- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 January 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 14 February 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made in meeting its commitment to provide free dental check-ups by 2007 and what impact a shortage of NHS dentists is having on this commitment.
Answer
All NHS dental examinations havebeen free since 1 April 2006.
We have put in place anumber of initiatives to address problems of access to NHS dental services insome parts of Scotland. The number (headcount) of non-salaried principalsproviding NHS general dental services in Scotland has risen from 1,933 at 30September 2005 to 2,025 at 30 September 2006, and in the same period the numberof Community and Salaried Dentists has increased from 550 to 676.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 January 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 13 February 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many dentists have (a) returned to the NHS and (b) taken on additional NHS patients as a result of the incentives introduced for these purposes, broken down by parliamentary constituency and NHS board and, in each case, also shown as a percentage of all dentists.
Answer
Information is not collectedon the specific reasons why dentists return to the NHS or take on additional NHSpatients.
Since the introduction of allowancespaid only to NHS committed practices the number (headcount) of non-salaried principalsproviding NHS general dental services in Scotland has risen from 1,933 at 30 September 2005 to 2,025 at30 September 2006.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 January 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 8 February 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many bus journeys were undertaken in each of the last five years in each local authority area, also showing (a) year-on-year and (b) overall percentage changes and national totals.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-30445 on 21 December 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’swebsite, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 25 January 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 8 February 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what expenditure has been incurred on public transport schemes in each of the last three years, also expressed on a per capita basis and broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The Executive does not hold informationon public transport scheme expenditure in the form requested. The Executive providesfunding both for specific public transport projects, which in certain circumstancesmay be for a work programme involving a number of different elements rather thana single identifiable physical project, and for general allocations to recipientssuch as local authorities and regional transport partnerships which can be usedfor public transport purposes.
The majority of such expenditureover the last three years has been distributed by grants paid under section 70 of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2001. Details of these are contained in the annualreports to the Scottish Parliament, copies of which are available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. numbers 22114, 28193, 33166, 36946 and 39974).
Information on local governmentgross expenditure on public transport can be found in table 4a of the ScottishLocal Government Financial Statistics annual publication:
www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/01/09093510/0.Population details for calculatingper capita expenditure are available from the General Register Office for Scotland www.gro-scotland.gov.uk.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 January 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 8 February 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to expedite access to NHS dentists in Moray and across Scotland.
Answer
We have agreed capital fundingof almost £2 million for new NHS dental services in Elgin, Buckie and Keith, andin addition NHS Grampian are working with the RAF to provide a further new dentalservice in Lossiemouth later this year. As well as developing direct NHS dentalservices in many areas, we are also encouraging high street dentists to continueor come back to treating all categories of patient on the NHS, with additional newfunding worth upwards of £25,000 per practice per year.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 January 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 7 February 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients in each parliamentary constituency were registered with an NHS dentist in each of the last five years, also showing year-on-year percentage changes and national totals, and expressed as a percentage of all dental patients.
Answer
The information requested isnot available by parliamentary constituency.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 25 January 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 5 February 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what fisheries quota was allocated to, and how many vessels qualified as, deep water vessels in each of the last three years.
Answer
104 UK vessels wereallocated a deep sea species (DSS) entitlement when these were first introducedin December 2002. In 2006, 57 Scottish administered active vessels held a DSS entitlement.The equivalent figures for 2005 and 2004 are 54 and 55 respectively.
Deep sea quotas allocated toProducer Organisations (POs) in these years were:
Tusk
Ling
Blue ling
Black scabbardfish
Roundnose grenadier
Shark
Forkbeard.
Once allocated, it is for POsto distribute the available quota to their member vessels.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 January 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 5 February 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive when the decision to publish the EU Business: Reviews of Engagement with Europe and of EU Office reports was taken.
Answer
No decision has been taken onwhether to publish the reports, as they have not yet been finalised.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 January 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 5 February 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what the timetable is for implementing the recommendations contained in the EU Business: Reviews of Engagement with Europe and of EU Office reports.
Answer
As the reports are only indraft form, and no recommendations have yet been submitted to Ministers oragreed by them, there is not yet any implementation timetable.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 January 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 5 February 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it issues on labelling “Restricted - Advice to Ministers” on its documents.
Answer
The Scottish Executivefollows the UK’s Protective Marking System. Guidance on this Systemand on the standard descriptors which can be applied to protective markingswithin the Executive, which denote the nature of the sensitivity involved, ismade available to all Executive employees via its Intranet. Guidance is also embeddedin templates used by civil servants in preparing submissions to ministers.
