- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 14 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people aged (a) 65 and over and (b) under 65 and in a high risk category received the flu vaccine in each year from 1999 to 2004, broken down by NHS board area, expressed also as a percentage of eligible people in those two categories.
Answer
The information you requested is as follows:
(a) I refer the member to the answer question S2W-19772 on 28 October 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search. Data is only available from the year 2000.
(b) This information is not centrally held.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 14 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what data it has on the socio-economic background of people taking up the flu vaccine and where this data can be accessed.
Answer
This information is not centrally available.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by George Lyon on 14 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many deaths from cancer there have been in the south of Scotland in each year since the Chernobyl incident occurred, broken down by NHS board area.
Answer
The information requested is given in the following table.
Deaths from Cancer1 in South of Scotland2 Between 26 April 1986 and 31 December 2004, by NHS Board Area
| | Ayrshire and Arran (part) | Borders | Dumfries and Galloway | Lanarkshire (part) | Lothian (part) |
| 19863 | 415 | 212 | 263 | 129 | 170 |
| 1987 | 641 | 316 | 446 | 176 | 231 |
| 1988 | 566 | 331 | 442 | 202 | 232 |
| 1989 | 620 | 338 | 437 | 218 | 227 |
| 1990 | 612 | 396 | 432 | 191 | 247 |
| 1991 | 624 | 344 | 453 | 212 | 244 |
| 1992 | 652 | 347 | 470 | 199 | 241 |
| 1993 | 687 | 373 | 440 | 223 | 279 |
| 1994 | 659 | 345 | 493 | 190 | 292 |
| 1995 | 694 | 320 | 463 | 206 | 292 |
| 1996 | 615 | 359 | 461 | 231 | 256 |
| 1997 | 662 | 345 | 454 | 228 | 266 |
| 1998 | 640 | 351 | 465 | 173 | 271 |
| 1999 | 654 | 355 | 433 | 227 | 264 |
| 2000 | 685 | 343 | 487 | 209 | 289 |
| 2001 | 630 | 347 | 478 | 226 | 270 |
| 2002 | 701 | 399 | 455 | 240 | 295 |
| 2003 | 654 | 354 | 536 | 241 | 279 |
| 2004 | 697 | 337 | 524 | 241 | 250 |
Notes:
1. Malignat neoplasms: 1986-99, ICD9 codes 140-208; 2000-04, ICD10 codes C00-C97.
2. The South of Scotland Region includes the following constituencies: Ayr; Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley; Clydesdale; Cunninghame South; Dumfries; East Lothian; Galloway and Upper Nithsdale; Roxburgh and Berwickshire; Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale.
3. 26 April 1986 to 31 December 1986.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Johann Lamont on 12 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive which venues it uses to make available and publicise information on the Central Heating and Warm Deal programmes and how it monitors the effectiveness of its information strategy on the programmes.
Answer
I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:
Organisations with a national identity, but local presence, have received letters explaining the grant procedures coupled with leaflets and posters for public display and distribution. These include libraries, local authorities, energy efficiency advice centres, Citizens Advice Bureaus, MSP constituency offices, registered social landlords, community centres, Help the Aged, Pension Service Cluster offices, health visitors, GPs, landlords forums, care and repair forums, occupational welfare organisations, national rent deposit forums, Motability, Gingerbread, church groups, disability information services, Black and Ethnic Minorities Infrastructure Scotland, Energywatch, The Salvation Army, Capability Scotland and fuel utilities.
Communities Scotland holds regular marketing meetings with Eaga Partnership which manages the central heating and Warm Deal programmes to ensure that the marketing strategy adopted by Eaga meets the requirements of the programmes.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 8 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware that Lothian Buses student ridacards exclude thousands of mature students as they are only available to students aged between 16 and 25; what its policy position is in this respect; what representations it has received to extend the scheme to all students regardless of age, and whether there is any region where such exclusion is not practised.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is aware of the campaign currently being run by Edinburgh University Students Association and has received a number of related letters and pre-printed postcards. The Executive provides help with travel costs for mature students under further and higher education funding. Beyond that, student discounts for travel are commercial decisions made by travel operators at their discretion and information on such schemes is held by the operators concerned and not the Executive.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 7 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-25757 by Peter Peacock of 23 May 2002, the report prepared for Audit Scotland in November 2004, which investigated complaints surrounding Scottish Borders Council's stewardship of its Common Good Fund by Scottish Borders Council, and Petition PE875 by Miss Mary Mackenzie in respect of common good assets, whether it now considers that there should be a Scotland-wide register and record of all moveable and heritable common good assets, including details of the local authorities that have the stewardship of the assets and providing easy public accessibility to the register.
Answer
We have no plans to commission a national register of common good assets held by local authorities. It is the responsibility of local authorities as trustees to manage assets held for the common good according to sound asset management principles.
All moveable and heritable common good assets which are the property of the local authority are accounted for within the audited accounts of each authority. Local authority accounts are subject to annual audits by Audit Scotland, and these are accessible by law to any member of the public. Any member of the public can access local authority accounts and performance outcome information under section 101 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, section 13 of the Local Government in Scotland 2003 and also under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
All local authorities are also required, by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 2003, to adhere to proper accounting practice, including having in place asset management plans. These plans are intended to ensure sound financial stewardship of all assets including common good assets and I would support any moves by local authorities which provide greater transparency in their financial governance.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 May 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by John Scott on 6 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what arrangements are in place to allow security staff who are instructed to take their lunch at 11.30 am to eat at Holyrood, given that the garden level restaurant does not serve meals until 12.00 noon.
Answer
The lunch service in the Garden Restaurant with effect from 31 May, commenced earlier at 11.30 am. As a consequence, the breakfast service will closes earlier at 10.15 am.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 1 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many rural second and holiday homes there were in each year since 1999, expressed also as a percentage of total housing and broken down by ward.
Answer
The information requested can be found in the Communities Scotland Research Report No.58 The Impact of Second and Holiday Homes in Rural Scotland which is available publicly.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Duncan McNeil on 30 November 2005
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it considers that the release of street names in members’ travel claim forms, where the destination is a home visit to a constituent, breaches confidentiality between the constituent and the member and whether the provision of such information is in breach of the Data Protection Act 1998.
Answer
The SPCB recognises the need for confidentiality and trust between an MSP and a constituent. Where a street number and name are known to be that of a constituent, the SPCB would redact the number but leave the street name. If the street contained only two houses both the number and street name would be redacted. The SPCB relies on members to advise parliamentary officials as it would not be self evident whether an address is that of a constituent or a business address.
In deciding what information to release on allowances, the SPCB seeks to act within the provisions of the relevant legislation, including the Data Protection Act.
The member will also be aware that the SPCB has created a joint member/official working party which can consider a range of issues, including this, in accordance with the approved remit and to make recommendations to the SPCB.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by John Scott on 23 November 2005
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will take steps to ensure that the distinctive Scottish-definitive stamps, the lion rampant (first class) and saltire (second class) are available to MSPs in book and self-adhesive format.
Answer
Currently Royal Mail only produce non self-adhesive Scottish-definitive stamps in sheets of one hundred. They are sold in four different denominations; £0.21, £0.30, £0.42 and £0.68. MSPs have the option to request Scottish-definitive or self-adhesive British-definitive stamps when ordering through the Parliament post office or Parliament mailroom.
