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-17095

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 July 2001
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 15 August 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what the rates of mortality from circulatory disease (ICD-9 codes 390-459 inclusive) were per 100,000 of the population, broken down by health board area, for people under 75 years of age in each of the last three years for which figures are available.

The mortality rates from circulatory disease per 100,000 population, by health board, of all persons under the age of 75 years, as defined by ICD-9 codes 390 - 459 for each of the years 1998 and 1999, and ICD-10 codes I00 - I99 for the year 2000, are:

Health Board	1998	1999	2000^*
Health Board	ICD-9	ICD-9	ICD-10
Argyll and Clyde	225	219	202
Ayrshire and Arran	206	204	196
Borders	164	165	141
Dumfries and Galloway	210	188	198
Fife	190	176	161
Forth Valley	168	170	164
Grampian	147	145	134
Greater Glasgow	224	204	192
Highland	192	167	190
Lanarkshire	213	203	182
Lothian	166	152	145
Orkney	188	171	144
Shetland	158	112	138
Tayside	187	191	169
Western Isles	192	203	190
SCOTLAND	193	183	172
* Figures for 2000 are not directly comparable with figures for previous years due to the change from ICD-9 to ICD-10

Question reference: S1W-16404

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 June 2001
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 1 August 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will detail those research grants awarded by the Nursing Research Initiative for Scotland (NRIS) in 2000 where the person conducting the research was a member of the NRIS.

Question reference: S1W-16662

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 June 2001
Current Status: Answered by Angus MacKay on 23 July 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what each level one expenditure line in the Scottish budget represented as a percentage of Scotland's GDP in each year for which figures are available.

I refer you to the table which provides level one expenditure as a percentage of GDP and projected GDP.

Portfolio	%
	1994-95	1995-96	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Audit Scotland	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.01	0.01	0.01
Central Gov't Support for Local Authority Expenditure	8.26	7.92	8.87	8.27	7.90	7.91	7.83	8.09	8.22	8.26
Children and Central Government Education	0.08	0.08	0.10	0.20	0.26	0.29	0.36	0.38	0.45	0.49
Communities	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.01	0.01	0.01
Crown Office	0.07	0.07	0.07	0.07	0.07	0.07	0.07	0.07	0.07	0.07
Enterprise and Lifelong Learning	2.87	2.74	2.72	2.66	2.55	2.49	2.55	2.73	2.61	2.57
Environment	0.07	0.07	0.07	0.10	0.08	0.54	0.70	0.63	0.64	0.65
EU Structural Funds	0.12	0.11	0.14	0.16	0.22	0.28	0.17	0.21	0.23	0.16
Executive Secretariat	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Food Standards Agency	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.01	0.01
Forestry	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.09	0.10	0.10	0.10	0.10
Health	7.13	6.89	6.91	6.94	6.94	7.00	7.14	7.57	7.77	7.90
Justice	0.73	0.70	0.72	0.71	0.76	0.84	0.78	0.83	0.83	0.82
New Deal	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Rural Affairs	0.76	0.81	0.91	0.75	0.83	0.83	0.76	0.77	0.75	0.71
SE Administration	0.26	0.25	0.26	0.22	0.22	0.25	0.26	0.26	0.25	0.25
SE Associated Departments	0.01	0.02	0.02	0.02	0.01	0.02	0.03	0.04	0.03	0.02
Scottish Parliament	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.06	0.13	0.12	0.13	0.09
Social Justice	0.99	1.05	0.92	0.84	0.86	0.73	0.86	0.89	0.91	0.97
Scottish Public Pensions Agency	0.32	0.42	0.35	0.42	0.49	0.31	0.38	0.35	0.33	0.37
Sport & Culture	0.20	0.19	0.19	0.19	0.18	0.19	0.17	0.18	0.18	0.18
Transport	0.50	0.47	0.46	0.47	0.99	0.96	1.01	1.22	1.22	1.28
Unallocated Capital Modernisation Fund	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.02	0.02	0.02	0.02
Reserve	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.09	0.14	0.14

Figures from 1998-99 onwards reflect the introduction of Resource Accounting and Budgeting. From 1999-2000 the Water Authorities form part of the Environment Group budget.

Question reference: S1W-15186

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 11 June 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what the median waiting time is from GP referral to surgery for all forms of cancer and what the equivalent figures were for each of the last ten years, broken down by health board.

Question reference: S1W-15742

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 May 2001
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 23 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will recommend that professional training for physiotherapists includes a module on hypermobility syndromes.

Question reference: S1W-15468

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 18 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the statement by an Executive spokesperson that the number of qualified frontline NHS staff has risen since 1996, as reported on the BBC News website on 27 April 2001, what criteria are used to define staff as frontline; whether any nurses or midwives are not regarded as frontline staff and, if so, what term or terms are used to describe such staff.

Question reference: S1W-12933

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 January 2001
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 14 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it would cost the NHSiS to introduce the use of retractable needles where appropriate.

The NHS Scotland uses around 10 million needles a year at a cost of £1.2 million. The individual cost of needles can vary widely from 2p for a replacement needle to over £50 for specialised needles. On average a normal needle costs about 12p and retractable needles 27 to 30p. I recently launched the Needlestick Injuries: Sharpen Your Awareness report at the UNISON Scotland Conference and announced that the Scottish Executive would issue guidelines to NHS Scotland on the implementation of the report and would provide £270,000 to support the report's recommendations for the introduction of safer needles based on risk assessment.

Question reference: S1W-12932

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 January 2001
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 14 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects the working group on needlestick injuries to report.

Question reference: S1W-14050

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2001
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 14 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a breakdown by health board area of current waiting times for (a) orthopaedic outpatient appointments and (b) orthopaedic surgery.

The median waiting times for a first outpatient orthopaedic appointment with a Consultant following a General Medical Practitioner referral, and for orthopaedic surgery, by health board of residence, for the year ending 31 December 2000, are provided in the table.NHSScotland: Median Waiting Times for a First Outpatient Orthopaedic Appointment¹ with a Consultant Following Referral by a General Medical Practitioner, and for OrthopaedicSurgery². Year Ending 31 December 2000^p

Health Board	Median Wait For First Outpatient Appointment¹ (Days)	Median Wait For Surgery² (Days)
Argyll and Clyde	76	85
Ayrshire and Arran	75	90
Borders	71	71
Dumfries and Galloway	79	56
Fife	75	112
Forth Valley	139	114
Grampian	69	52
Greater Glasgow	100	91
Highland	96	68
Lanarkshire	117	58
Lothian	87	99
Orkney	45	61
Shetland	57	65
Tayside	60	74
Western Isles	55	23
Scotland	83	76

^p ProvisionalNotes:1. Excludes patients with a Patient's Charter guarantee exception code.2. Patients routinely admitted from the inpatient/day case waiting list.

Question reference: S1W-14061

Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2001
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 14 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what the current waiting time is for patients awaiting (a) coronary artery bypass grafts and (b) other cardiac surgery in each health board area.

The median waiting times for admission to hospital from the inpatient/day case waiting list for coronary artery bypass grafts and other cardiac surgery, in the year ending 31 December 2000, by health board of residence, are given in the table.

Across Scotland, the median waiting time for coronary artery bypass grafts has reduced by 45 days (36%) and the median waiting time for other cardiac surgery has reduced by nine days (10%) compared with the position in the previous year.

NHSScotland: Median Waiting Times for Hospital Admission from the Inpatient/Day Case Waiting List for Coronary Artery Bypass Grafts¹ and Other Cardiac Surgery¹: Year Ending 31 December 2000^p

Health Board of Residence	Coronary Artery Bypass Grafts Median Wait (Days)	Other Cardiac Surgery Median Wait (Days)
Argyll and Clyde	70	61
Ayrshire and Arran	46	39
Borders	80	79
Dumfries and Galloway	98	84
Fife	104	127
Forth Valley	56	75
Grampian	39	52
Greater Glasgow	71	60
Highland	85	85
Lanarkshire	96	77
Lothian	98	95
Orkney	60	47
Shetland	43	34
Tayside	117	144
Western Isles	82	96
Scotland	79	79

^{P Provisional.
Source ISD Scotland.}

Surgical Operations and Notes:1. Patients are defined using operation codes taken from the Office of Population and Censuses and Surveys Classification of Procedures 4th Revision (OPCS4). Coronary Artery Bypass Graft has been defined using principal procedure codes K40-K46; Other Cardiac Surgery has been defined using principal procedure codes K25-K35.