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: S4W-19356

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 5 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to (a) raise awareness of and (b) challenge bullying in local authorities.

Question reference: S4W-19363

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 5 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-11842 by Alex Neil on 17 January 2013, how many unplanned emergency admissions there were in 2012-13 and how many were of (a) older people, (b) disabled people and (c) children.

The following table shows the number of emergency admissions for (a) older people aged 65 and over and (b) children aged 0-14 during 2012-13. The table also shows the number of emergency admissions as a rate per 1,000 population.

Information on patient disability is not routinely collected on central hospital admissions data returns.

Table: Number and rate of Emergency Admissions; 2012-13^P

	Admissions	Rate per 1,000
Older people (aged 65+)	232,269	250.9
Children (aged 0-14)	56,118	65.8

Source: ISD Scotland SMR01

Rate per 1,000 derived from GRO mid-year population estimate

P: Provisional

This and further emergency admissions information is published under the Inpatient and Day Case Activity sub-topic of ISD’s Acute Hospital Care publication.

Question reference: S4W-19364

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 5 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-11849 by Alex Neil on 17 January 2013, how many acute NHS hospital beds were allocated for (a) geriatric and (b) paediatric services in 2012-13.

The following table shows the average available staffed beds allocated to geriatric and paediatric specialties in 2012-13.

Table: Average available staffed beds in Geriatric¹ and Paediatric² Specialties; 2012-13^P

	Geriatric Specialties	Paediatric Specialties
Average available staffed beds	7,229	764

Source: ISD Scotland ISD(S)1

P: Provisional

1: Geriatric specialties comprise:

Geriatric Medicine (including Geriatric Long Stay)

Psychiatry of Old Age

2: Paediatric specialties comprise:

Surgical Paediatrics

Medical Paediatrics

Paediatric Dentistry

Child Psychiatry

This and further beds information is published under the Beds sub-topic of ISD’s Acute Hospital Care publication.

Question reference: S4O-02893

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 January 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to safeguard access to justice in communities in South Scotland.

Question reference: S4O-02829

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to increase the number of public access defibrillators across the country.

Question reference: S4T-00564

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 13 January 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to ensure more specialist care for care home residents with dementia.

Question reference: S4W-18959

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 7 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what the interim findings are of the feasibility study being carried out into the future of Selkirk and Jedburgh sheriff courts.

Question reference: S4W-18960

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 7 January 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will carry out a full public consultation on the final options presented by the feasibility study into the future of Selkirk and Jedburgh sheriff courts.

Question reference: S4W-18489

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 November 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 19 December 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many college and university students are aged over (a) 70, (b) 80 and (c) 90; what percentage of student enrolments this represents, and which institution has the most students over 70 years old.

Statistics on student enrolments are produced by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). The latest available data is for the 2011-12 academic year. Enrolments for students aged 70 years or over are shown in the following table. In total, these enrolments accounted for 0.9% of enrolments at Scotland’s Higher Education Institutions and Colleges in 2011-12.

Table 1: Student enrolments by age at Scotland’s Higher Education Institutions and Colleges in 2011-12

Age group	Enrolments
70 to 79	3,560
80 to 89	715
90 or over	50

Source: SFC and HESA.

Note: figures have been rounded to the nearest five.

The University of Glasgow had the highest number of enrolments for students aged over 70 years.

Question reference: S4W-18593

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 02 December 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 13 December 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-18384 by Alex Neil on 28 November 2013, how many (a) medical and (b) clinical oncology specialists there are in the North of Scotland Planning Group, and how many positions have been vacant for over (i) three and (ii) six months, broken down by NHS board.

The North of Scotland Planning Group comprise NHS Highland, Grampian, Tayside, Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland. The Group facilitates collaborative work across the three north of Scotland cancer centres, in NHS Highland, Grampian and Tayside via the North of Scotland Cancer Network. (NOSCAN)

Information on how many consultants in (a) medical and (b) clinical oncology in the north of Scotland region can be found in the following tables.

The number of vacancies in the north region, including positions vacant for more than six months are also shown in the tables. Information on the number of positions vacant for over three months is not held centrally.