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: S4F-01026

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for Aberdeen South and North Kincardine, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 November 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 November 2012

To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government considers that the Scottish economy is over-reliant on the oil industry.

Question reference: S4F-00960

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for Aberdeen South and North Kincardine, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 November 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 November 2012

To ask the First Minister what impact fungal diseases will have on trees in Scotland.

Question reference: S4O-01448

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for Aberdeen South and North Kincardine, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 October 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 November 2012

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to change the guidelines on breast screening for 50 to 70-year-olds.

Question reference: S4T-00078

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for Aberdeen South and North Kincardine, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 October 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 October 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to expedite the building of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route following the Supreme Court’s rejection of the appeal.

Question reference: S4O-01291

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for Aberdeen South and North Kincardine, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 September 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 September 2012

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to tackle domestic abuse.

Question reference: S4W-08032

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for Aberdeen South and North Kincardine, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 June 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 18 July 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many Scottish Baccalaureate courses have been taken by school students in each local authority since 2009, broken down by subject.

Question reference: S4W-07345

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for Aberdeen South and North Kincardine, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 6 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) nurses and (b) consultants specialising in paediatric congenital heart disease are employed by each NHS board.

The exact information requested is not centrally available. Information on the headcount and whole-time equivalent of nursing and midwifery staff, broken down by NHS board as at 28 February 2012 can be found on the workforce statistics site at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2012-02-28/Nursing_and_Midwifery_SIP_D2011.xls.

Information on the headcount and whole-time equivalent of consultants by specialty, including paediatric cardiology, broken down by NHS board as at 28 February 2012 can be found at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2012-02-28/Consultant_Staff_In_Post_D2011.xls.

Question reference: S4W-07344

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for Aberdeen South and North Kincardine, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 6 June 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many babies have been treated for congenital heart disease in each NHS board in each of the last five years.

Data for babies treated for congenital heart disease are available from a number of different sources. National data on babies born with congenital anomalies are collected centrally in Scotland and these data are believed to provide the best estimate of the birth prevalence of congenital heart disease as they include babies who have a congenital anomaly of the heart detected at birth or within one year of birth. However, some babies who present with a congenital anomaly on death are included in the figures but may not have been treated prior to detection/death. Also any baby with an incidental mention of congenital heart disease whilst being treated for another related condition will also be included.

Data included below refer to single births only, congenital anomalies of the heart and exclude anomalies affecting the great vessels. To allow follow up during infancy a period of one year from birth must elapse therefore the latest year of available data is 2009.

Table 1 - the number of babies born in Scotland detected with congenital heart anomalies at birth or during infancy by NHS board of residence for the years 2005 to 2009:

Numbers	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Scotland	295	270	306	287	304
Ayrshire and Arran	32	16	26	27	25
Borders	*	6	*	5	*
Dumfries and Galloway	7	8	*	8	*
Fife	21	17	24	16	31
Forth Valley	14	13	15	10	12
Grampian	54	37	41	38	40
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	59	51	54	64	55
Highland	34	42	36	32	54
Lanarkshire	18	25	29	30	24
Lothian	33	32	51	38	29
Tayside	14	18	15	13	19
Island NHS Boards	*	5	9	6	6

Source – ISD Scotland.

Data are also collected centrally on the numbers of paediatric cardiac treatments carried out in children aged 0 to 16.

Table 2 - the Numbers of Paediatric Cardiac Treatments Undertaken in the Years 2004-05 to 2010-11 by NHS Board**

NHS Board	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11
Scotland	509	545	525	507	532	558
Argyll and Clyde	49	50
Ayrshire and Arran	45	49	30	36	38	54
Borders	9	10	8	7	7	7
Dumfries and Galloway	22	14	22	13	15	10
Fife	27	32	29	43	41	41
Forth Valley	21	43	44	32	29	33
Grampian	23	33	39	39	37	59
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	115	113	144	143	168	161
Highland	23	22	33	22	12	19
Lanarkshire	72	77	79	64	69	64
Lothian	66	69	52	66	63	59
Tayside	33	28	41	34	49	47
Island NHS Boards	*	5	*	8	*	*

Source: National Services Division.

Notes:

*Indicates a value that has been suppressed due to the potential risk of disclosure and to help maintain patient confidentiality.

**Numbers include children aged 0 to 16 years and both cardiac surgery and interventional cardiology procedures.

Question reference: S4W-07176

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for Aberdeen South and North Kincardine, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 25 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether legal action has been taken since 2007 against bus companies that are believed to have recorded inaccurate figures regarding the distances travelled by passengers using the concessionary travel scheme.

Question reference: S4W-07173

Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for Aberdeen South and North Kincardine, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 May 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 25 May 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to monitor the accuracy of the information recorded by bus companies regarding the distances travelled by passengers using the concessionary travel scheme.

Bus Operators within the concessionary travel scheme must use ticketing equipment approved by Scottish Ministers. This requires use of ITSO approved electronic ticketing machines which record and transmit the detail of each transaction. These transactions form the basis of bus operators’ claims for reimbursement.

All claims for reimbursement are subject to comprehensive validation checks by Transport Scotland staff. Any discrepancies are investigated and subject to further detailed analysis and audit. This is supported by a programme of “on bus” surveys where journey information obtained from the surveys is compared to the claims submitted by bus operators.

National Entitlement Cardholders also participate in the completion of “travel diaries” which are then passed to Transport Scotland for analysis. Any discrepancies between the journey information recorded by the cardholder and the claim submitted by the bus operator are then investigated.