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-23823

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many officers have retired from Strathclyde Police since July 2008, broken down by division.

Question reference: S3W-23878

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 21 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the planning assumptions are for bed numbers at the new mental health in-patient facility at Gartnavel Hospital for (a) Greater Glasgow and (b) Clyde patients.

The relevant planning assumptions as set out in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde''s Vision for the Vale document assumed a total of 60 acute adult mental health beds at Gartnavel Hospital: 48 beds for the Greater Glasgow area, and 12 beds for the Clyde area (although the board''s proposals for adult mental health in the Vision for the Vale have not yet received Ministerial approval).

As confirmed in the answer to question S3W-23876 on 21 May 2009, NHS Greater Glasgow''s 1999 mental health strategy proposed that there should be a total of 60 acute adult mental health beds at Gartnavel Hospital. As I would expect, the board has revised its planning assumptions in line with national policy and operating experience since 1999. The development of appropriate crisis and assertive outreach services throughout the country over the last 10 years has seen a significant shift in the balance of care from management of adult acute mental health problems in inpatient settings to the management of a proportion of such problems through community-based crisis teams. This has seen comparable bed levels in England reduce by 10-20% over that period. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has confirmed that the average relevant bed use throughout 2008 at Gartnavel Hospital was 49 beds. As such, Gartnavel Hospital is already operating close to the revised 48-bed plan and can be expected to appropriately reduce its bed use level as community-based services are further consolidated.

In terms of the planning assumptions for the remaining categories of mental health beds at Gartnavel Hospital, the board have confirmed that the number of Intensive Psychiatric Care Unit beds are to remain at 12: 10 for the Greater Glasgow area and two for the Clyde area. As with adult acute mental health services, the board''s assumptions are based on historically low occupancy levels, meaning the Clyde area activity can be absorbed without constraining current levels of Greater Glasgow activity.

There are no changes in the assumptions around the older people''s contingent of 45 beds at Gartnavel as the Vision for the Vale proposes that the relevant patients from the Clyde area should be treated at the Vale of Leven Hospital.

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.

Question reference: S3W-23822

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the officer allocation was for each division in Strathclyde Police after the allocation model was recalculated in July 2008.

Question reference: S3W-23283

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 24 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 19 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will detail the incidents of Clostridium difficile since the outbreak at the Vale of Leven Hospital was identified in May 2008, broken down by hospital and showing the number of people infected and subsequent fatalities.

An incident of Clostridium difficile is defined by NHS boards as (a) two or more linked cases of the same strain of Clostridium difficile in the same clinical area (i.e. ward) or (b) where case numbers breach what is referred to as the statistical upper control limit for a specific clinical area. NHS board infection control teams ensure that all newly identified cases of Clostridium difficile are appropriately managed in relation to the prevention and control of infection.

The detail of all incidents of Clostridium difficile since May 2008, as provided by NHS boards using the definitions above, are presented in the following table. The dates of those incidents listed have not been included to preserve the anonymity of the patients concerned.

Board	Total Number of Incidents Per Board Area	Hospital	Numbers of Positive Cases Per Hospital	Deaths Where Clostridium Difficile Shown As
Board	Total Number of Incidents Per Board Area	Hospital	Numbers of Positive Cases Per Hospital	Primary Cause	Contributory Cause
Ayrshire and Arran	14	Ayr	3	-	1
			6	-	1
			4	1	-
			4	-	-
			3	-	-
			6	-	-
			3	-	-
		Ayrshire Central	3	-	-
		Biggart	4	1	-
		Crosshouse	3	-	-
			6	-	-
			5	-	-
		Davidson	4	-	-
		East Ayrshire Community	3	-	-
Borders	-	-	-	-	-
Dumfries and Galloway	1	Lochmaben	3	-	1
Fife	1	Queen Margaret	6	-	1
Forth Valley	-	-	-	-	-
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	4	Royal Alexandria	8	-	2
		Victoria Infirmary	5	-	3
		Gartnavel	6	1	1
		Gartnavel	5	-	-
Golden Jubilee	-	-	-	-	-
Grampian	1	Dr Gray''s Hospital	17*	1	1
Highland	1	Caithness	7	-	2
Lanarkshire	-	-	-	-	-
Lothian	-	-	-	-	-
Orkney	1	Balfour	6	-	2
Shetland	-	-	-	-	-
Tayside	3	Arbroath Infirmary	3	-	-
		Ninewells	11	-	-
		Perth Royal Infirmary	6	-	-
Western Isles	-	-	-	-	-
Total	26		140	4	15

Note: *This is a current outbreak and the number of cases may change from the figure provided.

Question reference: S3W-23824

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 19 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many new recruits have been employed by Strathclyde Police since July 2008, broken down by division.

Police officer establishments are a matter for police authorities and chief constables.

The Scottish Government does not hold details of officer recruitment at divisional level.

Her Majesty''s Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland collate force level annual figures on recruitment from Scottish Forces and these are available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/public-safety/Police/local/15403/Statistical.

Question reference: S3W-23826

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 19 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the strength is of Strathclyde police force, broken down by division.

Question reference: S3W-23821

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 19 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the officer allocation was for each division in Strathclyde Police before the allocation model was recalculated in July 2008.

Police officer establishments are a matter for police authorities and chief constables.

The Scottish Government does not hold details of officer allocations at divisional level. Figures on the number of police officers per force are collected on a whole-time equivalent basis each quarter. The figures to 31 December 2008 were published on 3 March 2009 and are available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 47838). On 31 December 2008 there were 7,955 police officers in Strathclyde Police.

Question reference: S3W-23825

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 11 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 19 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the strength was of Strathclyde police force in May 2008, broken down by division.

Question reference: S3W-23494

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 May 2009
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 18 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the economic value is of golf tourism.

Question reference: S3W-23430

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 15 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it accepts the definition of water poverty as those spending more than 3% of their income on water and sewerage charges.

We recognise that this figure has been used by Waterwatch but we do not use it to guide policy in relation to water charges.

Our policy is to deliver fair charges for all customers. Domestic water charges in Scotland are on course to be the third lowest in the UK by 2010. Water in Scotland costs on average across all households less than £1 a day, which is a flat rate irrespective of size of family or usage.

In real terms water charges in Scotland fell last year.