Questions and answers

Question reference: S4O-02702

Asked by: Margaret McCulloch, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 December 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 December 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the NHS Lanarkshire rapid review assessment by Health Improvement Scotland.

Question reference: S4O-02645

Asked by: Margaret McCulloch, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what impact independence would have on the Department for International Development’s office in East Kilbride.

Question reference: S4O-02614

Asked by: Margaret McCulloch, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 November 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what the remit is of the Minister for Town Centres.

Question reference: S4O-02531

Asked by: Margaret McCulloch, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 October 2013
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 31 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it supports the draft action plan agreed by the East Kilbride Task Force and how it will assist with its implementation.

Question reference: S4W-17520

Asked by: Margaret McCulloch, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 28 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many places (a) it has and (b) NHS boards have supported annually under the One Year Job Guarantee Scheme.

The Scottish Government’s One Year Job Guarantee Scheme (OYJG) was introduced in 2002 to support transition into employment and to maximise the opportunity to build on the clinical experience gained by nurses and midwives during their pre-registration programme. Initially, the scheme focussed upon linking new registrants looking for posts with existing vacancies across Scotland.

However, in 2010, recognising that the emerging financial and employment context was presenting very real challenges for newly registered nursing and midwifery staff in identifying job opportunities and had equally limited the type of opportunities which had previously been available under the OYJG scheme, the Scottish Government and NHS Education for Scotland (NES) developed an internship scheme to meet the One Year Job Guarantee commitment, in partnership with NHS boards. The following table sets out headcount data relating to the internship scheme since its introduction in August 2011.

One Year Job Guarantee Scheme for Newly Qualified Nurses

Average Headcount for each NHS Board

NHS Board Area

Aug 11 - Mar 12	Apr 12 - Mar 13	Apr 13 - Aug 13
Average Headcount	Average Headcount	Average Headcount

NHS Ayrshire and Arran	20	43	41
NHS Borders	4	9	5
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	3	6	9
NHS Fife	10	25	20
NHS Forth Valley	10	42	31
NHS Grampian	15	29	16
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	81	160	137
NHS Highland	9	22	20
NHS Lanarkshire	35	56	59
NHS Lothian	45	96	81
NHS Orkney	4	3	1
NHS Shetland	2	2	1
NHS Tayside	3	5	11
NHS Western Isles	7	7	3
National Waiting Times Centre	4	8	10
State Hospital			5
Blood Transfusion Service			2

Total	252	513	452

Question reference: S4W-17519

Asked by: Margaret McCulloch, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 28 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how much (a) it has and (b) NHS boards have spent annually on the One Year Job Guarantee Scheme.

The Scottish Government’s One Year Job Guarantee Scheme (OYJG) was introduced in 2002 to support transition into employment and to maximise the opportunity to build on the clinical experience gained by nurses and midwives during their pre-registration programme. Initially, the scheme focussed upon linking new registrants looking for posts with existing vacancies across Scotland.

However, in 2010, recognising that the emerging financial and employment context was presenting very real challenges for newly registered nursing and midwifery staff in identifying job opportunities and had equally limited the type of opportunities which had previously been available under the OYJG scheme, the Scottish Government and NHS Education for Scotland (NES) developed an internship scheme to meet the One Year Job Guarantee commitment, in partnership with NHS Boards. The following table sets out the funding provided for the internship scheme since its introduction in August 2011.

One Year Job Guarantee Scheme for Newly Qualified Nurses

Funding provided to support NHS Boards

	Aug 11 - Mar 12	Apr 12 - Mar 13	Apr 13 - Aug 13
	£'000	£'000	£'000
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	209	716	148
NHS Borders	51	143	21
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	34	103	32
NHS Fife	96	435	65
NHS Forth Valley	85	713	112
NHS Grampian	141	490	57
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	812	2,726	480
NHS Highland	76	388	65
NHS Lanarkshire	320	983	198
NHS Lothian	447	1,572	253
NHS Orkney	40	46	5
NHS Shetland	26	34	5
NHS Tayside	31	76	35
NHS Western Isles	73	115	10
National Waiting Times Centre	36	136	33
State Hospital			50
Blood Transfusion Service			13
Total	2,477	8,676	1,582
Scottish Government funding %	100%	100%	50%*

*State Hospital and SNBTS funded at 100%.

Question reference: S4W-17518

Asked by: Margaret McCulloch, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 18 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made on implementing each of the recommendations of the Commission on the Future Delivery of Public Services.

Renewing Scotland’s Public Services set out the Scottish Government’s priorities for reform in response to the Commission on the Future Delivery of Public Services. The approach closely reflects the themes and aims of the Commission and is built on four pillars:

a decisive shift towards prevention

greater integration and collaboration between public services at a local level

greater investment in workforce development and leadership

a sharp focus on improving performance.

A Public Service Reform Delivery Update is available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2013/09/9971.

Question reference: S4W-17450

Asked by: Margaret McCulloch, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 4 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish its town centre action plan.

Question reference: S4W-17449

Asked by: Margaret McCulloch, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 4 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to local authorities as a result of the financial implications of the High Hedges (Scotland) Act 2013.

The Scottish Government will provide support to local authorities in the form of guidance on implementation of the legislation, including financial issues. For the reasons set out in response to question S4W-17451 on 4 October 2013, it is expected that the High Hedges (Scotland) Act 2013 will be broadly cost-neutral for local authorities. 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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Question reference: S4W-17448

Asked by: Margaret McCulloch, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 September 2013
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 4 October 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to providing a further town centre regeneration fund.

The Town Centre Regeneration Fund was always intended to be a one year capital fund. The current Scottish budget constraints preclude a repeat of that.

We met our commitment to carry out a national review of Scotland’s town centres. The review report was published on the 4 July 2013 and we are actively considering the recommendations within the review.

On 1 October 2013, we launched a £2 million Town Centre Housing Fund for housing providers, whether public or private, to encourage empty town centre properties to be brought back into use for affordable housing. We have invited bids for the fund by 30 October 2013. Further information about the fund, including guidance and application detail is on our website:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/regeneration/town-centres/housing-fund.

We will also fund a range of projects demonstrating the key actions from the national review of town centres.

Local authorities have responsibility for delivering local economic development and local regeneration. It is the responsibility of each local authority to allocate the total financial resources available to it on the basis of local needs and priorities.

Chamber and committees