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-07050

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 7 December 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many forced marriages have been annulled by Scottish courts in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S3W-07052

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 5 December 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to raise awareness of the unacceptability of forced marriages in Scotland and to ensure that relevant support services have the necessary access and resources to offer assistance to individuals who are subject to or under threat of forced marriages.

In 2008 the ScottishGovernment plans to consult the people of Scotland on whether civil legislationshould be introduced to protect those affected by forced marriage, or that thereis currently sufficient legal protection. This consultation will link with the workcurrently underway within communities to raise awareness of this very serious issue.Members of the Forced Marriage Network are key to this activity and the networkwill reconvene in 2008 to furtherdevelop the Scottish Government’s work in this area.

The majority of theorganisations working to support those affected by forced marriage are funded bythe Scottish Government. We recently demonstrated our on-going commitment to tacklingViolence Against Women by allocating £40 million over the next three years to thiswork.

Question reference: S3W-07054

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 5 December 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what procedures and protocols are in place with (a) the Home Office and (b) other nations in respect of Scottish nationals who are the victims of forced marriages and who have been removed from Scotland.

Question reference: S3W-07053

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 5 December 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what specific support there is for victims of forced marriages.

The Scottish Governmentis working with partners in the public and voluntary sector to progress action inScotland on this matter. Currently, there are a rangeof organisations working with those affected by forced marriage, including Shaktiand Hemat Gryffe Women’s Aid, Saheliya, Amina the Muslim Women’s Resource Centreand the Council of British Pakistanis (Scotland). This is in addition to mainstream services offered by the police, localauthorities and Women’s Aid groups. All these organisations are members of the ScottishForced Marriage Network which was established in March 2005, and played a key rolein the joint UK Government/Scottish Government consultation on whether tocriminalise forced marriage. It is planned to reconvene the network in 2008 to furtherdevelop the Scottish Government’s work to tackle this very serious issue.

Question reference: S3W-07051

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 5 December 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) women and (b) men have contacted Scottish Government agencies or departments seeking assistance or advice about forced marriages in each year since 2002.

Question reference: S3W-07395

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 03 December 2007
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 5 December 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-32 by Richard Lochhead on 31 May 2007, when the regulations in respect of the transportation of puppies pursuant to the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 will be laid.

Question reference: S3W-06731

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 28 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-22125 by Andy Kerr on 19 January 2006, how many psychologists have been employed by each NHS board in each year since 2004, broken down by category and expressed also on a per capita basis.

The following tablesshow the whole-time equivalent (WTE) of NHS employed psychologists by NHS boardarea and the ratio per capita population per one WTE of all NHS-employedapplied psychologists. Whole-time equivalent adjusts head count to take accountof part-time working.

Table 1: ClinicalPsychologists (WTE) by NHS Board at 30 September 2004

	Clinical Psychologists Grade B	Clinical Psychologists Grade A	Other Applied Psychologists*	Total WTE of all Applied Psychologists	Ratio Per Capita Population to 1 WTE of all Applied Psychologists
Argyll and Clyde	10.70	12.20	2.00	24.90	16,693
Ayrshire and Arran	11.00	10.30	1.86	23.16	15,872
Borders	3.90	5.10	1.00	10.00	10,927
Dumfries and Galloway	8.20	4.65	1.00	13.85	10,681
Fife	14.00	24.10	3.00	41.10	8,626
Forth Valley	8.50	7.10	0.80	16.40	17,181
Grampian	9.85	27.30	6.01	43.16	12,141
Greater Glasgow	45.45	50.63	4.90	100.98	8,587
Highland	4.80	8.30	-	13.10	16,133
Lanarkshire	9.70	20.60	3.50	33.80	16,453
Lothian	25.04	31.46	4.40	60.90	12,931
State Hospital	2.70	5.45	1.00	9.15	-
Tayside	11.50	16.60	.	28.10	13,484
Scotland	165.34	223.79	29.47	418.60	12,132

Table 2: ClinicalPsychologists (WTE) by NHS Board at 30 September 2005

	Clinical Psychologists Grade B	Clinical Psychologists Grade A	Other Applied Psychologists*	Total WTE of all Applied Psychologists	Ratio Per Capita Population to 1 WTE of all Applied Psychologists
Argyll and Clyde	10.50	13.40	2.00	25.90	16,049
Ayrshire and Arran	11.00	10.10	1.86	22.96	16,010
Borders	3.20	3.70	1.00	7.90	13,832
Dumfries and Galloway	8.55	2.98	2.00	13.53	10,933
Fife	16.20	29.98	4.00	50.18	7,065
Forth Valley	8.40	6.30	0.80	15.50	18,178
Grampian	10.05	32.65	5.80	48.50	10,805
Greater Glasgow	45.90	55.93	4.90	106.73	8,124
Highland	3.80	8.30	-	12.10	17,466
Lanarkshire	9.70	16.00	3.50	29.20	19,045
Lothian	28.29	39.06	5.61	72.96	10,794
Shetland	1.00	-	-	1.00	21,940
State Hospital	2.70	6.74	1.00	10.44	-
Tayside	10.50	14.20	-	24.70	15,705
Scotland	169.79	239.32	32.47	441.59	11,500

Table 3: ClinicalPsychologists (WTE) by NHS Board at 30 September 2006

	Clinical Psychologists Grade B	Clinical Psychologists Grade A	Other Applied Psychologists*	Total WTE of all Applied Psychologists	Ratio Per Capita Population to 1 WTE of all Applied Psychologists
Ayrshire and Arran	10.90	12.60	1.86	25.36	14,472
Borders	3.40	6.50	1.00	10.90	10,067
Dumfries and Galloway	8.55	5.00	2.00	15.55	9,540
Fife	15.80	34.58	4.00	54.38	6,559
Forth Valley	7.20	9.66	0.88	17.74	16,030
Grampian	9.55	32.00	7.00	48.55	10,833
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	54.45	78.63	7.60	140.68	8,466
Highland	5.40	10.05	-	15.45	19,706
Lanarkshire	10.25	13.20	5.60	29.05	19,177
Lothian	29.84	40.84	6.00	76.68	10,336
Shetland	1.00	-	-	1.00	22,000
State Hospital	4.30	6.35	3.70	14.35	-
Tayside	10.50	14.80	2.00	27.30	14,275
Scotland	171.14	264.20	41.63	476.97	10,682

Source: ISD Scotland, IR2007-02875.

Note: *OtherApplied Psychologists includes counselling psychologists, health psychologists,forensic psychologists and neuropsychologists.

Table 1: ClinicalPsychologists (WTE) by NHS Board at 30 September 2004

	Clinical Psychologists Grade B	Clinical Psychologists Grade A	Other Applied Psychologists*	Total WTE of all Applied Psychologists
Argyll and Clyde	10.70	12.20	2.00	24.90
Ayrshire and Arran	11.00	10.30	1.86	23.16
Borders	3.90	5.10	1.00	10.00
Dumfries and Galloway	8.20	4.65	1.00	13.85
Fife	14.00	24.10	3.00	41.10
Forth Valley	8.50	7.10	0.80	16.40
Grampian	9.85	27.30	6.01	43.16
Greater Glasgow	45.45	50.63	4.90	100.98
Highland	4.80	8.30	-	13.10
Lanarkshire	9.70	20.60	3.50	33.80
Lothian	25.04	31.46	4.40	60.90
State Hospital	2.70	5.45	1.00	9.15
Tayside	11.50	16.60	.	28.10
Scotland	165.34	223.79	29.47	418.60

Table 2: ClinicalPsychologists (WTE) by NHS Board at 30 September 2005

	Clinical Psychologists Grade B	Clinical Psychologists Grade A	Other Applied Psychologists*	Total WTE of all Applied Psychologists
Argyll and Clyde	10.50	13.40	2.00	25.90
Ayrshire and Arran	11.00	10.10	1.86	22.96
Borders	3.20	3.70	1.00	7.90
Dumfries and Galloway	8.55	2.98	2.00	13.53
Fife	16.20	29.98	4.00	50.18
Forth Valley	8.40	6.30	0.80	15.50
Grampian	10.05	32.65	5.80	48.50
Greater Glasgow	45.90	55.93	4.90	106.73
Highland	3.80	8.30	-	12.10
Lanarkshire	9.70	16.00	3.50	29.20
Lothian	28.29	39.06	5.61	72.96
Shetland	1.00	-	-	1.00
State Hospital	2.70	6.74	1.00	10.44
Tayside	10.50	14.20	-	24.70
Scotland	169.79	239.32	32.47	441.59

Table 3: ClinicalPsychologists (WTE) by NHS Board at 30 September 2006

	Clinical Psychologists Grade B	Clinical Psychologists Grade A	Other Applied Psychologists*	Total WTE of all Applied Psychologists
Ayrshire and Arran	10.90	12.60	1.86	25.36
Borders	3.40	6.50	1.00	10.90
Dumfries and Galloway	8.55	5.00	2.00	15.55
Fife	15.80	34.58	4.00	54.38
Forth Valley	7.20	9.66	0.88	17.74
Grampian	9.55	32.00	7.00	48.55
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	54.45	78.63	7.60	140.68
Highland	5.40	10.05	-	15.45
Lanarkshire	10.25	13.20	5.60	29.05
Lothian	29.84	40.84	6.00	76.68
Shetland	1.00	-	-	1.00
State Hospital	4.30	6.35	3.70	14.35
Tayside	10.50	14.80	2.00	27.30
Scotland	171.14	264.20	41.63	476.97

Note: *OtherApplied Psychologists includes counselling psychologists, health psychologists,forensic psychologists and neuropsychologists.

Question reference: S3W-05321

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 October 2007
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 27 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many burials were organised and paid for by each local authority in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S3W-06732

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 26 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting time has been for a first appointment with a psychologist from referral in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board area.

Question reference: S3O-01225

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will increase funding to the Chief Scientist for medical research purposes, in light of media reports of a lack of research, among other things, into inter alia the causes of multiple sclerosis.