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-05272

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 October 2007
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 26 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the external debt of each local authority has been in each of the last 10 years.

The Scottish Governmentdid not collect information on the external debt of local authorities in that timeperiod. However, the following tables show the total level of outstanding loanspool debt for each local authority in each of the last 10 years. Local authoritiesare required by legislation to operate a loans pool, and all monies borrowed bythe local authority are paid into the loans pool, which makes advances to serviceaccounts to fund capital expenditure. The level of debt recorded by the loans poolis the value that must be charged to services over a number of years. We would notexpect the level of external debt to be significantly different to the loans poolvalue.

Loans Pool Debt Outstandingby Local Authority, 1998-2007 (£000)

Authority	Loans Pool Debt Outstanding as at 31 March:
Authority	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
Aberdeen City	380,704	380,857	382,058	380,815	379,159
Aberdeenshire	356,372	361,170	363,789	361,270	368,146
Angus	105,523	106,537	109,181	109,328	111,650
Argyll and Bute	220,564	223,665	223,136	224,431	226,592
Clackmannanshire	73,462	74,904	76,920	76,602	78,259
Dumfries and Galloway	279,892	281,445	280,257	278,469	280,959
Dundee City	276,245	277,916	281,447	283,689	290,348
East Ayrshire	183,883	188,701	185,568	186,402	189,955
East Dunbartonshire	128,313	126,767	121,668	122,226	125,948
East Lothian	143,854	146,045	143,656	140,044	142,126
East Renfrewshire	83,266	86,864	85,167	88,466	89,259
Edinburgh, City of	866,442	863,511	848,409	853,507	846,102
Eilean Siar	171,086	171,980	174,480	179,274	183,305
Falkirk	201,374	201,998	202,623	200,328	200,517
Fife	496,285	499,273	502,977	504,744	507,675
Glasgow City	2,141,604	2,157,715	2,121,364	2,108,039	2,126,118
Highland	542,040	544,226	544,948	545,841	549,997
Inverclyde	213,129	217,926	216,334	216,077	218,248
Midlothian	99,542	97,605	96,344	95,437	94,053
Moray	143,819	148,033	150,167	152,669	153,485
North Ayrshire	211,767	211,535	205,253	203,785	201,275
North Lanarkshire	506,873	488,278	462,004	445,438	434,710
Orkney Islands	17,372	18,560	18,797	21,313	25,107
Perth and Kinross	143,004	146,191	145,570	149,152	153,136
Renfrewshire	304,790	299,276	292,800	293,464	289,254
Scottish Borders	205,159	212,673	211,283	213,367	213,057
Shetland Islands	60,572	60,170	58,026	56,036	56,276
South Ayrshire	151,496	158,870	159,258	161,437	166,308
South Lanarkshire	502,816	496,497	474,265	462,457	452,957
Stirling	151,720	150,895	153,118	158,314	157,105
West Dunbartonshire	191,262	188,906	187,459	187,185	189,339
West Lothian	217,137	212,398	208,513	198,603	187,158
Total	9,771,367	9,801,387	9,686,839	9,658,209	9,687,583

Authority	Loans Pool Debt Outstanding as at 31 March:
Authority	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Aberdeen City	372,297	371,605	392,167	406,382	421,585
Aberdeenshire	368,544	366,130	365,908	365,691	375,710
Angus	113,157	120,146	124,655	131,498	159,835
Argyll and Bute	229,164	226,027	223,328	228,959	199,630
Clackmannanshire	78,437	78,793	82,107	87,607	97,453
Dumfries and Galloway	277,782	190,448	188,531	190,931	194,656
Dundee City	292,273	296,531	304,391	315,853	331,916
East Ayrshire	189,546	191,567	188,895	182,413	187,541
East Dunbartonshire	124,071	120,492	118,363	116,026	115,167
East Lothian	132,289	118,141	112,837	128,504	154,766
East Renfrewshire	96,267	100,924	104,375	108,901	108,427
Edinburgh, City of	846,079	842,067	816,074	842,049	900,577
Eilean Siar	183,146	188,892	185,106	189,381	149,726
Falkirk	197,897	190,462	196,289	196,898	204,652
Fife	515,868	507,349	503,215	502,279	535,912
Glasgow City	1,281,468	1,270,793	1,281,054	1,261,126	1,305,244
Highland	553,121	548,785	551,465	556,482	562,104
Inverclyde	221,090	225,574	224,211	220,924	220,366
Midlothian	91,712	87,567	84,443	85,724	91,687
Moray	156,037	157,652	161,187	155,865	157,495
North Ayrshire	211,726	206,657	193,288	201,081	207,230
North Lanarkshire	410,487	391,233	392,312	415,444	412,431
Orkney Islands	28,764	32,899	33,838	36,535	37,007
Perth and Kinross	151,849	153,697	159,296	158,217	162,237
Renfrewshire	282,689	275,286	274,658	277,628	285,389
Scottish Borders	151,456	154,971	161,022	162,102	165,811
Shetland Islands	54,334	53,069	51,728	49,522	49,142
South Ayrshire	170,284	171,168	172,965	175,281	176,118
South Lanarkshire	437,384	420,793	399,438	443,821	500,121
Stirling	157,408	154,394	153,652	155,269	162,204
West Dunbartonshire	187,878	184,764	189,309	195,040	198,584
West Lothian	188,399	175,789	189,824	224,360	246,571
Total	8,752,903	8,574,665	8,579,931	8,767,793	9,077,294

Question reference: S3W-05027

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 October 2007
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 25 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children are estimated to live with a parent with (a) alcohol and (b) drug addiction.

Question reference: S3W-05030

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 October 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 25 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) average and (b) longest waiting times were for a (i) brain scan, (ii) health check, (iii) endoscopy, (iv) audiology check, (v) MRI scan and (vi) CT scan in each NHS board in 2006-07.

Question reference: S3W-04582

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 24 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the impact of large wind farm developments is taken into account in the planning of upstream flood alleviation schemes.

Under the Flood Prevention(Scotland) Act 1961, flood prevention schemes follow a statutory procedure underwhich schemes are brought forward by the local authority, advertised and submittedto Scottish ministers for confirmation. Flood Prevention Schemes are subject tothe Scottish Government’s environmental, economic and technical criteria.

Each Flood PreventionScheme is also subject to public scrutiny under statutory planning procedures. Itis for the planning authority to determine planning applications in its administrativearea taking account of all relevant factors, including policies contained in thedevelopment plan, national and Scottish planning policy guidance, other specificmaterial considerations which may include issues such as flooding and representationsreceived.

Question reference: S3W-05222

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 October 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 24 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether allied health professionals who are paid different rates for doing the same job are entitled to equal pay for equal work under existing legislation.

The ScottishGovernment is committed to the principle of equal pay for work of equal value,and this underpins the new Agenda for Change pay system.

All parties to the agreement in Scotland have taken the view that consistency and accuracyare central to the effective implementation of Agenda for Change. This isreflected in the job evaluation scheme which has been designed to be verydeliberate, robust and rigorous in its assessment of pay. Added to this is atwo stage checking process where job evaluation outcomes are considered at botha local and national level. These processes were agreed and taken forward inpartnership with trade unions and professional organisations.

The Agenda for Change job evaluation system isdesigned to assess the tasks undertaken in a particular job and the skills andknowledge required to carry out those tasks to an acceptable level. In the pastjob titles were in some circumstances used quite generically, and did notnecessarily reflect key differences in the work which was being undertaken byindividuals. Therefore under Agenda for Change job evaluation, staff who werepreviously working under the same job title may not necessarily come out to thesame band once they have been through the job evaluation process.

In circumstanceswhere staff feel that the job evaluation system has assessed them incorrectly,they can request a review of the outcome. The review process is conducted inpartnership, and is undertaken by fully trained job evaluators who have had noinvolvement in the original assessment.

Question reference: S3W-05367

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 October 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 23 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review the method of measuring dental practices’ commitment to the NHS with a view to increasing patient access to the NHS and improving the formula for payments to dentists.

Question reference: S3W-05261

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 October 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 23 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many doctors from countries outwith Scotland have been employed to provide locum support for out-of-hours and other GP services since the new GMS contract came into effect.

Question reference: S3W-05043

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 October 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 23 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how it proposes to utilise the community pharmacy network for health promotion.

Question reference: S3W-05042

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 October 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 23 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how it proposes to utilise community pharmacies to promote public health.

Question reference: S3W-05005

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 October 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 23 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive which local authorities have waiting lists for free personal care and how many people are on each list.

Research has confirmedthat local authorities do not currently hold information on waiting lists for freepersonal care on a consistent basis. The Scottish Government and COSLA are discussing a range of issues relevantto the implementation of the free personal care policy, including ensuring thatpeople do not experience undue delay in having their assessed care needs met. Inpartnership with local authorities we will ensure that the existing guidance isfit for purpose and we will develop a means for more open and transparent informationabout waiting lists.

Parliament dissolved ahead of election

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