- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 3 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive which local authorities require enhanced Disclosure Scotland checks on drivers transporting children to school by (a) bus, (b) minibus, (c) taxi, (d) private hire and (e) parental contacts, as referred to in recommendation 4 of A review of school transport contracts in Scotland by the Scottish Consumer Council.
Answer
This is a matter for the localauthorities. The information requested is not held centrally.
Since the publication of thereport of the Scottish Consumer Council’s review I have made clear my endorsementof the recommendations addressed to local authorities regarding school transportcontracts.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 3 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether local authorities which require enhanced Disclosure Scotland checks on drivers transporting children to school apply (a) uniform criteria for assessment of suitability and (b) standardised procedures in respect of such checks.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-25428 on 3 May 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 3 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has concerns about any confusion that may arise for Scottish donors to English-based charities which use the term “UK” to describe themselves despite having no base in Scotland or locus in Scotland and, if so, what discussions it has had with HM Treasury about this matter.
Answer
The Charities and Trustee Investment(Scotland) Act 2005 addresses this issue.
If the body is registered asa charity in Scotland and entered on the Scottish Charity Register the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator is able to require it to change its name under section10 of the act if the name is felt to be misleading to the public as to the truenature of the purposes or activities of the body.
If the body is not registeredas a charity in Scotland, but recognised as a charity under another jurisdiction,such as the Charity Commission for England and Wales, it is required to state that it is a charity registeredelsewhere under section 14 of the act. Therefore, an English based charity whichfundraises in Scotland is required to state that it is a charity registered in Englandand Wales and is unable to refer to itself as a Scottish charity.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 3 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many placements were made by local authorities in Struan House School, Alloa (a) including and (b) excluding placements in New Struan in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority.
Answer
The number of placements in theschool, broken down by local authority, produces figures which are too small topublish under the Executive’s standard procedures. The following table shows theaverage number of placements over the seven year period. It is not possible to splitthe figures for the two schools.
Average Number of Placementsfor Struan House School and New Struan from 1999 to 2005
| | Average 1999-2005 |
| Aberdeen City | - |
| Aberdeenshire | - |
| Angus | - |
| Argyll and Bute | - |
| Clackmannanshire | - |
| Dumfries and Galloway | - |
| Dundee City | - |
| East Ayrshire | - |
| East Dunbartonshire | - |
| East Lothian | - |
| East Renfrewshire | - |
| Edinburgh, City of | 4 |
| Eilean Siar | - |
| Falkirk | 1 |
| Fife | 2 |
| Glasgow City | 4 |
| Highland | 1 |
| Inverclyde | - |
| Midlothian | - |
| Moray | - |
| North Ayrshire | 2 |
| North Lanarkshire | 3 |
| Orkney Islands | - |
| Perth and Kinross | - |
| Renfrewshire | 1 |
| Scottish Borders | 1 |
| Shetland Islands | - |
| South Ayrshire | - |
| South Lanarkshire | 3 |
| Stirling | 3 |
| West Dunbartonshire | 1 |
| West Lothian | 3 |
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 2 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many community transport permits were issued under section 19 of the Transport Act 1985 in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
This information is not heldcentrally.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 2 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S20-5408 by Nicol Stephen on 10 February 2005, what number of community transport projects it will support in (a) 2005-06 and (b) subsequent financial years and how much funding it has allocated for such projects.
Answer
The Executive supported 106 communitytransport projects in 2005-2006 under the Rural Community Transport Initiative,Urban Community Transport Initiative and Rural Demand Responsive Transport Initiative.To date, the Executive has awarded grant to 86 community transport projects in2006-07, 58 in 2007-08 and 34 in 2008-09 under these schemes. These numbers willincrease as further rounds of the Rural Community Transport Initiative will be heldin each of these years.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 2 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many community bus permits, as specified in section 22 of the Transport Act 1985, were issued in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
This information is not heldcentrally.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 2 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of any public transport provider that indicates on its timetables whether or not there is disabled access on each service and what the Executive’s position is on the matter.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is committedto removing barriers to public transport and to improving accessibility for disabledpeople. The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) places a duty on transportproviders to avoid discrimination against disabled people in respect of matterswhich include timetables, booking facilities and waiting rooms.
All rail services in Scotland areaccessible by people with disabilities and First ScotRail provides a free assistedtravel service for customers requiring help at stations. First ScotRail timetablesadvise passengers requiring assistance to book this via the Customer Contact Centreat least 24 hours in advance. Transport Scotland, working in partnership with First ScotRail, is committedto improving access to rail services and is making significant investment in stationimprovements throughout Scotland.
Although bus timetables do notcurrently indicate which buses are accessible, the Confederation of Passenger Transport(CPT) and the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland (MACS) have set up a subgroupto take this matter forward. Bus operators are committed to providing disabled accesscodes on timetables to indicate accessible vehicles
Traveline Scotland (TLS), fundedby Transport Scotland, provides disabled people with timetable informationfor journeys made within Scotland on any mode of public transport and from any point inScotland to any main point in England or Wales. TLS provides this information to members of the publicvia telephone from a professional call centre and via its website.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 27 April 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what research it is undertaking on the effectiveness of the mainstreaming of children with additional support needs.
Answer
In 2003, the Executivecommissioned the Scottish Council for Research in Education (SCRE) to examinethe impact of the policy that requireseducation authorities to, wherever possible, mainstream pupils with specialeducational needs (SEN). The research assessed how education authorities implementedthe new duty and the impact of the mainstreaming policy, and examined the waysin which different policies and practices impacted on parents, teachers, andpupils with SEN, including pupils with autistic spectrum disorder, and theirpeers.
The findings were publishedin the Impact of the Presumption of Mainstreaming Research report on 13 January 2006, acopy of which is available at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/01/05142243/0andhttp://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/01/12121142/0.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 27 April 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many learning support units there are in mainstream schools suitable for children with autistic spectrum disorder, in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The information requested isnot collected centrally.
