Questions and answers

Question reference: S4W-02917

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 23 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 5 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many hospital admissions were directly connected to a diagnosis of assault by sharp object in 2010-11, broken down by NHS board.

The following table shows information on the number of inpatient and day case episodes in general acute hospitals in Scotland in 2010-11 which were associated with assault by sharp object.

The data does not include patients treated solely within Accident and Emergency Departments.

Number of hospital episodes due to an assault by sharp object; by NHS board of treatment, for the year ending 31 March 2011^P

NHS Board of Treatment	2010-11^P
NHS Scotland¹	1,354
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	118
NHS Borders	*
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	6
NHS Fife	30
NHS Forth Valley	31
NHS Grampian¹	25
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	740
NHS Highland	9
NHS Lanarkshire¹	135
NHS Lothian	180
NHS Tayside	65
NHS Western Isles	*
Golden Jubilee National Hospital	10

^P Data for 2010-11 are provisional.

Notes:

* Indicates values that have been suppressed due to the potential risk of disclosure and to help maintain patient confidentiality.

1. Data for NHSScotland for 2010-11 are estimated to be 95% complete. NHS Grampian and NHS Lanarkshire data are estimated to be 64% and 83% complete respectively. This is mainly due to the implementation of a new IT Patient Management System which has resulted in data submission backlogs for this time period. The relevant NHS boards are working to resolve these submission issues.

Question reference: S4W-02916

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 23 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 5 October 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many acute occupied bed days were directly connected to a diagnosis of assault by a sharp object in 2010-11, broken down by NHS board.

The following table shows information on the number of occupied bed days in general acute hospitals in Scotland which were associated with assault by sharp object in 2010-11. The information relates to inpatient hospital episodes only.

Number of occupied bed days due to an assault by sharp object; by NHS board of treatment, for the year ending 31 March 2011^P

NHS Board of Treatment	2010-11^P
NHS Scotland¹	2,432
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	238
NHS Borders	*
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	6
NHS Fife	44
NHS Forth Valley	80
NHS Grampian¹	22
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	1,370
NHS Highland	6
NHS Lanarkshire¹	240
NHS Lothian	226
NHS Tayside	172
NHS Western Isles	*
Golden Jubilee National Hospital	24

^P Data for 2010-11 are provisional.

Notes:

*Indicates values that have been suppressed due to the potential risk of disclosure and to help maintain patient confidentiality.

1. Data for NHSScotland for 2010-11 are estimated to be 95% complete. NHS Grampian and NHS Lanarkshire data are estimated to be 64% and 83% complete respectively. This is mainly due to the implementation of a new IT Patient Management System which has resulted in data submission backlogs for this time period. The relevant NHS boards are working to resolve these submission issues.

Question reference: S4F-00187

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 03 October 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 October 2011

To ask the First Minister what changes the Scottish Government plans to make to the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Bill.

Question reference: S4W-02829

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 19 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 27 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to abolish pre-qualification questionnaires for public sector contracts worth less than £100,000.

In Scotland we are focusing our efforts on improving and standardising pre-qualification questionnaires (PQQ). We will link this to the Public Contracts Scotland advertising portal, allowing companies to enter the majority of required information once and once only. Feedback suggests that this is approach is favoured by industry. Abolishing PQQs for public sector contracts below £100,000 could lead to an increased burden on small firms, as it is considerably more resource intensive to submit a full tender response for contracts, which prospective suppliers may not have the capacity or capability to deliver, rather than submit a PQQ that is proportionate to the value and complexity of the contract.

I also refer the member to the answer to question S4W-02628 on 26 September 2011. 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/MAQASearch/QAndMSearch.aspx.

Question reference: S4W-02631

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 26 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of its procurement contracts was awarded directly to small and medium-sized enterprises, disregarding any sub-contracting, in (a) 2007, (b) 2008, (c) 2009 and (d) 2010.

Question reference: S4W-02629

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 26 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to review pre-qualification questionnaires for public procurement contracts.

Question reference: S4W-02632

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 26 September 2011

Question reference: S4W-02628

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 26 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment has been made of the pre-qualifying questionnaire for public procurement contracts.

In October 2009, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth announced plans to introduce a standard pre-qualification database for public procurement contracts with a view to:

simplifying and standardising the pre-qualification process across the Scottish public sector, with an emphasis on assessing prospective suppliers’ capacity and capability to carry out the contract, and

reducing the duplication of effort required by suppliers submitting PQQs, in particular SMEs, by offering the ability to store and re-use answers to standard pre-qualification questions in an on-line database.

This initiative was introduced following consultation with Scottish Chambers of Commerce, FSB and other business representatives which identified reform of public sector pre-qualification procedures as a priority for Scottish business. The public sector has a very wide range of contract requirements and adopting a single universal pre-qualification questionnaire for them all is not possible. However, introducing a standard suite of questions and storing the responses in a single database should eliminate much of the administrative burden on business. The Scottish Government is continuing to work with business representatives, especially Scottish Chambers and FSB, to ensure that the initiative responds to business needs.

Question reference: S4W-02630

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 26 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment has been made of the impact on small and medium-sized enterprises of having different pre-qualification questionnaires for public procurement contracts, rather than a universal pre-qualification questionnaire that allows for obvious technical considerations to be taken account of.

Question reference: S4W-02605

Asked by: James Kelly, MSP for Rutherglen, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 09 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Lesley Thomson on 23 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many staff are employed by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

Chamber and committees