Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S2W-17117

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 14 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the uptake of thegolden hello scheme for dentists has been in each year since its inception.

Question reference: S2W-17113

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 14 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding is available to dental practitioners to make their premises compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

Question reference: S2W-17116

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 14 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the uptake has been of recruitment and retention incentives for dentists in each year since 2003, broken down by NHS board.

Information on uptake of the recruitment and retention allowances by general dental practitioners is provided in the following tables. Additionally, we introduced on 1 April 2004 an allowance for salaried dentists being employed by NHS boards within three months of completion of training and for those dentists being employed as salaried dentists, who are not already employed in the salaried services, by NHS boards. Information on the uptake of these allowances is not yet available.

Allowance for Vocational Trainees Entering their Vocational Training Year in Scotland

NHS Board Area	No. of Claims^1. 2002-03	No. of Claims^1. 2003-04	No. of Claims 2004-05
Argyll and Clyde	3	4	10
Ayrshire and Arran	-	-	5
Borders	5	4	5
Dumfries and Galloway	2	3	3
Fife	-	-	8
Forth Valley	-	-	9
Grampian	8	8	12
Greater Glasgow	-	-	16
Highland	3	3	2
Lanarkshire	-	-	11
Lothian	-	-	27
Orkney	0	1	1
Shetland	0	0	0
Tayside	-	-	12
Western Isles	1	1	2
Scotland	22	24	123

Source: Practitioner Services of NHS National Services Scotland.

Notes:

1. Prior to 1 April 2004 the allowance was only payable to those dentists taking up their vocational training year in a designated area.

2. A designated area is defined as the areas of Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, Grampian, Highland, Orkney, Shetland, Western Isles NHS Boards and, within the area of Argyll and Clyde NHS Board, Campbeltown, Dunoon, Lochgilphead, Lochgoilhead, Oban, Rothsay, Tarbert and the Isles of Mull, Iona, Colonsay, Tiree, Islay and Jura.

Allowance for Dentists Having their Name Included in a Dental List Within Three Months of Completion of Training

NHS Board Area	No. of Claims 2002-03	No. of Claims 2003-04	No. of Claims 2004-05
Argyll and Clyde	3	8	3
Ayrshire and Arran	0	0	3
Borders	0	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway	2	1	1
Fife	4	6	5
Forth Valley	0	3	7
Grampian	7	1	2
Greater Glasgow	8	16	16
Highland	0	0	1
Lanarkshire	6	13	11
Lothian	9	3	16
Orkney	0	0	0
Shetland	0	0	0
Tayside	5	4	4
Western Isles	0	0	0
Scotland	44	55	69

Source: Practitioner Services of NHS National Services Scotland.

Allowance for dentists having their name included in a dental list for the first time or on having their name re-included after a break of five years¹.

NHS Board Area	No. of Claims 2004-05
Argyll and Clyde	1
Ayrshire and Arran	2
Borders	0
Dumfries and Galloway	0
Fife	0
Forth Valley	0
Grampian	5
Greater Glasgow	6
Highland	2
Lanarkshire	0
Lothian	8
Orkney	0
Shetland	0
Tayside	3
Western Isles	0
Scotland	27

Source: Practitioner Services of NHS National Services Scotland.

Note:

1. This allowance was introduced on 1 April 2004.

Question reference: S2W-17112

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 14 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive when the Statement of Dental Remuneration was last reviewed.

The fees contained in the Statement of Dental Remuneration (SDR) are uprated every year in light of the recommendation of the independent Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Body. As part of the Action Plan to Improve Oral Health and Modernise NHS Dental Services in Scotland the Executive has undertaken to simplify the SDR, reducing the items of treatment from over 400 to around 50. This simplification is not about reducing what is available on the NHS, but making the whole system simpler for practices (and patients) to understand and use.

The Executive has also introduced a number of new grants and allowances over the last few years. An Allowances Review Group has been established to look at whether these allowances are delivering and to recommend any changes. The group first met in November 2003 and continues to meet quarterly.

Question reference: S2W-17089

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 13 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-15791 and S2W-16581 by Cathy Jamieson on 10 and 31 May 2005, whether it will instigate a review or audit of figures produced by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in light of any discrepancy in the figures produced by the Inspectorate and directly by Grampian Police on numbers of racist incidents in 2003-04 and 2004.

We have investigated the figures, which were provided to SPICe and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary by Grampian Police. Grampian police have acknowledged that the data they provided to HM Inspectorate for 2003-04 was inaccurate - the correct number of racist incidents reported for that year was in fact 305. The figure of 472 held by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre relates to incidents reported in 2004-05.

Question reference: S2W-16815

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 13 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the creation of a south of Scotland region eligible for Objective 1, statistical effect or transitional funding was discussed by the Deputy First Minister and the European Commissioner for Regional Policy at their recent meeting.

In order for the south of Scotland region to be eligible for the Commission’s proposed Convergence funding, it would need to be reclassified as a NUTS II region. The issue of reclassification was raised by the Executive with the Department of Trade and Industry and the Office of National Statistics, but it was made clear that reviews of NUTS boundaries were the overall responsibility of Eurostat. The latter has stated that it will not authorise any changes to existing NUTS boundaries until the beginning of 2008 – after the conclusion of the current Structural Funds negotiations. At present, under the Commission’s proposals, the south of Scotland would be eligible for Competitiveness Objective funding.

The contribution that Structural Funds have made to Scotland in the past, including the south of Scotland, was discussed with Commissioner Hubner at the recent meeting. However, in light of the Executive’s earlier inquiries, the issue of the south of Scotland’s eligibility for Objective 1 status was not raised.

Question reference: S2W-16717

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 03 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Euan Robson on 10 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the letter of 16 May 2005 to me from the Minister for Communities which states inter alia "You queried the applicability of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 to children in Dungavel. The Act does not apply to Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre as immigration is the responsibility of the Home Office", whether Chapter 3 of the Act and, in particular, Section 52, relating to children requiring compulsory measures of supervision and referrals under the Act to the Principal Reporter to the Children's Panel, do not apply to those children and, if so, when this interpretation was adopted.

In his letter of 16 May the Minister for Communities said that the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 did not apply to Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre as immigration is the responsibility of the Home Office. The terms of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 do apply to the children of asylum seekers in Scotland, wherever they are located, except where disapplied by UK legislation.

The Minister for Communities wrote to you again on the 6 June to clarify his original letter.

The welfare of persons detained in Dungavel is a matter for the Home Office, and it is for them to respond to questions about the operation of the Immigration Removal Centre.

Question reference: S2W-16814

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 6 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether, following the Deputy First Minister's recent discussions with the European Commissioner for Regional Policy, it supports a European Union budget that maintains regional funding for the south of Scotland.

To the extent that an increasedUnited Kingdom contribution to the Commission budget could result ina reduction in the Scottish Assigned Budget, the Scottish Executive supports a budgetdiscipline approach to the negotiations on the future of EU budget post-2006. TheUK Treasury has estimated that the Commission’s proposed budget of 1.24% of EU GNIwould cost the United Kingdom around Euro 25 billion between 2007 and 2013.

Notwithstanding the outcome of the negotiations on the EU budget, however, the Scottish Executive is committedto a continuing regional development policy in Scotland, including the South ofScotland.

Question reference: S2W-16785

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 6 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-16363 by Mr Andy Kerr on 18 May 2005, what the Operational Research Consultancy (ORCON) standards have been for the Scottish Ambulance Service in each year since 2002, broken down by local authority area.

Between August 2002 and April2004, the ORCON standards were phased out across mainland Scotland as the Scottish Ambulance Service adopted the priority-based dispatch system, which categorisescalls based on the risk to the patient. The targets which are used to measure theambulance service’s performance under the new system are based partly (in relationto response times to non-life threatening calls) on the population density of eachNHS board area. These were set out in the reply to the answer to question S2W-16363.All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament'swebsite, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/wa.search.

ORCON standards are now usedonly to measure performance of the ambulance service in the areas of NHS WesternIsles, NHS Shetland and NHS Orkney.

Question reference: S2W-16580

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 1 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-11751 by Rhona Brankin on 9 November 2004, how many cases of assault have been reported to the Care Commission and how many complaints the commission has received since April 2004, broken down by Care Commission region.

In respect of assaults, I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-11751 on 9 November 2004. 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.

The total number of complaints in the period April 2004 to March 2005, by Care Commission regional office, was as follows:

Care Commission Region	April 2004 to March 2005
Central West	429
Central East	297
North	158
South West	294
South East	260
Total	1,438

Further information on complaints can be obtained from the Care Commission.