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-24676

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 17 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHS staff have a pay rate of under £7 per hour, broken down by NHS board.

Only points one and two on the 56 point Agenda for Change salary scale are below £7 per hour and are currently £6.76 and £6.94 respectively. Both of these rates are already substantially more than the minimum wage of £5.73 per hour. It should also be noted that all Agenda for Change staff receive incremental progression as well as cost of living increases. These are, therefore, the bottom points on scales which staff move up as their experience increases. From modelling data available centrally, it is estimated that some 8,000 staff in NHSScotland are currently on these two pay points.

It is not possible from the information held centrally to break this number down according to NHS board.

Question reference: S3W-24677

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 17 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what it would cost per annum to implement a minimum pay rate of £7 per hour for all NHS staff.

There are various approaches which could be adopted to ensure that no NHSScotland staff member received less than £7 per hour.

Depending on which approach was chosen, it is estimated that it would cost between £3.1 and £7.3 million to introduce a £7 per hour minimum wage in NHSScotland in the 2009-10 financial year. There may also be further additional costs of up to £3.4 million in 2010-11.

Question reference: S3W-24678

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 17 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the lowest hourly pay rate is for NHS staff and how many staff are employed at that rate.

Question reference: S3W-24572

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 11 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how it determines levels of funding for local authorities in terms of home improvements.

Private Sector Housing Grant (PSHG) is allocated to local authorities on the basis of a formula, made up of two distinct parts. The first is calculated on the basis of a five-year rolling average of past years'' expenditure data. The second is based on a statistical needs-based formula. The formula was updated by agreement with COSLA to put greater emphasis on the needs-based element and to move from a previous historic needs-based split of 70:30 to a 50:50 weighting respectively over a five year phasing-in period starting in 2009-10.

The needs-based element is based on a primary factor and several secondary factors are listed.

Primary Factor	Stock numbers failing the Scottish Housing Quality Standard
Secondary Factors	Average cost of repairs, % of flatted accommodation, number of households with person over 75, number of households with person sick or disabled, and ability to pay based on % of mortgage debt and number of households on low income

The ring fencing around PSHG will be removed from 2010-11 but the funding stream will continue to be separately identifiable within the overall funding stream to local authorities until the end of the five year phasing-in period.

Question reference: S3W-24574

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 11 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many households were awarded home improvement grants in each year from 2005-06 up to and including 2009-10, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S3W-24573

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 11 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many households applied for home improvement grants in each year from 2005-06 up to and including 2009-10, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S3W-24355

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 11 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has finalised the rolling stock procurement plan for the Airdrie to Bathgate line and whether the plan is in the public domain.

Question reference: S3W-24422

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Facing Dementia publication is routinely issued by GPs and consultants to people newly diagnosed with dementia.

NHS Health Scotland recently distributed 36,000 copies of Facing Dementia (Bib. number 47926) and also widely publicised its availability. This included, amongst others, copies to GP practices, Old Age psychiatrists and psychologists and lead contacts in each NHS board area.

NHS Health Scotland is considering an evaluation of its dissemination strategy with NHS Quality Improvement Scotland to establish whether the publication has reached the target audience of people with dementia and those who care for them.

Question reference: S3W-24423

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how it monitors the distribution of Facing Dementia to people newly diagnosed with dementia.

Question reference: S3W-24571

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 11 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding was made available for each local authority to carry out home improvement grants from 2005-06 up to and including 2009-10.

From 2005-06 to 2009-10, the Scottish Government has made available the amounts shown in the following table to each local authority by means of Private Sector Housing Grant, for investment in private sector housing within their area. The funding is available, not only for home improvements, but also for other assistance such as repairs and disabled adaptations and non-grant investment such as providing information and advice and funding local Care and Repair organisations. The proportion of funding spent on each form of assistance is at the discretion of local authorities in line with local and national priorities.

Local Authority	2005-06 (£ Million)	2006-07 (£ Million)	2007-08 (£ Million)	2008-09 (£ Million)	2009-10 (£ Million)
Aberdeen City	2.857	2.775	3.404	2.784	2.788
Aberdeenshire	1.574	2.562	1.583	1.220	1.331
Angus	1.047	1.500	1.301	1.047	1.056
Argyll and Bute	3.549	3.826	3.997	3.182	3.066
Clackmannan	0.560	0.576	0.716	0.537	0.517
Dumfries Galloway	3.555	4.459	2.808	2.200	2.165
Dundee	2.386	2.532	2.701	2.190	2.171
East Ayrshire	1.895	1.414	1.217	0.961	0.981
East Dunbarton	0.797	1.003	1.009	0.787	0.839
East Lothian	1.196	1.810	1.857	1.363	1.328
East Renfrew	0.887	0.863	0.795	0.555	0.594
Edinburgh	7.806	7.633	8.789	6.996	7.173
Eilean Siar	4.377	4.303	4.539	3.326	3.155
Falkirk	0.761	1.258	1.380	1.008	1.022
Fife	1.775	2.374	1.813	1.415	1.611
Glasgow	11.461	11.874	13.075	10.664	10.609
Highland	5.226	5.737	5.484	4.354	4.253
Inverclyde	1.277	1.367	1.599	1.199	1.178
Midlothian	0.296	0.711	0.649	0.514	0.522
Moray	1.119	1.541	1.588	1.280	1.248
North Ayrshire	1.711	2.034	1.501	1.216	1.224
North Lanark	5.017	3.574	3.940	2.561	2.620
Orkney	1.396	1.445	1.427	1.124	1.072
Perth and Kinross	1.917	2.310	2.181	1.760	1.750
Renfrewshire	2.149	2.065	2.218	1.704	1.759
Scottish Borders	1.893	1.713	1.551	1.262	1.253
Shetland	0.956	1.978	1.469	0.981	0.926
South Ayrshire	1.107	1.676	1.475	1.166	1.195
South Lanark	5.193	8.642	6.344	4.775	4.771
Stirling	1.205	1.129	1.426	1.168	1.131
West Dunbarton	1.656	1.357	1.246	0.818	0.808
West Lothian	1.224	1.592	1.552	1.218	1.219
Total	79.825	89.633	86.634	67.335	67.335