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: S4W-10794

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 13 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-09911 by Alex Neil on 25 October 2012, whether there are practising doctors who have a (a) sexual offence or (b) child pornography conviction and, if so, how many.

Question reference: S4W-10795

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 13 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government whether the position of NHS Health Scotland's Head of People and Performance replaces that of Head of Human Resources and what (a) the starting salaries are for each post and (b) differences there are in responsibility.

Earlier this year, NHS Health Scotland merged five posts into two resulting in annual savings of £126,311.

The Head of People and Performance is a new post. It has a far wider ranging remit than the previous post of Head of HR, and now encompasses HR responsibility, organisational staff development, and organisational planning and performance.

The starting salary for Head of People and Performance is £54,454. The former position of Head of HR had a starting salary of £45,254.

Question reference: S4W-10789

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 13 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many inspections the Care Inspectorate carried out (a) in 2011-12 and (b) from April to end September 2012.

Question reference: S4W-10796

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 13 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what the most recent level is of bullying and harassment reported by staff at NHS Health Scotland and how it is addressing this.

The 2010 NHSScotland Staff Survey results reveal that, of the 273 NHS Health Scotland members of staff who responded to the survey (91% response rate), 19% reported experiencing bullying and harassment in the workplace during the previous 12 months. Of that figure, 58% indicated that they had experienced bullying and harassment from a manager or team leader and 64% indicated that that they had experienced bullying and harassment from colleagues. The staff survey respondents indicate that 40% of these incidences were reported.

The bullying and harassment of any member of staff is unacceptable. The Scottish Government is encouraging a performance culture in which NHS employees in Scotland are clear about the need to deliver results and where managers are clear about the boundaries between effective management and inappropriate behaviour.

We have provided advice and guidance to NHS boards on dealing effectively with bullying and harassment in the NHS in the form of the Preventing & Dealing with Bullying and Harassment in NHSScotland PIN Policy, which was published in November 2011.

I have been assured by NHS Health Scotland the bullying and harassment issues highlighted in the 2010 staff survey are being addressed. The focus of their activity has been to ensure that the policy of zero tolerance is explicit within the culture of NHS Health Scotland and they will be conducting a staff survey in December 2012 to measure improvement.

Question reference: S4W-10788

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 02 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 13 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many improvement notices the Care Inspectorate issued (a) in 2011-12 and (b) from April to end September 2012.

The Care Inspectorate has responsibility for inspecting, regulating and supporting improvement of care and social work and child protection services across Scotland.

The Care Inspectorate has powers under section 62 of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 to serve an improvement notice on a care service, specifying the improvements required to bring a care service up to the standards required and the timescale for meeting these standards.

The total number of improvement notices issued by the Care Inspectorate in the period (a) between 1 April 2011 and 31 March 2012 was 74 and (b) between 1 April and 30 September 2012 was 31.

Question reference: S4W-10772

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 November 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 12 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-03874 by Nicola Sturgeon on 15 November 2011, whether there is a central surplus asset register for all NHS boards.

Question reference: S4O-01466

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 November 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many transcatheter aortic valve implantation procedures have been performed in Scotland since the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing announced that these would be made routinely available.

Question reference: S4W-10439

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 7 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S4W-09775, S4W-09805, S4W-09806, and S4W-09807 by Nicola Sturgeon on 22 October 2012, whether the Scottish Government Defence Policy Unit has a work programme and, if so, (a) what this is, (b) what work it is doing and (c) what its justification is for this in light of the cabinet secretary's response that "decisions on defence budgets in an independent Scotland are subject to future consideration and approval by the Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament".

The work programme of the Defence Policy Unit, which is a part of Resilience Division, provides support to Ministers, to our Armed Forces and Veterans and to our communities across a range of defence activity in Scotland. This includes: ensuring that Scotland’s personnel, their families and veterans can access inclusive, quality services as outlined in the Scottish Government’s “Our Commitments” paper; supporting the relationship between defence bases and the communities that host them; supporting Scottish Ministers in developing defence policies for the constitutional options open to the people of Scotland; and liaising with the UK Government and the armed forces on defence issues and impacts in Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-10437

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 7 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-09775 by Nicola Sturgeon on 22 October 2012, what the (a) grades and (b) responsibilities are of each of the officials in the Scottish Government Defence Policy Unit.

The Defence Policy Unit, which forms part of Resilience Division, currently comprises seven officials whose respective grades are C2, C1, 3 B3s, B2 and B1. The work of any one official will contribute to a number of strands of the Unit’s work. For details of the work programme of the Defence Policy Unit, I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-10439 on 7 November 2012. 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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Question reference: S4W-10389

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 October 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 6 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-09794 by Alex Neil on 22 October 2012, when the Adult Health and Social Integration Bill will be introduced.