Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S3O-11070

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 24 June 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive when it last met representatives of NHS Highland and what issues were discussed.

Question reference: S3W-34108

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 17 June 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how the Energy Assistance Package can better target those in rural communities.

The Energy Assistance Package (EAP) is assisting the rural fuel poor by providing energy savings advice; offering income maximisation referrals to the Pensions Service and Citizens Advice Direct; offering referrals to electricity suppliers for checks on social tariffs or cheaper ways to pay; extending Stage 4 assistance to families as well as pensioner households; providing higher levels of Stage 4 grant for homes where it is most difficult to raise the energy performance rating; offering solid wall insulation as well as loft insulation; offering a variety of heating technologies in areas off the gas grid, including where appropriate, air source heat pumps.

The area-based Home Insulation Scheme generates many referrals to the EAP that, for instance in the Western Isles, will see heating systems and improvements to the building fabric carried out under Stage 4 of EAP.

Question reference: S3W-34132

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 14 June 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-25079 by Nicola Sturgeon on 15 July 2009, what the figures are for patients with type 1 diabetes receiving insulin pump therapy as of August 2009, broken down by NHS board.

The latest routinely-available information on the number of Scottish patients receiving insulin pump therapy was reported on page 22 of the Scottish Diabetes Survey 2009. This information, which shows the position at the end of 2009, is set out in the following table:

Number of People with Type 1 Diabetes on Continuous Subcutaneous Insulin Infusion (CSII or Insulin Pumps) as a Percentage of all those with Type 1 Diabetes

NHS Board	Type 1 Population	Number of Patients	Percentage
Ayrshire and Arran	2,234	9	0.4%
Borders	596	23	3.9%
Dumfries and Galloway	871	12	1.4%
Fife	1,896	83	4.4%
Forth Valley	1,526	24	1.6%
Grampian	2,976	59	2.0%
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	5,923	56	0.9%
Highland	1,688	19	1.1%
Lanarkshire	3,454	38	1.1%
Lothian	4,019	142	3.5%
Orkney	118	3	2.5%
Shetland	114	2	1.8%
Tayside	1,771	82	4.6%
Western Isles	181	1	0.6%
Scotland	27,367	553	2.0%

Source: Scottish Diabetes Survey 2009:

http://www.diabetesinscotland.org.uk/Publications/Scottish%20Diabetes%20Survey%202009.pdf.

The revised Diabetes Action Plan, which we expect to be published shortly, will include a section on intensive insulin therapy as well as details of each NHS Board''s planned investment in intensive insulin therapy, and the associated structured education up to 2012-13.

Question reference: S3W-34109

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 10 June 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what recent statistics it has for fuel poverty in rural areas.

The following table shows the most recent figures for fuel poverty in rural areas. These are taken from the 2008 Scottish House Condition Survey.

Fuel Poverty by Urban/Rural Classification, 2008

Households	Not Fuel Poor		Fuel Poor		Total
Households	Row %	Count	Row %	Count	Row %	Count
Urban	75.9	1,469,000	24.1	466,000	100.0	1,935,000
Rural	61.6	244,000	38.4	152,000	100.0	396,000
Scotland	73.5	1,713,000	26.5	618,000	100.0	2,331,000

Source: Scottish House Condition Survey, 2008.

Question reference: S3W-34107

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 10 June 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to support rural housing associations to address fuel poverty levels.

Over 2009-11 we have made £7.5 million available to local authorities and housing associations to install Energy Assistance Package Stage 3 measures in their properties, provided they partnered this with funding from a CERT provider. Fifty-six Housing Associations have benefited from this resource.

Measures at stage 1 and 2 of the package are available to both social and private sector households and we would encourage tenants of social sector landlords to apply for this help. These sources of help are available across the country.

We will provide advice and clarification to rural housing associations on how best to implement the energy efficiency requirements of the Scottish Housing Quality Standard which they are expected to meet, in full, by 2015. Achievement of the Scottish Housing Quality Standard means that rural tenants will have effective insulation and full efficient central heating and their homes will have to meet a minimum energy efficiency level.

Question reference: S3W-33996

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 4 June 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what the expected Barnett consequentials will be following the recent appointment of the Victims Commissioner for England and Wales.

Question reference: S3W-33447

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 April 2010
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 11 May 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive when the proposed charitable legal vehicle, the Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation, will be available to third sector organisations.

The Scottish Government recently consulted on policy proposals developed by the Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) Working Group for the implementation of the SCIO. In light of the responses received and views expressed at consultation events, we will develop draft SCIO regulations, built on the policy foundations of the SCIO Working Group''s preferred model. These will be tested in the public arena during a shorter, targeted consultation exercise later in the year, before the provisions are finalised for laying in Parliament.

Working closely with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) we are currently considering options for a phased implementation of the SCIO, to allow OSCR time to develop the systems necessary to discharge its new regulatory responsibilities. This may mean that the SCIO becomes available for use by certain types of charity, such as unincorporated associations, prior to others, such as existing charitable companies, where the conversion process will be different.

Under current plans, we do not anticipate that the SCIO will be introduced before the end of 2010.

Question reference: S3W-33449

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 April 2010
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 11 May 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive when it last met the Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations and whether the Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation was discussed.

The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) is a strategic partner of the Scottish Government''s Third Sector Division, working with government across a number of policy areas. SCVO meets regularly with officials from the Scottish Government and has also met with ministers, often as part of a wider group of third sector partners.

SCVO was represented on the short-life Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisations (SCIOs) Working Group, which was set up to advise ministers on designing a regime for SCIOs that is cost-effective, as straightforward as possible and tailored to the needs of charities in Scotland. The final meeting of the SCIOs Working Group was held on 16 March 2010, at which SCVO was represented.

We look forward to continuing to work closely with SCVO and other third sector partners on the development of regulations necessary to implement the SCIO provisions under the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005.

Question reference: S3W-33479

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 30 April 2010
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 11 May 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance has been issued on the proposed use of the Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation for charitable organisations.

The Scottish Government recently consulted on policy proposals developed by the Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisations (SCIOs) Working Group for the implementation of the SCIO.

In light of the responses received and views expressed at consultation events, we will develop draft SCIO regulations, built on the policy foundations of the SCIOs Working Group''s preferred model. These will be tested in the public arena during a shorter, targeted consultation exercise later in the year, before the provisions are finalised for laying in Parliament.

We will work closely with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) on the development of guidance on the SCIO. Until then, background information on the SCIO and consultation material is available on the Scottish Government website:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/15300/charities/SCIOs.

Question reference: S3W-33448

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 April 2010
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Executive when the proposed charitable legal vehicle, the Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation, will be available to third sector organisations.