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-32273

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 15 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what estimate it has made of the number of midwives required by the NHS (a) currently and (b) over the next five years.

The following table refers to the anticipated number ofnursing and midwifery staff required to fill vacancies and meet projected need,so it includes both replacement and expansion demand.

Current and Projected Demand - Registered Midwives (Head Count)

Current

Demand

2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

2009-10

2010-11

5 Year Change

(% )

Change

Ave

Annual

Increase

3,595

3,760

3,806

3,838

3,836

3,834

239

6.6%

1.3%

Question reference: S2W-32284

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 15 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what change there has been in the number of (a) NHS beds, (b) general and acute beds, (c) intermediate care beds, (d) non-residential intermediate care places and (e) adult critical care beds in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS hospital.

Information on average available staffed beds for each NHShospital and the yearly change in bed numbers for the years ending 31 March1999 to 2006 is contained in a document NHSScotland Average Available StaffedBeds (1999-2006) a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament InformationCentre (Bib. number 42272).

Table 1 shows information for all average available staffedbeds.

Table 2 provides information for beds in acute specialties.

Table 3 shows the number of critical care beds (beds inintensive care, high dependency and cardiac care units) excluding beds inchildrens hospitals.

Information on intermediate care beds and non-residentialintermediate care places is not held centrally.

Question reference: S2W-32285

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 15 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many and what percentage of outpatient operations were cancelled in each NHS hospital in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S2W-32147

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 15 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the expenditure by unweighted head of population and (a) in-year and (b) accumulated financial positions were of each NHS board for (i) 2003-04, (ii) 2004-05 and (iii) 2005-06.

The expenditure by unweightedhead of population for each NHS board from 2003-04 to 2005-06 was:

Health Board	2003-04 (£)	2004-05 (£)	2005-06 (£)
Argyll and Clyde	1,344	1,480	1,562
Ayrshire and Arran	1,216	1,387	1,526
Borders	1,263	1,367	1,457
Dumfries and Galloway	1,312	1,426	1,527
Fife	1,127	1,243	1,343
Forth Valley	1,153	1,271	1,393
Grampian	1,122	1,229	1,288
Greater Glasgow	1,403	1,538	1,656
Highland	1,314	1,480	1,612
Lanarkshire	1,178	1,290	1,384
Lothian	1,277	1,260	1,340
Orkney	1,570	1,675	1,923
Shetland	1,520	1,718	1,872
Tayside	1,346	1,466	1,550
West Isles	1,937	2,173	2,392

Under resource accounting, anyunder/over spend against the resource limit is dealt with by an adjustment to thefollowing year’s resource limit. Therefore the accumulated and in year positionare effectively the same.

The financial position of NHSboards in Scotland from 2003-04 was:

Health Board	2003-04 (£000)	2004-05 (£000)	2005-06 (£000)
Argyll and Clyde	(35,370)	(59,492)	569
Ayrshire and Arran	13,549	22,901	17,405
Borders	299	3,380	3,314
Dumfries and Galloway	5,491	9,455	14,223
Fife	2,366	5,400	4,582
Forth Valley	392	410	407
Grampian	(4,804)	(10,774)	456
Greater Glasgow	5,010	12,103	12,284
Highland	2,522	1,838	1,369
Lanarkshire	(21,208)	(20,042)	(8,393)
Lothian	13,207	19,566	179
Orkney	34	60	50
Shetland	339	24	341
Tayside	4,298	4,460	1,141
West Isles	(271)	(738)	(2,484)
Special Health Boards	12,733	22,459	24,153
Total	(1,413)	11,010	69,596

Question reference: S2W-32146

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 15 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what total number of home help hours was delivered in each year since 1997-98, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S2W-32148

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 15 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) accumulated and (b) in-year financial positions of the NHS were in each year since 1996-97.

For years prior to 2002-03,health boards had one statutory financial duty – to ensure that net expendituredoes not exceed their cash limit. The figures below show for that period the accumulatedposition of boards against their cash limits.

In 2002-03 Resource Accountingand Budgeting was introduced for NHS in Scotland, so the figures below show the accumulated position ofboards against their revenue resource limits. Under resource accounting surpluses and deficits do not accumulate. Any under/overspend against the resource limit is dealt with by an adjustment to the followingyear’s resource limit, therefore the accumulated and in year position are effectivelythe same.

The financial position of theNHS from 1996-97 to 2005-06 was as follows:

	£000
1996-97	14,500
1997-98	19,300
1998-99	34,500
1999-2000	37,469
2000-01	37,342
2001-02	43,737
2002-03	30,853
2003-04	(1,413)
2004-05	11,010
2005-06	69,596

Question reference: S2W-32223

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 15 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many dentists have exhausted their 2006-07 NHS budgets.

Question reference: S2W-32224

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 15 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) average and (b) longest waiting times were for treatment in (i) ear, nose and throat, (ii) general surgery, (iii) gynaecology, (iv) orthopaedic, (v) rheumatology, (vi) urology and (vii) pain relief specialities in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.

Median waiting times are not an Executive target. Our policyis to reduce the longest waiting times for patients. On 31 December 2006, no patient with a guarantee had waited more than 26 weeks for a first out-patientappointment. This national maximum waiting time will be reduced to 18 weeks bythe end of this year.

Information on median and 99thpercentile waiting times for treatment is given in Median and 99th percentilewaiting times (days) for out-patient appointments and in-patient/day caseadmissions for selected specialties by NHS board; years ending 31 March 2002 -2006 a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament InformationCentre (Bib. number 42300).

The 99th percentile waiting timeis used in preference to the maximum wait in these analyses. This approach istaken because the one percent of values that are larger than the 99thpercentile cannot be relied upon; cases with very long waits may be a mixtureof actual times and times that are a result of recording errors.

Centrally held data cannotspecifically identify either inpatient/day case admissions or outpatientappointments for pain relief specialties, thus, these data are not presented.

Question reference: S2W-32221

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 15 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much each local authority spent on (a) residential care homes and (b) nursing homes for elderly people in each of the last five years.

As from April 2002 the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act2001 removed the statutory distinction between residential care homes andnursing homes. Consequently, local authority expenditure on residential carehomes and on nursing homes was combined from financial year 2002-03 onwards andreclassified as Older People - Care Homes (Non Respite). The following tableshows expenditure in each of the last five years. The figures for 2001-02 arethe combined figures under the two previous headings. Those from 2002-03 onwardsare the figures under the single new heading.

Older People - Care Homes (Non Respite) Net RevenueExpenditure

Local Authority	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Scotland	266,352	326,375	352,913	397,999	422,887
Aberdeen City	13,164	18,509	22,406	22,544	26,077
Aberdeenshire	10,924	5,877	6,023	21,155	22,242
Angus	7,074	10,500	10,541	12,885	12,484
Argyll and Bute	5,529	9,278	8,508	9,421	11,325
Clackmannanshire	2,155	2,570	2,736	3,188	3,529
Dumfries and Galloway	6,823	8,982	9,644	9,540	7,312
Dundee City	8,314	11,871	13,352	16,056	15,306
East Ayrshire	5,635	9,267	10,388	10,820	11,329
East Dunbartonshire	343	0	6,344	2,618	5,397
East Lothian	4,279	7,300	6,897	8,304	9,833
East Renfrewshire	3,408	8,902	4,062	5,031	5,896
Edinburgh City	14,820	34,967	43,351	45,877	46,146
Eilean Siar	3,948	4,627	4,039	4,242	4,978
Falkirk	8,291	5,133	8,101	8,242	7,919
Fife	16,594	16,035	20,224	29,153	27,481
Glasgow City	42,612	20,057	17,554	17,227	15,877
Highland	15,039	22,278	24,483	26,255	27,514
Inverclyde	4,733	7,105	7,380	5,463	5,644
Midlothian	3,623	5,728	6,894	7,463	7,323
Moray	4,397	5,794	7,009	6,347	6,775
North Ayrshire	7,655	10,413	11,541	12,967	12,786
North Lanarkshire	18,950	27,293	24,735	28,910	27,507
Orkney Islands	2,090	2,162	2,329	1,951	3,047
Perth and Kinross	7,172	12,065	15,266	15,868	14,613
Renfrewshire	8,490	11,540	14,052	14,936	13,979
Scottish Borders	5,313	5,566	10,329	10,133	11,121
Shetland Islands	1,485	1,372	1,636	2,044	3,285
South Ayrshire	5,456	6,300	7,114	7,337	6,490
South Lanarkshire	13,039	21,269	5,435	8,330	25,831
Stirling	2,457	5,438	5,908	5,977	6,932
West Dunbartonshire	7,289	7,457	7,588	8,301	7,369
West Lothian	5,251	720	7,044	9,414	9,540

Source: As reported on theLFR 3 (Social Work) for the above years.

Question reference: S2W-32109

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 14 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive when the First Minister will reply to Alex Salmond MP’s letter dated 17 January 2007 regarding Government Expenditure and Revenues in Scotland (GERS) calculation data, which was passed to the First Minister by HM Treasury.