- Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 August 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 28 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many civil servants are working on the development of policies to promote and develop the Scots language.
Answer
The principal responsibilityfor Scots language issues, as well as for co-ordinating the development of the widerNational Language Strategy, rests with the Cultural Policy Division of the ScottishExecutive’s Education Department. Five civil servants are directly employed withinthe Division’s Language Unit, whilst others have responsibility for literature andbroadcasting. However, a wide range of other officials in the Scottish Executiveand Scottish public bodies have duties relating to language issues.
- Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 August 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 28 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will take steps to set up a Scots language advisory group with responsibility for assisting it with the development of appropriate policies to support the Scots language.
Answer
The Scottish Executive’s consultationon the National Language Strategy will provide the opportunity for organisationsrepresenting the regional forms of Scots to submit their views to the Scottish Executive.Following Scottish ministers’ consideration of all of the views submitted on thestrategy we expect to publish a final version of the National Language Strategyand take any other steps which we consider necessary. At this stage we have no plansto set up a Scots language advisory group.
- Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 August 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 28 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many meetings have taken place between civil servants and Scots language organisations in connection with the development of the national languages strategy, since February 2006.
Answer
Scottish ministers intend toissue the National Language Strategy for consultation later this year and to haveit finalised within the life of this Parliament. This timetable is consistent withthe Executive’s commitments set out in the
Partnership Agreement for a BetterScotland. This will provide the opportunity for organisations representing theregional forms of Scots to submit their views to the Scottish Executive.
Since February 2006, ScottishExecutive officials have met with the representatives of two Scots language organisations.At present there are no plans for further specific meetings with Scots languageorganisations before the draft National Language Strategy is published.
- Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 August 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 28 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how it intends to take on board the views of organisations representing the regional dialects of Scots when it formulates policies designed to promote and develop the Scots language.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-27707 on 28 August 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’swebsite, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 August 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 28 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what its timetable is for the development of a national languages strategy and whether it will explain any delay in meeting its earlier targets for the development of such a strategy.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-27704 on 28 August 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’swebsite, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 August 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 21 August 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many radiographers have been employed in each of the last five years in each NHS board, also showing year-on-year percentage changes.
Answer
The information requested isgiven in the following table.
Table 1 NHS Scotland Workforce Statistics,Radiographers by NHS Board and Year-on-Year Percentage Change
| | Headcount at 30 September | | Percentage Change (September) |
| 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 |
| Scotland | 1,408 | 1,466 | 1,498 | 1,557 | 1,530 | 1,562 | 4.1% | 2.2% | 3.9% | -1.7% | 2.1% |
| NHS Argyll and Clyde | 83 | 85 | 89 | 97 | 94 | 92 | 2.4% | 4.7% | 9.0% | -3.1% | -2.1% |
| NHS Ayrshire and Arran | 87 | 87 | 87 | 86 | 86 | 88 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -1.1% | 0.0% | 2.3% |
| NHS Borders | 19 | 20 | 19 | 20 | 22 | 24 | 5.3% | -5.0% | 5.3% | 10.0% | 9.1% |
| NHS Dumfries and Galloway | 28 | 28 | 27 | 27 | 27 | 26 | 0.0% | -3.6% | 0.0% | 0.0% | -3.7% |
| NHS Fife | 57 | 59 | 56 | 63 | 66 | 58 | 3.5% | -5.1% | 12.5% | 4.8% | -12.1% |
| NHS Forth Valley | 56 | 58 | 58 | 59 | 49 | 53 | 3.6% | 0.0% | 1.7% | -16.9% | 8.2% |
| Golden Jubilee | - | - | 7 | 10 | 12 | 13 | x | x | 42.9% | 20.0% | 8.3% |
| NHS Grampian | 146 | 146 | 155 | 158 | 161 | 166 | 0.0% | 6.2% | 1.9% | 1.9% | 3.1% |
| NHS Greater Glasgow | 377 | 402 | 405 | 422 | 428 | 437 | 6.6% | 0.7% | 4.2% | 1.4% | 2.1% |
| NHS Highland | 54 | 54 | 61 | 67 | 57 | 62 | 0.0% | 13.0% | 9.8% | -14.9% | 8.8% |
| NHS Lanarkshire | 111 | 119 | 124 | 123 | 126 | 130 | 7.2% | 4.2% | -0.8% | 2.4% | 3.2% |
| NHS Lothian | 238 | 253 | 256 | 260 | 243 | 252 | 6.3% | 1.2% | 1.6% | -6.5% | 3.7% |
| NHS Orkney | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | -25.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | -33.3% | 0.0% |
| NHS Shetland | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 25.0% | 20.0% | 16.7% | -42.9% | 0.0% |
| NHS Tayside | 139 | 141 | 138 | 148 | 148 | 149 | 1.4% | -2.1% | 7.2% | 0.0% | 0.7% |
| NHS Western Isles | 5 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 20.0% | 16.7% | 0.0% | -28.6% | 20.0% |
Source: ISD Scotland, NHS Workforce Statistics, IR 2006-02174.
- Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 June 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 25 July 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what targets have been set to ensure that people having seizures will not have to wait more than six months for intervention and treatment after seeing an epilepsy specialist.
Answer
There are no waiting time targetsspecific to epilepsy, including the management of people with epilepsy who haveseen a specialist. The Executive recognises the importance of prompt access tofurther intervention and treatment, especially when additional specialist testsare needed to establish a clear diagnosis of epilepsy.
- Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 June 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 21 July 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many debt collection agencies are approved for the purpose of collecting student loan debt on behalf of the Student Loans Company.
Answer
There are currently 11 DebtCollection Agencies on The Student Loans Company panel of agents.
- Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 June 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 21 July 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost has been of using debt collection agencies for the purpose of collecting student loan debt on behalf of the Student Loans Company in each of the last five years.
Answer
The following table showsthe approximate cost to the Student Loans Company, Honours Trustees Limited andFinance for Higher Education for the collection of Scottish debt
| Financial Year | Approximate Collection Cost |
| 2001-02 | £216,137 |
| 2002-03 | £183,982 |
| 2003-04 | £190,286 |
| 2004-05 | £150,558 |
| 2005-06 | £189,634 |
- Asked by: Maureen Watt, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 June 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 21 July 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how much student loan debt has been collected by debt collection agencies on behalf of the Student Loans Company in each of the last five years.
Answer
The following table showsthe total Scottish debt collected by the Student Loans Company, Honours TrusteesLimited and Finance for Higher Education over the past five years.
| Year | Total |
| 2001 | £989,509.66 |
| 2002 | £885,895.14 |
| 2003 | £1,007,112.12 |
| 2004 | £1,169,875.83 |
| 2005 | £1,263,506.20 |
This information wasprovided by the Student Loans Company.
