Seòmar agus comataidhean

I understand that details of the Big Society funding are currently being finalised by the Cabinet Office. The Scottish Government will be entitled to Barnett consequentials of any comparable Department additional funding for this purpose.

The Big Society Transition Fund was announced as part of the CSR settlement and as such any comparable Department consequentials arising from the Fund were included in the Scottish settlement from HM Treasury.

There is no recommended fixed distance between turbines and individual properties. The topple distance of a free-standing turbine would be the absolute minimum between it and a neighbouring property. Scottish Government planning advice on wind turbine development, which can be accessed at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/212607/0113777.pdf, states that shadow flicker can generally be dealt with by a separation distance equivalent to 10 rotor diameters of the turbine. Mitigating noise will also have a bearing on what the appropriate separation distance should be.

The information requested is not held centrally.

In relation to the provision of continuous glucose monitoring, we expect diabetes services to be guided by the advice contained in SIGN Guideline 116 on the management of diabetes. The guideline is available at:

http://www.sign.ac.uk/pdf/sign116.pdf.

The Scottish Diabetes Group (SDG) monitors NHS boards'' progress with the Diabetes Action Plan.

Insulin pump provision is also a standing item on the agenda for meetings of the lead clinicians of the diabetes Managed Clinical Networks (MCNs).

The 2010 Scottish Diabetes Survey, due to be published by April 2011, will provide the latest figures on insulin pump usage on a board by board basis.

The SDG will use the survey results to review boards'' progress against their published plans for insulin pumps, and the local diabetes MCNs will be asked for a note of their plans to address any areas in need of improvement.

The Chief Scientist Office (CSO) within the Scottish Government has responsibility for encouraging and supporting research into health and healthcare needs in Scotland. CSO responds primarily to requests for funding research proposals initiated by the research community in Scotland.

CSO expenditure on diabetes research in 2009-10 was £827,129 of which £44,000 was spent on type 1 diabetes. CSO is currently funding 6 research projects on diabetes at a total cost of £1.1 million. CSO would be pleased to consider further proposals for research into type 1 diabetes which would be subject to the usual peer and committee review.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of foster care within the wider care sector and the critical role played by Scotland''s foster carers. We have continued to fund national third sector organisations that support foster carers and promote the development of foster care and we are fully protecting funding for 2011-12.

Additional financial support is provided to the fostering network to promote the recruitment and retention of foster carers. In particular, we have, since October 2008, funded a project that aims to build on the good practice already in place between fostering services. The project''s current phase of work is intended to develop joint working and sharing of resources between authorities, particularly in relation to assessment, training and support for foster carers.

To date, over 91,000 people have received a Keep Well health check. Every patient who attends a Keep Well check is assessed for diabetes. However, information on the number of people diagnosed with diabetes as a result of Keep Well and Well North health checks is not held centrally. Details will be available from individual Keep Well boards that hold their own local records.

HMIE inspects pre-school centres across local authority, private and voluntary sectors. In each inspection, Inspectors consider the provision for outdoor learning which the service provides. They evaluate children''s progress in physical development under the Curriculum for Excellence area Health and Wellbeing. Where services need to make improvements in outdoor learning, this will be reported to staff and parents. HMIE notes that centres are improving access to outdoor learning across sectors. Good examples of children making effective use of the local environment include forest pre-school developments.

Local authorities take the lead in providing childcare services, working with partners in the voluntary and private sectors, to meet the needs of children, their parents and, where applicable, their other carers, including grandparents. Scottish Government financial support for childcare is included within the overall local government settlement. In addition, we support national childcare and parenting organisations in the voluntary sector and we have been able to protect that funding for 2011-12. The provision of accessible, affordable and flexible childcare remains a priority for the Scottish Government and we will continue to work with our partners to take this forward.