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-25279

Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 27 July 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many reasoned opinions, under Article 228 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, relating to the transposition of EU legislation in Scotland have been received in each of the last five years, broken down by directive.

Our records indicate the following:

Year	Infraction Case Number	Directive Details
2005	-
2006	-
2007	-
2008	1999/2119	92/43 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild flora and fauna.
2009	-

Question reference: S3W-25611

Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 July 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 23 July 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will undertake a review of the HC1 NHS Low Income Scheme claim form to make it more service friendly.

Question reference: S3W-25610

Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 July 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 23 July 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers the HC1 NHS Low Income Scheme claim form to be service friendly.

The NHS Low Income Scheme (LIS) is administered by the Business Services Authority (BSA), a special health authority, on behalf of the health departments in Scotland, England and Wales.

Anyone can apply for help through LIS and, therefore, the HC1 form is designed to be suitable for all members of the community including, for example, people in full-time employment, pensioners and students.

The form was designed with the applicant in mind, and applicants are required to answer only those questions and sections which relate to them. The form was awarded the Crystal Mark, accredited by the Plain English Campaign, in March 2007, and in the BSA''s most recent customer survey (2008) the user-friendliness of the form scored 8.5.

The form gathers relevant information in an order that supports the BSA''s claims registration system (CRS) and claims calculator. This aids the assessment process and helps to improve the speed and accuracy of the decisions.

However, you may be interested to know that officials are currently in the process of reviewing the form to amend a small number of references which are no longer relevant to applicants from Scotland. We have no plans for a more extensive review.

Question reference: S3W-24756

Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 22 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what stakeholders applied to the Town Centre Regeneration Fund before the 5 June 2009 deadline.

Question reference: S3W-24755

Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 22 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications for the Town Centre Regeneration Fund were received after the first deadline of 5 June 2009.

Question reference: S3W-24757

Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 19 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to raise awareness of the second round of applications for the Town Centre Regeneration Fund.

The second round of applications to the Fund has been widely publicised, and promoted in a number of ways.

Our website includes full details. I have ensured that all MSPs, Community Planning Partnerships, Town Centre Managers, Local Authorities, Business Improvement Districts and Urban Regeneration Companies have received details of the Fund and a link to the information available on our website. I have also released details of the application process, including the existence of a second round of applications, to the press.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/regeneration/town-centres/tcrf.

Question reference: S3W-24758

Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 19 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many GP patient access survey forms were issued, broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) community health partnership.

Question reference: S3W-24761

Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 19 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many replies were received to the GP patient access survey, broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) community health partnership.

Question reference: S3W-24762

Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 19 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many replies to the GP patient access survey contained yes/no answers.

The GP patient access survey asked about patient experience of both 48 hour access and advance access. The answers were coded into yes and no responses using a coding scheme agreed amongst survey stakeholders. Details of this, the questionnaire and the survey results, can be found at the following Scottish Government website:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Health/GPAccessSurveyResults.

Based on the agreed coding scheme, the number of replies included in calculation of results was different for the two types of access, as outlined below.

48 Hour Access

The total number of responses that could be used in calculation of 48 hour access results was 198,420. The main reason a reply was excluded was because the respondent had not attempted to gain 48 hour access. This applied to 54,593 replies. Other replies were excluded were because questions 1 or 2 were missed out or because more than one option in a relevant question was ticked. In addition, replies were excluded if the answer to question 3 (which asked why 48 hour access was not obtained) was don''t know/ can''t remember or other reason, or if question 3 was not answered after a no answer to question 2. These reasons excluded a further 16,173 replies.

Advance Access

The total number of responses that could be used in calculation of advance access results was 122,393. The main reason a reply was excluded was because the respondent had not attempted to book in advance. This applied to 133,919 replies. A further 7,742 replies were excluded were because questions 4 or 5 were missed out or more than one answer in a question was ticked. In addition, the results for advance access exclude the 5,232 forms received from patients registered with practices designated as open access.

Question reference: S3W-24760

Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 June 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 19 June 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many reminders were sent out with regard to the GP patient access survey, broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) community health partnership.