Scottish Parliament e-Brief
Issue 55, 26th February 2001
SECTION 1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK
1. THE CHAMBER
Wednesday 28th February 2001
14:30 Executive Debate: Sustainable Development
17:00 Members' Business: Discrimination Against Teaching Centres of Artistic Excellence (Kenneth Gibson (SNP))
Thursday 1st March 2001
09:30 Executive Debate: Primary Care
14:30 Question Time
15.10 First Minister's Question Time
15:30 Executive Debate: Fuel Poverty
17:00 Members' Business: Caledonian MacBrayne (George Lyon (Lib Dem))
2. COMMITTEE BUSINESS
The highlights in the Committee Chambers this week are:
For more details, see tomorrow’s Committee Brief.
SECTION 2 - NEWS
£15 MILLION BOOST TO SUPPORT VULNERABLE PEOPLE
A three-year funding package has been announced to help vulnerable people live independently in the community.
The money will help councils prepare for the introduction of a new and more efficient funding system for housing support services in 2003, called 'Supporting People'.
Housing support services covers practical measures such as:
Groups who should benefit include frail elderly people, people with mental health problems, people with learning disabilities, and those who have been living in institutions such as hospitals or prisons.
A number of funding streams are being brought together, notably the support element of Housing Benefit, and transferred to local authorities, which will be responsible for the administration of the new arrangements. The new funding arrangements will mean that, for the first time, there will be a secure legal footing for the funding of support services, which were previously delivered in an ad hoc and incoherent way.
ALEXANDER SIGNALS WAY AHEAD WITH £2.5 MILLION BOOST TO ICT TRAINING
Enterprise Minister Wendy Alexander has announced an additional £2.5m to fund Information & Communication Technology (ICT) training for the unemployed.
The funds will increase the availability of ICT training for the unemployed over the next two months. It will fund places on the European Computer Driving Licence scheme, which provides computer skills courses recognised by employers across Europe.
The funds will be spent under the banner of the Training for Work (TfW) programme delivered by the Enterprise Networks. Scottish Enterprise and Highlands & Islands Enterprise will receive £2,250,000 and £250,000 respectively.
The Minister confirmed that: "This extra £2.5m creates a further 1,350 ICT training places for the unemployed in Scotland."
TfW is the Scottish Executive's training programme for long-term unemployed adults. It aims to help people improve their work related skills through the provision of appropriate training and structured work activity in line with assessed needs. It is intended that, in future, all TfW clients will offered the opportunity to gain basic IT skills and that recognised ICT qualifications will be available through the programme. Around 14,000 adults participate in TfW each year.
SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS
The first item on the agenda on WEDNESDAY is an Executive Debate on Sustainable Development - i.e. ensuring that Scotland's economic development does not destroy the environment.
This debate should be wide ranging, with the Executive's environmental record and future policies playing a central role.
Some of the main points to date include:
Current measures include:
This is followed at 5pm by a member's business motion on Discrimination Against Teaching Centres of Artistic Excellence from the SNP's Kenny Gibson.
THURSDAY begins with a lengthy Executive debate on Primary Care - the front line services of the NHS.
This is a huge topic and, at the time of writing, no further details regarding the focus of the debate are available. If you would like to be notified as soon as more specific information can be provided, click here.
Alternatively, the text of the motion will be published shortly in Section F of the Business Bulletin. In addition, the Official Report of the debate will be available here from 08:00 on Friday morning.
Later, after Question Time, there is a debate on Fuel Poverty. This debate comes on the back of the Government publishing the UK Fuel Poverty Strategy on Friday.
A household can be said to be in "fuel poverty" if it spends 10% or more of income on all fuel use, or 10% or more of income on heating.
There are currently 738,000 households in fuel poverty in Scotland and the aim of the strategy is to end fuel poverty for vulnerable households by 2010.
Within the overall UK target the Executive's target is to ensure that all pensioner households and tenants in the social rented sector will live in a centrally heated and well insulated home by 2006.
The Executive aims to meet its target by investing £350 million in installing free central heating and insulation in all pensioner homes and all those in the social rented sector who do not have any central heating. 140,000 households, over half being pensioner households, will benefit.
The week's business in the chamber closes with a Member's Business debate from Lid Dem, George Lyon, on Caledonian MacBrayne.
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