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-27413

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 4 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many incidents of (a) rape, (b) sexual assault and (c) sexual harassment there were against female patients in mental health units in the last five years.

Question reference: S2W-27423

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 4 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting time to see a child psychiatrist was in each year since 1999 and how many in-patient beds there were for young psychiatric patients in each year.

NHS Scotland median waiting timesfor first out-patient appointments, following referral from a general medicalor dental practitioner, to consultants in child and adolescent psychiatry specialtiesfor calendar years 1999 to 2002 are shown in the following table.

Calendar Year	Child Psychiatry		Adolescent Psychiatry
Calendar Year	Appointments	Median Wait (Days)	Appointments	Median Wait (Days)
1999	3,131	42	1,983	33
2000	3,283	53	2,006	34
2001	2,923	62	1,748	35
2002^P	2,393	55	1,641	34

Source: SMR00 – ISD Scotland.

^PProvisional

Note: 1. Due to datasubmission problems for the psychiatric specialties at a number of healthboards, national records of out-patient attendances are incomplete after 2002.ISD are currently working with NHS board to rectify this problem.

Bed numbers for the specialtieschild psychiatry (patients aged less than 13) and adolescent psychiatry (patientsaged between 13 and 17) are published at the following web address:

http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/files/Annual_trends_in_available_beds_HB_comparison_May06_release.xls.

Question reference: S2W-27410

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 2 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) number and (b) cost to the NHS was of (i) temporary and (ii) agency nurses in each year since 1995, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S2W-27415

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 14 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 2 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made on the implementation of an NHS national tariff.

The Scottish Executive beganimplementation of a Scottish National Tariff in 2005-06. The tariff is based onestimated national average HRG (Healthcare Resource Groups) costs, derived fromthe Scottish Health Service Costs (Costs Book).

It is intended that the introductionof tariffs will create an incentive to increase efficiency by encouraging benchmarkingbetween hospitals and boards and to improve the accuracy of financial data by ensuringbetter recording of both cost and activity data. The Tariff is being phased in overthree years for cross boundary flows i.e. patients resident in one NHS board whoare treated within another NHS board. In 2005-06 it was applied to two specialties(Cardiac Surgery and Orthopaedics).

In 2006-07 the tariff will beapplied to the following eight specialties; Orthopaedics and Cardiac Surgery (firstimplemented in 2005-06), cardiology, ear, nose and throat, neurology,neurosurgery, plastic surgery and urology.

In 2007-08 the Scottish NationalTariff will be applied to all tariff-based cross boundary flow activity and thereforeprovide benchmarking data across all relevant costs.

A Tariff Reference Group, withrepresentation from NHS boards, is reviewing the development of an updated tarifffor 2006-07. This update is expected in late summer 2006.

Question reference: S2W-27079

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 30 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps have been taken with healthcare professionals in NHS boards to evaluate formula feeding practices, given that 85 per cent of infants are formula fed in the first year of life.

Question reference: S2W-27077

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 30 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether single shared assessments are being conducted in all local authority areas across Scotland and, if not, whether it will list the local authority areas where such assessments are not being conducted.

Question reference: S2W-27078

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 30 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how healthcare professionals will be kept up to date with the latest developments in infant formula feeding and its preparation to ensure that parents are given the information they need in order to minimise the risks associated with formula feeding.

Question reference: S2W-26815

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 28 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many farm-related jobs there were in each parliamentary constituency in each year since 1999.

Information on the number offarm-related jobs in each parliamentary constituency is not readily available.Information from the June Agricultural Census, includingthe number of farm-related jobs, is available by Regional Groupings of Unitary Authorities.This information is published annually in the Scottish Executive publication: Scottish Agricultural Census Summary SheetsBy Geographic Area and is available electronically at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/15631/9620.

Question reference: S2W-26816

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 28 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the impact on the rural economy of the cost of petrol and diesel.

The Executive has made no detailedassessment of the impact of fuel prices alone on the rural economy. Nevertheless,we are aware that the Rural Scotland Price Survey showed that in 2003 fuel pricesin some rural areas were 13% higher than in urban Scotland. Thereis also a greater dependency on car transport for many in rural Scotland, reflectedin rates of 80% of employed adults in accessible rural areas and 77% in remote ruralareas making their usual journey to work by car, compared with 65% for Scotlandas a whole (Scottish Household Survey (2004). Ministers will continue to monitorthe situation and make representations to the UK Government as they consider appropriate.

Question reference: S2W-26814

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 27 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many farms there were in each parliamentary constituency in each year since 1999.

Information on the number offarms in each parliamentary constituency is not readily available.Information from the June Agricultural Census, includingthe number of farms, is available by Regional Groupings of Unitary Authorities.This information is published annually in the Scottish Executive publication: Scottish Agricultural Census Summary SheetsBy Geographic Area and is available electronically at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/15631/9620.