- Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 3 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-2866 by Malcolm Chisholm on 6 October 2003, how much the healthyliving line cost to run in each month since September 2003.
Answer
The operational costs forthe healthy living line from 1 September 2003 to 31 January 2004 are presentedin the table.
Operational Costs for the HealthyLiving Line (September 2003 – January 2004)
| Month | Cost (ex VAT) |
| September | £41,131.70 |
| October | £53,657.59 |
| November | £53,067.10 |
| December | £58,995.01 |
| January | £78,525.40 |
All costs are excluding VAT. The January figure includes £69,470 of transfer costs as the line was transferred from Essentia to NHS24 on 6 January 2004. We expect the costs to drop significantly now.
We expected call traffic to fall off when the main advertising ceased in October. The TV adverts have hit home – recording 80% awareness levels in the general population at the start of the campaign and 76% before advertising ceased in October (NHS Health Scotland Communications Tracking Survey (BMRB International)).
If we are to bring about cultural change in our diets we must empower the people of Scotland to make healthier choices. The healthyliving advice line and website are a way of sharing information and building skills and confidence.
The success of the healthyliving initiative will not be measured simply by the number of calls to the line or hits on the web. Many people will have made changes to their diet and lifestyle without having used the helpline or web site.
Success will be measured over time by whether we improve our health by eating the right foods and adopting a more active lifestyle. We implore all sections of Scottish society to take a broad view of the wide range of actions that are required to achieve success.
- Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 30 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 1 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive why its published documents often do not contain a date of publication and whether steps are being taken to ensure that all publications include either a date of publication or dated ministerial forward.
Answer
The Scottish Executive adheres to the standard publication conventions used by all publishers.This means that the publisher’s name and address, copyright statement and yearof publication are all shown on the copyright page which is included at thefront of all documents. Additionally, the month and year of each document isprinted on the back of documents, together with the contractor’s referencenumber.
Many of our publicationsalready include the month and year of publication and we are currently in theprocess of rolling out this procedure to all of our documents.
- Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 1 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what the costs were of publishing, printing, distributing and launching Helping Homeless People: Delivering the Action Plan for Prevention and Effective Response.
Answer
The cost of publishing andprinting the Helping Homeless People: Delivering the Action Plan forPrevention and Effective Response was £3,274.28, which includes costs forweb conversion. Distributing costs to date are £416.13, further copies maybedistributed on request. There were no additional costs associated with thelaunch of the document.
- Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 26 February 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance exists for local authorities with regard to the provision of a gritting service on school bus routes.
Answer
Guidance with regard to theprovision of a gritting service on school bus routes is contained in “DeliveringBest Value in Highway Maintenance – Code of Practice for Maintenance Management”.This Code of Practice has been prepared by the Institution of Highways andTransportation and is supported, endorsed and recommended by, amongst others,the Scottish Executive, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities andthe Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland.
- Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 30 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 23 February 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many retirements from local authorities were due to ill-health and how many retirements there were in total from local authorities in each year since 1996.
Answer
Data on the total number of retirements to local authority pension schemes has been collected by the Scottish Executive since 1998-99. Data on the number of retirements due to ill-health is only available at the Scotland level from 2000-01. The table below presents figures from these years to 2002-03, the latest year for which data are available.
Retirements to Local Authority Pension Schemes, 1998-99 to 2002-03
| Year | Number of Retirements | Number of Retirements due to Ill-Health | Total Contributing Members |
| 1998-99 | 4,462 | n/a | 146,630 |
| 1999-2000 | 4,010 | n/a | 159,529 |
| 2000-01 | 4,080 | 1,285 | 165,274 |
| 2001-02 | 4,027 | 1,149 | 177,187 |
| 2002-03 | 4,126 | 1,165 | 182,700 |
Note: These figures exclude teachers,police service and fire service staff as they have separate pension schemes.
It should be noted that someemployees of Scottish local authorities may not be members of a local authoritypension scheme. Data on all retirements from local authorities are not heldcentrally.
- Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 15 December 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 12 February 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what the terms were of the agreement reached with Hoover to secure the retention of research and development and manufacturing at its Cambuslang plant; whether funds from the Executive or Scottish Development International were allocated to Hoover as part of the agreement, and whether the company was granted any other concessions.
Answer
Hoover was not offered any new regional selectiveassistance (RSA) in relation to the retention of research and development andmanufacture at its Cambuslang facility. However the terms of the existing RSAoffer of £1.7 million, which had been paid in full, have been amended so that Hoover mustsatisfy the following conditions to retain the RSA paid:
£1.7 million will remainrepayable until 30 June 2005 during which time the company must retain 150 jobs,of which 60 must be production and 30 R,D&D. Thereafter, £700,000 willcontinue to be repayable until 30 June 2006 during which time 90 jobs must beretained with 30 of these being R,D&D. A final £250,000 will remainrepayable until 31 October 2007 and during this time at least 60 jobs must beretained. If this is achieved, then under the revised agreement, Hoover willhave satisfied its obligations in respect of the RSA previously paid.
In addition, ScottishEnterprise Lanarkshire will contribute up to 20% of eligible costs for thesub-division of the facility up to a maximum of £250,000.
- Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 30 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 10 February 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many retirements from the civil service were due to ill-health and how many retirements there were in total from the civil service in each year since 1996.
Answer
The information requestedcan be found in the following table:
Scottish Executive Core Departments - Retirements by reason 1996-2003
| | Year | | | | | | | |
| Retirement Reason | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 |
| Age Retirement | 48 | 56 | 41 | 44 | 29 | 29 | 30 | 42 |
| Early Retirement - Ill Health | 32 | 25 | 30 | 13 | 13 | 7 | 4 | 11 |
| Early Retirement - Other | 176 | 26 | 12 | 16 | 13 | 56 | 11 | 7 |
| Total | 256 | 107 | 83 | 73 | 55 | 92 | 45 | 60 |
- Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 30 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 10 February 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average number of sick days taken per annum is for civil servants.
Answer
The member is referred tothe Cabinet Office report “Analysis ofSickness Absence in the Civil Service 2002”, published 1 December 2003.
Thisreport is available at URL:
www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/civilservice/publications/sickness/sickabs02.pdf
- Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 9 February 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-5311 by Mr Andy Kerr on 21 January 2004, what the cost of the commissioned research on overseas views of different marketing approaches will be.
Answer
The research activitypresently underway is designed to build upon our knowledge of how Scotland isperceived in a range of countries and domestically; and how we can use creativematerial to change or build upon those perceptions. It will inform a number ofelements of the Executive's work to help achieve partnership agreementobjectives by promoting Scotland overseas in a more coherent and effective way. Thepresent phase of the research is likely to cost in the region of £185,000.Further research may be commissioned at later stages.
- Asked by: Mr Brian Monteith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 January 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 5 February 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive when it will next meet representatives of COSLA and what issues will be discussed.
Answer
We meet regularly with COSLAto discuss issues relevant to local government. My next meeting with the Conventionis on 26 February.
