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: S3W-14681

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 July 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-13021 by Shona Robison on 2 June 2008, why the answer states that no conditions were placed on the new practice as far as out-of-hours services were concerned, when paragraph 9 of the NHS Tayside medical practice vacancy specification document for the Kinloch Rannoch Medical Practice states “OOH (out-of-hours) care will be a core component of the specification”.

NHS boards are under a statutory duty to ensure the provision of primary medical services throughout their areas. It is open to NHS boards to offer contracts for the performance of such services. The vacancy specification document stated that NHS Tayside would work with the successful applicants with a view to seeking innovative solutions to the provision of the out-of-hours component. No bids, however, were received that included out-of-hours cover. Consequently, NHS Tayside awarded a contract on the basis of the proposals for core hours and has itself continued to provide out-of-hours services.

Question reference: S3W-14680

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 July 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive which GPs practices on the mainland still provide out-of-hours service cover.

The following mainland practices still provide out-of-hours cover:

NHS Grampian

Braemar Health Clinic, St Andrews Terrace, Braemar

NHS Highland

Pines Medical Practice, Acharacle

The Surgery, Applecross

Armadale Medical Practice, Armadale

The Medical Centre, Campbeltown

The Surgery, Durness

Gairloch Health Centre, Auchtercairn, Gairloch

The Surgery, Furnace, Inveraray

Scourie and Kinlochbervie Medical Practice, Health Centre, Kinlochbervie

The Ferguson Medical Centre, Lochcarron

Lochgilphead Medical Practice, Lochgilphead

Assynt Medical Practice, Main Street, Lochinver

Port Appin Surgery, Port Appin

The Surgery, Muasdale, Tarbert

Burnside Surgery, Tighnabruaich

The Health Centre, St Andrew’s Glebe, Tongue

Torridon Medical Practice, Fassaig, Torridon

Ullapool Health Centre, North Road, Ullapool.

Question reference: S3W-14326

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 15 July 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many documents containing instructions, guidance, regulation and any other sort of direction it has issued to Chief Constables in each of the last five years.

The Scottish Government issues guidance to all police forces and police boards in the form of police circulars. These cover a range of topics including the impact of new legislation and changes to police pay and allowances. During each of the last five years the number of circulars issued has been as follows:

2007	8
2006	5
2005	13
2004	23
2003	12

Full details on the content of these circulars can be found on the government’s website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/Police/Circulars/2007.

In addition to the distribution of police circulars, ministers and officials are in regular contact with chief constables on a wide range of matters.

Question reference: S3W-14325

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 15 July 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many pages of instruction, guidance, regulation and any other sort of direction it has issued to chief constables in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S3W-14756

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Linda Fabiani on 14 July 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it has taken to put pressure on the G8 leaders to keep their promises made at the G8 summit in Gleneagles on 8 July 2005.

Question reference: S3W-14757

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Bruce Crawford on 14 July 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how much each parliamentary question costs, on average, to answer.

Question reference: S3W-14322

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 10 July 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many documents containing instructions, guidance, regulation and any other sort of direction it has issued to head teachers in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S3W-14321

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 10 July 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many pages of instruction, guidance, regulation and any other sort of direction it has issued to head teachers in each of the last five years.

The bulk of the government’s communication about school education is with local authorities, with whom responsibility for the provision of school education lies, rather than with head teachers themselves.

A trawl of files across government directorates to compile a comprehensive list of the limited instances of direct contact with head teachers could only be carried out at disproportionate cost.

Question reference: S3W-14324

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 July 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many documents containing instructions, guidance, regulation and any other sort of direction it has issued to hospital managers in each of the last five years.

The Scottish Government Health Directorates issue a weekly bulletin containing a digest of their recent publications and this is available on the Scottish Health on the Web (SHOW) website at http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/. The bulletin is circulated to chief executives of NHS boards and operating divisions to cascade as appropriate, and is also circulated more widely to other interested bodies for information. The table below sets out the number of documents contained within each weekly bulletin issued in each of the last five years:

Table 1 – Number of Documents Issued by Year

2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
337	238	161	166	214

Source: www.show.scot.nhs.uk.

In addition there may be ad-hoc correspondence issued that is not included in the weekly bulletin. Information on the number of these documents is not collected.

Question reference: S3W-14323

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 July 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many pages of instruction, guidance, regulation and any other sort of direction it has issued to hospital managers in each of the last five years.