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-35842

Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 August 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 15 September 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what meetings it has had with representatives of Norfolkline and DFDS since they took over as the operators of the Rosyth-Zeebrugge ferry and what issues were discussed.

Question reference: S3W-35872

Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 August 2010
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 September 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what estimate it has made of the number of babies born with hepatitis C in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S3W-35870

Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 August 2010
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 September 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many under-19s have been diagnosed with hepatitis C in (a) Scotland and (b) each NHS board area.

The following table details the number of under 19''s that have been diagnosed with hepatisis C by NHS board area and a total for Scotland as at 31 March 2010.

Area	Number of persons diagnosed with hepatitis C and aged less than 19 at the time of diagnosis	Number of persons diagnosed with hepatitis C, currently less than 19 and alive
Scotland	555	70
Ayrshire and Arran	33	3
Borders	3	2
Dumfries and Galloway	22	1
Fife	20	0
Forth Valley	31	4
Grampian	131	11
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	171	30
Highland	13	0
Lanarkshire	36	5
Lothian	58	6
Orkney	0	0
Shetland	1	0
Tayside	35	8
Western Isles	1	0

Question reference: S3W-35871

Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 August 2010
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 September 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what estimate it has made of the number of under-19s infected with hepatitis C.

Question reference: S3W-35649

Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 06 August 2010
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 September 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) deaths and (b) group B streptococcal infections were recorded in neonates in each of the last three years, also broken down by rates per live birth.

(a) The number of neonatal deaths and rates per 1,000 live births are published annually by the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) and can be accessed via the following link:

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/publications-and-data/vital-events/ref-tables-2009/stillbirths-infant-deaths.html.

GROS have also confirmed the number of neonatal deaths for which group B streptococcus or group B streptococcal was mentioned on the death certificate to be as follows:

Year	Cause of Death
Year	Underlying	Contributory
2007	1	1
2008	2	0
2009	2	2

(b) Health Protection Scotland (HPS) have confirmed the number of group B streptococcal infections recorded in neonates in each of the last three years, as detailed in the following table. HPS also advise that any apparent variation in data should be interpreted with caution, given improvements in the reporting of these infections over recent years.

Year	Number of Group B Streptococcal Infection Reports in Neonates	Rate per 1,000 Live Births
2007	148	2.6
2008	240	4.0
2009	322	5.5

Question reference: S3W-35648

Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 06 August 2010
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 17 August 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-34738 by Shona Robison on 16 July 2010, what consideration has been given to the merits of using the enriched culture medium method for testing pregnant women for group B streptococcus carriage as compared with those of the standard swab/culture method used widely in the NHS.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) has considered the evidence for screening based on the use of the Enriched Culture Medium (ECM) test to detect carriage of group B streptococcus (GBS) in pregnancy.

Health professionals are concerned that, whilst the ECM test''s detection rate appears to be very high, it cannot identify the very small number of women whose babies will be affected. This could lead to unnecessary anxiety and over prescribing of antibiotics during labour.

Question reference: S3W-34720

Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 16 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has made assessments of the available online interpreting services for deaf people.

Question reference: S3W-34719

Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 16 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has given consideration to the use of online interpreting services for deaf people for (a) consultations, (b) information services, (c) health services and (d) other public services.

The development of online BSL/English interpreting services is a matter for the service providing agencies (such as health boards and local authorities) and for the deaf sector. The service providers are responsible for funding interpreting services in order to communicate with their customers, and there is evidence of an increasing number of service providers establishing contracts with deaf organisations to provide online services. The deaf sector which wishes to provide the service has agreed that it is a highly competitive market and is best left to market forces to develop.

Question reference: S3W-34699

Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 16 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how much in Housing Association Grant was awarded to each registered social landlord in (a) Falkirk and (b) Scotland in each of the last three years, expressed in real terms.

The following table shows a summary of the Housing Association Grant awarded to each registered social landlord in (a) Falkirk and (b) Scotland in each of the last three years, expressed in real terms:

	HAG Scotland (£m)	HAG Falkirk (£m)	HAG Scotland expressed in real terms (£m)	HAG Falkirk expressed in real terms (£m)
2007-08	576.176	3.299	601.392	3.443	GDP Deflator for 2007-08 - 95.807
2008-09	523.214	4.965	530.336	5.032	GDP Deflator for 2008-09 - 98.657
2009-10	659.376	9.138	659.376	9.138	Calendar year 2009 = 100

A table showing a breakdown of the summary figures for Falkirk is as follows:

Registered Social Landlords in Falkirk Council Area

Actual Spend

£m

2007-08

Expressed in real terms

£m

Actual Spend

£m

2008-09

Expressed in real terms

£m

Actual Spend

£m

2009-10

Expressed in real terms

£m

Abbeyfield Scotland Ltd

0.003

Ark Housing Association Ltd

0.005

0.006

Bield Housing Association Ltd

0.034

0.035

0.010

0.020

Cairn Housing Association Ltd

0.011

0.009

0.012

Hanover (Scotland) HA Ltd

0.052

0.054

0.034

0.467

Horizon Housing Association Ltd

0.020

0.021

0.110

0.112

0.259

Key Housing Association Ltd

0.315

0.329

0.008

0.010

Link Group Ltd

2.815

2.938

4.456

4.517

8.038

Loretto Housing Association Ltd

0.003

0.010

Paragon Housing Association Ltd

0.038

0.040

0.021

0.038

The Margaret Blackwood HA Ltd

0.003

0.021

0.001

Weslo Housing Management

0.004

0.292

0.296

0.281

Question reference: S3W-34698

Asked by: Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 21 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 16 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what the comparison is between the allocation and uptake of grant under the Housing Association Grant scheme in each of the last three years for which information is available, broken down by local authority.

The comparison between the funding allocated from the Affordable Housing Investment Programme (AHIP) and actual spend achieved over the last three years, broken down by local authority is as follows:

Local Authority	2007-08		2008-09		2009-10
	Spend		Spend		Spend
	Planned	Out-turn	Planned	Out-turn	Planned	Out-turn
Aberdeenshire	16.508	9.202	19.637	24.382	14.708	14.807
Angus	5.714	8.108	3.890	4.492	4.798	6.391
Argyll & Bute	17.675	21.920	14.757	15.280	24.675	26.262
City of Aberdeen	6.767	4.232	3.922	5.184	6.767	10.626
City of Dundee	12.250	17.606	7.766	8.467	10.000	12.337
City of Edinburgh	36.100	38.601	36.100	37.900	41.500	46.500
Clackmannanshire	3.500	2.616	2.150	2.627	4.800	4.916
Dumfries & Galloway	12.767	16.728	9.700	11.625	14.267	15.489
East Ayrshire	11.533	12.679	7.000	7.800	8.933	9.125
East Dunbartonshire	5.800	8.728	5.386	6.746	7.950	8.224
East Lothian	5.600	4.836	4.400	6.916	7.900	8.222
East Renfrewshire	4.775	3.324	3.271	3.749	5.425	6.586
Falkirk	7.366	4.063	3.866	4.966	8.000	9.139
Fife	21.545	25.957	13.133	15.050	16.945	19.418
Glasgow	83.000	83.000	83.000	84.000	83.000	83.000
Highland	36.325	37.802	27.120	29.777	32.125	38.041
Inverclyde	23.565	20.827	19.280	18.479	34.500	35.007
Midlothian	4.580	6.568	3.400	3.965	5.200	5.533
Moray	9.525	14.742	6.372	5.508	12.525	12.863
North Ayrshire	10.281	10.256	6.640	7.240	7.681	7.681
North Lanarkshire	23.961	20.418	14.600	16.269	17.661	17.661
Orkney	6.000	7.007	5.033	6.287	7.904	7.471
Perth & Kinross	15.270	14.989	10.886	13.063	15.500	15.629
Renfrewshire	17.096	22.415	12.510	12.776	14.600	17.554

Shetland	3.800	5.728	2.640	3.401	3.800	4.735
South Ayrshire	6.674	3.552	6.300	6.800	6.683	8.439
South Lanarkshire	19.284	23.694	15.300	16.400	17.934	18.663
Stirling	10.724	9.067	3.476	4.619	7.300	7.429
The Scottish Borders	7.200	8.790	5.600	6.883	7.200	8.958
West Dunbartonshire	10.350	8.463	7.835	8.335	10.350	11.465
West Lothian	10.220	4.413	6.600	8.279	10.000	10.378
Western Isles	6.500	7.698	4.130	4.380	6.675	6.345
GHA	68.400	63.297	79.300	79.300	77.700	77.669
Other Programmes	3.836	3.412	4.000	3.219	1.000	1.429
LIFT: Shared Equity Open Market Pilot	30.000	29.838	24.000	20.321	60.000	51.715
CEC Fruitmarket					8.000	0.000
Mortgage to Rent	10.000	9.433	10.000	15.226	20.000	19.600
Council House Building					0.000	1.025
Capital Charges					0.000	5.600
2nd Stage Transfers	0.000	0.248
Total*	584.491	594.257	493.000	529.711	644.006	671.932

Note:*Please note that the planned programme excludes additional funding allocated during the financial year.

The majority of the Affordable Housing Investment Programme (AHIP) is Housing Association Grant (HAG) allocated to Registered Social Landlords, but allocations to local authority level includes all grants. The figures provided above include all grants.