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: S1W-09139

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 August 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 4 September 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what primary and secondary indicators are taken account of in local authority funding settlements.

Question reference: S1W-08755

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 July 2000
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 4 September 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-8351 by Susan Deacon on 13 July 2000, who the members of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation are.

As at its meeting in January 2000, the membership of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) was:

Professor Michael Langman (Acting Chairman), Professor of Medicine, University of Birmingham

Professor Roy Anderson, Professor of Infectious Disease and Epidemiology, University of Oxford

Dr Robert Aston, Consultant in Communicable Disease Control/Immunisation Co-ordinator, Wigan and Bolton Health Authority

Dr Barbara Bannister, Infectious Disease Physician/Consultant in Communicable Disease Control, Coppett's Wood Hospital (Royal Free Hospital)

Professor Keith Cartwright, Microbiologist, Director, Gloucester Public Health Laboratory

Dr Stephen Conway, Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases, Leeds

Ms Gillian Creighton, Nurse, Neighbourhood Manager, Ealing, Hammersmith and Hounslow Health Authority

Dr David Goldblatt, Paediatric Immunologist, Senior Lecturer/Honorary Consultant, Institute of Child Health

Dr David Joynson, Medical Microbiologist, Director, Swansea Public Health Laboratory

Dr Colin Kennedy, Paediatric Neurologist, Southampton University Hospital

Dr Karl Nicholson, Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Infectious Diseases, Leicester University and Leicester Royal Infirmary

Dr Marie Ogilvie, Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Medical Virology, Edinburgh University Medical School

Professor Lewis Ritchie, General Practitioner and Professor of General Practice, Aberdeen University

Dr Richard Smithson, Consultant in Communicable Disease Control/Immunisation Co-ordinator, Western Health and Social Services Board

Dr Diana Walford, Director, Public Health Laboratory Service

Dr Chris Bartlett, Director, Public Health Laboratory Service Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre

Dr Ian Jones, Director, Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health

Professor George Griffin, Chairman, Medical Research Council Committee on Development of Vaccines and Immunological Practices

Dr Geoffrey Schild, Director, National Institute of Biological Standards and Control

A number of members have come to the end of their terms of appointment and any changes to the membership will be announced in the near future.

Question reference: S1W-08831

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 July 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 4 September 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in the light of the #60 billion earmarked for railways in the recent announcement about transport funding, it will request funding for the reinstatement of the Borders Railway from Edinburgh to Carlisle in the directions and guidance to be issued to the Strategic Rail Authority.

Scottish Borders Council has submitted an application to the third round of the Public Transport Fund for the cost of securing the necessary permissions for reinstating the railway between Edinburgh and the Central Borders. I will consider that carefully alongside other applications to the fund. Thereafter the promoters of the railway would be able to seek additional public and private funding from various sources for the capital costs of the project itself. The Scottish Borders Railway Feasibility Study, funded by the Executive and other key stakeholders in the project, provides a wealth of information to underpin any such application.

We will shortly be consulting on strategic priorities for Scotland's railways as part of the process of developing directions and guidance to the Strategic Rail Authority on the franchise for passenger rail services that start and end in Scotland. During this process we will give consideration to a wide range of issues, including proposals for additions to the passenger rail network such as the reinstatement of the Borders railway.

Question reference: S1W-09117

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 August 2000
Current Status: Answered by Iain Gray on 1 September 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what funds were allocated by it to (a) residential homes, (b) nursing homes, (c) respite care and (d) Care in the Community and what were the actual funds disbursed, broken down in each case by each local authority, in 1999-2000.

The grant aided expenditure allocated to each local authority for services for home-based elderly, residential accommodation for the elderly and for other social work services for 1999-2000 is listed in the Scottish Executive document Grant Aided Expenditure 1999-2000, which is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre, Bib. No. 3274. It should be emphasised that grant aided expenditure assessments form a basis for the allocation of total central government grant to local authorities; they are not spending targets or guidelines.

Figures for expenditure by local authorities are contained in the CIPFA publication Rating Review: Estimates of Income and Expenditure 1999-2000, also available in the Information Centre, Bib. No. 7547.

Question reference: S1W-09134

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 August 2000
Current Status: Answered by Iain Gray on 1 September 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether local authority funding for care of the elderly in (a) residential homes, (b) nursing homes, (c) respite care and (d) Care in the Community is ring-fenced.

Question reference: S1W-05411

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 March 2000
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 31 August 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive how many paediatric patients in the Scottish Borders will be affected by the centralisation of paediatric cardiac surgery in Glasgow.

On the basis of numbers in recent years, and taking into account the reducing trend in the need for paediatric cardiac surgery, it seems likely that around 4-7 children each year from the Borders Health Board area will require to have this form of surgery in Glasgow. Children from Dumfries & Galloway Health Board are already referred to Glasgow for cardiac surgery.

This question was originally answered on 24 May 2000.

Question reference: S1W-08291

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 June 2000
Current Status: Answered by Iain Gray on 30 August 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive how much central funding for action against alcohol abuse was made available in each of the last five years to date, in cash and real terms.

Funding for tackling alcohol misuse is provided to health boards and local authorities, however the funding is not specifically earmarked for this use and it is up to them to decide how best to meet the needs of their resident population. Details of alcohol specific budgets held within the Health Department of the Scottish Executive and the Health Education Board for Scotland for the last three years are detailed below. This also includes voluntary body grants provisions under section 9 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 and section 16B of the NHS (Scotland) Act 1978.Scottish Executive Alcohol Misuse Central Funding

£000
1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000
£463	£461	£993.601

Health Education Board Scotland (HEBS) Expenditure Specifically on Alcohol

£000
1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000
£244	£275	£282

Notes:

1. The HEBS figures do not include the general contributions to alcohol abuse of non-specific initiatives.

2. Changes in accounting arrangements mean that it is only possible to provide comparable figures for the last three years.

Question reference: S1W-07727

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2000
Current Status: Answered by Iain Gray on 30 August 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the Deputy Minister for Community Care's statement in the debate on drugs misuse on 20 January 2000 (col 385), what plans it has to propose a debate on alcohol misuse.

Question reference: S1W-08760

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 July 2000
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 25 August 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-2130 by Sarah Boyack on 6 July 2000, whether the financing of the Borders railway line was discussed at the meeting with the Shadow Strategic Rail Authority on 26 June 2000 following the motion agreed by the Parliament on 1 June 2000 and whether any finance will be available from this source to reinstate the entire line from Edinburgh to Carlisle.

Question reference: S1W-07947

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 25 August 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-4524 by Mr Jim Wallace on 2 March 2000, what figures it has for net outward migration from the Scottish Borders for each year from 1996 to date for the age groups 18-30, 31-45, 45-60, and over 60.

Estimates of net migration by age-group for the Scottish Borders consistent with the Registrar General's mid year estimates of population are given in the following table.

	Year ending 30 June
Age group	1996	1997	1998	1999
Under 18	40	110	150	110
18-30	-300	-340	-390	-390
31-45	150	240	280	330
46-60	200	230	220	210
60+	100	80	90	100
All ages	190	320	360	350

Notes: 1 A positive figure indicates net inward migration.

2 Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. Totals may not add due to rounding.