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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 8820 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S3W-40162

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to investigate the shortage of specialist facilities for children with chronic pain.

We are aware that service provision is not uniform across Scotland. Following the recruitment of the new National Lead Clinician for Chronic Pain, NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (QIS) will undertake a scoping exercise with NHS boards to assess the service levels in each board and how the levels relate to the agreed service model for chronic pain.

The Chronic Pain Steering Group is considering a range of issues as part of its work programme which includes the needs of children and young people with chronic pain.

Question reference: S3W-40292

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 16 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many incidents of vancomycin-resistant enterococcus infection there have been in 2010-11, broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) hospital.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-40291 on 16 March 2011. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

In addition, Health Protection Scotland (HPS) have advised that hospital level data on organisms is not collected centrally. For 2010-11 (up to 9 March 2011), the numbers of enterococcol bacteraemias reported for each NHS board are as follows:

Number of Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcal Bacteraemias Reported to HPS

NHS Board
Ayrshire and Arran	3
Borders	2
Dumfries and Galloway	0
Fife	7
Forth Valley	3
NWTC	0
Grampian	2
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	5
Highland	2
Lanarkshire	8
Lothian	18
Tayside	1
Western Isles	0

Question reference: S3W-40291

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 16 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many incidents of vancomycin-resistant enterococcus infection there have been in each year since 2007.

Health Protection Scotland have advised the number of infections due to Enterococcus species cannot be determined by using data derived from the laboratory reports, as it is not possible to distinguish between infections and instances which might be due to either colonisation or faecal contamination.

In those instances where Enterococcus species have been isolated from blood samples (known as enterococcal bacteraemia), it can be deduced that this was probably a true infection. The number of reports of vancomycin-resistant enterococcal (VRE) bacteraemias due to the two commonest species of enterococci, (Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus faecalis) received each year in Scotland was as follows:

2007 “ no data available. Surveillance of VRE did not start until 2008.

2008 “ 35

2009 “ 72

2010 “ 46

2011 “ 5 (reports received to 09 March 2011).

Question reference: S3W-40289

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 16 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there will be Barnett consequentials arising from the service pupil premium proposed by the UK Government and, if so, how much.

Question reference: S3W-40288

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 16 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the service pupil premium proposed by the UK Government will apply in Scotland.

The pupil premium scheme proposed by the UK Government will not apply in Scotland.

The distribution formula used to allocate the Scottish Government''s funding to local authorities has been developed over a number of years and is based on the relative need of each local authority, including levels of deprivation. In addition, education funding is a devolved issue thus the UK Government proposed pupil premium will not apply in Scotland.

The method takes into account variations in the demands for services and the costs of providing them to a similar standard, and with a similar degree of efficiency.

Question reference: S3W-40290

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 16 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what action NHS Tayside is taking in relation to the outbreak of vancomycin-resistant enterococcus infection.

An Incident Management Team has been established and is meeting regularly to review progress; standard and contact infection prevention and control precautions have been reinforced to all staff; and surveillance screening has been introduced for all patients in the affected clinical areas.

Health Protection Scotland have visited and are working with NHS Tayside and I am being kept fully informed of developments.

Question reference: S3W-40287

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 16 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what review it has undertaken on Recommendation 11 of The Mackie Report: Access to specialist neuromuscular care and social care in Scotland by the Cross Party Group on Muscular Dystrophy.

Question reference: S3W-40464

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 16 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will maximise receipts for the sale of surplus NHS land and buildings.

Although held in the name of Scottish Ministers, the day-to-day management of NHS property is a matter devolved to individual NHS boards to undertake following well established guidance and mandatory procedures as directed by the NHSScotland Property Transactions Handbook.

It is essential that management of transactions is based upon best commercial practice informed by public accountability requirements and that property is bought, sold and leased at a price and on other conditions which are best obtainable for the public interest at that time.

Question reference: S3W-40459

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 16 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) revenue and (b) capital allocation is for each NHS board for 2011-12.

Question reference: S3W-40433

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 16 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many civil servants are employed by its health directorate, broken down by pay scale.

The following table lists the number of civil servants employed within the Health and Social Care DG area:

Pay Range	Number of Permanent Staff Employed	Number of Fixed Term Appointment Staff Employed
A3	96	0
A4	21	0
B1	69	0
B2	124	0
B3	91	1
BFS	6	0
C1	59	1
C2	52	1
C3	6	1
SCS	29	0
Total	553	4

Notes:

Data correct as at 28 February 2011. Inward secondees are not included.

Directorates included are:

Directorate for Chief Medical Officer, Public Health and Sport;

Directorate for Chief Nursing Officer, Patients, Public and Health Professions;

Directorate for Children and Families;

Directorate for Health and Healthcare Improvement;

Directorate for Health and Social Care Integration;

Directorate for Health Delivery;

Directorate for Health Finance and Information;

Directorate for Health Workforce, and

DG and Support Team.