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: S4W-00584

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 16 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive which public sector employees are covered by its living wage policy.

Addressing low pay is one of our key objectives, because we believe in a strong Scottish economy and in promoting fairness and equity for all. We support the objectives and the recommendations of the Scottish living wage campaign to ensure that workers receive at least £7.15 an hour. We have acted on that by requiring that all employers subject to our public sector pay policy for 2011-12 ensure they comply with this minimum pay rate. That covers the Scottish Government, its agencies, and the non-departmental public bodies for which we are responsible. It also covers subsidiaries of these bodies.

In addition, we have made sure that from 1 April 2011 all NHS staff in Scotland earn above £7.15 per hour. All teachers, firefighters and police officers earn above this level.

Local authorities are self-governing bodes and set the terms and conditions under which staff are employed. However, I welcome the fact that a number of local authorities have already introduced a living wage and this government will continue to press all public sector employers to introduce the Scottish living wage.

Question reference: S3W-40562

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 21 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the announcement by Scottish and Southern Energy that it is to halt work on the development of its proposed offshore wind farm at Kintyre, whether it will confirm that no future developer will be able to progress this site.

Question reference: S3W-40483

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 18 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-39738 by Alex Neil on 1 March 2011, what the budget for rural home ownership grants will be for (a) 2011 and (b) 2012.

Due to the cuts in the Scottish Government budget imposed by the UK Government, there is no budget identified for Rural Home Ownership Grants (RHOGs) for 2011-12. Details of the housing budget for 2012-13 have yet to be determined. However, the Scottish Government has recently announced a further £3 million which will be added to our 2011-12 Open Market Shared Equity budget and will be targeted at helping first time buyers to purchase a home in 13 remote rural local authority areas. As the strategic housing authority, local authorities can also play a key role in enabling self-build, and some may wish to provide loans or other support for self-builders, for example by using council tax income from second homes and long-term empty properties.

Question reference: S3W-40451

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 18 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many acute occupied bed days in NHS (a) Highland, (b) Western Isles, (c) Orkney and (d) Shetland were taken up by patients with an alcohol-related diagnosis in (i) 2009 and (ii) 2010

The following table shows the total number of bed days of patients treated in acute hospitals in Highland, Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland for alcohol related conditions for the calendar year 2009. NHS Boards data returns for 2010 are currently incomplete. These statistics are published by financial year and statistics for 2010-11 is planned to be published by ISD in February 2012.

Total Number of Bed Days in General Acute Hospitals^1,2,3 for Alcohol-Related⁴ Diagnosis^5,6 for Selected NHS Boards⁷; 2009^P

NHS Health Board⁷	Number of Bed Days
Highland	12, 319
Orkney	866
Shetland	474
Western Isles	1, 728

Source: ISD Scotland (SMR01).

^PProvisional.

Date Extracted: March 2011.

Information is based on date of discharge (rather than date of admission) because the SMR01 dataset is a discharge summary record.

Excludes mental illness hospitals, psychiatric units and maternity hospitals.

Figures in this table relate only to those individuals who are treated as inpatients or day cases in an acute hospital. They do not include individuals managed as outpatients.

Diseases recorded using the World Health Organization''s International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD10). Alcohol-related codes: F10, K70, X45, X65, Y15, Y90, Y91, E24.4, E51.2, G31.2, G62.1, G72.1, I42.6, K29.2, K86.0, O35.4, P04.3, Q86.0, T51.0, T51.1, T51.9, Y57.3, R78.0, Z50.2, Z71.4, Z72.1. Up to 6 diagnoses are recorded. All six diagnoses have been used to identify alcohol related conditions.

Caution is necessary when interpreting these figures. The recording of alcohol misuse may vary from hospital to hospital. Where alcohol misuse is suspected but unconfirmed it may not be recorded by the hospital.

Note that these figures include residents from other health boards that were treated in Highland, Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland hospitals but do not include Highland, Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland residents treated in other health boards.

Health board of treatment.

Question reference: S3W-39895

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what the expenditure on hospital drugs has been in NHS Western Isles in each of the last four years for which information is available.

The hospital services drug expenditure for the last four years at NHS Western Isles:

Year	Amount (£ million)
2009-10	0.8
2008-09	0.7
2007-08	0.7
2006-07	0.6

Source: ISD Scotland costs book.

Question reference: S3W-39906

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 March 2011

Question reference: S3W-39907

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 March 2011

Question reference: S3W-39921

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 March 2011

Question reference: S3W-39914

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 March 2011

Recruitment of newly qualified doctors into Foundation Programmes in NHSScotland is managed centrally by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) which liaises with individual health boards about where those junior doctors should be placed.

The following table provides the information requested showing numbers recruited by NHS Highland and the other NHS boards covered by the North of Scotland Deanery.

	NHS Grampian	NHS Highland	NHS Orkney	NHS Shetland	NHS Western Isles
2007	100	29	0	1	2
2008	92	30	0	0	2
2009	88	27	0	1	2
2010	97	30	0	1	2
2011 (to date)	102	30	0	1	2

Source: NHS Education for Scotland.

Question reference: S3W-39924

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made by NHS boards in the delivery of the 18-week referral-to-treatment target for audiology services.