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: S3W-22074

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 March 2009
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 2 April 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-3432 by Stewart Stevenson on 3 September 2007, how many Scottish national entitlement card holders have qualified for a concessionary travel companion card since August 2007, broken down by local authority area.

Information available to Transport Scotland indicates that as of 27 February 2009 there were 1,122,846 valid National Entitlement Cards in circulation giving access to Scotland-Wide Free Bus Travel for Older and Disabled People.

The following table shows the number of National Entitlement Card holders who qualify for the companion entitlement as of 27 February 2009, broken down by local authority. The total number currently in circulation is 104,277.

Local Authority	Category of Disabled Plus Companion	Eligibility Visually Impaired Plus Companion	Totals
Aberdeen City	2,282	583	2,865
Aberdeenshire	1,512	403	1,915
Angus	660	137	797
Argyll and Bute	1,272	202	1,474
City of Edinburgh	9,167	1,188	10,355
Clackmannanshire	547	58	605
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	149	20	169
Dumfries and Galloway	1,207	429	1,636
Dundee City	2,445	405	2,850
East Ayrshire	2,472	231	2,703
East Dunbartonshire	1,121	149	1,270
East Lothian	1,674	226	1,900
East Renfrewshire	955	110	1,065
Falkirk	1,391	290	1,681
Fife	12,810	881	13,691
Glasgow	17,618	1,475	19,093
Highland	1,915	562	2,477
Inverclyde	2,256	209	2,465
Midlothian	1,626	232	1,858
Moray	703	180	883
North Ayrshire	2,953	361	3,314
North Lanarkshire	6,665	536	7,201
Orkney Islands	213	19	232
Perth and Kinross	953	252	1,205
Renfrewshire	3,577	379	3,956
Scottish Borders	861	221	1,082
Shetland Islands	228	24	252
South Ayrshire	2,047	265	2,312
South Lanarkshire	5,794	601	6,395
Stirling	611	133	744
West Dunbartonshire	2,292	242	2,534
West Lothian	3,029	269	3,298
Totals	93,005	11,272	104,277

Question reference: S3W-22034

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 March 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 April 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many referrals sportscotland made to ministers upholding objections to development on playing fields and in how many cases the objections were upheld in each year since 1999.

Sportscotland has no powers to notify planning applications to Scottish ministers. Where sportscotland lodges and maintains an objection it is the responsibility of the planning authority, if minded to grant planning consent, to decide whether the planning application requires to be notified to Scottish ministers. However, the following represents the number of planning applications notified by planning authorities since 1999:

Year	Cases Referred to Scottish Ministers due to Sportscotland Objections	Cases Called in by Scottish Ministers for Determination
1999-2000	1	1
2000-01	2	1
2001-02	0	0
2002-03	4	1
2003-04	2	0
2004-05	2	1
2005-06	3	1
2006-07	0	0
2007-08	2	1
2008-09	2	0

Question reference: S3W-21935

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 March 2009
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 25 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make representations to The National Archives in Surrey for the permanent return to Scotland of the William Wallace safe conduct letter.

I have asked George MacKenzie, Keeper of the Records of Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

The Scottish Government has no plans to request The National Archives (TNA) to transfer the William Wallace document it possesses to The National Archives of Scotland (NAS). To make a successful claim, NAS would need to demonstrate that the document belonged to Wallace in an official capacity and was therefore a record of the early Scottish state. Experts in NAS do not believe that it is a safe conduct, nor is there clear evidence that it was taken from Wallace on his capture. It does not follow the form of a safe conduct, it does not say what a safe conduct of that time would have said, and it does not have an authenticating seal.

Any request for return of a document to Scotland must be based on clear evidence about its provenance. The 1297 Lubeck letter was created in Scotland but was addressed to the city of Lubeck and it is correct that it remains there. In the case of the Wallace document in TNA, NAS genuinely does not have enough evidence to substantiate a claim that it should be returned to Scotland.

The Wallace document is well looked after in TNA and there is a digital image on their website for anyone to view. NAS will shortly launch a website feature on documents which are of significant interest to Scottish history, but which, for good reason, have ended up outside the country, including the Lubeck letter, the Poppleton manuscript and this Wallace document.

Question reference: S3W-21937

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 March 2009
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 25 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what support it is providing to grow the social enterprise sector in the current economic climate; how it publicises funding available to people wishing to set up such enterprises, and how many social enterprise companies there are.

We want Scotland to lead in the development of an enterprising third sector, including social enterprises. To support this we have increased direct investment in the sector by 37% to £93.6 million between 2008 and 2011.

We have announced support for third sector organisations, and for individuals who want to start up a new social enterprise. Information on the Enterprise Fund (£12 million) and the Social Entrepreneurs Fund (£1 million) is available on the Scottish Government website and through intermediaries such as First Port, SCVO, and the Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition.

There are no official statistics available on the number of social enterprises operating in Scotland because social enterprises do not have a separate legal status.

Question reference: S3F-01531

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 March 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Salmond on 12 March 2009

To ask the First Minister what consideration the Scottish Government has given to the Scottish Information Commissioner’s call to extend the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 to cover a wider range of organisations.

Question reference: S3O-06240

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 March 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 12 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider carrying out an economic impact assessment in relation to the support that it and other public bodies provide for football, in light of petition PE 1233 submitted by former Scotland coach Craig Brown regarding the creation of a Great Britain football team.

Question reference: S3W-20866

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 6 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many emergency hospital readmissions there have been of people aged (a) 50 to 64, (b) 65 to 74 and (c) 75 and over in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board.

The information requested has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre under Emergency Hospital Readmissions (Surgical Data) “ (Bib. number 47839) and Emergency Hospital Readmissions (Medical Data) “ (Bib. number 47840).

The tables show information on the number of emergency hospital admissions within 28 days of discharge by NHS board of treatment for people aged 50 to 64 years, 65 to 74 years and 75 years and over for calendar years 1999-2007. The information is presented separately for surgical and medical speciality groupings as the readmission rates can differ markedly between these two groups.

Question reference: S3W-20867

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 6 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-11102 by Andy Kerr on 19 November 2004, whether it will provide the same information on hospital readmission rates in each year since 2004.

The following tables show the number of emergency hospital admissions within 28 days of discharge by age group for calendar years 2004-07. The information has been presented separately for surgical and medical specialty groupings as the readmission rates can differ markedly between these two groups.

Emergency admissions within 28 days will include cases that are readmissions for complications resulting from the original hospital stay but will also encompass cases completely unrelated to the previous discharge from hospital.

28 Day Readmission Rate following Discharge from a Surgical Specialty in a Scottish Hospital, 2004-07

		2004	2005	2006	2007
0-14 years	Discharges	37,184	37,595	37,080	38,025
	Emergency Readmissions	1,446	1,411	1,337	1,445
	Percentage (%)	3.9	3.8	3.6	3.8
15-24 years	Discharges	44,498	44,659	45,691	46,797
	Emergency Readmissions	2,110	2,072	2,234	2,421
	Percentage (%)	4.7	4.6	4.9	5.2
25-44 years	Discharges	119,062	117,729	118,836	118,109
	Emergency Readmissions	5,875	5,582	6,125	6,578
	Percentage (%)	4.9	4.7	5.2	5.6
45-64 years	Discharges	136,227	140,578	147,752	150,246
	Emergency Readmissions	6,896	7,287	7,702	8,013
	Percentage (%)	5.1	5.2	5.2	5.3
65 and over	Discharges	155,351	159,097	166,190	170,256
	Emergency Readmissions	11,077	10,817	11,467	12,128
	Percentage (%)	7.1	6.8	6.9	7.1
All ages	Discharges	492,322	499,658	515,549	523,433
	Emergency Readmissions	27,404	27,169	28,865	30,585
	Percentage (%)	5.6	5.4	5.6	5.8

Source: ISD Scotland.

28 Day Readmission Rate following Discharge from a Medical Specialty in a Scottish Hospital, 2004-07

		2004	2005	2006	2007
0-14 years	Discharges	54,843	55,223	58,573	57,337
	Emergency Readmissions	5,962	5,933	6,399	6,494
	Percentage (%)	10.9	10.7	10.9	11.3
15-24 years	Discharges	19,721	19,925	21,497	22,659
	Emergency Readmissions	1,836	1,744	2,090	2,230
	Percentage (%)	9.3	8.8	9.7	9.8
25-44 years	Discharges	69,440	69,422	71,723	73,245
	Emergency Readmissions	5,827	5,746	6,384	7,290
	Percentage (%)	8.4	8.3	8.9	10.0
45-64 years	Discharges	144,502	146,085	152,036	154,159
	Emergency Readmissions	12,805	12,935	14,476	16,052
	Percentage (%)	8.9	8.9	9.5	10.4
65 and over	Discharges	191,061	193,836	202,126	207,691
	Emergency Readmissions	24,443	24,716	27,207	29,554
	Percentage (%)	12.8	12.8	13.5	14.2
All ages	Discharges	479,567	484,491	505,955	515,091
	Emergency Readmissions	50,873	51,074	56,556	61,620
	Percentage (%)	10.6	10.5	11.2	12.0

Source: ISD Scotland.

Question reference: S3O-06143

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 March 2009
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 5 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many responses it has received to the National Conversation.

Question reference: S3W-20906

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 4 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive which NHS boards no longer use hyaluronan injections; on what basis these decisions were taken, and whether it considers that such injections should be available to patients irrespective of where they live.

It is not possible to identify from prescribing data available centrally which NHS boards no longer use hyaluronan injections. These data relate to items dispensed in the community by community pharmacists and dispensing doctors and do not include products dispensed in hospitals or hospital-based clinics.

Ultimately the decision whether or not to prescribe a treatment for a patient is a matter for the clinical judgement of the patient''s doctor, informed by advice and evidence about the treatment.