- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 22 July 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Iain Gray on 19 August 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will establish a national centre for women's enterprise to bring a specific focus to the start-up and support of businesses run by women and to develop and disseminate best practice.
Answer
The Executive is currently considering the case for a national centre for women's enterprise. No final decision has yet been reached.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 22 July 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Frank McAveety on 19 August 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive how it will monitor the level and efficacy of spend from the funding allocated from the learning disability services change fund to local authorities.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-26763 on 27 June 2002.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 22 July 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Frank McAveety on 19 August 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding was allocated from the learning disability services change fund to each local authority through grant aided expenditure allocations for 2001-02 and 2002-03.
Answer
The total provision for Learning Disability Change Fund is £8 million in 2001-02, and £12 million in 2002-03. The resources are being allocated through the general local government settlement distribution - separate allocations for each authority have not been published, but are included within the settlement total each authority receives.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 July 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Iain Gray on 16 August 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive how it intends to take forward the Rethinking Construction Initiative given that the National Audit Office indicates that construction amounts to approximately 8% of Gross Domestic Product and that 30% savings could be made in the costs of construction.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-27751 on 15 August 2002.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 July 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 16 August 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive how it intends to use the formula consequentials arising from the Chancellor of the Exchequer's statement on 15 July 2002 that funding for the Active Communities Unit will be increased from #35 million to #65 million by 2005-06 and a direct fund of #125 million will be established for voluntary sector organisations to help overcome barriers to effective service delivery and modernise their infrastructure for the long term.
Answer
We will announce detailed spending plans for the three years 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06 in September.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 July 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 15 August 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive how it intends to take forward consideration of the recommendations arising from HM Treasury's cross-cutting review of the voluntary sector due to report at the end of July 2002.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is currently considering the recommendations arising from HM Treasury's cross-cutting review of the voluntary sector and how this will impact on the work being undertaken by the Executive.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 July 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Iain Gray on 15 August 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what support it is providing to Construction Best Practice Clubs.
Answer
The Construction Best Practice Programme is a key part of Rethinking Construction and works to find the most efficient ways of distributing the innovations and best practice captured by the Demonstration Projects Programme and Best Practice Clubs.The Scottish Executive supports the principles of Rethinking Construction as a means of delivering best practice and improvements in the construction industry. Scottish Enterprise has agreed to lead a Rethinking Construction initiative. In addition, the Executive supports and promotes best practice through the funding of Pulling Together Scotland.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 July 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Iain Gray on 15 August 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it is taking to help the construction industry improve its productivity, competitiveness and value for clients.
Answer
The Scottish Executive supports the principles of Rethinking Construction as a means of delivering best practice and improvements in the construction industry. Scottish Enterprise have agreed to lead a Rethinking Construction initiative, in consultation with Communities Scotland and other stakeholders, using their established clusters approach. Central to this initiative is the creation of a Core Industry Group supported by a wider Rethinking Construction Panel.The Executive has provided £39,500 to fund a secondee for 12 months until the end of September 2002 as part of a knowledge management project called Pulling Together Scotland. As a result, a website has been established to provide information on Rethinking Construction best practice activities in Scotland, assisting the industry and its stakeholders to share information and work in a more joined-up manner.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 July 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Iain Gray on 15 August 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to embed the principles of the Rethinking Construction Initiative in housing investment in the socially rented sector, the schools PPP programme and the planning and building standards framework.
Answer
The Scottish Executive supports the principles of Rethinking Construction as a means of delivering best practice and improvements in the construction industry and seeks, where possible, to embed Rethinking Construction principles into policy and implementation.Communities Scotland is introducing new policies and procedures for Registered Social Landlords in order to embed the principles of Rethinking Construction. The object is to secure an improved and cost-effective service from the construction industry for the benefit of tenants.The Public Private Partnership (PPP) process encourages innovation through consortium working to secure effective delivery of projects. The councils participating in the schools PPP programme will be given training and guidance specific to PPP. However, it is a matter for PPP service contractors to decide whether to apply the principles of Rethinking Construction to building procurement within individual school building programmes.We have embarked on a wide-ranging modernisation of the planning system. A number of the initiatives, in particular the recently announced reforms of development planning and the Executive's commitment to higher design standards, support the aims of Rethinking Construction.The modernising of the building control system, which will follow from the proposed Building Bill, will respond to several aspects of the Rethinking Construction initiative, including leadership, focus on the customer, and an integrated team to increase productivity and predictability.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 July 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 15 August 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are any plans to refresh the Compact with the voluntary sector.
Answer
We are currently in the process of developing an agenda to re-vitalise the Compact and its Good Practice Guides. A Compact Review Group was set up in November 2000, comprising Executive and voluntary sector officials to monitor implementation of the Compact and report to Scottish ministers. The last report on the Compact was published and debated in the Scottish Parliament on 26 September 2001. The review group has now been re-established to ensure the outcomes of the 2001 report are implemented. This group had its first meeting on 3 July 2002.
