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-00834

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 24 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prosecutions there have been for assaulting an NHS employee under regulations introduced in 2007 to extend the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005.

The available information is given in the following table.

Persons Proceeded Against in Scottish Courts for Offences Under the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005^1,2, 2004-05 to 2008-09

Offence	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10
Section 1(1)³	12	47	44	76	117
Section 2(1)⁴	14	78	96	79	39
Section 3(1)⁵	0	3	2	4	2
Section 5(1)⁶	31	84	145	150	131
Total	57	212	287	309	289

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. NHS workers cannot be separately identified from other emergency workers, although section 5(1) deals with assaulting or impeding health workers in hospital premises.

3. Assaulting or impeding certain providers of emergency services. This includes constables, member of the fire brigade, person acting for the Scottish Ambulance Service Board.

4. Assaulting or impeding certain emergency workers responding to emergency circumstances. This includes prison officers, member of HM Coastguard, a member of the crew of a vessel operated by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, a registered medical practitioner, a registered nurse, a registered midwife, a social worker, a mental health officer.

5. Assaulting or impeding persons assisting emergency workers.

6. Assaulting or impeding health workers in hospital premises. This includes a registered medical practitioner, a registered nurse, a registered midwife, a person acting for the Scottish Ambulance Service board.

Question reference: S4W-00986

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 24 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will bring forward work on the (a) dualling of the A90 between Balmedie and Tipperty and (b) new Inveramsay Bridge during the delay in the commencement of work on the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route.

We will continue to progress the A90 Balmedie to Tipperty project and the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route (AWPR) with a view to bringing forward both projects for construction as soon as the legal challenges surrounding the AWPR are resolved.

Both projects will be procured through a combined non-profit distributing model form of contract. Combining these projects into one contract will provide an opportunity to deliver better value for money. The programme for both projects will be reviewed once the current legal challenges against the AWPR have been resolved.

Design work for the A96 Inveramsay Bridge project is currently underway. It is hoped design work will have progressed to a stage where a preferred option can be identified by spring 2012.

Question reference: S4W-00982

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 17 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 24 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what (a) action it has taken and (b) progress it has achieved in implementing the Strategic Transport Projects Review commitment to reduce by 20 minutes rail journey times between Aberdeen and the central belt.

Question reference: S4W-00596

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 20 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) local authority and (b) privately operated care home places have been available in each year since May 2007, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S4W-00595

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 16 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been cared for in (a) mental health facilities and (b) hospitals while waiting for a place in a care home in each month since May 2007.

The specific information requested is not available centrally. However, information is provided from the quarterly census on delayed discharges and includes details on all patients delayed and awaiting placement in a care home on the census dates.

NHS Delayed Discharges; Numbers Waiting for a Care Home Place by Specialty: April 2007 to April 2011 Census

Census	All Specialties	Non Mental Health Specialties	General Psychiatry	Psychiatry of Old Age
April 2007	357	270	15	72
July 2007	515	407	13	95
October 2007	524	425	10	89
January 2008	406	321	17	68
April 2008	160	127	7	26
July 2008	241	191	7	43
October 2008	285	236	3	46
January 2009	182	148	5	29
April 2009	180	135	6	39
July 2009	258	217	5	36
October 2009	261	217	2	42
January 2010	183	152	2	29
April 2010	165	125	3	37
July 2010	239	194	1	44
October 2010	349	284	6	59
January 2011	287	248	4	35
April 2011	234	205	-	29

Source: Delayed Discharges Census, ISD Scotland.

Ref: IR2011-01384/S4W-00595.

Question reference: S4W-00594

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 15 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting time has been for orthopaedic treatment in each NHS board in each year since 2007.

Median waiting times are collected from the New Ways of Defining and Measuring Waiting Times which was introduced on 1 January 2008. Prior to that date median waits were collected from Scottish Morbidity Records which is not directly comparable with New Ways data. The median waiting time for patients undergoing orthopaedic inpatient and day case treatment by NHS board in each calendar year since 2008 is provided in the following table.

NHS Board	2008 (Days)	2009 (Days)	2010 (Days)
Ayrshire and Arran	67	64	54
Borders	64	58	53
Dumfries and Galloway	73	55	51
Fife	57	62	52
Forth Valley	82	60	52
Grampian	69	66	61
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	72	62	47
Highland	70	56	49
Lanarkshire	76	54	47
Lothian	85	69	61
Orkney	*	*	*
Shetland	36	50	34
Tayside	63	54	43
Western Isles	58	45	37
Scotland	71	61	51

Source: The Waiting Times Data Warehouse, ISD Scotland.

Note: *Information not provided because the number of cases is less than 50. Median waits from a small number of cases has the potential to mislead as only one or two cases which have either a very short wait or extremely long waits can significantly alter the “typical” wait.

Question reference: S3W-40062

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 14 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people are waiting to be assessed for a wheelchair, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S3W-40061

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 14 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting time was for a short-term wheelchair loan in each of the last 12 months, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S3W-40060

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 14 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting time was to be issued with a wheelchair in each of the last 12 months, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S3W-39827

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 9 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how much was spent on the Central Heating Programme in each year since the programme was introduced.

The total spend on the Central Heating Programme in the public and private sector since it was introduced is shown in the following table.

Year	Total Spend (£ Million)
Year	Total Spend (£ Million)
2001-02	20.11
2002-03	29.50
2003-04	46.39
2004-05	50.16
2005-06	56.99
2006-07	45.87
2007-08	48.96
2008-09	51.21