Further to that, the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate will continue its programme of inspections of Scottish local authorities.
- Asked by: Mr Keith Harding, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 14 January 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 6 March 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-3438 by Mr Sam Galbraith on 11 January 2000, what level of resources are still available from end-year flexibility arrangements.
Answer
All estimated end-year flexibility within the education, culture and sport budget has been allocated.
- Asked by: Mr Keith Harding, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 January 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 10 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, in the light of the predicted increase in cancer prevalence in Scotland, and the importance of specialised staff for the improvement in cancer outcomes, what plans it has to increase the number of medical and clinical oncologists over the next five to ten years.
Answer
The Scottish Executive and the Scottish Council for Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education (SCPMDE) are currently in the process of undertaking their annual review of the Specialist Registrar (SpR) establishment. This review determines the numbers of higher specialist training places available for each specialty, which in turn determines the number of doctors who will be qualified to fill consultant vacancies in the future.
In both the specialties mentioned, it is expected that there will be a significant increase in the SpR establishment this year. These doctors undertake a five to six year period of specialist training to gain a Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training (CCST) after which they are eligible to apply for consultant posts. During this higher specialist training period SpRs carry out clinical duties across the range of the relevant speciality.Other grades of hospital medical staff apart from consultants and SpRs also provide specialist care and treatment for cancer patients. Health boards have the responsibility to decide how many consultants and non-consultant career grade doctors they appoint in their area, depending on the health needs of the local population.
- Asked by: Mr Keith Harding, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Friday, 10 December 1999
-
Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 10 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to S1W-2232 and S1W-2233 by Susan Deacon on 30 November 1999, what plans there are to improve cancer survival rates by expanding specialist staffing in cancer services in Scotland as part of the work of the Scottish Cancer Group.
Answer
Cancer is one of three clinical priorities for the NHS in Scotland.
Workforce planning is an integral part of the planning cycle for the NHS in Scotland. Specialist medical staffing is monitored annually, as are the numbers of nurses required to ensure continuity of care for patients.The Scottish Cancer Group has commissioned work to model cancer incidence over the next 10 to 20 years which will inform future service and workforce planning for the range of clinical specialities involved in the treatment and care of people with cancer.
- Asked by: Mr Keith Harding, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 January 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 9 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-3488 by Mr Jack McConnell on 11 January 2000, how many jobs have been lost in local government in each of the last two financial years and to date in the current year and whether any of these job losses were a direct result of budgetary reductions.
Answer
Staffing levels are a matter for local authorities themselves. Available figures for local authority staffing levels show an overall decrease of 2,161 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff for the period 1997-98, a further decrease of 1,859 for the period 1998-99, and an increase of 374 for the period March - June 1999. These figures, which are drawn from Joint Staffing Watch, issued jointly by the Scottish Executive and CoSLA, include fire and police services and comprise all full and part-time posts; the actual number of jobs, therefore, may vary independently of the number of FTE staff.
- Asked by: Mr Keith Harding, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 24 January 2000
-
Current Status:
Answered by Iain Gray on 7 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether health boards are able to contribute capital funding to housing associations and local authorities to facilitate adaptations to (a) allow disabled tenants to remain in residence; (b) to alleviate future health problems of disabled tenants, or (c) where there would be an improvement in health for a disabled tenant or members of their household.
Answer
Any tenant seeking an aid or adaptation to their premises should in the first instance raise the matter with their landlord.
Health boards may, if they think fit, make payments to local authorities and housing associations for, among other matters, the provision of housing.
Latest figures show that local authority social work departments spent £15 million on aids and adaptations in 1997-98.Scottish Homes issued good practice guidance last year on the provision of adaptations. The guidance is aimed at housing associations, local authorities, private landlords and others and sets a list of bodies responsible for the provision of aids or equipment for all housing sectors.
