Chamber and committees

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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: S2W-09190

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 1 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the key messages of Final Consensus Statement of the Royal College of Physicians' Consensus Conference on Hepatitis C, what resources have been allocated to improving the (a) prevention of hepatitis C and (b) delivery of care to patients with hepatitis C in (i) 1999-2000, (ii) 2000-01, (iii) 2001-02, (iv) 2002-03, (v) 2003-04 and (vi) 2004-05 to date in (1) Scotland as a whole and (2) each NHS board area.

As recommended in the Report of the HIV Health Promotion Strategy Review Group, published in January 2001, the Executive extended the earmarked HIV prevention funding provided annually to NHS Boards to include other bloodborne viruses, particularly Hepatitis C. Funding for this purpose was accordingly increased from £6.1 million in 1999-2000 to £8.1 million in 2001-02. Allocations to individual boards are shown in the table below.

NHS Board	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Argyll and Clyde	£415,922	£415,922	£415,922	£415,922
Ayrshire and Arran	£370,000	£350,000	£350,000	£350,000
Borders	£116,498	£115,498	£115,498	£115,498
Dumfries and Galloway	£116,804	£115,804	£115,804	£115,804
Fife	£408,062	£408,061	£408,061	£408,061
Forth Valley	£276,705	£276,705	£276,705	£276,705
Grampian	£690,825	£690,825	£690,825	£690,825
Greater Glasgow	£1,555,208	£1,560,208	£1,560,208	£1,560,208
Highland	£200,197	£200,197	£200,197	£200,197
Lanarkshire	£441,775	£441,775	£441,775	£441,775
Lothian	£2,505,627	£2,524,627	£2,524,627	£2,524,627
Orkney	£39,000	£36,000	£36,000	£36,000
Shetland	£56,000	£55,000	£55,000	£55,000
Tayside	£854,377	£861,377	£861,377	£861,377
Western Isles	£48,000	£47,000	£47,000	£47,000
State Hospital	£24,000	£20,000	£20,000	£20,000
Totals	£8,119,000	£8,119,000	£8,119,000	£8,119,000

In addition, the Executive has provided an additional £34 million to NHS boards and local authorities over the three years 2001-02 to 2003-04 to support treatment and rehabilitation programmes for drug misusers, including those who inject drugs. There is evidence that treatment reduces the use of illegal drugs and levels of injecting. Sharing of contaminated injecting equipment is one of the main routes through which Hepatitis C can be transmitted.

As well as these specific allocations, NHS boards are given a unified budget to meet the healthcare needs of their resident populations. It is for each board to decide how best to utilise this funding, based on their assessment of local needs, including Hepatitis C

Question reference: S2W-09191

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 1 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the key messages of Final Consensus Statement of the Royal College of Physicians' Consensus Conference on Hepatitis C, which patient groups currently have access to treatment for hepatitis C infection and which do not and what the reasons are for any difference in such access.

Question reference: S2W-09194

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 1 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to paragraph 4.4 of Final Consensus Statement of the Royal College of Physicians' Consensus Conference on Hepatitis C, what its response is in respect of the call for new drug therapies.

The regulation and safety of medicines is reserved and is the responsibility of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MRHA), or, for certain types of drugs, the European Medicines Agency (EMEA).

The MRHA has advised that any new drug applications, including those for Hepatitis C must achieve the required standards of safety, quality and efficacy before being granted a licence. The Scottish Executive would welcome any new drug therapies, which satisfied these criteria.

Question reference: S2W-09193

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 1 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to paragraph 3.6 of Final Consensus Statement of the Royal College of Physicians' Consensus Conference on Hepatitis C, how many outreach clinics there are for patients with hepatitis C, broken down by NHS board area.

Question reference: S2W-09195

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 1 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many hepatitis C patients there have been in (a) Scotland as a whole and (b) each NHS board area in (i) 1999-2000, (ii) 2000-01, (iii) 2001-02, (iv) 2002-03, (v) 2003-04 and (vi) 2004-05 to date.

The latest available figures are for the year ended 31 December 2003, and are set out in the table below.

Persons in Scotland Reported to be Hepatitis C Antibody-Positive; Number and Rate/100000 Population* by NHS Board and Year of Earliest Positive Specimen to 31 December 2003

	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Argyll and Clyde	Number	160	149	128	163	127
Rate/100,000	37.6	35.2	30.4	38.9	30.5
Ayrshire and Arran	Number	119	145	103	145	149
Rate/100,000	31.8	38.8	28.0	39.5	40.6
Borders	Number	3	8	5	11	13
Rate/100,000	2.8	7.5	4.7	10.2	12.0
Dumfries and Galloway	Number	34	57	88	54	46
Rate/100,000	23.2	39.1	59.5	36.7	31.2
Fife	Number	62	66	63	37	30
Rate/100,000	17.8	18.8	18.0	10.6	8.5
Forth Valley	Number	86	98	81	91	67
Rate/100,000	31.0	35.3	29.0	32.6	24.0
Grampian	Number	278	381	343	341	320
Rate/100,000	52.9	72.8	65.2	65.2	61.1
Greater Glasgow	Number	753	701	644	845	576
Rate/100,000	83.1	77.5	74.2	97.6	66.5
Highland	Number	41	34	47	43	44
Rate/100,000	19.7	16.3	22.5	20.7	21.0
Lanarkshire	Number	110	131	95	180	124
Rate/100,000	19.6	23.3	17.2	32.6	22.4
Lothian	Number	186	266	209	181	103
Rate/100,000	23.9	33.9	26.8	23.2	13.2
Orkney	Number	0	0	1	2	0
Rate/100,000	0.0	0.0	5.2	10.4	0.0
Shetland	Number	1	5	2	3	3
Rate/100,000	4.4	22.3	9.1	13.7	13.7
Tayside	Number	128	134	95	229	177
Rate/100,000	33.0	34.8	24.4	59.1	45.8
Western Isles	Number	0	0	0	0	0
Rate/100,000	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Scotland	Number	1961	2175	1904	2325	1779
Rate/100,000	38.3	42.5	37.6	46.0	35.2

Source: The Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health, Glasgow, Scotland – 24 June 2004.

Note:

*Based on population estimates at 30 June of given year.

Question reference: S2W-09196

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 1 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to paragraph 5.2 of Final Consensus Statement of the Royal College of Physicians' Consensus Conference on Hepatitis C, what economic analysis it has undertaken in order to inform resource allocation decisions in relation to the treatment and prevention of hepatitis C over the next 10 years.

The Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health (SCIEH) has been commissioned to carry out work to provide robust estimates of the total number of persons living with Hepatitis C – both diagnosed and undiagnosed – in Scotland. This includes estimates of the distribution of cases by region and disease stage. The SCIEH is also undertaking work to estimate the future burden, including cost, of HCV disease over the next two decades. Preliminary output from this work should be available shortly and will inform the development of prevention initiatives, and the assessment of care and treatment needs.

Question reference: S2W-09092

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Mary Mulligan on 29 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive with reference to The State of the Nation 2004 - An assessment of the state of the UK's infrastructure by the Institution of Civil Engineers, what measures are being taken to ensure avoidance of development on flood plains and whether it considers such measures sufficient and, if not, what steps it is taking to remedy the situation.

In February we published Scottish Planning Policy (SPP) 7: Planning and Flooding. SPP 7 states that new development should not take place if it would be at significant risk of flooding, or if it would increase the probability of flooding elsewhere. This new policy should be implemented by local authorities in the first instance, as the planning authorities for their areas.

We will publish a Planning Advice Note to supplement SPP 7 later this year.

Question reference: S2W-08130

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 May 2004
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 29 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what statistics it has with regard to the shortage of housing in the rental and owner-occupier sectors in rural areas, particularly for local people seeking to purchase or rent property in their area for the first time.

The Scottish Executive housing statistics branch gathers information from councils on numbers of vacant council houses and lettings; and on numbers on and changes in local authority housing lists. Communities Scotland gathers information from housing associations on vacancies and lettings. Sources of the latest available published information are:

Vacant council houses and lettings: Quarterly Statistical Bulletin HSG/2004/2, available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00320-00.asp.

Numbers on and changes in local authority housing lists: Quarterly Statistics Bulletin HSG/2003/4, available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00266-00.asp.

The latest volume of Scottish Registered Social Landlord Statistics 2002-2003, published in April 2004 is available on the CS Website at:

http://www.communitiesscotland.gov.uk/web/FILES/R&IStats200203.pdf.

These sources do not distinguish people seeking to rent council or housing association property in their area for the first time. Information from local authorities relates to the council as a whole and does not provide separate information for rural areas within the council area. Similarly, Information gathered from each housing association does not separately identify rural from other areas served by the association.

The Executive does not have statistical information on numbers wishing to purchase or to rent privately.

In preparing local housing strategies councils assess local housing markets to, among other things, identify actual or potential shortages with the aim of developing strategies to address these. The review of affordable housing currently being undertaken by the Executive includes an assessment of shortages based on the available information, which will inform policy proposals.

Question reference: S2W-09090

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 28 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to The State of the Nation 2004 - An assessment of the state of the UK's infrastructure by the Institution of Civil Engineers, what measures are in place to co-ordinate action between all statutory authorities in responding to flooding incidents.

Throughout Scotland, local authorities and the emergency services take the issue of flood prevention and flood warning very seriously. In all areas likely to be affected by flooding, generic multi-agency response plans exist to deal with this risk. Furthermore, each area is represented by multi-agency flood liaison/response groups, which can be brought together at the earliest sign of potential risk of flooding. Further details of the multi agency response can be found on the Scottish Environment Protection Agency’s website (www.sepa.org.uk).

Question reference: S2W-09089

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 28 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to The State of the Nation 2004 - An assessment of the state of the UK's infrastructure by the Institution of Civil Engineers, what steps it has taken to identify cost-effective measures to protect existing properties from flooding.

It is for local authorities to identify cost effective measures to protect properties in their areas from flooding. However, the National Technical Advisory Group on Flooding Issues, established by the Executive last autumn, is developing improved national guidance on flood-risk management for publication later this year. This guidance will help local authorities in meeting the Executive’s long standing requirement for grant aid, that flood prevention schemes demonstrate value for money.