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: S2W-03635

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Euan Robson on 20 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will address any backlog of unmet training needs within the voluntary social work sector over the next four years.

Information on unmettraining needs within the voluntary sector is not held. Training is a matterfor the individual employer.

In October 2003, the Executive announced an additional £9 million over the next three years forlocal authorities to invest in training. It is anticipated that staff who workin partnership with local authorities, including independent providers from thevoluntary and private sector will benefit from this additional funding.

The Executive providetraining grants under Section 9 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 topromote an acceptable level of practice competence in key areas of social workcovered by the voluntary sector by enabling organisations involved to provideor secure training for their paid staff and voluntary workers which would nototherwise be available to them.

Currently, the ScottishSocial Services Council is undertaking an investigation of all the key fundingstreams available for training in the social work sector and this will includethe voluntary sector.

Question reference: S2O-00566

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Mary Mulligan on 9 October 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to revise planning guidance available to local authorities in relation to wind farms.

Question reference: S2O-00560

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 2 October 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made by COSLA in conjunction with independent and church care home sectors in their examination of the true cost of care for older people.

Question reference: S2W-02288

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 August 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 26 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with NHS Quality Improvement Scotland and the Clinical Standards Board for Scotland about the steps required to address issues highlighted by the national overview on schi'ophrenia published by the board in March 2002 and what the outcome was of any such discussions.

The Scottish Executive Health Department has on-going discussions with NHS Quality ImprovementScotland on a range of issues, including the follow up to its published schizophreniastandards. One outcome has been the current review of service compliance with theremaining schizophrenia standards which will report early next year. Services havealso been invited to report on progress with implementation of the first set ofstandards and outcomes will be published next year as part of the current reviewreport.

Question reference: S2W-02287

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 August 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 26 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it will take to ensure that the NHS takes account of advice from the Health Technology Board for Scotland on the use of modern atypical anti-psychotic medicines for people with schi'ophrenia.

On 25 July 2003 NHS Quality ImprovementScotland advised NHSScotland that the National Institute for Clinical Excellenceguidance on the use of newer (atypical) antipsychotic drugs for the treatment ofschizophrenia is as valid for Scotland as it is for England and Wales.

NHSScotland has been advisedthat it should take account of advice and evidence from NHS Quality ImprovementScotland and ensure that recommended drugs or treatments are made available to meetclinical need. Likewise, individual clinicians should take account of the board'sevidence-based guidance when exercising their clinical judgement.

Question reference: S2W-02286

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 August 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 26 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many atypical anti-psychotic medicines for the treatment of schi'ophrenia have been dispensed by (a) community pharmacists and (b) doctors in each NHS board area in the last two years.

The following table shows the total number of prescribed items for atypical anti-psychotic medicines dispensed by community pharmacists and dispensing doctors. These data do not take into account medicines dispensed by hospitals or hospital-based clinics.

Atypical anti-psychotic medicines are used mainly in the treatment of schizophrenia, but can be used to treat other conditions.

Atypical Antipsychotic Medicines – Number of Prescribed Items

NHS Board	Community Pharmacists		Dispensing Doctors		Total
NHS Board	2001-02	2002-03	2001-02	2002-03	2001-02	2002-03
Argyll and Clyde	21,389	26,625	1,095	1,811	22,484	28,436
Ayrshire and Arran	14,465	18,415	253	424	14,718	18,839
Borders	2,664	3,249	103	171	2,767	3,420
Dumfries and Galloway	6,474	8,298	563	723	7,037	9,021
Fife	12,201	15,120	112	82	12,313	15,202
Forth Valley	12,057	15,417	289	437	12,346	15,854
Grampian	13,813	18,297	507	668	14,320	18,965
Greater Glasgow	37,463	47,575	0	0	37,463	47,575
Highland	5,133	7,164	478	641	5,611	7,805
Lanarkshire	20,085	27,001	447	534	20,532	27,535
Lothian	21,032	25,525	59	82	21,091	25,607
Orkney	258	475	68	186	326	661
Shetland	321	410	271	369	592	779
Tayside	13,807	20,513	123	176	13,930	20,689
Western Isles	237	415	382	544	619	959
All NHS Boards	181,399	234,499	4,750	6,848	186,149	241,347

Question reference: S2W-02322

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 16 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to encourage NHS boards to issue whistle-blowing kits to NHS trusts.

The Partnership InformationNetwork (PIN) issued a PIN Guideline prepared by the service for the service inJanuary last year entitled “Dealing with Employee Concerns”.

This partnership prepareddocument includes guidance and a model freedom of speech policy. NHSScotlandemployers are required to meet or exceed the guideline. It is intended toreview the PIN Guidelines every two years to ensure they keep pace withrecognised good employment practice.

Question reference: S2W-02321

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 16 September 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to facilitate the reporting by staff of any bad practice and issues of staff failure in the NHS.

The Partnership InformationNetwork (PIN) issued a PIN Guideline prepared by the service for the service inJanuary last year entitled “Dealing with Employee Concerns”.

This guideline promotes arange of options by which employee concerns in their widest sense can beaddressed. Through the guideline, employees are encouraged to use availableinternal mechanisms for reporting any illegal activity, misconduct or omissionsrelating to any aspects of the organisation's work, whether clinical ornon-clinical.

Question reference: S2W-01801

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 August 2003
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 29 August 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive on which road locations in Aberdeenshire fatal and serious road accidents have been recorded in each year since 1999.

The Central Statistical Database contains information on the road class and number (if any), the grid reference of the locations of road accidents, local authority area and police force area.

Figures for the numbers of accidents on individual roads can only be produced from the central statistical database in cases where the roads are of class M, A(M), A or B, and in cases where figures are sought for particular stretches (rather than their full lengths within Scotland), the start and end points are specified.

The following table gives the number of fatal and serious road accidents by road class and number in Aberdeenshire in each of the years since 1999.

It should be noted that the statistics given in the table are based upon the data which are held in the central statistical database and which were collected by the police at the time of the accident and subsequently reported to the Executive. They may differ from any figures which the local authority would provide now, because they do not take account of any subsequent changes or corrections that the local authority may have made to the statistical information, for use at a local level, about the location of each accident, basedupon its knowledge of the road and area concerned.

Fatal and Serious Accidents in Aberdeenshire, 1999 to 2002

	1999	2000	2001	2002
A90	24	22	27	19
A92	0	4	3	4
A920	1	1	1	5
A93	5	8	10	8
A937	0	1	0	0
A939	3	0	1	1
A943	0	0	0	1
A944	7	7	2	5
A947	7	7	10	8
A948	2	0	2	1
A95	1	1	1	0
A950	3	1	3	2
A952	8	4	3	4
A957	5	1	3	0
A96	10	12	6	3
A97	4	4	3	4
A975	2	1	1	1
A977	0	1	0	1
A98	8	8	6	6
A980	1	2	3	0
A981	1	2	1	0
A982	1	0	0	0
B9000	1	0	2	0
B9001	5	1	1	1
B9002	0	0	0	1
B9005	2	0	0	0
B9006	0	0	0	1
B9022	0	1	0	1
B9023	1	1	0	0
B9025	0	2	2	0
B9029	0	0	0	1
B9030	1	0	0	1
B9031	0	2	1	1
B9032	0	0	1	0
B9033	1	0	1	1
B9077	4	3	3	1
B9107	1	0	0	0
B9108	0	0	1	0
B9119	2	2	1	2
B9124	0	0	1	0
B9125	0	1	0	0
B9139	1	0	0	0
B9170	2	4	3	6
B947	0	0	0	1
B966	2	1	0	2
B972	0	1	1	0
B973	0	1	0	0
B974	4	2	5	0
B976	2	2	0	1
B977	4	7	1	3
B9777	1	0	0	0
B979	2	5	4	1
B992	0	0	1	1
B993	0	3	1	2
B994	1	3	0	0
B997	1	1	0	0
B999	3	4	4	4
Unclassified	26	32	29	36
Total	160	166	149	141

Question reference: S2W-00739

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 June 2003
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 2 July 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will implement the commitments in Strategy for Carers in Scotland within the resources available and without placing any additional pressure on local authorities.