- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 22 December 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 16 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what the percentage increases were in (a) water and (b) sewerage charges in (i) 1996-97, (ii) 1997-98, (iii) 1998-99, (iv) 1999-2000 and (v) 2000-01, using 1995-96 as the base figure and broken down by water authority.
Answer
The percentage increases in water charges are shown in the following table, for each former regional council area. The results vary within water authority areas as the charges were progressively harmonised from the different levels charged by the former regional councils.
| Band D Water Charges, year on year percentage change |
| 1996-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 |
East of Scotland Water Area |
| Borders | -4% | 5% | 8% | 0% | 20% |
| Forth Valley | 4% | 13% | 40% | 21% | 37% |
| Fife | 5% | 12% | 25% | 2% | 30% |
| Lothian | -1% | 5% | 8% | 0% | 20% |
North of Scotland Water Area |
| Grampian | 4% | 7% | 11% | 8% | 39% |
| Highland | 2% | 7% | 11% | 8% | 39% |
| Tayside | 4% | 10% | 16% | 16% | 45% |
| Orkney | -5% | -4% | -1% | 8% | 39% |
| Shetland | -2% | -4% | -1% | 8% | 39% |
| Western Isles | -38% | -4% | -1% | 8% | 39% |
West of Scotland Water Area |
| Dumfries and Galloway | 8% | 6% | 8% | 4% | 12% |
| Strathclyde | 3% | 6% | 8% | 4% | 12% |
Sewerage charges were not separately levied by the former regional councils, but were included in the council tax. There is therefore no meaningful comparison with 1996-97. Domestic Sewerage Relief Grant offset most of the domestic sewerage charge in 1996-97, and a decreasing proportion thereafter until 1998-99. The figures shown in the table below show the change in the gross amount levied by the water authority, before the deduction of the grant.
| Band D Sewerage Charges, year on year percentage change |
| 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 |
| East of Scotland Water Area | 8% | 12% | 18% | 25% |
| North of Scotland Water Area | 7% | 14% | 13% | 48% |
| West of Scotland Water Area | 6% | 17% | 20% | 27% |
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 22 December 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 12 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of (a) people receiving Council Tax Benefit but not 100% benefit and (b) people not in receipt of Council Tax Benefit were in payment arrears in (i) 1996-97, (ii) 1997-98, (iii) 1998-99, (iv) 1999-2000 and to date in the current financial year.
Answer
This information is not held centrally. Social security benefits including Council Tax Benefit are reserved matters and are the responsibility of the Department of Social Security.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jackie Baillie on 10 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how many households where the householder is a pensioner currently (a) have central heating and (b) do not have central heating and what criteria it uses to determine whether a household is a household where the householder is a pensioner.
Answer
The 1996 Scottish House Condition Survey estimated that 477,000 pensioner households had central heating and 88,000 did not. We estimate that in the four years since the survey was carried out the number without central heating will have fallen to around 70,000. For the purpose of the survey a pensioner household is one which contains one or more adults of pensionable age and no children.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 10 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to Clive Fairweather's evidence to the Justice and Home Affairs Committee on 11 September 1999 that the reported average (net present value) #11,000 cost per prisoner place (CPPP) at Kilmarnock Prison was not directly comparable with the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) average CPPP of #28,000 (Official Report, col. 1666), whether, if the average CPPP at Kilmarnock was calculated on the same basis as the SPS figure, it would be #26,000 and, if not, what it would be.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:
The total cost of HMP Kilmarnock over the 25-year period of the contract is approximately £130 million in Net Present Value terms. This equates to an annual cost per prisoner place of around £11,000 in Net Present Value terms.Using the same methodology, the annual cost per prisoner place for the Scottish Prison Service designing, constructing, financing and operating HMP Kilmarnock over 25 years would be around £21,000 in Net Present Value terms.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 9 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-10377 by Susan Deacon on 1 November 2000, which local authorities indicated that they could resolve problems of delayed discharge without using all of the resources allocated for this purpose.
Answer
Shetland Islands Council is the only such authority.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 9 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-10377 by Susan Deacon on 1 November 2000, whether local authorities had to specify how any balance of resources which was not required to tackle delayed discharge problems would be spent and whether the details of any proposed redeployments of funding had to be authorised by the Executive.
Answer
Where local authorities have judged that they can resolve problems of delayed discharge without using all of the resources allocated, they have been asked to redeploy the balance to improve the level and extent of other services, for example those provided to older people.The department will consider changes made to proposals or revised proposals and will make adjustment to allocations if these are not found to be satisfactory.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 9 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-10377 by Susan Deacon on 1 November 2000, what action it will take if local authorities which indicated that problems of delayed discharge could be tackled without using all of the resources allocated for this purpose are not successfully tackling the problem in mid-January and, in particular, whether it will then require any balance of resources deployed elsewhere to be transferred back to tackling delayed discharges.
Answer
That is a situation we would not expect to arise but, if it did, we would take appropriate action consistent with effective use of resources both centrally and locally.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 9 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-10377 by Susan Deacon on 1 November 2000, how it satisfied itself that any resources which local authorities are proposing to deploy elsewhere are not required in order to resolve problems of delayed discharge.
Answer
Local authorities were required to discuss and agree their proposals with the corresponding health board(s) and Trust(s). Similarly, proposals to use the resources for other purposes should show that senior health board staff have agreed that the resources are not required to tackle local issues relating to delayed discharge.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 9 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-10377 by Susan Deacon on 1 November 2000, whether it will undertake any independent monitoring of whether local authorities' proposals to address problems of delayed discharge are being implemented successfully.
Answer
Each local authority is required to provide confirmation in mid-January 2001 that its proposal (or revised proposal) is being acted upon successfully.In conjunction, the department will continue to monitor delayed discharge through a national census. These will supply an ongoing flow of information on numbers, reasons and causes of delayed discharge. Among other things, this information will show whether or not local plans are delivering on outcomes.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 9 January 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-10377 by Susan Deacon on 1 November 2000, whether any balance of the resources allocated to each local authority to resolve problems of delayed discharge which is not required for this purpose is ring-fenced for the care of the elderly.
Answer
Where local authorities have judged that they can resolve problems of delayed discharge without using all the resources allocated, they have been asked to deploy the balance to improve the level and extent of other services, for example those provided to older people.
