- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 November 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 22 November 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is its policy that bills must be paid to businesses by public bodies within 30 days.
Answer
The Scottish Public Finance Manual, which defines the procurement policy for the Scottish Executive including its agencies and associated departments, requires that invoices are paid promptly, within 30 days of receipt of a valid invoice, unless otherwise contractually agreed. The Scottish Executive also observes both the CBI Prompt Payment code and British Standard 7890, which set out good payment practice.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 November 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 21 November 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will give assurances that the children of asylum seekers living in Scotland will continue to be educated in existing state-sector schools and not through separate, segregated education.
Answer
Immigration and asylum matters are reserved to the UK Government.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 November 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 20 November 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what funding for mental health has been (a) made available and (b) spent in each of the last five years; how such funding was distributed, broken down by NHS boards and trusts, the voluntary sector and local authority social work departments; what formula is used to distribute such funding, and who decides on this formula.
Answer
Local authority funding for mental health services, and all other community care services, is provided on an unhypothecated basis. It is therefore up to each local authority to determine use of these resources in line with local circumstances. This year, local authorities received £1,385 million for social work, with £1,112 million of that being provided for community care. Details of local authority expenditure on community care services for all client groups are provided in the Scottish Executive's
Community Care Statistics. The most recent version of this relates to 2000-01 and is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 24284). Estimates for 2001-02 suggest that local authorities spent £47 million on mental health services, with £19 million of this coming from Mental Illness Specific Grant funding, and £28 million from net local authority expenditure (excluding money raised from fees and so forth).The Scottish Executive does not provide NHS boards with a separate budget for mental health. Boards determine how much to spend on mental health and on other health care services from the total allocation of funds that they receive each year to cover the costs of hospital and community services as well as the costs of prescribing in the community. The allocation of this total budget between NHS boards is determined by the Arbuthnott formula which was introduced in 2001 following a major review of the methods of allocating funding for health care in Scotland. This allocation formula is updated each year to take account of changing circumstances - for example, changes in the distribution of the population between NHS board areas.NHSScotland expenditure on mental health has increased significantly over the last five years. The increases have been as follows:
| 1997-98 | £426 million |
| 1998-99 | £437 million | (+2.6%) |
| 1999-2000 | £476 million | (+8.9%) |
| 2000-01 | £520 million | (+9.2%) |
| 2001-02 | £558.8 million | (+7.5%) |
Information on voluntary sector funding for mental health services is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 November 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Iain Gray on 18 November 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will organise a public inquiry, involving representatives of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) College Lecturers' Association, the Scottish Trades Union Congress and other appropriate bodies, into industrial relations across the further education sector, in the light of the recent dismissal of Jim Donovan at Central College of Commerce in Glasgow and the subsequent one-day strike and march and rally in support of him organised by EIS.
Answer
There are no plans for such an enquiry. Industrial relations and employment issues within further education colleges, which are autonomous bodies in terms of the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 1992, are for the colleges themselves to address.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 November 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Iain Gray on 18 November 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what powers it has to return the further education sector to local authority control and reintroduce a system of national pay and conditions bargaining and whether it plans to use any such powers to reintroduce a national pay and conditions structure covering all further education colleges.
Answer
The Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 1992 established individual further education colleges as bodies corporate with responsibility for the contractual terms and conditions of college employees. There are no current plans by ministers to introduce a system of national pay and conditions for further education colleges.It is the Scottish ministers on whom the act places a duty to secure the provision of adequate and efficient further education in Scotland. That duty is currently exercised on their behalf by the Scottish Further Education Funding Council. The transfer of this duty to the local authorities would require legislative change.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 November 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 15 November 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to establish a new national pay and conditions negotiating machinery within the NHS in respect of all or some of the service's employees.
Answer
No.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 November 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 14 November 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it plans to take as part of its strategy against poverty that would result in an improvement in the disposable income of households in Glasgow.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is combating poverty by improving the disposable income of households in Glasgow through a range of actions. These include concessionary bus passes for older people, delivering our Warm Deal Central Heating programmes, supporting the child care costs of lone parents who are continuing their education and, alongside the UK government, providing real opportunities for people to work through the New Deal programme.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 October 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Simpson on 14 November 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive why it does not specify that a percentage of grants awarded under the Community Safety Partnership Award Programme must be spent on counteracting racist and homophobic crime and gender-based abuse given that it does specify that 18% of the grants awarded under the programme must be spent on drug-related issues.
Answer
It is for local Community Safety Partnerships to determine the local community safety priorities, normally following a community safety audit and consultation with the community.Budget consequentials for anti-drug activities funded £750,000 (18%) of the total annual £4 million Community Safety Partnership Award Programme, which is why this proportion of the overall spend must address drug-related issues.Partnerships can use the remaining 82% of their allocation to fund other crime prevention and community safety priorities as specified in their community safety strategies and action plans. We do not prescribe what those priorities, which have been identified through a local audit process, should be.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 November 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 13 November 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are approximately 290 prisoners currently held at HM Prison Cornton Vale and, if so, what the reasons are, given that the prison has a design capacity of 230.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:No, numbers are currently about 260 but they have reached that number in recent months. The courts decide how many people to send to custody. Until Greenock prison takes about 50 females planned to start this month, Cornton Vale has, apart from small female units in Aberdeen, Dumfries and Inverness prisons, been the only available accommodation for women prisoners.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 November 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 13 November 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive when the transfer of 50 women from HM Prison Cornton Vale to HM Prison Greenock will take place.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:The transfer will be carefully phased over a period staring in mid-November.
