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: S1W-11490

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 November 2000
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 23 January 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-5896 by Susan Deacon on 29 November 2000, how the #2 million of tobacco tax revenue to help more people quit smoking will be allocated to identify and support those on low income who wish to stop.

The Scottish Executive is committed to improving the health of the people of Scotland and to tackling the inequalities in health between rich and poor.Health boards were advised in September 2000 of the additional resources they have been allocated to address these issues from the £26 million additional tobacco tax revenue. Smoking cessation activity is one of the priority areas that health boards are expected to address with these funds. Boards are expected to give a full public account in their annual reports of how the extra money has been invested.

Question reference: S1W-11691

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2000
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 23 January 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many nursing home and residential care home beds have been closed in each of the past three years.

Information on bed closures in private nursing homes and residential care homes is not available centrally.However, a census of bed complements is carried out as part of an annual return for each private nursing home and registered residential care home. The table shows the number of homes and bed complement.

The figures for nursing homes are based on information supplied to NHSScotland Information and Statistics Division at the end of each financial year. It is understood from health boards that a small number of other nursing homes registered in Scotland have been unable to provide the information requested. Data for these nursing homes are not included in the table and account for approximately 15 homes at 31 March 1998, 30 homes at 31 March 1999 and 30 homes at 31 March 2000. The bed complements of these homes are not known and may explain the decrease in bed numbers over the three-year period.

Residential Care Homes¹ for Older People and Private Nursing Homes² in Scotland³

Number of Homes	31 March 1998	31 March 1999	31 March 2000⁴
Residential Care Homes	681	659	631
Nursing Homes	517	508	505
Total	1,198	1,167	1,136
Number of Beds
Residential Care Homes	16,677	16,300	15,851
Nursing Homes	23,818	23,480	22,950
Total	40,495	39,780	38,801

Notes:

1. Source: SEHD - Social Work Statistics Division (R1 return).

2. Source: NHSiS ISD(S)34 return.

3. The figures represent a "snap shot" on 31 March each year and do not necessarily reflect the position between the censuses or at present.4. Figures for 31 March 2000 are based on an 84% response rate in a voluntary survey of residential care homes. Statistical imputations have been made for the missing data. These figures may be subject to slight future revisions if more data becomes available.

Question reference: S1W-12215

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 December 2000
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 22 January 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that any stress experienced by staff in the NHSiS is minimised.

Our National Health: a plan for action, a plan for change affirms that protecting the health and well being of NHS staff must be a priority and places a clear requirement on NHS Scotland employers to implement the occupational health and safety strategy for NHS Scotland employees Towards a Safer Healthier Workplace. That strategy requires employers to implement policies aimed at reducing stress in the workplace and for the occupational health service to offer a confidential counselling and advice service to all staff as well as providing occupational health surveillance programmes. It is open to any member of staff to refer themselves to the occupational health service at any time.

Question reference: S1W-12218

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 December 2000
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 22 January 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what is being done to assist NHSiS Trusts to balance their costs with the level of available resources.

Question reference: S1W-11936

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 December 2000
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 22 January 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that local authorities are fully open about and accountable for spending on the mentally ill and the elderly in community care budgets.

Local authorities are democratically elected bodies accountable to their electorates. They are required to publish accounts which are subject to scrutiny by Audit Scotland. Authorities are also required to produce a range of returns specifying their expenditure on each client group. We are currently developing outcome agreements with authorities. It is proposed that from April 2002 local services for older people will be jointly resourced and jointly managed.

Question reference: S1W-11923

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 December 2000
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 19 January 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that the dearth of therapeutic and recreational activities for mentally ill patients in general psychiatry facilities reported in the Mental Welfare Commission Annual Report 1999-2000 is addressed.

Care appropriate to needs is a fundamental principle underlying Our National Health - A Plan for Action, A Plan for Change. The whole person and well-being needs of those with a mental illness should not be neglected. Good, improved practice is developing across Scotland. However, I recognise that we are seeing improvement from a relatively low base and I look to health boards, NHS Trusts and the other care agencies, including the voluntary sector, to ensure that the services they organise or finance respond better than in the past to these important dimensions of need.

Question reference: S1W-12212

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 December 2000
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 18 January 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many clinical geneticists are currently being trained.

Details of the Specialist Registrar (SpR) establishment 2000 and the number of trainees expected to be awarded a Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training (CCST) to 2004, is detailed in Annex B, Tables 1 and 2, of NHS MEL (2000) 24, published on 28 April 2000. A copy of this is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. no. 7379).The current number of SpR trainees in clinical genetics is 11, which represents an increase in the establishment of one, from 10 to 11 trainees.

Question reference: S1W-12177

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 December 2000
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 January 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is considering any of the following fluorides for use in the water supply: calcium fluoride, lead fluoride, aluminium fluoride, sodium fluoride or silico fluorides (known as hexaflurosilisic acid) and, if not, what other fluoride is being considered.

Question reference: S1W-10724

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 October 2000
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 11 January 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether full-time personnel in publicly funded posts should be appointed by it to other public sector positions.

Any adult can put themselves forward for consideration for public appointment whether or not they are in any form of employment, either in the public or private sector. All public appointments are governed by the principle of selection based on merit following fair, open and transparent process. An overriding factor for appointment is that there must be no conflict of interest. It is a matter for the individual employer - whether public or private - to determine policy on release of staff.

Question reference: S1W-10725

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 October 2000
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 11 January 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is acceptable for a person holding a full-time publicly funded post to also be appointed to part-time publicly funded posts.