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-09896

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 August 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andrew Welsh on 27 August 2004

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what percentage of products in the shop at Holyrood will be manufactured in Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-09833

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 25 August 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding has been distributed through the Change and Innovation Fund in each of the last two years, broken down by NHS board and hospital.

The answer to the question askedis set out in the following table.

Information is not availablecentrally on how funding for change and innovation is distributed within NHS boardareas. Each board’s Change and Innovation Plan details the activity that they willundertake and, in some cases, this is identified by area.

NHS Board area	Total Funding for Change and Innovation in 2003-04	Total Funding for Change and Innovation in 2004-05
Argyll and Clyde	£2.153 million	£2.153 million
Ayrshire and Arran	£1.892 million	£1.892 million
Borders	£536,000	£536,000
Dumfries and Galloway	£783,000	£783,000
Fife	£1.631 million	£1.631 million
Forth Valley	£1.296 million	£1.296 million
Grampian	£2.292 million	£2.292 million
Greater Glasgow	£4.803 million	£4.803 million
Highland	£1.101 million	£1.101 million
Lanarkshire	£2.621 million	£2.621 million
Lothian	£3.444 million	£3.444 million
Orkney	£106,000	£106,000
Shetland	£127,000	£127,000
Tayside	£2,010 million	£2.010 million
Western Isles	£204,000	£204,000
National Services Scotland	£722,000	£722,000
Scottish Ambulance Service	£545,000	£545,000
The State Hospital	£106,000	£0
Total Funding	£26.372 million	£26.266 million

Question reference: S2W-09832

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 25 August 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive which NHS boards have developed change and innovation plans and, of these plans, which have been (a) accepted and (b) referred back for revision and what the reasons were for such referrals

Eighteen NHS boards have developedchange and innovation Plans. Fifteen are Unified NHS boards and three arespecial boards (the State Hospital, National Services Scotland and the Scottish AmbulanceService).

All 2003-04 plans were acceptedwith only minor alterations being suggested or requested and none were sent backfor any significant revision.

All 2004-05 plans, other thanthat for the State Hospital, have been accepted. The State Hospital hasbeen asked to provide more detail in their change and innovation plan.

Question reference: S2W-09828

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 25 August 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many new cases of sexually transmitted infections have been reported in each of the last five years in each NHS board area, broken down by disease.

The total number of laboratory reports of sexually transmitted infections in Scotland reported to the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health (SCIEH) from 1999 to 2003 by NHS board is as follows:

Genital Chlamydia	NHS Board	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
	Argyll and Clyde	283	375	524	832	1,014
	Ayrshire and Arran	290	275	356	814	888
	Borders	70	52	51	48	189
	Dumfries and Galloway	118	282	328	408	387
	Fife	1	512	524	858	1,002
	Forth Valley	328	355	442	373	596
	Grampian	731	1,164	1,236	1,348	1,429
	Greater Glasgow	1,353	1,691	2,406	2,295	3,113
	Highland	361	500	531	627	630
	Lanarkshire	254	401	731	895	888
	Lothian	1,297	1,207	2,433	2,744	2,974
	Orkney	2	10	41	45	55
	Shetland	6	8	24	33	41
	Tayside	596	822	953	1,069	1,192
	Western Isles	0	0	0	3	9
	Unspecified	0	0	56	0	0
	Total	5,690	7,654	10,636	12,392	14,407
Genital Herpes Simplex	NHS Board	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
	Argyll and Clyde	23	20	2	31	45
	Ayrshire and Arran	25	20	0	18	41
	Borders	5	5	3	18	22
	Dumfries and Galloway	10	15	0	17	28
	Fife	0	1	0	0	82
	Forth Valley	55	54	0	31	62
	Grampian	99	121	140	138	139
	Greater Glasgow	258	254	396	218	297
	Highland	65	64	100	77	92
	Lanarkshire	27	24	0	28	31
	Lothian	283	253	297	298	366
	Orkney	2	3	6	0	3
	Shetland	0	2	0	0	2
	Tayside	84	73	85	63	98
	Western Isles	1	1	2	3	2
	Unspecified	0	0	2	0	0
	Total	937	910	1,033	940	1,310
Gonorrhoea	NHS Board	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
	Argyll and Clyde	28	37	40	47	24
	Ayrshire and Arran	3	10	21	31	16
	Borders	0	0	0	7	1
	Dumfries and Galloway	28	42	21	13	27
	Fife	24	35	28	9	33
	Forth Valley	28	41	33	18	31
	Grampian	64	92	82	74	78
	Greater Glasgow	154	266	264	239	249
	Highland	24	33	43	34	13
	Lanarkshire	21	45	46	31	31
	Lothian	139	195	184	254	283
	Orkney	0	1	0	0	2
	Shetland	0	0	0	0	0
	Tayside	26	51	55	64	36
	Western Isles	0	0	0	0	1
	Unspecified	0	0	0	0	0
	Total	539	848	817	821	825
Syphilis³	NHS Board	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
	Argyll and Clyde	n/a	0	1	3	3
	Ayrshire and Arran	n/a	0	0	1	0
	Borders	n/a	0	0	0	0
	Dumfries and Galloway	n/a	0	0	0	0
	Fife	n/a	0	3	1	0
	Forth Valley	n/a	0	1	0	0
	Grampian	n/a	0	0	0	6
	Greater Glasgow	n/a	4	8	24	39
	Highland	n/a	0	0	0	0
	Lanarkshire	n/a	0	0	0	4
	Lothian	n/a	0	0	14	15
	Orkney	n/a	0	0	0	0
	Shetland	n/a	0	0	0	0
	Tayside	n/a	0	0	0	2
	Western Isles	n/a	0	0	0	0
	Unspecified	n/a	0	0	0	2
	Total	n/a	4	13	43	71

Source: The Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health - August 2004.

Notes:

1. These data represent the total number of new laboratory confirmed diagnoses made for each organism on a yearly basis. It is not possible to extract data on new episodes of the same infection for any particular individual over the course of a year or over this five year period.

2. "NHS Board" refers to the board from which the patient was referred for testing.

3. Enhanced surveillance for infectious syphilis began in Scotland in late 2002, with data retrospectively collected to 2000. No data for Aberdeen GUM clinic were available for 2001 and 2002. There were also no data available from Edinburgh in 2001, although there were an estimated one to two cases.

It is against the background of the rise in sexually transmitted infections that the proposed National Sexual Health Strategy, which has been the subject of consultation, is being prepared. Other initiatives include Healthy Respect, the health demonstration project in Lothian, and the range of activities on sexual health carried out by NHS Health Scotland across its programme areas.

Question reference: S2W-09810

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 18 August 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people convicted of rape in each of the last 10 years had a previous conviction for the same offence in total and broken down into (a) police force area and (b) sheriff court district.

Question reference: S2W-09815

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 18 August 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many police officers were on long-term sick leave in each of the last five years, broken down by police force area.

The number of officers on long-termsick leave at any given time is not held centrally. Information on the number oflong-term sick absences, defined as periods of sick leave of more than 28 days duration,for each the last five years available, is shown in the following table.

Number of Long-Term SickAbsences for Police Officers in Scottish Forces

	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Central Scotland Police	51	79	66	75	78
Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary	27	37	34	37	34
Fife Constabulary	54	50	57	53	56
Grampian Police	75	91	55	66	48
Lothian and Borders Police	296	254	338	324	365
Northern Constabulary	39	32	49	50	63
Strathclyde Police	1,015	815	812	740	788
Tayside Police	240	124	140	114	97
All Forces	1,797	1,482	1,551	1,459	1,529

Note: Sourceis Annual Statistical Returns from forces as submitted to HM Inspectorate of Constabulary.

Question reference: S2W-09753

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 17 August 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-21756 by Ross Finnie on 14 January 2002, which areas are designated nitrate vulnerable 'ones (NVZs); what guidance and grant assistance has been issued to farmers on NVZs, and what the results of the monitoring of river water quality have been in each of the last five years, broken down by river.

Four areas were designated as nitrate vulnerable zones (NVZs) on the basis of nitrate concentrations in groundwater: Moray, Aberdeenshire, Banff and Buchan; Strathmore and Fife; Lothian and Borders, and Lower Nithsdale: they comprise 14% of the land area of Scotland. A detailed guidance pack was issued to all farmers in the NVZs in 2003, and the NVZ Grant Scheme provides assistance for installing or improving livestock slurry or manure storage systems or silage effluent tanks. The river water results in the NVZs over the past five years, shown as the number of surface monitoring sites within set ranges of average concentrations, are as follows:

NVZ Area *	mg/l nitrate	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Moray, Aberdeenshire, Banff, Buchan	0-25	13	13	13	13	12
Moray, Aberdeenshire, Banff, Buchan	25-40	4	4	4	4	5
Moray, Aberdeenshire, Banff, Buchan	¡Ý 40	0	0	0	0	0
Strathmore, Fife	0-25	16	15	18	18	18
Strathmore, Fife	25-40	6	6	7	7	9
Strathmore, Fife	40-50	5	5	3	3	1
Strathmore, Fife	¡Ý 50	1	2	0	0	0
Lothian, Borders	0-25	15	15	16	15	16
Lothian, Borders	25-40	4	4	3	4	3
Lothian, Borders	¡Ý 40	0	0	0	0	0
Lower Nithsdale	0-25	1	1	1	1	1

Note: *In some NVZs the data represents more than one site on a single river.

Question reference: S2W-09773

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Frank McAveety on 17 August 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive which sporting bodies received funding from (a) sportscotland and (b) other sources in each of the last five years and how much was allocated in each case

This information is published in sportscotland’s Annual Reports and Annual Lottery Sports Fund reports. Copies of these can be obtained from sportscotland and/or accessed online via the sportscotland website, www.sportscotland.org.uk.

We do not have the information on what awards were made to sporting bodies by sources other than sportscotland over the last five years.

If the member wishes information about a specific body or category of body, sportscotland would be pleased to assist if it can.

Question reference: S2W-09807

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 16 August 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were (a) prosecuted and (b) convicted of fire-raising as the main charge in each of the last five years (i) in total and (ii) broken down by police force area.

The available information is given in the following table.

Persons Proceeded Against in Scottish Courts for Fire-Raising¹, 1998-2002

Police Force Area	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002²
Total number proceeded against:
Central	10	8	6	11	14
Dumfries and Galloway	8	7	3	9	5
Fife	13	10	18	14	18
Grampian	9	13	10	18	16
Lothian and Borders	20	18	19	16	24
Northern	14	8	5	8	11
Strathclyde	56	56	60	63	52
Tayside	20	19	13	13	17
Scotland	150	139	134	152	157
Number with charge proved:
Central	10	5	4	9	12
Dumfries and Galloway	6	7	2	6	4
Fife	10	8	13	14	15
Grampian	6	13	9	12	10
Lothian and Borders	19	15	15	16	22
Northern	14	7	5	8	8
Strathclyde	41	44	44	45	48
Tayside	16	9	11	9	16
Scotland	122	108	103	119	135

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Recording delays mean that persons proceeded against where the charge was not proved may be under-stated in the totals for persons proceeded against.

Question reference: S2W-09711

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 16 August 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients have been treated for depression in each year since 2000, broken down by age.