- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 August 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 31 August 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether all 29 action points contained in the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) Employment Medical Advisory Service's Report on the Management of Occupation Stress in the Scottish Ambulance Service Board have now been fully implemented and, if not, what action remains to be taken in order to comply with HSE requirements.
Answer
The Health and Safety Executive’s reports on the Management of Occupational Stress in the Scottish Ambulance Service Board and the Management of Health and Safety in the Scottish Ambulance Board were received at the same time and relate to the same audit. The Scottish Ambulance Service is on course to implement all of the action points covered in the reports within the prescribed timescales.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 08 August 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 30 August 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-17718 by George Lyon on 22 July 2005, what the reasons were for methadone being a factor in methadone-related drug deaths and whether any prosecutions are being considered as a result.
Answer
The National Investigation intoDrug-Related Deaths in 2003 has shown that poly-drug misuse remains the main causeof death and that few deaths are caused by methadone alone. Further research isrequired to establish why individual drugs from a mixture of substances ingestedcontribute to death.
According to information fromScottish police forces, only one prosecution is pending for the supply of methadoneleading to a drugs death. Where criminal proceedings are taken in these circumstances,the charge libelled will be that of culpable homicide.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 August 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 26 August 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what support will be available over the next year for the rehabilitation of prisoners with a drug problem on leaving prison.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish PrisonService (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:
As well as access to voluntarythroughcare, on leaving prison, prisoners will have access to the new ThroughcareAddiction Service introduced on 1 August. This is a national service provided throughlocal authority Criminal Justice Social Work groupings, acting as the lead agencyand working together with SPS, Drug Action Teams, community services and otherpartners.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 July 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 16 August 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many vacancies currently exist in secondary schools for teachers in (a) mathematics, (b) physics, (c) chemistry, (d) biology and (e) English.
Answer
The latest information available from the teacher vacancies survey returned by local authorities at February 2005 is provided in the following table.
| Subject | Number of Vacancies more than 3 Months* | Percentage of the Full Teacher Complement |
| Maths | 33 | 1.3 |
| Physics | 11 | 1.3 |
| Chemistry | 12 | 1.2 |
| Biology | 6 | 0.5 |
| English | 39 | 1.5 |
Note: *Vacancies over three months are used as the most appropriate indicator of longer term vacancies.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 July 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 16 August 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken in response to the conclusions of the Royal Society of Chemistry's survey of May 2005, Snuffing out the Bunsen Burners, that 22.3% of local authority schools are refusing access to chemistry courses due to lack of chemistry teachers, 30.7% of local authority schools have a shortage of chemistry teachers and 64.9% of local authority schools are using non-specialist supply staff to cover chemistry classes.
Answer
Vacancies indicated by local authorities on February 2005 were 19 chemistry, 11 of which were for more than three months. That is 1.9% and 1.2% respectively of the full teaching complement in the subject. These figures do not support the vacancy level suggested by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Entrants to chemistry Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) courses in 2004-05 were up by 15% compared to 2003-04 as part of the build towards the general commitment in the Partnership for a Better Scotland to teacher workforce to 53,000 by 2007. As of 1 August, university acceptances for Chemistry PGCE places totalled 102 for academic year 2005-06, as against an intake of 53 for 2004-05.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 July 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 16 August 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is satisfied that sufficient graduates in chemistry will be available to fill all teaching posts for the foreseeable future.
Answer
In 2005, 102 people have accepted a place on the Postgraduate Certificate in Education in Chemistry, which represents an increase of 92% compared with the intake of 53 in 2004. This suggests that currently sufficient numbers of chemistry students are applying for initial teacher education.
As with all aspects of teacher workforce planning this is an issue that is kept under annual review.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 June 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 10 August 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has invited Caledonian MacBrayne to bring forward offshore employment contracts for its employees.
Answer
We advised CaledonianMacBrayne in April that we would be content were the company to decide tointroduce offshore crewing on the basis that this is normal practice within theUKshipping industry. It is for the company to decide whether to proceed on thisbasis.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 July 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 9 August 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive why the NHS has to guarantee an infertility out-patient appointment within 26 weeks but the waiting time for a patient to receive treatment can be three to five years.
Answer
I refer the member to the questionS2W-18011 answered on 9 August 2005. All answers to written fertility services areavailable on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can befound at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 July 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 9 August 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive why the treatment of infertility is not covered by NHS waiting list targets.
Answer
Infertility treatment hasnever been included in the Waiting Times Guarantee as it is measured separatelyfrom national waiting times standards. However, the Executive is about tolaunch a review of access criteria for NHS funded assisted conceptiontreatment. Following this review, we will consider the need to apply a targetwaiting time for tertiary infertility treatment.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 27 June 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 1 August 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will take steps to establish whether there is an adequate number of centres with the facility to recruit gametes donors and whether these cover a reasonable geographical spread across Scotland.
Answer
I refer the member to the question S2W-17619 answered on 1 August 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
