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-01039

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 August 1999
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 7 October 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive to specify the five main causes of death for males and females in Scotland aged 35 or younger, for the years 1984-85 to 1998-99.

All deaths in Scotland are coded according to the Ninth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD9) which is promulgated by the World Health Organisation. As with all classifications, ICD9 tends to group minor categories and split up larger categories. Any choice of the 'five main causes' of death is therefore somewhat subjective. The table below gives information on causes or groups of causes that are considered to be appropriate to the age group of interest. As can be seen the 'five main causes' have varied over the period in question.

Deaths aged under 35, selected causes, by sex, Scotland

Cause of death	ICD9 code	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998

Males

Suicide (incl. 'undetermined')	E950 - E959, E980 - E989	161	167	191	188	219	188	236	213	251	291	255	250	256	282	268
Motor vehicle traffic accidents	E810 - E819	255	222	251	210	227	204	229	187	174	140	140	157	144	154	133
Drug dependence	304	4	9	2	5	5	9	10	22	14	26	94	111	125	102	125
Perinatal conditions	760 - 779	166	129	144	139	131	135	113	136	136	101	106	91	103	82	98
Congenital anomalies	740 - 759	149	113	93	91	111	116	100	99	101	104	74	80	76	66	71
Homicide	E960 - E969	30	28	27	40	66	76	34	35	69	39	54	48	51	35	42
Sudden infant death syndrome	798.0	82	87	99	87	77	85	86	62	45	37	31	25	30	34	19

All causes		1397	1278	1344	1268	1371	1303	1320	1236	1252	1188	1212	1204	1223	1110	1151

Females

Suicide (incl. 'undetermined')	E950 - E959, E980 - E989	39	49	42	59	59	58	58	57	73	79	64	60	75	75	72
Perinatal conditions	760 - 779	112	117	106	91	78	94	93	77	80	73	85	87	76	58	67
Congenital anomalies	740 - 759	106	104	90	86	84	67	69	72	86	83	68	64	63	59	60
Motor vehicle traffic accidents	E810 - E819	79	72	62	65	54	68	53	72	65	35	40	57	39	41	43
Drug dependence	304	2	1	2	1	0	3	3	6	4	8	31	28	30	20	27
Sudden infant death syndrome	798.0	55	52	54	49	57	58	46	28	19	21	17	23	13	18	18
Breast cancer	174	12	12	10	12	12	10	17	19	21	16	16	15	14	13	10
Homicide	E960 - E969	15	8	9	18	20	82	8	10	11	10	9	11	22	7	9

All causes		769	754	652	656	609	711	613	637	621	651	565	597	569	515	531

Notes 1 The method of collecting information on drug-related deaths was changed in 1994. This change significantly affected the number of deaths classified as drug dependence.2 The number of homicides was increased significantly in 1988 and 1989 by the Lockerbie incident, and to a lesser extent in 1996 by the Dunblane incident.3 Certain standard conventions have been followed in preparing the data in the table: the years given are calendar years; ages cover persons aged under 35 rather those aged 35 or younger; and deaths from an 'injury undetermined whether accidentally or purposely inflicted' have been included with suicides.

Question reference: S1W-01614

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 September 1999
Current Status: Answered by Iain Gray on 5 October 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive which local authorities have implemented direct payment schemes for community care service users with disabilities under the powers given to them by the Community Care (Direct Payments) Act 1996 and what is the level of take up of existing schemes.

Social work departments were consulted on their experience of direct payments after the first year of implementation of the Community Care (Direct Payments) Act 1996. The councils listed below indicated that they operated, or intended to operate, a direct payments scheme and that a total of 70 disabled people were receiving payments at December 1997.

Aberdeenshire

Aberdeen City

Argyll & Bute

City of Edinburgh

Dumfries & Galloway

East Lothian

Highland

Moray

North Lanarkshire

Orkney

Scottish Borders

Shetland Islands

South Ayrshire

We have recently commissioned research to update the 1998 survey and provide information on the experience of people with disabilities in making use of the arrangements. We are considering at present how to develop the direct payments scheme.

Question reference: S1W-01653

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 September 1999
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 5 October 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to S1W-950 by Mr Jim Wallace on 14 September 1999, when was the last time it discussed with Her Majesty's Government assistance to former World War Two prisoners of war residing in Scotland and claiming compensation for suffering endured whilst captives of the Japanese.

Question reference: S1W-01547

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 1999
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 29 September 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it will take to assist Inverclyde Council in dealing with issues identified in the 1996-97 audit report which have not yet been successfully progressed, including the errors and differences in financial statements, the poor documentation to support accounts, the unreliability of fixed asset valuation and the unsatisfactory state of control arrangements in key areas, including banking reconciliations.

Question reference: S1W-01286

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 September 1999
Current Status: Answered by Sarah Boyack on 29 September 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive why it has not yet met with the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce in order to discuss their concerns about existing and future transport infrastructure development.

Question reference: S1W-01548

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 1999
Current Status: Answered by Frank McAveety on 28 September 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it will take to ensure that there is an improvement in Inverclyde Council's DLO/DSO accounting arrangements and no repeat of the failure by a number of trading activities to achieve their financial objectives.

The Accounts Commission has made a number of recommendations for all DLO/DSOs across Scotland and I expect all councils to act upon them. The unaudited DLO/DSO results for 1998-99 show that Inverclyde Council has acted to reduce the number of DLO/DSOs that failed to achieve their statutory objectives from 5 in 1997-98 to 1 in 1998-99. I expect the council to make every effort to ensure no DLO/DSO fails to achieve the statutory objective in subsequent years.

Question reference: S1W-01544

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 1999
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 28 September 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive what its plans are for ensuring that each Scottish local authority has adequate internal audit resources available to scrutinise the authority as a whole and whether it will encourage the establishment, where one does not currently exist, of an audit committee or similar structure to allow council members to discharge this responsibility.

Question reference: S1W-01549

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 1999
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 28 September 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive why the 1997-98 audits in respect of Aberdeenshire, Argyll and Bute, Clackmannanshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Dundee, East Dunbartonshire, Edinburgh, Highland, Inverclyde, West Dunbartonshire and West Lothian councils remain outstanding beyond their due submission date of 30 June 1999 and when these audits are expected to be submitted to the Controller of Audit.

Question reference: S1W-01550

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 1999
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 28 September 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive what action will be taken to ensure that all Scottish local authorities implement best practice to address basic accounting and control weaknesses, including the absence of bank and other reconciliations, internal control deficiencies, weaknesses in the compilation and maintenance of asset registers and the lack of reconciliation between the assessment roll and valuation roll.

These matters are dealt with through the audit process. The audit process exists to identify weaknesses in local authorities' systems, highlight these weaknesses to local authorities and make recommendations as appropriate. The Accounts Commission for Scotland is responsible for securing the audit of local authorities in Scotland. Auditors appointed by the Commission make recommendations and ensure that these are implemented.

Question reference: S1W-01553

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 1999
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 28 September 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive when the "Three tiers" report referred to in the Controller of Audit's Overview Report on the 1997-98 Audits of Local Authorities is to be published.