- Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 September 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 29 September 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive when it will next meet Falkirk Council and West Lothian Council to discuss the upgrading of the A801 Avon Gorge road.
Answer
Officials in the Executive havebeen in continuing contact with officers from Falkirk and West Lothian Councilsthrough preliminary discussions, including a STAG appraisal, about this local roadsproject. Following recent contacts and correspondence, I wrote to David Alexander,Leader of the Council, on 1 September 2005 confirming that I would make available the initial preparatoryfunding requested of £400,000.
- Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 September 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 28 September 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what relationships exist between NHS 24 and patient support groups to assist in the delivery of NHS 24's telephone helpline service.
Answer
As part of its commitment to the national NHS Patient Focus Public Involvement (PFPI) strategy, NHS 24 has been working with voluntary sector, user and representative groups, such as Help the Aged, Racial Equality Councils and disability representative groups, such as the Scottish Council on Deafness and Deaf Connections, to ensure appropriate communications are developed to inform people about using NHS 24 and out-of-hours services. A partnership with Help the Aged recently launched a new booklet developed by older people, for older people, which is currently being piloted in the NHS Lothian area, with further national distribution planned at a later date (pending feedback from the pilot).
In addition, NHS 24 regularly meets with a number of existing networks, such as community councils, groups for older people, parents and toddlers, patient council groups, the PFPI structures of other NHS boards and other interested parties.
These activities serve two main purposes – to explain and describe how NHS 24 works in partnership with local NHS out-of-hours services and to receive feedback from people who have used the service, as part of continual service improvement.
- Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 September 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 28 September 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications have been made for licences to cull buzzards; how many licences have been granted; to whom they have been granted; on what grounds they were granted, and how many birds have been culled under each licence in each of the last five years.
Answer
No licences have been granted by the Executive to cull buzzards. However, licences have been issued to take and kill, as a last resort, small numbers of buzzards for purposes specified in Section 16 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981, where there has been no other satisfactory solution. The number of applications per year and the details of licences granted are given in the following tables. Figures for the numbers of buzzards taken or killed under recent licences are not yet available. Names of individuals cannot be given as these are exempted under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 from public disclosure.
Applications per year
| Year | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005
(to date) |
| No. of Applications | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
Licences granted
| Year | Licence recipient | Purpose of licence | Number of birds killed |
| 2003 | Private individual | To protect pedestrian from attack | 0 |
| 2003 | Edinburgh Airport | To protect Air Safety | 0 |
| 2004 | RAF Leuchars | To protect Air Safety | 0 |
| 2004 | Aberdeen Airport | To protect Air Safety | Not yet available |
| 2005 | Wick Airport | To protect Air Safety | Not yet available |
| 2005 | RAF Leuchars | To protect Air Safety | Not yet available |
| 2005 | Edinburgh Airport | To protect Air Safety | Not yet available |
- Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 September 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 28 September 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether NHS 24 uses the independent medical knowledge and expertise of patient support groups to ensure that it has the best possible information in order to respond to enquiries to its telephone helpline service.
Answer
Through its various Patient Focus Public Involvement (PFPI) activities, NHS 24 acknowledges the valuable contributions that “expert patients”, carers and representative groups make to the service that is provided and how it can be improved. The organisation has frequent contact with various groups and individuals and actively encourages community councils, patient representative groups and others to engage in the service improvement initiatives.
Feedback is already helping NHS 24 to redesign elements of its service, including to the patient journey and access to NHS 24 and the wider NHS services. Improved patient information, such as the Help the Aged booklet and posters and leaflets designed to help people who are profoundly deaf, hard of hearing or who have speech impairments, as well as those provided in minority ethnic languages.
These initiatives have been carried out in partnership with users and will be built on as the service develops.
Of final interest, NHS 24 is currently involved in a series of exploratory discussions with the Scottish Executive seeking to improve use of the range of National Helplines available, and to ascertain where NHS 24 expertise could provide a better and more direct service to patients and specific community groups.
- Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 September 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 28 September 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it anticipates, or will rule out the possibility, that licences to cull buzzards may be granted in order to protect game birds.
Answer
Licence applications to kill or take wild birds are assessed on their individual merits. If Scottish ministers are satisfied that an application is for a purpose specified in Section 16 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981, and it can be shown that there is no other satisfactory solution, the issue of a licence may be considered.
- Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 21 June 2005
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will provide details of the staff time and costs incurred in dealing with each freedom of information request made to date and whether it will automatically provide this information for future requests.
Answer
Prior to 1 May 2005, we didnot record the amount of staff time incurred in dealing with each individual FOIrequest. Information about time spent is recorded once the enquiry hasbeen completed. Details of the time spent on each request completed between 1 May 2005 and 15 June 2005 aregiven in the attached table. Staff costs are calculated using an average hourlyrate of £20. This does not include overheads such as photocopying, printing andpostal charges or the provision of legal advice, figures for which are notavailable.
| Summary of request | Response_Sent | Hours | Estimated Cost |
| Information relating to Freedom of Information requests received by the Scottish Parliament | 09/05/2005 | 4.8 | £96.00 |
| Details relating to the value and payment of wine stored at the Scottish Parliament | 05/05/2005 | 5 | £100.00 |
| Request for copy of items listed in the disclosure log | 17/05/2005 | 4 | £80.00 |
| Request for copy of items listed in the disclosure log | 17/05/2005 | 3 | £60.00 |
| All communications related to an alleged telephone interception incident between the constituency office of Christine Grahame MSP and Parliament Headquarters | 19/05/2005 | 18.5 | £370.00 |
| Request for the identity of the 48 MSPs who have used their Allowance to purchase private properties | 02/06/2005 | 7.75 | £155.00 |
| Details of David McLetchie taxi claims to Queen Street Edinburgh or Tods Murray solicitors. | 01/06/2005 | 1.25 | £25.00 |
| All information held by CE and CE Office which relates to the requester1 | 19/05/2005 | 7.75 | £155.00 |
| Request for copies of 14 FOI responses listed in the disclosure log | 20/05/2005 | 5.5 | £110.00 |
| Communications from the Sheriffs' Association relating to the Justice 1 Committee's Regulation of the Legal Profession Inquiry | 20/05/2005 | 6 | £120.00 |
| A breakdown of all Gordon Jackson MSP's expense claims for 2003/04. How many days did Parliament sit in 2003/04. Is there a register of MSP's attendance. If so, provide figures of each MSP's attendance | 05/05/2005 | 1 | £20.00 |
| A detailed breakdown of all Edinburgh Accomodation Allowance paid to MSPs for the period 2003/04 | 10/05/2005 | 2 | £40.00 |
| Name of MSP referred to in News of the World story relating to alleged sexual activity in the Parliament precincts | 11/05/2005 | 2.5 | £50.00 |
| The name of the person who submitted FOI request reference 2005-006611 | 11/05/2005 | 0.25 | £5.00 |
| Information on fees paid to DLE, EMBT/RMJM and to RMJM Services during the construction of Holyrood | 26/05/2005 | 11 | £220.00 |
| Copy of the contract between the Scottish Executive and BEAR Scotland relating to the M90 motorway | 03/05/2005 | 0.25 | £5.00 |
| Copies of David McLetchie's travel claims supporting mileage, air travel, car hire and taxis in 1999-2000 and 2000-011 | 12/05/2005 | 10.17 | £203.40 |
| Request for Argyll and Clyde Health Board accounts for 2004/2005 | 04/05/2005 | 0.4 | £8.00 |
| Request for Keith Raffan MSP FOI responses | 17/05/2005 | 4.67 | £93.40 |
| Copies of correspondence sent to the Chief Executive and Presiding Officer regarding changes to the rules on Time for Reflection | 07/06/2005 | 6.5 | £130.00 |
| Claims made by Keith Raffan against his winding up allowance | 08/06/2005 | 6.76 | £135.20 |
| Copy of the 2002 report entitled "Assessment of the Potential for Event Staging at the Scottish Parliament Building, Holyrood" | 09/06/2005 | 4 | £80.00 |
| Copy of SPICe Briefing Paper 'Contact Orders under Children (Scotland) Act 1995' | 09/05/2005 | 1 | £20.00 |
| Appointment and employment details for the Clerk/Chief Executive | 03/06/2005 | 3 | £60.00 |
| Request for information on the number of English MSPs | 24/05/2005 | 1 | £20.00 |
| Request for information on Scots language use | 31/05/2005 | 3.8 | £76.00 |
| Total | | 121.85 | £2,437.00 |
Note: 1. Including review.
We do not currently publishthis information routinely on our website.
- Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 May 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 11 May 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made in respect of the Partnership Agreement review of NHS prescription charges for people with chronic health conditions and young people in full-time education or training.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-16094 on 3 May 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 May 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 11 May 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive when the consultation will begin on the Partnership Agreement review of NHS prescription charges for people with chronic health conditions and young people in full-time education or training.
Answer
The date for commencing the consultation phase of the review has still to be determined but is expected to be during summer 2005.
- Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 April 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 21 April 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to ensure that women are offered breast cancer screening as soon as possible after their 50th birthday.
Answer
There is a national computerised call-recall system in place which ensures that eligible women, who are registered with a general practitioner and are in the age range 50 to 69 (64 where age extension has not been implemented) years are invited for breast screening every three years.
To ensure that all eligible women are called and recalled at a three-year interval the SBSP has an invitation policy of calling/recalling by a GP. GPs hold current registration details for women in their practice and SBSP systematically calls women in the eligible age range, practice by practice. Therefore each practice in Scotland is called once every three years and depending when that occurs a woman will be invited for the first time when she is 50, 51 or 52 years old.
At any point in time should a woman feel there is a change in their breast or have any concerns they should see their GP to decide whether a referral to the symptomatic service is required.
- Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 26 November 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 13 December 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will give a commitment (a) to fund the associated womens’ services in the criminal justice sector through section 27 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 and (b) that children and young people living with domestic abuse should have access to support in their own right, given its endorsement of work with partners as an essential element of any work with men who abuse.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is committed to supporting women, children and young people who experience domestic abuse.
Section 27 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 as amended by the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions)(Scotland) Act 1990 provides funding for work with the perpetrators of domestic violence to reduce the risk of further incidents of abuse, but not for associated women’s services. These are funded through complementary funding streams which are available to organisations for work with partners or victims of domestic violence.
In relation to support for the partners and victims, Scottish Executive funding ensures that all Women’s Aid groups in Scotland now have at least one part-time children’s worker and a further £6 million funding was recently announced to support further development of provision for children and young people experiencing domestic abuse from 2006.
In addition, revised Scottish Executive guidance on the preparation of local Children’s Services Plans encourages local agencies to ensure integrated approaches to planning and delivery of services for all children and young people particularly those at risk or in need of additional support and further guidance draws together good practice and advice on meeting the needs of this group.
