- Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Johann Lamont on 13 December 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive where performance in respect of its target that 80% of all major planning applications should be determined within four months is published.
Answer
This information has not been published in the past, but details of performance by planning authorities in respect of this target has been placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 34606).
Figures for planning authority performance against this target will be included in future Planning Audit Unit Reports and published on the Executive’s website when the report is next published.
- Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Johann Lamont on 13 December 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it (a) monitors and (b) sets any targets for local authority development control performance in respect of (i) major residential applications, (ii) major business and industry applications, (iii) minor business and industry applications and (iv) other major developments.
Answer
The Scottish Executive monitors all planning authority performance through the six monthly collection of development control statistics.
Scottish Planning Policy (SPP) 1: The Planning System contains (in paragraph 86) the performance targets which have been set for planning authorities and they are as follows:
80% of planning applications should be determined in two months (including minor business and industry applications);
85% of planning applications should be determined in three months (including minor business and industry applications);
90% of householder applications should be determined in two months;
95% of householder applications should be determined within three months, and
80% of major applications should be determined within four months (these include major residential, major business and industry and other major developments).
SPP 1 can be viewed at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/planning/spp1-00.asp, and is available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 25316).
- Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Johann Lamont on 9 December 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive when it first outlined its commitment to developing a National Planning Policy Guideline for west Edinburgh.
Answer
Scottish ministers announced a commitment to prepare the West Edinburgh Planning Framework on 5 March 2002.
- Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 9 December 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to address out-patient waiting times.
Answer
We are committed to ensuring that by the end of next year no patient will wait more than 26 weeks for a first outpatient appointment with a consultant, following GP referral.
I know that waiting times for outpatient appointments are too long and more needs to be done to reduce these lengthy waits. I intend to address this issue head on and will set out our proposals for NHS waiting to Parliament next week.
- Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 September 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 7 December 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will clarify the relationship between the First Minister’s statement, as reported in the Financial Times on 2 September 2004, regarding planned efficiency savings in Scotland of at least 2% per annum and the statement he made at First Minister’s Question Time on 8 September 2004 regarding savings of 2% over three years and, if the former statement was inaccurate, whether any correction or retraction will be sought.
Answer
As I said on Monday 29 November 2004, we aspire to ambitious targets of £900 million in cash-releasing savings and £600 million in time-releasing savings by 2007-08. Further information on how we could make savings at this level will be released next year. On this basis, we would average more than 2% per annum efficiency gains, calculated year on year, compared to 2004-05.
No correction or retraction is therefore required from the FinancialTimes.
- Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 November 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 6 December 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many full-time medical staff there were in the NHS Argyll and Clyde area in 2003.
Answer
At 30 September 2003, there were 564.5 whole-time equivalent Medical and Dental staff employed within NHS Argyll and Clyde.
A breakdown of this total number by grade can be found within Table B1 of the Workforce Statistics section of the ISD Scotland website at www.isdscotland.org/workforcealong with other data on this staff group.
- Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 November 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 6 December 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what the median number of days has been in 2004 to wait for in-patient treatment in the NHS Argyll and Clyde area.
Answer
The median wait for NHS Argyll and Clyde residents for in-patient/day case admission during the year ending 31 March 2004 was 39 days*. Median waiting times for in-patient/day case treatment by NHS board of residence and NHS board of treatment, by quarter, are published on ISD Scotland’s
NHSScotland Acute Activity, Waiting Times and Waiting Lists website which can be accessed at
http://www.isdscotland.org/waiting_times.The most recent update of this website took place on 25 November. This update includes data for the period to 30 September 2004.
*Source: SMR01; ISD Scotland; provisional figure.
- Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 November 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 30 November 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how much additional funding has been allocated for school sport in Renfrewshire in each year since 1999 and what it has been spent on.
Answer
Funding from
sportscotland for school sport is available on the basis of applications from local authorities and/or individual schools, not allocations. Since the commencement of the National Lottery, school sport in Renfrewshire has benefited as follows.
| Programme | Funding |
| TOP | £73,320 |
| School Sport Co-ordinator | £331,948 |
| Out of School Hours Learning/School Sport Co-ordinator | £24,000 |
| Active Primary School (Exchequer Programme) | £90,000 |
| Active Schools (Exchequer Funded) | £304,080 |
| Total | £823,348 |
In addition, PE and school sport in Renfrewshire will benefit through the New Opportunities for PE and Sport in Schools (NOPES) programme by over £3 million.
- Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 September 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 27 October 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what it understands by the statement in Sir Peter Gershon’s report, Releasing resources to the front line - Independent Review of Public Sector Efficiency that “I note that the Scottish Executive and Welsh Assembly Government have announced that they are engaged in making annual efficiency gains as ambitious as those in England.”
Answer
The Scottish Executive is undertaking an efficiency initiative that is as ambitious as the Gershon review in its scope and will seek to secure comparable or greater gains in efficiency. The Executive was engaged in securing efficiencies in the public sector before the Gershon review. Its Efficient Government initiative will go on until 2010 – longer than the activity outlined in the Gershon report.
- Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 September 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 27 October 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the statement in Sir Peter Gershon’s report, Releasing resources to the front line - Independent Review of Public Sector Efficiency that “to go further or faster than the savings set out in my Review during the period 2005-06 to 2007-08 would put at risk the delivery of public services.”
Answer
The level of efficiencies set for UK Departments is a matter for the UK Government. The Scottish Executive will judge what is appropriate for public services in Scotland.
