- Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 30 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how it will support GPs who occupy premises that cannot be brought up to standard to provide primary care and therefore require replacement.
Answer
Decisions about the locationof GP premises are devolved to local NHS boards. It is for them to developtheir own premises strategy to identify priorities for new builds anddevelopment of existing premises.
The allocations letterissued on 13 February 2004 details earmarked revenue funding for GP premisesand involves an increase in investment of approximately 70% in recurringfunding over a three year period.
NHS boards may also deploytheir capital allocations to support primary care development and supportprojects that seek to deliver the Executive’s vision for Community HealthService Centres, as detailed in the partnership agreement. It is for NHS boardsthemselves to allocate these funds against individual projects.
- Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 30 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether a building occupied by a GP practice, but not owned by the NHS, that required upgrading work would be eligible for the funding made available for building and upgrading GP premises.
Answer
It is for each NHS board toprioritise the application of local revenue funds in accordance with its localproperty strategy, which should take into account the needs of all GP practicesin its area, irrespective of whether the premises are privately or publiclyowned. NHS boards also have access to their capital allocations in respect ofpublicly owned premises.
- Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 30 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding has been provided to NHS boards for primary medical services, as referred in its press release SEHD 635/2004 on 13 February 2004, and how many GP practices in each NHS board area will benefit, expressed also as a percentage of the total number of practices in each board area.
Answer
The amount of funding allocated to NHS boards is highlighted in the following table.
| NHS Health Board | 2004-5 Allocation (£) | 2005-6 Allocation (£) |
| Argyll and Clyde | 4,108,221 | 5,696,350 |
| Ayrshire and Arran | 2,728,585 | 3,535,763 |
| Borders | 1,368,099 | 1,615,988 |
| Dumfries and Galloway | 1,489,000 | 2,463,680 |
| Fife | 2,853,095 | 3,378,218 |
| Forth Valley | 2,691,593 | 3,189,174 |
| Grampian | 6,653,000 | 8,302,780 |
| Greater Glasgow | 7,727,500 | 9,577,050 |
| Highland | 3,402,437 | 4,351,676 |
| Lanarkshire | 3,441,121 | 4,269,955 |
| Lothian | 10,559,667 | 12,206,529 |
| Orkney | 190,878 | 258,488 |
| Shetland | 151,221 | 148,219 |
| Tayside | 7,639,555 | 8,548,829 |
| Western Isles | 540,871 | 584,691 |
| Totals | 55,544,843 | 68,127,389 |
The allocation of the funding is the responsibility of the local NHS board in accordance with the locally agreed property strategy for investment prioritisation.
- Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 30 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many GP practices there are and, of these, how many require work to be undertaken in order to be compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and the Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act 2004, broken down by NHS board area.
Answer
The number of General Medical Service practices, containing unrestricted principals and their equivalents in Personal Medical Service practices, are shown in the attached table.
It is for NHS boards to maintain plans for the development of GP premises to deliver General Medical Services, Primary Medical Services from 1 April 2004,in accordance with legislation and guidance from time to time in force.Information on the number of GP practices covered by NHS boards’ plans is notheld centrally.
The information on the number of GP practices requiring work undertaken to meet the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 is also not held centrally.
However, NHS boards should now have conducted access audits and shared the results with practices, who as the service providers, have the responsibility to meet the requirements of the Act.
| Health Board | Total Number Of Practices1 |
| Argyll and Clyde | 97 |
| Ayrshire and Arran | 61 |
| Borders | 23 |
| Dumfries and Galloway | 35 |
| Fife | 60 |
| Forth Valley | 57 |
| Grampian | 85 |
| Greater Glasgow | 215 |
| Highland | 72 |
| Lanarkshire | 101 |
| Lothian | 130 |
| Orkney | 15 |
| Shetland | 10 |
| Tayside | 72 |
| Western Isles | 14 |
| Total | 1,047 |
Note:
1. Comprises the total number of Unrestricted Principal practices by health
board as at 1 October 2003. There are an additional 11 restricted practices.
- Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 30 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any GP premises that require building work will not be eligible for funding announced in its press release SEHD635/2004 on 13 February 2004.
Answer
It is for each NHS board toprioritise the application of local revenue funds in accordance with its localproperty strategy, which should take into account the needs of all GP practicesin its area.
- Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Frank McAveety on 29 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what the geographical boundaries will be of the two new area tourist boards (ATBs); how such boards will be constituted and to whom they will be accountable; what the procedure will be for the interaction between the two boards and 14 hubs; what will happen to any surplus funds held, or outstanding debts owed, by existing tourist boards; whether any (a) compulsory and (b) voluntary redundancies are anticipated and, if so, how many and who will fund such redundancies, and what level of natural wastage is anticipated.
Answer
The geographical boundariesof the two new area tourist boards; how they will be constituted; theirinteraction with the 14 hubs; the handling of surplus funds held or debts owedby the existing area tourist boards; and the transfer of staff into the new boardswill be addressed by a Statutory Instrument which we intend placing beforeParliament this summer.
We intend that the new boardswill be accountable to VisitScotland. They will act as something of a steppingstone to enable the new Scotland-wide network to be established and, as far asusers of the network are concerned, we do not envisage that two new ATBs willbe prominent.
- Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Frank McAveety on 29 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether VisitScotland will have the power to restructure the new integrated tourism network and reduce the number of tourist hubs and whether any guidance has been issued to VisitScotland on this matter.
Answer
VisitScotland – officiallythe Scottish Tourist Board – has power to set up local offices under thegeneral provisions of the Development of Tourism Act 1969. As I announced toParliament on 11 March, the new Scotland wide network will be based on the 14 existing area touristboards.
- Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Frank McAveety on 29 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it anticipates that the private sector and local authorities will make financial contributions to the proposed tourist hubs; if so, how much it estimates will be contributed by the private sector and local authorities in the next three years and how these contributions will be made.
Answer
The tourism industry andlocal authorities make a very significant contribution to the work and financeof the existing 14 area tourist boards. We anticipate that they will want tomaintain that commitment to the new local tourism hubs. We intend that thecontributions of local authorities will be governed by partnership agreementsto be negotiated between the local authority and their local tourism hub.Tourism businesses will be invited to pay for the marketing and other serviceswhich their local tourism hub will offer. The extent of contributions will be amatter for the local tourism hubs, local authorities and tourism businesses toagree.
- Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 25 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-5903 by Ms Margaret Curran on 13 February 2004, whether there are any specific initiatives aimed at providing good quality affordable housing for public sector workers.
Answer
The principal mechanism for funding affordable housing is the Communities Scotland Development Programme. It provides new and improved housing to replace or improve poor quality housing and seeks to help people on low incomes to rent social housing or buy a home inareas where demand exceeds supply or where market prices are beyond the reach of their incomes.
This new housing is availableto meet the most pressing housing need, including that of public sector workersand programmes are developed in close consultation with partners, based upon local housing market and needs analysis. In due course they will be informed bythe local housing strategies prepared by each local authority.
- Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 25 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of the costs of the Waverley Station upgrade will be met by the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA).
Answer
The SRAchairs the group planning the redevelopment of Waverley Station. Discussionsare on-going and decisions, including funding, will be announced in due course.
