Chamber and committees

The re-drafted strategy documenton First Responder units has been completed and is available from the Scottish AmbulanceService National Headquarters, Tipperlinn Road, Edinburgh, EH10 5UU.

The Scottish Ambulance Service’spolicy is to set up First Responder units in areas where there is sufficient demandand appropriate volunteers. These schemes cost around £6,000 per year to run.

The ambulance service recognisesthat some local communities who are not on the ambulance service’s priority listwant to establish their own schemes. The ambulance service supports these by providingappropriate training to ensure the safe delivery of patient care.

Forestry Commission Scotland’s(FCS) spending is subject to the same scrutiny as other departments of the ScottishExecutive. All departments, through their Accountable Officers, have a duty to promotethe efficient and effective use of staff and other resources in accordance withthe principles of Best Value. This duty is subject to scrutiny by the Auditor Generalfor Scotland.

Every two years FCS activitiesare examined in detail in the spending review to ensure it is delivering value formoney. Financial and other targets are set, specifically for the Forest EnterpriseScotland Agency, which manages the National Forest Estate. These are published inthe FCS Corporate Plan and reported annually in the FCS Annual Reportand Accounts. The 2005-06 Report and Accounts were laid before the Scottish Parliament on 24 July 2006, reference SE/2006/122. FCS is subject to annual examinationby Audit Scotland and plays an active part in the Executive’s EfficientGovernment Initiative, delivering over £4,000,000 of efficiency savings over theperiod 2004-05 to 2007-08.

Yes.

The Departmental UnallocatedProvision (DUP) is generally established on completion of each Spending Review andannually at the beginning of each budget setting period. This recognises that therewill be emergent commitments and pressures as the landscape changes beyond the SpendingReview year. This is mainly set aside to manage agreed developments during eachfinancial year.

Since 2002-03, the departmentalunallocated provision has been committed to the following:

Year	DUP total (£ Million)	Spent On
2002-03	0.0	n/a
2003-04	27.6	Pay and service modernisation pressures
2004-05	0.0	n/a
2005-06	2.3	Additional waiting times initiatives
2006-07	76.8	£50 million: Community pharmacy receipts to be passed to NHS boards (this reflects accounting treatment for the 2006-07 financial year only). £10 million: NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde non-recurring transitional funding. £4 million: Technical non-cash accounting adjustment for NHS Lothian in respect of change in balance sheet treatment of PFI contract. £4 million: Patients Travel funding increase. £9 million: Change and Innovation Projects.

 

There is £32.3 million classedas Departmental Unallocated Provision in 2007-08. This will be allocated to fundemergent requirements and agreed developments by the end of this financial yearas part of the detailed budget setting process for 2007-08.

The Executive is working withlocal government and partners on a wide range of actions to prevent and tackle homelessness,and is co-ordinating the work needed to carry out the 59 recommendations made bythe Homelessness Task Force (HTF) in 2002. For example, the Executive has recentlycommissioned research into local authorities’ prevention activities and will usethe results of this research to develop guidance. It is also strengthening supportfor prevention work through an Innovation Fund which is now funding eight new localprojects in seven local authorities.The Annual Report on the HTFrecommendations summarises progress madeagainst each of the recommendations and can be found at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Housing/homeless/H-M-G

The recent ministerialstatement on the abolition of priority need also sets out what the Executive andits partners plan to do to ensure that by 2012 all unintentionally homeless peoplewill have access to permanent accommodation. This can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/12/21133010/30107

It is for individuallocal authorities to define the causes of homelessness in their areas and set outtheir actions for addressing these, in their homelessness strategies. The Executiveissues guidance to all local authorities on how the latter should comply with theirstatutory duties under the homelessness legislation, and gives funding to all localauthorities to carry out their homelessness activities. The Executive is also fundingtwo secondees (from local authorities) to work closely with all local authoritiesto ensure that the latter are fully prepared for the abolition of priority need.

Communities Scotland inspectlocal authorities’ homelessness and housing functions, and can monitor performancepost-inspection via improvement plans developed by local authorities and agreedby Communities Scotland.

The Executive monitors localauthorities’ activities through five top level outcomes as defined in theministerial statement on the abolition of priority need. The Executive also publishessix-monthly statistical bulletins on local authorities’ activities in carrying outtheir duties under the legislation. The most recent bulletin can be found at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/09/25151544/0.

Since its introduction in October2004, the following amounts have been held in the Central Unallocated Provision(CUP):

For Year Ending	Amount (£ Million)
31 March 2005	575
31 March 2006	965

 

Spending funded from the CUPreceives approval through the budget revision process. Details of all the fundsdrawn down from Central Unallocated Provision are available in the relevant supportingdocuments to the budget bill revisions published in 2004-05 and 2005-06.

Forestry Commission Scotland’s(FCS) spending is subject to the same scrutiny as other departments of the ScottishExecutive. Every two years its planned activities are examined in detail in theSpending Review to ensure that it is meeting the agreed objectives and wider prioritiesof the Executive. The results of the Spending Review are presented in the FCS CorporatePlan which includes analysis of spend by objective. Annual FCS spend is approvedby Parliament through the Budget Bill and it reports the effectiveness of its activitiesagainst the agreed objectives in its Annual Report and Accounts. FCS is subjectto annual examination by Audit Scotland and plays an active part in the Executive’s EfficientGovernment Initiative, delivering over £4 million of efficiency savings over theperiod 2004-05 to 2007-08.

In addition to this, independentreports have been commissioned over the last few years to look at the effectivenessof how FCS is meeting its social, economic and environmental objectives. The reportsand responses are shown as follows, with an appropriate weblink reference:

Mary Hobley Report - Respondingto the Challenge: Forest Enterprise and Community Involvement in Scotland:

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/final04021.pdf/$FILE/final04021.pdf.http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/HobleyResponse.pdf/$FILE/HobleyResponse.pdf.

CJC Consulting Report - EconomicAnalysis of the Contribution of the Forest Estate Managed by ForestryCommission Scotland:

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/FCSforestestatefinal2.pdf/$FILE/FCSforestestatefinal2.pdf.

Simon Pepper et al - EnvironmentalReview Group Report :

[Report and Response to be publishedearly in November 2006].

The Water Environment (ControlledActivities) (Scotland) Regulations 2005 (“CAR”) came into force on 1 April 2006. Theyprovide a single holistic framework of controls for all activities that pose arisk to the water environment.

Smooth progress is beingmade in the introduction of these Regulations. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) hasissued authorisations for all the applications it has received to transferexisting activities into the CAR regime. Over 1,650 applications for newactivities have also been received and processed since 1 April 2006.

PQ S2W-27347 was answered on10 October 2006. All answers to written PQs are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search

I refer the member to thequestions S2W-25184 to S2W-25186 answered on 6 October 2006.All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.