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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 714 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S4W-02305

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 14 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made to the European Parliament and the UK Government regarding reducing VAT on sun cream.

Question reference: S4W-02313

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 13 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been treated for eating disorders each year since 1999, broken down by (a) specific eating disorder, (b) age category and (c) NHS board area.

The total number of people treated for eating disorders in Scotland is not available centrally.

Information available from the Practice Team Information (PTI) scheme, which can provide national estimates of the number of people consulting either a GP or practice-employed nurse where an eating disorder was noted as one of the reasons for consulting, is shown in the following tables.

Information available on patients seen in hospital is also shown in the tables below, but this will only relate to a small proportion of people treated for an eating disorder, given the majority of people will be treated in the community and other settings such as hospital outpatients, counselling services etc, for which information is not available.

PTI records indicate reasons for consultation but this does not specify whether treatment was provided. The PTI sample covers approximately 6% of general practices in Scotland and their population is regarded to be broadly representative of Scotland as a whole in terms of their age, gender and deprivation profile. PTI data are available from 1 April 2003. They cannot be used to estimate figures by individual NHS board area.

Table 1 shows the estimated numbers of patients who consulted either a GP or practice-employed nurse in Scotland for different types of eating disorders, categorised as anorexia, bulimia, other eating disorders and unspecified eating disorders, during the financial years 2003-04 to 2009-10. Table 2 shows estimates of numbers of patients consulting for any eating disorder, split into four age groups (14 and under, 15 to 24, 25 to 44 and 45 and over).

Some patients may have consulted for more than one type of eating disorder during the year and therefore the total number of patients seen for any eating disorder is slightly lower than the sum of patients seen for each individual eating disorder. Overlap is most likely where patients had a consultation for which only a general eating disorder code was recorded as well as a consultation for which a specific eating disorder was recorded.

These are estimates based on a sample of practices that may vary between years. The 95% confidence intervals give an indication of the uncertainty around the estimates. For relatively rare conditions the confidence intervals will be fairly large.

Information on number of patients treated for eating disorders at acute and psychiatric hospitals during financial years 1999-2000 to 2009-2010 is shown in tables 3 and 4.

Table 1. Estimated number of patients in Scotland consulting a GP or practice-employed nurse for an eating disorder at least once in the year, by type of disorder.

Estimated numbers¹, with 95% confidence intervals²

Financial Year

Anorexia Nervosa

Bulimia Nervosa

Other

Eating Disorders - Unspecified

Any Eating Disorder (total)³

2003-04	660	(440-880)	1,020	(770-1,260)	160	(30-290)	1,530	(1,100-1,950)	3,210	(2,570-3,850)
2004-05	590	(390-780)	1,020	(810-1,220)	160	(70-250)	1,420	(1,090-1,750)	2,960	(2,520-3,400)
2005-06	570	(200-940)	1,240	(900-1,580)	290	(150-430)	1,230	(990-1,470)	3,000	(2,370-3,620)
2006-07	430	(200-670)	900	(700-1,090)	160	(60-250)	1,280	(1,030-1,520)	2,580	(2,120-3,040)
2007-08	550	(320-770)	890	(560-1,200)	180	(80-280)	1,250	(990-1,510)	2,740	(2,220-3,260)
2008-09	550	(370-740)	960	(650-1,260)	140	(30-250)	1,510	(1,280-1,740)	3,010	(2,530-3,490)
2009-10	710	(510-920)	900	(680-1,130)	170	(80-270)	1,730	(1,440-2,020)	3,270	(2,790-3,750)

Table 2. Estimated number of patients in Scotland consulting a GP or practice-employed nurse for an eating disorder at least once in the year, by age group.

Estimated numbers¹, with 95% confidence intervals²

Financial Year

14 Years and Under

15-24 Years

25-44 Years

45 Years and Over

2003-04	340	(220-470)	1,200	(920-1,470)	1,270	(1,010-1,520)	350	(180-530)
2004-05	300	(180-420)	1,090	(820-1,370)	1,250	(1,000-1,500)	280	(160-400)
2005-06	410	(300-530)	1,300	(970-1,640)	1,020	(580-1,360)	290	(140-450)
2006-07	260	(120-400)	1,080	(820-1,340)	990	(710-1,280)	240	(130-340)
2007-08	250	(140-360)	1,080	(840-1,320)	1,090	(730-1,450)	260	(150-380)
2008-09	280	(130-420)	1,320	(1,030-1,600)	1,200	(960-1,440)	190	(80-300)
2009-10	390	(260-520)	1,300	(1,020-1,580)	1,140	(890-1,400)	330	(200-470)

Notes:

1. Based on data from 59, 53, 51, 49, 48, 58 and 60 PTI practices that submitted complete GP and practice nurse data for the years ending 31 March 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively.

2. As the estimates are based on data from a sample of practices, 95% confidence intervals are included to indicate the relative degree of certainty of these estimates.

3. The total number of patients seen for any type of eating disorder is lower than the sum over individual conditions, because some patients will have consulted for more than one type of eating disorder and hence will be counted in more than one category.

Table 3. Number of patients treated at acute hospitals (SMR01) in Scotland for eating disorders, by type of disorder, age and NHS board of residence, Financial Years 1999-2000 to 2009-2010

	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10
Type of disorder
Anorexia	65	64	64	79	82	74	84	91	108	86	105
Bulimia	39	35	38	41	49	45	49	58	56	58	51
Other	14	20	15	23	23	19	20	12	15	13	18
Unspecified	43	47	44	40	48	53	52	58	76	66	63
Age group
0-14	12	17	17	17	13	12	16	11	22	16	21
15-24	47	59	49	69	69	60	67	91	95	88	82
25-44	76	69	69	58	81	68	86	78	102	78	81
45+	26	21	26	39	39	51	36	39	36	41	53
NHS board of residence
Ayrshire and Arran	13	9	11	11	12	8	19	12	23	20	18
Borders	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	6	*	*
Dumfries and Galloway	8	7	8	10	11	*	6	*	10	*	11
Fife	9	15	11	8	11	*	10	8	18	14	17
Forth Valley	11	8	13	8	8	6	10	*	*	7	6
Grampian	23	16	14	26	34	30	27	36	35	29	39
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	42	34	34	39	42	38	32	46	50	40	45
Highland	11	15	8	18	9	15	14	14	16	24	18
Lanarkshire	6	12	10	14	14	17	26	20	16	12	13
Lothian	26	39	38	34	48	52	45	55	58	47	42
Orkney	-	-	-	-	*	-	-	*	*	*	*
Shetland	-	*	*	*	-	*	*	-	*	*	*
Tayside	6	*	6	11	7	10	6	14	19	12	16
Western Isles	*	*	*	*	-	*	*	*	-	*	*
Other	*	*	-	-	*	-	*	*	*	*	*
Total	161	166	161	183	202	191	205	219	255	223	237

Table 4. Number of patients treated at psychiatric hospitals (SMR04) in Scotland for eating disorders, by type of disorder, age and NHS board of residence, Financial Years 1999-2000 to 2009-2010

	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10
Type of disorder
Anorexia	71	71	56	65	59	64	66	80	79	84	73
Bulimia	19	27	17	19	18	19	11	13	11	12	20
Other	4	2	6	5	6	5	2	-	3	1	2
Unspecified	25	26	15	14	21	26	22	20	18	23	26
Age group
0-14	11	7	7	7	6	16	6	8	12	16	15
15-24	41	46	35	39	40	33	36	48	45	44	47
25-44	58	58	45	45	50	55	48	46	40	50	47
45+	9	15	7	12	8	10	11	11	14	10	12
NHS board of residence
Ayrshire and Arran	10	7	9	7	8	7	*	7	*	6	6
Borders	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
Dumfries and Galloway	6	*	*	*	*	7	*	*	*	*	*
Fife	9	9	6	8	9	*	*	*	7	9	6
Forth Valley	12	8	8	*	*	*	*	7	*	*	*
Grampian	11	8	11	6	8	14	15	12	10	9	12
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	16	27	18	19	20	20	25	36	38	33	28
Highland	8	6	6	9	*	11	9	*	8	*	9
Lanarkshire	12	16	8	11	7	6	7	13	12	6	7
Lothian	16	25	16	18	19	22	18	17	17	27	24
Orkney	-	-	-	-	-	*	-	-	*	*	*
Shetland	-	-	-	-	-	-	*	-	-	*	*
Tayside	16	13	*	9	11	9	6	*	*	11	14
Western Isles	*	*	-	*	*	*	*	*	-	-	-
Other	-	*	*	-	*	*	*	*	*	-	*
Total	119	126	94	103	104	114	101	113	111	120	121

Note:

*Indicates values that have been suppressed due to the potential risk of disclosure and to help maintain patient confidentiality.

-Indicates zero values.

Question reference: S4W-02232

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what grants are available to assist in the growth of community football.

All Scottish Government funding to support the grassroots development of community football is routed through sportscotland who operate a number of funding streams that are available for clubs and groups to access. I have asked the chief executive of sportscotland to write to the member outlining the detail of these funding streams.

In 2009-10, football received record funding of £6.478 million invested into the grassroots and development of youth football and support for Scottish football organisations and clubs for a number of other initiatives in supported employment and football supporter initiatives.

Question reference: S4O-00188

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what recent discussions it has had in relation to establishing an enterprise zone in the West Scotland region.

Question reference: S4W-02361

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 7 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many environmental health officers there are, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S4W-02362

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 7 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many sunbed operators have been prosecuted under the Public Health etc. (Scotland) Act 2008, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S4W-02233

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 7 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether public funds may be used to secure a change in the ownership of a private company.

Question reference: S4W-02234

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 7 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether public funds may be used to secure a change in the ownership of a football club.

Question reference: S4W-02317

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 6 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4W-01608 by Nicola Sturgeon on 4 August 2011, of the partial hand amputations that took place, how many patients could have been considered for prosthetics had they been available.

Question reference: S4W-02298

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 2 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many sunbed operators have been prosecuted under the Public Health etc. (Scotland) Act 2008 for not displaying the relevant health and safety signage, in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority.

The sunbed provisions of the Public Health etc. (Scotland) Act 2008 came into force in December 2009. Details on enforcement of the new legislation by individual local authorities is not held centrally.

However, in December 2010, the Scottish Government commissioned Health Protection Scotland to survey local authorities on the enforcement of the Public Health etc. (Scotland) Act 2008 (Sunbed) Regulations 2009.

The anonymised survey showed that no reports have been made to the Procurator Fiscal and only one fixed penalty notice had been served. Additional informal options had been used such as issuing of advisory or warning letters.