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: S3W-39400

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 16 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been employed in the fishing industry in each year since 2007.

The available information is given in the following table:

Number of Fishermen Employed¹ on Scottish-Based Vessels, 2007 to 2009

	2007	2008	2009
Regularly Employed	4,408	4,585	4,403
Irregularly Employed	951	807	946
Crofters	65	56	60
Total	5,424	5,448	5,409

Note: 1. Figures are limited to those employed on vessels which submit landing declarations to Marine Scotland port offices. They exclude, for example, those employed in cockle picking.

This information is published in table 13 in the Statistical Bulletin Scottish Sea Fisheries Statistics 2009, copies of which are available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 51820).

Question reference: S3W-39295

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 14 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it takes to (a) monitor and (b) improve the experience of the treatment and care of cancer patients.

a. The measurement of patient experience is a recent development and while there is no national monitoring of the experience of cancer patients in Scotland, the first ever national GP and inpatient patient experience surveys, published in 2010, does however include the experiences of cancer patients within these two care settings. Topic reports providing differential accounts of experience by equality strand and for people living with a long-term condition, including cancer, will be published in May 2011.

b. In order to improve the care experience of cancer patients, the Scottish Government has funded three experience-based design cancer pilots. The pilots, in NHS Lothian, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and NHS Grampian will run for three years, concluding in 2012. Each pilot comprises a number of experience based improvement projects within specific cancer services, prioritised to reflect local, regional and national priorities. As well as resulting in service-specific improvements that will improve the care experience of cancer patients, the pilots are generating transferable learning outcomes in terms of engagement methods and experience-based improvements approaches, and identifying generalisable improvements. These are being shared with other cancer services through reporting to local NHS boards and regional cancer networks, and nationally through the Living with Cancer programme and Scottish Cancer Taskforce.

Question reference: S3W-39017

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 3 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many public libraries there have been in each year since 1999, broken down by parliamentary constituency.

Details on the number of public libraries in Scotland are not available by parliamentary constituency. The Scottish Library and Information Council have brought together the Scottish figures by local authority area from the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accounting (CIPFA). CIPFA figures are only available from 2000 onwards. This information is available in the Libraries open 10+ hours table of the Scottish Library Statistics 2000-10 spreadsheet, a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 52392)

Question reference: S3W-39019

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 3 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many books have been loaned by libraries in each year since 1999, broken down local authority.

The Scottish Library and Information Council has brought together the Scottish figures by local authority area from the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accounting (CIPFA). CIPFA figures are only available from 2000 onwards. This information is available in the Book Issues table of the Scottish Library Statistics 2000-10 spreadsheet, a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 52392)

Question reference: S3W-39018

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 3 February 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been spent on new books for libraries in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority.

The Scottish Library and Information Council has brought together the Scottish figures by local authority area from the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accounting (CIPFA). CIPFA figures are only available from 2000 onwards and relate to books. This information is available in the Book Funds table of the Scottish Library Statistics 2000-10 spreadsheet, a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 52392).

Question reference: S3W-38610

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 28 January 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been screened for bowel cancer in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board.

The Scottish arm of the UK Colorectal Cancer Screening pilot commenced in NHS Fife, Grampian and Tayside in April 2000 and ran until May 2007. All men and women in these three areas aged between 50 and 69 were invited to participate. The total number of people who returned a screening kit and received a test result is in the following table:

NHS Board	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Fife	18,231	19,176	9,405	21,505	19,919	14,826	24,894	6,646
Grampian	25,578	15,833	28,450	36,849	31,845	23,943	34,921	15,458
Tayside	21,398	26,787	8,688	20,931	28,464	20,948	26,889	9,405
Total	65,207	61,796	46,543	79,285	80,228	59,717	86,704	31,509

The bowel screening programme commenced a phased roll out across Scotland from June 2007 with all NHS boards participating in the programme from
December 2009. All men and women between the ages of 50 and 74 are being invited to participate in the programme. The total number of people who returned a screening kit and received a test result is in the following table:

NHS Board	2007	2008	2009
Ayrshire and Arran	10,486	31,881	32,428
Borders	19	72	2,211
Argyll and Clyde	38	97	29,937
Fife	17,275	32,756	30,100
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	31	119	51,030
Highland	71	122	2,285
Lanarkshire	32	59	17,455
Grampian	28,124	47,059	52,602
Orkney	550	2174	2,222
Lothian	92	38,993	58,207
Tayside	22,821	36,468	38,692
Forth Valley	2,115	24,324	23,181
Western Isles	5	1,332	2,757
Dumfries and Galloway	28	1,246	15,975
Shetland	3	15	552
Total	81,690	216,717	359,634

Question reference: S3W-38611

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 24 January 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many cancer care specialists there have been in each NHS board in each year since 1999.

Information about consultant staff in post by specialty, including medical oncology and clinical oncology, and NHS board, as at 30 September 2001 to 30 September 2010 is available at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/servlet/FileBuffer?namedFile=HCHS%20by%20specialty_2010.xls&pContentDispositionType=attachment.

Information about clinical nurse specialists staff in post by specialty, including cancer specialties, and NHS board, as at 30 September 2007 to 30 September 2010 is available at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/servlet/FileBuffer?namedFile=Clinical%20Nurse%20Specialists%202010.xls&pContentDispositionType=attachment.

Information about clinical nurse specialists staff in post by specialty, including cancer specialties and NHS board, as at 30 September 2004 to 30 September 2006 is available at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/servlet/FileBuffer?namedFile=WFE18_0107.xls&pContentDispositionType=attachment.

Information for consultants in clinical radiology and medical oncology by NHS board as at 30 September 1999 and 30 September 2000 is shown in table 1 which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 52315.)

Question reference: S3W-38752

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 20 January 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients have been readmitted within 24 hours of discharge in each year since 1999.

The following table shows the number of emergency readmissions to hospital which took place on either the same day or following day when compared to the preceding hospital stay.

Number of Hospital Emergency Readmissions on the Same Day or following Day from the Preceding Hospital Stay; Calendar Years 1999 to 2009

Calendar Year	Total Number of Hospital Stays	Number of Emergency Readmissions	Readmissions on the Same or Following Day as a % of all Hospital Stays
1999	1,085,821	7,850	0.72%
2000	1,079,376	8,112	0.75%
2001	1,071,263	8,593	0.80%
2002	1,036,562	8,361	0.81%
2003	1,024,488	8,180	0.80%
2004	1,045,285	8,680	0.83%
2005	1,058,524	8,793	0.83%
2006	1,095,338	9,596	0.88%
2007	1,112,211	10,710	0.96%
2008	1,143,908	11,336	0.99%
2009	1,161,137	11,282	0.97%

Source: ISD Scotland (SMR01).

Question reference: S3W-38790

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 20 January 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many letters have been sent by its ministers highlighting its policies to interested parties in each year since 2007, broken down by (a) minister, (b) number of letters and (c) cost.

Question reference: S3W-38341

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 December 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 17 January 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many compensation payments have been made in each year since 2007, broken down by NHS board.

Compensation payments made by NHS Boards since 2007-8 is as follows:

Boards	Compensation Payments (2009-10). No. of Cases	Compensation Payments (2008-09). No. of Cases	Compensation Payments (2007-08). No. of Cases
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	87	80	101
NHS Borders	39	41	47
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	46	59	34
NHS Fife	121	106	139
NHS Forth Valley	84	75	99
NHS Grampian	94	130	134
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	502	616	349
NHS Highland	57	51	68
NHS Lanarkshire	129	119	116
NHS Lothian	265	337	272
NHS Orkney	0	1	0
NHS Shetland	0	1	0
NHS Tayside	52	87	88
NHS Western Isles	0	0	0
NHS 24	1	7	2
NHS Health Scotland	0	0	0
NHS National Services Scotland	17	18	9
Scottish Ambulance Service	6	20	24
Quality Improvement Scotland	0	0	1
NHS Education for Scotland	1	0	0
National Waiting Times Centre	0	0	0
The State Hospital	16	22	21
Total NHS Scotland	1,517	1,770	1,504

Source: NHS Boards Annual Accounts 2007-08 to 2009-10.

The figures above are inclusive of both clinical and non-clinical compensation payments and ex-gratia payments.