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: S4W-02753

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what nutritional standards it has developed with COSLA for older people in care settings and whether such standards are part of Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland's inspection regime.

The Scottish Government’s National Care Standards for Care Homes for older people cover eating, drinking and nutrition care. The National Care Standards were developed by the National Care Standards Committee on behalf of Scottish Ministers, and COSLA was represented on that Committee. In addition, Promoting Nutrition in Care Homes for Older people published in 2009, evaluated a Scottish Government funded education programme lead by the Care Commission Nurse Consultant for Care Homes for Older People which aims to help staff improve nutritional care for residents; since the publication of that report, collaboration with the Improving Nutritional Care Programme will help to progress initiatives to improve nutritional care homes for older people.

As part of its inspection process of care homes for older people, the Care Inspectorate looks at nutritional standards using the National Care Standard for Older People. The Care Inspectorate also includes in the inspection team a professional adviser in nutrition where appropriate.

Question reference: S4W-02748

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of cases of (a) stroke, (b) type 2 diabetes and (c) osteoarthritis is attributed to obesity.

Question reference: S4W-02752

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients in NHS (a) Highland, (b) Western Isles, (c) Shetland and (d) Orkney have been enrolled in the Counterweight programme in each year since 2008.

Question reference: S4W-02754

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive where Healthy Weight Community Projects, as outlined in Healthy Eating, Active Living: An action plan to improve diet, increase physical activity and tackle obesity (2008-2011), have been piloted; what evaluation of these projects has been carried out, and what action is now being taken.

The eight communities selected for the Healthy Weight Community pathfinder programme were: Dumfries (North West/Town Centre); Dundee (Strathmartine/Lochee/East End); East Ayrshire (Catrine); East Renfrewshire (Barrhead); Glasgow (Priesthill and Househillwood); North Ayrshire (Stevenston); North Lanarkshire (Viewpark), and West Lothian (Armadale and Blackridge).

The national evaluation of the Healthy Weight Communities (HWC) was conducted during the first 18 months of the programme implementation, completing in April 2011. The aim was to determine what impact the eight pathfinder community programmes have had on joining up local activities related to healthy eating and physical activity, and their progress towards healthy weight outcomes. The evaluators worked directly with each of the communities, helping them to establish and develop their approaches, and to draw key lessons from across the eight communities.

Full details of the methodology and key findings can be found on the Scottish Government website: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/08/04154123/0

The key messages are being disseminated to a wide range of stakeholders, including COSLA and NHS, to ensure the lessons emerging from the evaluations are able to influence decisions about the future planning, design and delivery of effective, integrated, preventative services.

The Scottish Government and NHS Health Scotland will support HWC’s to develop sustainable local approaches including local evaluation.

Question reference: S4W-02757

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has developed a healthy weight workforce development plan and, if so, how it is being implemented.

As a direct result of the commitment in Healthy Eating Active Living, NHS Health Scotland published a development plan in 2010 which was updated in 2011. I have included a link to the full document.

In addition NHS Health Scotland are actively pursuing a generic approach to workforce development for health behaviour change interventions with NHS boards and their partners.

http://www.healthscotland.com/uploads/documents/15062-Healthy%20Weight%20workforce%20development%20plan.pdf.

Question reference: S4W-02758

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 26 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has liaised with Ofcom and the UK Government, and what other action it has taken, regarding limiting the promotion of unhealthy food to children.

In response to concerns about child obesity and a consultation exercise, which we took part in, Ofcom phased in restrictions on the advertising of High Fat Salt Sugar (HFSS) products between April 2007 and January 2009.

We are exploring opportunities to restrict advertising of foods high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) foods through non-broadcast media, as outlined in the National Food and Drink policy, and we will continue to support a pre-9pm ban on advertising in broadcast media of HFSS to strengthen the recent measures introduced by Ofcom.

We have also commissioned the Institute for Social Marketing at Stirling University to investigate a broad range of options that might be used for restricting the marketing of HFSS foods to children.

Question reference: S4W-02747

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 23 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what the prevalence is of children aged 2 to 15 with a body mass index outside the healthy range, also broken down by gender.

In the 2009 Scottish Health Survey 31.7% of boys and 29.2% of girls aged two to 15 had a body mass index outside the healthy range. Overall, 30.5% of children aged two to 15 had a body mass index outside the healthy range.

Please note that these figures differ slightly from those published in the 2009 annual report. The figures were revised to correct an error in the weighting. The impact of this revision is minimal.

Source: Scottish Health Survey 2009 (Revised September 2011).

Question reference: S4W-02574

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 23 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many warnings the Scottish Social Services Council has issued to social services workers found guilty of misconduct in each year since 2001.

Although the SSSC was established in 2001, registration did not commence until 2003. Information provided by SSSC indicates the following:

Year	No. of Warnings
2003	0
2004	0
2005	0
2006	0
2007	0
2008	0
2009	3
2010	3
2011	4
Total	10

Formal warnings are not the only available sanctions. Other sanctions include suspension or removal from the register, or imposition of a condition or conditions on the registration of an individual.

Question reference: S4W-02579

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 September 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 23 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what action has been taken in response to the 11 care homes that were graded weak and unsatisfactory in inspection reports as at June 2011.

Question reference: S4O-00221

Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 September 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment has had with the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth regarding using distillery by-products for bio-friendly renewable energy.

	2008	2009	2010	2011 (to 1 Aug)
Highland	0	125	351	263
Western Isles	0	6	20	55
Shetland	15	127	189	57
Orkney	0	0	82	110