- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 6 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what resources it is directing towards reducing the incidence of sexually transmitted disease.
Answer
The national sexual healthstrategy Respect and Responsibility contains a number of initiatives to improvesexual health in Scotland. That includes tackling the high incidence ofsexually transmitted infections. Indeed, this was one of the primary driversfor developing a strategy.
To help implement that strategy,I announced £15 million of additional investment over the next three years,most of which will be aimed at front line services. In the current financialyear £4.5 million has been made available to NHS boards for this purpose. The boardswill receive the same levels of funding in 2006-07 and 2007-08. This is newmoney which is in addition to the resources already being spent by NHS boardsand other agencies taking forward sexual health initiatives on behalf of theExecutive.
Inaddition, in the current financial year the Executive has allocated £9 millionto NHS boards for action to prevent the spread of blood borne viruses,including HIV. The funds allocated will rise to £9.3 million in 2006-07 and£9.5 million in 2007-08.
The Executive provides afurther £500,000 to a range of voluntary organisations, responding to thechallenges posed by sexual health issues.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 6 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many local authorities have used prudential borrowing to provide social rented housing.
Answer
During 2004-05, 13 local authoritiesused prudential borrowing to spend on social rented housing. In 2005-06, 17 localauthorities estimate that they will use prudential borrowing.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 6 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of capital spend by each local authority was represented by spend on PFI and PPP projects in each year since 1999.
Answer
This information is not held centrally and is a matter for each individual local authority.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 6 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-11427 by Mr Tom McCabe on 9 November 2004, whether the revised guidance referred to has now been completed; if so, whether it will publish it and how the revised guidance differs from previous guidance issued.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-21709 on 15 December 2005, which confirms that the ConstructionProcurement Manual is available at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Planning-Building/construction.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 6 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what the capital cost of each PFI and PPP project since 1999 has been and what the value of the capital assets so purchased was in each case.
Answer
Information on the capitalvalue of each PPP project in Scotland is available on the Scottish Executive Financial Partnerships Unit’s website at
www.scotland.gov.uk/ppp.In PPP projects, the capital value provides an estimate of the capital cost of the PPP asset.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 6 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many small housing organisations have been asked to merge with bigger organisations by Communities Scotland since 1999.
Answer
I have asked Angiolina Foster,Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is as follows:
No small registered social landlords (RSLs) have been asked orrequired to merge with bigger organisations by Communities Scotland or ScottishHomes since 1999.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 6 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-8327 by Malcolm Chisholm on 9 June 2004, whether it has now undertaken research to determine whether PFI/PPP impacts upon the capital costs of the NHS.
Answer
No specific researchhas yet been undertaken.
PPP/PFI does not replace publicfunding. In the current spending review period capitalinvestment is set to increase on average by £60 million each year from 2005-06to 2007-08. By 2007-08 capital funding will be almost £532 million. Of the totalinvestment package of £2.1 billion over this period expected PPP/PFI investmentof £0.750 billion, meaning £1.4 billion of investment in NHS infrastructure throughpublic capital over the three year period.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 6 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how costs incurred on each PFI and PPP project since 1999 compare with the capital costs that would have been incurred had each project been funded through traditional procurement methods.
Answer
The PPP procurement route requiresthat in each project the Final Business Case must show value for money against aconventional procurement route before being selected, taking all relevant costsand benefits into account.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 6 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what the total amount is that has been provided in capital resources through all PFI and PPP projects and what the average rate of interest paid to all lenders has been for the provision of that capital.
Answer
An estimate of the capital valueof all PPP signed projects in Scotland to date is £3.2 billion.It would not be meaningful tocalculate an average rate of interest over all projects as risks vary from one projectto another and background market rates have also varied over time. Therefore, thatinformation is not held centrally within the Executive. In general, PPP interestrates have reduced in recent years, reflecting market conditions and greater understandingand acceptance of risks. I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-17635on 12 July 2005. 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: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 February 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 6 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make representations to HM Treasury seeking that all local authority capital housing debt be written off.
Answer
No. HM Treasury has already madeclear it will provide support to redeem capital housing debt only to those councilswhich transfer houses to community ownership.
