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-11405

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 17 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how much was invested in affordable housing for rent in Dundee in each year from 2004-05 to 2007-08 and how many such homes were made available in each year.

Funding for the provision of affordable housing for rent and the number of rented homes approved for development in the Dundee City Council area in each year since 2004-05 is detailed:

Year	Total Amount £ million	Homes Approved for Rent
2004-05	9.837	179
2005-06	10.343	205
2006-07	11.470	162
2007-08¹	14.699	38
Total	46.349	584

Note: 1. Provisional outturn figures as final year end accounts are still to be completed.

Question reference: S3W-11538

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2008
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 17 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of children in care in (a) Dundee and (b) Scotland achieved at least one qualification at or above SCQF Level 3 in each of the last three years for which information is available.

The available information, based on pupils in S4 in publicly funded secondary schools identified as being looked after in the pupil census, is given in the following table.

Percentage of Looked-After Children with At Least One Qualification at SCQF Level 3 or Above by the End of S4

Year	Dundee	Scotland
2004-05	51.0	63.2
2005-06	55.3	65.6
2006-07	50.0	73.3

Note: Data on looked-after children in education is known to be incomplete and the figures given here may not show a representative sample of looked-after children. For the 2006-07 school year, numbers of looked after children as identified by schools in September 2006 from Pupils in Scotland, 2006, http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/02/27083941/0, were about 80% of those reported by social work services as being looked-after between 1 April 2006 and 31 March 2007 in Children Looked After Statistics, 2006-07, http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/11/27100107. The data shown in this table should therefore be treated with caution.

Question reference: S3W-11539

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2008
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 17 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of children in care in (a) Dundee and (b) Scotland achieved qualifications at or above SCQF Level 3 in both English and mathematics in each of the last three years for which information is available.

The available information, based on pupils in S4 in publicly funded secondary schools identified as being looked after in the pupil census, is given in the following table.

Percentage of Looked-After Children with Qualifications in both English and Mathematics at SCQF Level 3 or Above by the End of S4

Year	Dundee	Scotland
2004-05	40.8	47.2
2005-06	29.8	51.8
2006-07	43.2	54.3

Note: Data on looked-after children in education is known to be incomplete and the figures given here may not show a representative sample of looked-after children. For the 2006-07 school year, numbers of looked after children as identified by schools in September 2006 from Pupils in Scotland, 2006, http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/02/27083941/0, were about 80% of those reported by social work services as being looked after between 1 April 2006 and 31 March 2007 in Children Looked After Statistics, 2006-07, http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/11/27100107. The data shown in this table should therefore be treated with caution.

Question reference: S3W-11242

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 16 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what the anticipated cost is of the P1 to P3 free school meals pilot, broken down by local authority

The following table sets out the amount of funding we have already provided to each of the local authorities participating in the free school lunch trial.

Local Authority
East Ayrshire	£561,000
Fife	£1,714,000
Glasgow City	£1,309,000
Scottish Borders	£593,000
West Dunbartonshire	£455,000

Note: We have agreed to cover any additional costs, if there are any, for the extension of the trial until the end of the current academic year.

Question reference: S3W-11244

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 16 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects to receive the results of the independent evaluation of the free school meals pilot for P1 to P3 pupils.

Question reference: S3W-11245

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 16 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what estimate it has made of the cost of extending the entitlement to free school meals in 2009 to pupils from families in (a) Dundee and (b) Angus receiving maximum child or working families tax credit.

We will be providing local government with record levels of funding over the period covered by the spending review 2008-11. The vast majority of the funding will be provided by means of a block grant. It is the responsibility of each local authority to allocate the total financial resources available to it on the basis of local needs and priorities having first fulfilled its statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities including the Scottish Government''s key strategic objectives and the full terms of the concordat. This includes extending entitlement to free school meals to all primary school and secondary school pupils whose parents or carers are in receipt of both maximum child tax credit and maximum working tax credit from August 2009, subject to the necessary legislation being passed by the Parliament.

Question reference: S3W-11246

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 16 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide (a) Dundee City Council and (b) Angus Council with additional funding in 2009 to pay for an extension of the entitlement to free school meals to pupils from families receiving maximum child or working families tax credit.

Question reference: S3W-11586

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 April 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 16 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what the quarterly rates have been of clostridium difficile per 1,000 total occupied bed days for those aged 65 and over in (a) NHS Tayside and (b) Scotland in each of the last four available quarters.

The following table sets out the information requested:

Rates of CDAD per 1,000 Total Occupied Bed Days

e	January-March 2007	April-June 2007	July-September 2007	October-December 2007
NHS Tayside	1.76	1.75	1.27	1.3
Scotland (overall rate)*	1.47	1.47	1.16	1.26

Note: The overall rate for Scotland is calculated as:rate = (total number of cases x 1000) / total number of acute and non-acute occupied bed days.

Question reference: S3W-11585

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 April 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 16 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what the rate was of MRSA bloodstream infections as a proportion of all staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections in the most recent year for which figures are available and what comparative information it has for (a) Norway, (b) Denmark, (c) Sweden and (d) Finland.

The following table sets out the information requested:

Proportion of Antibiotic Non-Susceptible Staphylococcus Aureus Isolates

Country
Scotland	42%
Norway	<1%
Denmark	2%
Sweden	<1%
Finland	3%

Note: The figures in the table should be treated with some caution. For example, the surveillance systems used to compile the data for the Scandinavian countries above are derived from the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Scheme (EARSS). Health Protection Scotland, who collect the data for NHSScotland, uses the UK definition of 14 day episodes while EARSS records one episode per quarter.

Consequently, the surveillance system used in Scotland may result in a patient who experiences more than one bacteraemic episode per quarter being counted for each episode, whereas the EARSS definition used by the other countries in the table means that each of their patients is counted only once during a quarter, even if they have more than one bacteraemic episode per quarter.

It is encouraging that the most recent “ but as yet unpublished - results for Scotland from HPS data for the last calendar year indicate that the Scotland figure for the proportion of antibiotic non-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus isolates has reduced considerably to 26%.

Question reference: S3W-11540

Asked by: Marlyn Glen, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 April 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 16 April 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases of clostridium difficile were reported in (a) NHS Tayside and (b) Scotland in each of the last four quarters for which information is available.

The following table sets out the information requested:

Total Number of Cases of Clostridium difficile Associated Disease: (CDAD) Reported

	January-March 2007	April-June 2007	July-September 2007	October-December 2007
NHS Tayside	172	169	131	135
Scotland	1,775	1,588	1,459	1,608

January-March

2007

April-June

2007

July-September

2007

October-December

2007

NHS Tayside

172

169

131

135

Scotland

1,775

1,588

1,459

1,608

Health Protection Scotland publish quarterly reports on the Surveillance of CDAD in Scotland. The latest report , covering the period October 2007 to December 2007 is available at:

http://www.hps.scot..nhs.uk/ewr/article.aspx.