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: S2W-03526

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 9 December 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-2796 by Mrs Mary Mulligan on 30 September 2003, what funding has been awarded to (a) Scottish Homes and (b) Communities Scotland in each of the last 10 years, showing also the year on year percentage change.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, the Acting Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Herreply is as follows:

The table shows Grant-in-Aidand Scottish Executive funding for Scottish Homes and Communities Scotland overthe 10-year period 1993-94 to 2002-03. The table also highlights the fundsdirectly invested in housing during that period.

Scottish Homes	Year	Grant-In-Aid	%	Direct Housing Investment	%
Scottish Homes		£ million		£ million
	1993-94	320.2		332.6
			1.4%		-5.3%
	1994-95	324.7		315.0
			-9.2%		0.0%
	1995-96	294.9		315.1
			-4.7%		-2.6%
	1996-97	281.2		307.0
			12.0%		-34.4%
	1997-98	315.0		201.4
			8.1%		-4.6%
	1998-99	340.6		192.1
			-19.1%		5.4%
	1999-00	275.5		202.4
			14.5%		8.8%
	2000-01	315.4		220.2
			-44.6%		-42.7%
	2001-02 *	174.9		126.1
			-87.8%		-98.4%
	2002-03 *	21.4		2.0
Communities Scotland	Year	SE Funding	%	Direct Housing Investment	%
Communities Scotland		£ million		£ million
	2001-02	204.3		109.9
			118.6%		139.0%
	2002-03	446.6		262.7

*The principal functions ofScottish Homes transferred to Scottish ministers on 1 November 2001.

Question reference: S2W-04488

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2003
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 9 December 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what the conclusions were of any research into the impact on white fish stocks of the ban on sandeel fishing in the Wee Bankie.

There is no conclusiveevidence yet of any impact of the Wee Bankie closure on sandeels or otherwhitefish.

The European Commission,with the support of the Scottish Executive, has proposed that the Wee Bankiearea closure continue for a further three years to allow for more scientificmonitoring of the closure and its effects.

This research will seek todetermine how effective the closure is at protecting the local sandeelpopulation and all sandeel predator species, including haddock and seabirds. Oncethis three-year monitoring programme has been completed, the results will beassessed and a decision taken on whether to make the closure permanent.

Question reference: S2W-04487

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 8 December 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting times are for (a) non-urgent and (b) urgent scans for osteoporosis in each NHS board area.

Question reference: S2W-03403

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 8 December 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many EU working group meetings have been attended by its (a) ministers and (b) officials in each year since 1999, expressed also as a percentage of total EU working group meetings in each year.

European union workinggroups are for officials; ministers do not attend these meetings. Details of attendanceby Scottish Executive officials at working groups since 1999 is set out in thetable.

Year	Number of Working Groups	Number Attended by Officials	%
1999 (from 1 July)	1,566	32	2.04
2000	2,147	67	3.12
2001	3,537	90	2.54
2002	4,216	85	2.02
2003 (to 30 June)	2,147	72	3.35
Total	13,613	346	2.54

The total number of workinggroups includes a substantial proportion where there is no devolved interest.Scottish Executive officials only attend working groups where devolved businessis on the agenda and Scotland is represented at all working group meetings as partof the United Kingdom delegation.

Question reference: S2W-04267

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 November 2003
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 5 December 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children are currently diagnosed with (a) autism, (b) Asperger's syndrome and (c) semantic and pragmatic language disorder in each NHS board area.

The information requested isnot centrally available. Autism or Asperger’s syndrome will often be theunderlying condition and patients records may not explicitly refer to this. Informationabout face-to-face consultations between GPs and patients is gathered centrallyas part of continuous morbidity recording (CMR) in general practice. The numberof patients diagnosed with autism or Asperger’s syndrome and recorded as partof CMR is very low and will not reflect the true prevalence in the Scottishpopulation. Further information can be obtained on www.isdscotland.org.

Question reference: S2W-03622

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 3 December 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average water bill for small businesses in (a) Scotland and (b) each local authority area was in each of the last 10 years.

This is an operationalmatter for Scottish Water. I have asked Dr Jon Hargreaves the Chief Executiveof Scottish Water to respond. His response is as follows:

The average water bill forsmall businesses is not available, though we can use the size of the bill as aproxy for the size of the business, with a threshold of £600 or lessapproximating to a small business. The average bill raised by Scottish Waterfrom customers with bills less than £600 in 2001-02 was £225, in 2002-03 was£260 and in 2003-04 was £335. The information for earlier years is notavailable.

Question reference: S2W-03523

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 December 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-2278 by Malcolm Chisholm on 26 September 2003, how many physiotherapists are employed in each NHS board area, expressed also on a per capita basis and as a ratio to the number of people registered as requiring their services.

The following table showsthe whole time equivalent (WTE) and headcount of Physiotherapists and thepopulations by NHS board area.

Rates per 100,000 populationare also given. These rates should be interpreted with caution as they do nottake account of cross-border flows between health boards e.g. patients residentin one health board area may receive their physiotherapy from another healthboard.

Information required to showthe ratio of physiotherapists to the number of people registered as requiringtheir services is not centrally available.

Physiotherapistsby NHS Board

Headcount andWhole Time Equivalent: at 31 March 2003

Populationestimate at 30 June 2002

	Physiotherapists		Rate per 100,000 of population
NHS Board	Headcount	WTE	Population	Headcount	WTE
Argyll and Clyde	169	133.9	418,750	40.36	31.99
Ayrshire and Arran	179	145.4	367,060	48.77	39.60
Borders	52	40.6	107,400	48.42	37.84
Dumfries and Galloway	59	46.6	147,310	40.05	31.63
Fife	149	115.4	350,620	42.50	32.91
Forth Valley	114	96.0	279,370	40.81	34.36
Grampian	244	186.1	523,290	46.63	35.57
Greater Glasgow	486	403.4	866,080	56.11	46.58
Highland	103	86.1	208,140	49.49	41.36
Lanarkshire	195	163.5	552,910	35.27	29.57
Lothian	411	338.3	779,100	52.75	43.43
Orkney	10	7.3	19,210	52.06	37.99
Shetland	12	9.0	21,940	54.69	41.02
Tayside	172	138.4	387,420	44.40	35.72
Western Isles	10	9.1	26,200	38.17	34.72
Golden Jubilee National Hospital	8	6.6	N/A	N/A	N/A
Scotland	2373	1925.7	5054800	46.95	38.10

Source: NationalManpower Statistics from payroll, ISD Scotland GRO mid-year populationestimates.

Question reference: S2W-04017

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 November 2003
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 25 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make representations in support of the ending of the Common Fisheries Policy.

Question reference: S2W-04013

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 November 2003
Current Status: Answered by Elish Angiolini on 25 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prosecutions there were for the sale of fireworks to under age customers from 5 October to 5 November in each of the last three years.

In the year 2002-03,prosecutions took place in relation to 11 charges involving the sale offireworks to under age customers. Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Servicesystems do not allow extraction of data for the period 5 October to 5 Novemberin any year; nor is it possible to provide statistics about charges before 2002when a major programme of change to reporting systems took place to allow fullcharge information to be received in electronic format from the police.

Question reference: S2W-04011

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 November 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 25 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many individuals under 18 were admitted to hospital as a result of illegal drug use in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board area and expressed also as a percentage of all illegal drug use admissions.

The latest complete count of the number of individuals aged under 18 admitted to hospitals in Scotlandwith a diagnosis of drug misuse is shown in the following table. It is not alwayspossible to explicitly identify illegal drug use from centrally held data, assome drug classifications include the misuse of prescribed drugs.

Patients Aged Under 18Admitted to Hospitals in Scotland with Any Mention of a Diagnosis of Drug Misuse^1,2,3by NHS Board of Residence

	Y/E March 1998		Y/E March 1999		Y/E March 2000		Y/E March 2001		Y/E March 2002^P
NHS Board of Residence	Number Aged Under 18	% of All Patients Admitted with Drug Misuse	Number Aged Under 18	% of All Patients Admitted with Drug Misuse	Number Aged Under 18	% of All Patients Admitted with Drug Misuse	Number Aged Under 18	% of All Patients Admitted with Drug Misuse	Number Aged Under 18	% of All Patients Admitted with Drug Misuse
All Areas	233	6.7	222	5.5	206	4.8	205	4.6	214	4.6
Ayrshire and Arran	51	16.3	40	10.3	37	9.1	44	10.0	50	8.6
Borders	5	8.8	6	11.5	8	15.1	1	1.6	9	16.4
Argyll and Clyde	19	6.9	19	5.2	26	6.5	36	9.4	19	4.4
Fife	15	9.4	25	14.0	13	6.2	13	6.1	10	4.7
Greater Glasgow	37	3.4	33	2.4	34	2.5	29	1.9	40	2.8
Highland	9	14.1	3	4.5	7	7.4	4	5.8	5	6.0
Lanarkshire	10	5.6	15	6.0	11	4.1	17	4.8	11	3.5
Grampian	27	9.2	21	6.7	24	6.7	16	4.2	18	4.9
Orkney	-	-	-	-	1	100.0	-	-	-	-
Lothian	30	5.8	31	5.9	22	4.1	20	4.5	29	5.7
Tayside	14	6.0	10	4.5	9	4.1	7	3.7	9	5.3
Forth Valley	5	4.2	7	4.8	2	1.4	4	3.0	5	3.6
Western Isles	-	-	-	-	2	16.7	1	14.3	-	-
Dumfries and Galloway	8	8.9	8	8.9	5	6.0	7	7.4	6	4.3
Shetland	-	-	1	16.7	-	-	-	-	-	-
Other ⁴	3	3.5	3	2.8	5	3.1	6	3.8	3	2.1

Source:ISD Scotland Linked Database, November 2003.

Notes:

^PProvisional

1.Includes in-patient and day case discharges from general acute and mentalillness hospitals and psychiatric units.

2.Up to six discharge diagnoses (one principal, five secondary) are recorded onthe national returns. The following codes were used from the InternationalClassification of Diseases (ICD), tenth revision to identify drug misuse: F11(Opioids), F12 (Cannabinoids), F13 (Sedatives/Hypnotics), F14 (Cocaine), F15(Other Stimulants), F16 (Hallucinogens), F18 (Volative solvents), F19 (Multiple/otherpsychoactive substances).

3.Caution is necessary when interpreting these figures. Where drug misuse issuspected but unconfirmed it may not be recorded by the hospital.

4. Includes areas of residence outside Scotland, no fixedabode and unknown.