- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 December 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 19 December 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive why the 20 day rule on livestock movement has not lapsed despite Scotland being foot-and-mouth disease free.
Answer
This restriction is still necessary to ensure that any disease which may be latent and undetected in livestock, which could be introduced onto a holding by an animal movement will have time to incubate and be identified before any animal leaves that holding and thus greatly reduces the risk of the disease spreading to other farms.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 November 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 19 December 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, for the period 7 to 9 November 2001, it will give details of the daily records of winter maintenance on trunk roads in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire that BEAR Scotland Ltd is required to keep under section 3.3 of Schedule 7, Part 2 of the Term Contract for Management and Maintenance of the Scottish Trunk Road Network in respect of (a) treatment records, (b) trunk road blockages giving lengths and times, (c) ice detection records, (d) weather forecasts and actual weather experienced, (e) accidents resulting from winter conditions, (f) response times achieved, (g) complaints by members of the public and trunk road users and the action taken, (h) constructional plant and equipment downtime and software faults, (i) quantities of de-icing materials used in stock and on order for each depot, (j) constructional plant and equipment deployment records and driver/operator logs, (k) output from gritter on-board data loggers and (l) salting decisions.
Answer
It would be excessively time consuming and costly to obtain information from the Operating Companies at the level of detail requested, but I have undertaken to publish a report by the Performance Audit Group on the first year of operation of the new contracts in line with the recommendation of the Auditor General.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 December 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 19 December 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the 20 day rule on livestock movement will lapse once Scotland ceases to be designated as a controlled area for foot-and-mouth disease purposes.
Answer
The current foot-and-mouth disease movement and other restrictions are under review. When Scotland ceases to be designated as a controlled area the existing movement control regime will be relaxed. However, veterinary advice is that some form of animal movement restriction will still be required in the short term. Discussions and negotiations are currently taking place with the industry on how this can be implemented and industry practices adapted.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 November 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 December 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to increase the number of places at dental schools in order to address any current shortage.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-20029.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 November 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 December 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to reverse its policy of not recruiting dentists from overseas in order to address any shortage of dentists.
Answer
There is no policy which restricts NHS Boards from recruiting dentists from overseas into Scotland. We are committed to increasing in the number of dentists working in primary care in Scotland. The Scottish Advisory Committee for the Dental Workforce are currently examining the most effective way to achieve this, and recruiting dentists from overseas is only one of several options.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 November 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 December 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make additional resources available to attract general dental practitioners to rural areas similar to the 'Golden Hello' package of measures introduced for general practitioners.
Answer
Discussions are under way currently with the dental profession on improved support for dentists in rural areas. These will inform the way forward in respect of these dentists.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 November 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 December 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how many places there are at each dental school in the current year, and were in each of the last three years, and what the ratio was of applications to places available in each year.
Answer
The information requested is shown in the following table. The number of applications dropped in 2001 because the closing date for entry was brought forward from 15 December to 15 October. The Dental Schools continue to receive more than sufficient applications to ensure that they can select students of high quality.
Year | Dundee Dental School | Glasgow Dental School |
Applications | Admissions | Ratio | Applications | Admissions | Ratio |
2001 | 319 | 59 | 5.4:1 | 258 | 74 | 3.5:1 |
2000 | 391 | 59 | 6.6:1 | 309 | 71 | 4.4:1 |
1999 | 420 | 53 | 7.9:1 | 389 | 67 | 5.8:1 |
1998 | 403 | 53 | 7.6:1 | 393 | 65 | 6.0:1 |
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 November 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 December 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide financial assistance to the local health board or other appropriate organisation within the Grampian region to help attract dentists to the region.
Answer
The Executive is investing record resources in NHSScotland and in Grampian. It is for NHS Grampian to determine how best to deploy these resources in accordance with their assessment of local needs and priorities and in the best interests of patients. I understand that NHS Grampian are investigating advertising overseas to attract dentists to the area.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 November 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 December 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will investigate the level of provision of hospital dental services in the Grampian Health Board area and the length of waiting times for such services in comparison with other health board areas.
Answer
I am aware of the difficulties the board is experiencing in providing adequate dental services in the Grampian area and my officials are in close touch with the board. The underlying problem has been difficulty in attracting staff. The University Hospitals NHS Trust is making progress with recruitment. Wider all-Scotland steps are being taken to improve recruitment to the dental profession.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 29 November 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 13 December 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive who represented it at the most recent EU Fisheries Council Meeting and what the outcome was.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-20681 on 6 December 2001.
