Chamber and committees

This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. For information about Victim Support Scotland figures, you should contact Victim Support Scotland at: 15/23 Hardwell Close, Edinburgh, EH8 9RX or at [email protected].

The financial costs associated with the contract for delivery of the Common Housing Register (CHR) support service over the period 1 July 2009 “ 31 March 2011 are £4,600 related to the awarding of the tender and £73,155 for the contract itself. The service will provide focused support and advice to individual CHR partnerships as well as gathering and promoting best practice through publications and workshops.

There are 12 GP practices in the Monklands area contractually signed up and providing extended opening hours, seven in Airdrie and five in Coatbridge.

No such evidence has yet been taken. We propose to include information about the project, incorporating detail from the external evaluation of it that was undertaken by Edinburgh University, in our dissemination of good practice around what works in early and effective intervention, which is due to commence later this year.

The European Commission on Human Rights has ruled that summary warrant procedure in Scotland, used for the recovery of local and other taxes, is compatible with Article 6 of the Convention. Assessments for tax are not civil rights protected by the Convention and summary warrants, and assessment for tax, can be challenged in court by various means. The Bankruptcy and Diligence etc. (Scotland) Act 2007 has increased safeguards by requiring debtors to be served with a formal charge for payment, to ensure more reliable notice of the grant of a summary warrant, before it can be enforced.

In Scotland tax surcharges are levied on summary warrants for council tax, but the surcharge is a fixed charge designed to compensate for the lack of interest on arrears”and Scottish procedure remains compatible with the Convention.

Under the Curriculum for Excellence framework, which has been developed on the basis of unparalleled engagement with the teaching profession and others, all young people are entitled to a broad general education to the end of S3, covering learning across the whole curriculum. The inclusion in the framework of a range of experiences and outcomes covering technology skills and development will ensure that Information and Communications Technology (ICT) remains an integral part of learning.

Across the curriculum, skills in ICT will be developed in the context of the learning and teaching as appropriate to the child or young person''s maturity. All teachers, in all sectors, in all departments and in all settings, have opportunities to apply, reinforce and extend ICT skills within and across curriculum areas to equip children and young people with the learning and employability skills required for the 21st century.

A number of initiatives are in place to support this work.

The Scottish Government and NHS Health Scotland, in consultation with the Royal College of Psychiatry and National Schizophrenia Fellowship, will review current evidence-based approaches on smoking cessation, weight management and physical activity for those experiencing mental health problems. Based on findings, a suite of user and carer-led health information, tailored for people with mental health problems, will be provided.

Integrated Care Pathways (ICPs) for Mental Health have a focus on Physical Health Assessment and Management. This requires a general physical health assessment and management of the findings to be recorded. Services should then be provided that address diet, nutrition, exercise, alcohol consumption, drug misuse and sexual health in ways that are responsive to the needs of service users. Boards are currently undergoing a system of accreditation to ensure they are developing and implementing ICP''s.

The Scottish Recovery Indicator Tool, designed to assess practice against expected values in a range of mental health services, has just been launched. This includes a measure for health improvement.

The Scottish Government has asked NHS Health Scotland to establish a National Suicide Register. This will bring together relevant agencies from a range of sectors and will provide significant detail around individuals who have completed suicide; it will examine causal factors regarding suicide and will inform development of future policy and practice on suicide prevention. It is intended that a specification for the register will be available by the end of 2009. The development of the register itself is likely to take around two years beyond that.

The Scottish Government is committed to increasing awareness and early diagnosis for dementia.

The Government is testing out an awareness raising campaign in Tayside which is aimed at raising the awareness of the symptoms of dementia and signposting those worried about significant changes to their memory to seek help and advice. Findings from this campaign will inform future work.

In addition, NHS Health Scotland has recently produced several publications to raise awareness about dementia. Worried about your Memory? (Bib. number 47925) is aimed at helping people who are concerned about their memory to decide whether they should see a doctor and Facing Dementia: how to live well with your diagnosis (Bib. number 47926) provides practical information for people who have recently been diagnosed.

Scotland''s first dementia strategy announced at the end of May 2009 will give further consideration to creating awareness of the symptoms of dementia.

At local level the Mental Health Collaborative supports colleagues to ensure there are good systems and processes in place to increase the number of people identified with an early diagnosis of dementia in GP practices.

The location, nature and cost of renewable energy projects is a matter for the developers of those projects, and subject to the outcome of applications for consent to the relevant local authority or to the Scottish Government.