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-18757

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 5 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been on the waiting list for a free central heating system in the DD postcode area in each month since, and including, July 2008 for which information is available.

Information provided by the managing agent, for the DD postcode area, on the number of applicants on the waiting list in each month during the period requested is shown in the following table:

Month of Application	Number of Applicants on Waiting List
July 2008	305
August 2008	284
September 2008	216
October 2008	175
November 2008	183

Question reference: S3W-18660

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 16 December 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing’s statements on 11 September 2008 that a buy-out of the PFI contract for car parking at Ninewells Hospital “would cost tens of millions of pounds” (Official Report c. 10734 and 10736) and subsequent notification in a letter dated 12 November 2008 to Marlyn Glen MSP that this estimated cost emerged in a telephone conversation between her officials and representatives of NHS Tayside, for what reason the cabinet secretary is unable to provide a copy of the written record of the telephone conversation, as stated in a letter to Marlyn Glen dated 18 November 2008.

Question reference: S3W-18559

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 12 December 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will introduce a minimum age of two years for the national surveillance programme for Clostridium difficile associated disease.

Question reference: S3W-17753

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 November 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 24 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many dental patients have been waiting for a first out-patient appointment with a consultant in NHS Tayside, in each quarter since October 2007, broken down by consultant speciality.

The number of dental patients who have waited for a new outpatient appointment with a consultant in NHS Tayside in each quarter since 1 October 2007 is shown in table 1 and table 2. table 2 is based on New Ways of Defining and Measuring Waiting Times which was introduced on 1 January 2008.

Table 1: Number of Dental Patients Waiting for a First Out-Patient Appointment with a Consultant in NHS Tayside, following Referral by a General Medical or Dental Practitioner. Quarter end date 31December 2007, by Consultant Specialty

Quarter Ending	Specialty	Number of Patients Waiting
31 December 2007	Oral Medicine	166
	Oral Surgery	420
	Orthodontics	95
	Paediatric Dentistry	38
	Restorative Dentistry	410

Source: Outpatient Waiting List (OPWL), ISD Scotland.

Table 2: Number of Dental Patients Waiting for a First Out-Patient Appointment with a Consultant in NHS Tayside, following Referral by a General Medical or Dental Practitioner. Quarter end dates between 31 March, 30 June and 30September 2008, by Consultant Specialty

Quarter Ending	Specialty	Number of Patients Waiting
31March 2008	Oral Medicine	166
	Oral Surgery	534
	Orthodontics	98
	Paediatric Dentistry	86
	Restorative Dentistry	434
30 June 2008	Oral Medicine	183
	Oral Surgery	601
	Orthodontics	87
	Paediatric Dentistry	118
	Restorative Dentistry	486
30 September 2008	Oral Medicine	199
	Oral Surgery	734
	Orthodontics	98
	Paediatric Dentistry	107
	Restorative Dentistry	474

Source: New Ways Waiting Times Data Warehouse, ISD Scotland.

Question reference: S3W-17752

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 November 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 21 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many attendances there were at the accident and emergency department of Dundee Dental Hospital in each month since January 2008.

The information requested has been provided by NHS Tayside and is shown in the following table. The figures cover complete months from January to October 2008.

Month	Attendances
January	634
February	752
March	727
April	799
May	689
June	784
July	800
August	686
September	743
October	770
Total	7,384

Source: Medical Records at Dundee Dental Hospital and School.

Question reference: S3W-17684

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 November 2008
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 18 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what participation rates among P1 to P3 pupils receiving free school meals from August 2010 were assumed in the local government finance settlement for the period up to 2011.

Question reference: S3W-17685

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 November 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of P1 pupils was classified as (a) overweight, (b) obese and (c) severely obese in the last year for which information is available.

Obesity statistics for children in P1 are collected through the Child Health Surveillance Programme. The most recent figures available are for school year 2006-07: 21.0% of children in P1 were overweight, including 8.5% who were obese and 4.3% who were severely obese. The full set of statistics and background notes are published on the NHS Information Services website at www.isdscotland.org/child_obesity (click on Obesity Statistics and BMI background).

Question reference: S3W-17338

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 12 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHS dental patients have been deregistered in NHS Tayside in each of the last 12 months for which information is available.

The available information is shown in the following table.

NHS General Dental Service Patients Whose Registration Status Shows Withdrawn^1,2 for NHS Tayside; Between July 2007 and June 2008

Month	2007-08
July	36
August	116
September	54
October	84
November	48
December	55
January	54
February	47
March	45
April	64
May	42
June	73

Source: MIDAS (Management Information & Dental Accounting System).

Notes:

1. Based on patients whose registration status indicated withdrawn between the dates considered. This occurs when there is a request for the registration record to be withdrawn (made usually by the dentist, and subsequently approved by the NHS board). The numbers also include withdrawals carried out where more than one active registration exists for the same patient as part of data cleansing. Some patients whose registration has been withdrawn may register with another dentist under NHS arrangements elsewhere. There may also be retrospective additions to these data.

2. If a patient has been withdrawn from more than one dental practice, they will be counted each time this happens. It is also possible for a patient to be counted in more than one month if they have moved to a dentist in a different month and have been withdrawn from a practice in a month where they have received NHS general dental services.

Question reference: S3W-17339

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 12 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of eligible women was screened for cervical cancer in the NHS Tayside area in each of the last 10 years, also broken down by age group.

Information Services Division (ISD) have provided the percentage of uptake for Cervical Screening by age group in Tayside NHS Board, 1 April 1997 to 31 March 2008, these are:

Percentage Uptake^1,2 of Females Who Had a Record of a Previous Smear Taken Within Last 5.5 Years

Age group	1997-98	1998-99	1999-00	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
20-24	61.0	58.5	58.7	67.9	67.5	67.0	64.7	61.6	59.2	56.8	54.2
25-29	82.3	81.5	82.2	83.4	84.0	82.7	81.4	79.4	77.5	75.0	73.4
30-34	87.5	87.0	87.0	88.5	88.5	87.9	86.9	85.7	84.1	83.0	81.4
35-39	89.1	89.1	89.9	91.6	91.1	91.0	90.5	88.8	87.5	86.1	85.3
40-44	90.6	90.1	90.4	92.0	91.6	91.1	91.1	90.7	90.0	88.8	87.8
45-49	92.2	91.8	91.4	92.6	92.4	91.8	91.0	90.0	89.0	88.1	87.6
50-54	91.4	91.4	91.8	92.0	91.5	91.2	90.9	89.7	88.8	88.1	87.1
55-59	87.1	86.5	87.4	88.6	88.7	88.8	88.7	87.8	86.7	85.6	86.0
60-64	72.8	73.0	74.1	70.5	69.7	69.9	69.8	72.1	71.9	73.3	86.8
Target age group 20-60	85.4	84.5	84.9	87.2	87.1	86.6	85.8	84.3	82.8	81.3	80.1

Percentage Uptake^1,2 of Females Who Had a Record of a Previous Smear Taken Within Last 3.5 Years

Age group	1997-98	1998-99	1999-00	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
20-24	58.2	55.5	55.6	64.1	64.1	63.2	61.0	57.9	55.8	53.3	51.0
25-29	73.4	74.1	74.7	75.3	76.4	75.4	74.0	70.8	68.4	65.4	63.7
30-34	81.1	80.2	80.2	80.9	81.3	81.2	79.5	76.8	75.0	73.5	72.1
35-39	83.0	82.7	83.4	84.4	84.3	84.5	83.2	80.2	78.5	77.3	76.4
40-44	84.2	83.7	84.3	85.2	85.1	85.0	84.4	82.9	81.4	80.3	79.6
45-49	85.8	85.6	85.3	85.9	86.1	85.4	83.9	82.4	81.0	79.9	79.6
50-54	84.8	85.3	85.1	85.4	85.7	85.5	84.4	82.4	81.4	80.5	79.4
55-59	80.7	80.9	81.9	82.2	82.9	83.4	82.4	81.0	79.6	78.5	79.1
60-64	48.4	51.9	51.9	42.1	44.3	47.3	47.0	49.5	49.4	50.4	70.9
Target age group 20-60	79.4	78.5	78.9	80.5	80.9	80.6	79.2	76.8	75.1	73.5	72.5

Ref: IR2008-02559.

Source: ISD(D)4 Legacy applications for 1997-98 to 2006-07 data.

Source: ISD(D)4 SCCRS for 2007-08 data (Version 22092008 12:30).

Notes:

1. Based on adjusted Community Health Index (CHI) population denominator (excluding medically ineligible women) for years 1997-98 to 2006-07. Based on SCCRS population denominator (excluding medically ineligible women) for 2007-08.

2. Numerator figures from 1997-98 to 2006-07 are derived from GP self-reporting claim forms submitted to Primary Care Finance in support of claims for target payments. Numerator figures for 2007-08 are derived from smear tests recorded on SCCRS (Scottish Cervical Call Recall System).

Cervical screening year runs from 1 April to 31 March.

Further data on cervical screening is presented for Scotland, health board or laboratory at www.isdscotland.org/cervical_screening.

Question reference: S3W-17336

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 12 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many general, hospital and community dentists there were in NHS Tayside in (a) March 2008 and (b) March 2007, expressed as a headcount and by whole-time equivalent.

The head count information for NHS Tayside is shown in the following table.

Hospital and community dentist data is only available as at 30 September and is also shown. Information on the whole-time equivalent of staff working in the NHS general dental service is not available as the working hours of each dentist are not collected.

Number of Dentists¹ Providing NHS General Dental Services; in NHS Tayside; at 31 March

	2007	2008
Number of Dentists (Head Count)	216	220

Whole-Time Equivalent (WTE) and Head Count of Hospital and Community Dentists; in NHS Tayside; at 30 September²

	2006		2007
	Head Count	WTE	Head Count	WTE
Hospital dentists	77	51.9	70	51.0
Community dentists	29	23.9	40	33.0

Source: MIDAS (Management Information & Dental Accounting System). MEDMAN (Medical and Dental Manpower)

Notes:

1. The number of NHS non-salaried and salaried principals, assistants and vocational dental practitioners, based on the location of the dental practice.

2. Data as at 30 September 2008 is due to be published on 16 December 2008.