Questions and answers

Question reference: S1W-01987

Asked by: Adam Ingram, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 October 1999
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 16 November 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive what are the projected deficits or surpluses in housing revenue accounts and general service budgets for the current financial year in each of Scotland's local authorities and what percentage of budgeted expenditure do these variances represent.

Local authorities are not allowed to budget for a deficit in either their general funds or the housing revenue accounts.

The returns collected by my Department do not include comprehensive information on the surpluses which local authorities are projecting on their General Funds each year. However the table below shows those local authorities which have budgeted for a net restoration of balances in their general fund for the current year. Authorities may be accounting for other surpluses in special funds.

Local Authority	Restoration of Balances Budget Estimates 1999-2000	Balances as % of Total Net Expenditure
	£000	%
Angus	200	0.15
East Dunbartonshire	2,898	2.21
East Renfrewshire	2,550	2.48
Edinburgh, City	3,800	0.67
Eilean Siar	51	0.07
North Ayrshire	1,417	0.80
North Lanarkshire	291	0.07
South Lanarkshire	6,700	1.75

Estimated HRA surpluses in 1999-2000, much of which are planned to transfer to capital accounts, are shown in the table below.

Local Authority	Estimated HRA Surpluses £000	Surplus as % of Budgeted HRA Expenditure
Aberdeen City	18,376	31
Aberdeenshire	8,847	25
Angus	4,377	26
Argyll & Bute	4,017	23
Clackmannanshire	3,890	27
Dumfries and Galloway	6,603	22
Dundee City	1,300	3
East Ayrshire	4,474	15
East Dunbartonshire	0	0
East Lothian	3,351	18
East Renfrewshire	110	1
Edinburgh City	2,633	3
Eilean Siar	345	4
Falkirk	9,496	20
Fife	12,847	17
Glasgow City	19,856	8
Highland	3,707	8
Inverclyde	510	2
Midlothian	3,725	28
Moray	400	3
North Ayrshire	4,192	13
North Lanarkshire	7,065	8
Orkney Islands	100	6
Perth & Kinross	6,928	28
Renfrewshire	2,030	5
Scottish Borders	1,283	9
Shetland Islands	0	0
South Ayrshire	2,636	13
South Lanarkshire	3,788	5
Stirling	1,800	10
West Dunbartonshire	200	1
West Lothian	6,842	21

SCOTLAND	145,727	12

Local authorities have budgeted to use the estimated HRA surpluses in 1999-2000 in a variety of ways. £100 million will be used to fund additional capital expenditure on the housing stock; £43 million will be carried forward to 2000-01 and £3 million will be transferred to the General Fund or other Reserve Funds.

Question reference: S1W-00656

Asked by: Adam Ingram, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 July 1999
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 7 October 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive what measures were agreed by East Ayrshire Council with the Accounts Commission, following their investigation into the financial management of the council in 1998, to ensure that housing benefit claims are processed within the statutory timescale and that no future penalties will be incurred, and whether these measures been followed.

East Ayrshire Council and their external auditor agreed that the council would prepare an action plan to deal with the backlog of benefit cases and quantify the size of any backlog for 1998-99. The external auditor will assess the council's actions as part of the 1998-99 audit and will highlight any continuing concerns to the Controller of Audit and the Council for their consideration. The statutory timescales for housing benefit claims and the penalties that can be imposed on councils if they are not met are reserved matters and the responsibility of the Department of Social Security.

Question reference: S1W-00655

Asked by: Adam Ingram, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 July 1999
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 7 October 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to protect council tax payers in East Ayrshire from additional costs incurred by the council as a result of housing benefit claims not being processed within the six week timescale required.

Question reference: S1O-00351

Asked by: Adam Ingram, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 September 1999
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Morrison on 23 September 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to reduce the level of dependency on the private car for those resident in rural areas in the South of Scotland, and if so, to detail these plans.

The Scottish Executive is pursuing a variety of initiatives to promote more sustainable and integrated transport in the rural areas. On 15 September, I announced grants to three community transport projects in the South of Scotland totalling nearly £92,000. Other initiatives include Rural Public Passenger Transport Grants, Social Inclusion Partnerships and the Scottish Rural Partnership Fund. The Executive is also looking forward to the outcome of the feasibility study exploring the potential for the reinstatement of the rail link between Edinburgh and the Borders let in April 1999.

Question reference: S1W-01688

Asked by: Adam Ingram, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 September 1999
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Morrison on 23 September 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to reduce the level of dependency on the private car for those resident in rural areas in the South of Scotland, and if so, to detail these plans.

The Scottish Executive is pursuing a variety of initiatives to promote more sustainable and integrated transport in the rural areas. On 15 September, I announced grants to three community transport projects in the South of Scotland totalling nearly £92,000. Other initiatives include Rural Public Passenger Transport Grants, Social Inclusion Partnerships and the Scottish Rural Partnership Fund. The Executive is also looking forward to the outcome of the feasibility study exploring the potential for the reinstatement of the rail link between Edinburgh and the Borders let in April 1999.

Question reference: S1W-00929

Asked by: Adam Ingram, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 August 1999
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 3 September 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were re-admitted to Ayr Hospital or Crosshouse Hospital, Kilmarnock suffering from a similar complaint to their first admission in: (a) 1994; (b) 1995; (c) 1996; (d) 1997, and (e) 1998.

The information available is provided in the table.
Proportion of patients¹ re-admitted to Crosshouse Hospital or Ayr Hospital within 28 days of discharge of first admission and to the same specialty, April 1994 to March 1998

	Year Ending 31 March
	1995	1996	1997	1998
Crosshouse Hospital
Patients	26,374	26,387	26,575	27,252
Re-admissions	699	692	806	750
Percentage	2.65	2.62	3.03	2.75

Ayr Hospital
Patients	16,306	19,086	22,485	23,495
Re-admissions	484	831	552	587
Percentage	2.97	4.35	2.45	2.50

1 Patients are counted a maximum of once for each hospital in each year

Notes:

1. A re-admission is defined as an emergency admission to hospital (in a different episode of care) within 28 days of their first admission and to the same specialty.

2. The hospital for the re-admission can be either Crosshouse or Ayr irrespective of which of these hospitals had the first admission.

3. Numbers are assigned to the hospital of first admission.Source: ISD Medical Record Linkage

Question reference: S1W-00940

Asked by: Adam Ingram, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 August 1999
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 31 August 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients have been admitted to (a) Crosshouse Hospital and (b) Ayr Hospital in each year since 1995 (counting patients only once if they have had multiple appointments).

The information available on the number of patients admitted to Crosshouse and Ayr Hospital by year of admission, April 1994-March 1998 is provided in the table.

Numbers of patients¹ admitted to Crosshouse Hospital and Ayr Hospital by year of admission, April 1994-March 1998

	Year Ending 31 March
	1995	1996	1997	1998
Crosshouse Hospital	26374	26387	26575	27252
Ayr Hospital	16306	19086	22485	23495

1 Patients are counted a maximum of once for each hospital in each yearSource: ISD Medical Record Linkage

Question reference: S1W-00930

Asked by: Adam Ingram, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 August 1999
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 31 August 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive what is the population that has been served by (a) Ayr Hospital, and (b) Crosshouse Hospital separately for (i) accident and emergency services; (ii) in patient services, and (iii) out patient services, in each year since 1995.

The number of in-patient and day case discharges and new out-patient referrals according to the Health Board area of residence is shown in table 1: NHS in Scotland - New Out-Patient Clinical Referrals and In-Patient and Day Case Discharges for the Ayr Hospital and Crosshouse Hospital by Health Board of Residence between 1995-1998.

The place of residence of accident & emergency patients is not collected centrally. Table 2 shows the number of new accident & emergency attenders at the 2 locations between 31 March 1995 and 31 March 1998.

Table 11995-98 New Out-Patient Referrals and In-Patient & Day Case Discharges for the Ayr Hospital and Crosshouse Hospital by Health Board of Residence

Year	Location	Health Board of Residence
		All Areas of Residence	Scotland	Argyll & Clyde e	Ayr & Arran	Borders	Dumfries & Galloway	Fife	Forth Valley	Grampian	Greater Glasgow	Highland	Lanark	Lothian	Orkney	Shetland	Tayside	Western Isles	Other
1995
Out-Patients	Ayr Hospital	26,468	26,388	18	26,116	1	169	4	2	4	34	2	26	9	-	-	3	-	80
	Crosshouse Hospital	35,111	33,094	30	32,960	2	11	4	2	6	47	2	29	-	-	-	-	1	17
In-Patients	Ayr Hospital	22,578	22,286	62	21,703	2	164	14	17	19	167	7	77	32	-	1	20	1	292
	Crosshouse Hospital	26,845	26,683	76	26,268	7	68	8	9	18	127	8	58	18	1	1	14	2	162
Day Cases	Ayr Hospital	6,890	6,889	3	6,831	-	44	-	-	4	6	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	1
	Crosshouse Hospital	9,802	9,784	7	9,773	-	5	-	2	1	9	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	4

1996
Out-Patients	Ayr Hospital	28,611	28,502	18	28,015	2	367	4	6	5	30	6	25	10	-	2	12	-	109
	Crosshouse Hospital	35,714	35,699	38	35,537	-	22	1	2	7	52	3	32	3	-	-	1	1	15
In-Patients	Ayr Hospital	20,087	19,787	54	19,211	3	214	26	16	14	118	5	74	26	-	3	20	3	100
	Crosshouse Hospital	27,291	27,121	73	26,694	1	102	12	17	12	122	8	58	19	1	-	2	-	170
Day Cases	Ayr Hospital	11,655	11,652	8	11,540	-	74	-	19	-	4	1	3	3	-	-	-	-	3
	Crosshouse Hospital	10,688	10,671	9	10,639	1	3	1	-	-	15	-	3	2	-	-	-	-	15

1997
Out-Patients	Ayr Hospital	30,147	30,039	31	29,498	1	406	7	5	7	42	1	22	12	-	1	6	-	108
	Crosshouse Hospital	38,565	38,518	42	38,334	1	35	4	5	6	53	4	24	6	-	- 4	4	-	47
In-Patients	Ayr Hospital	21,485	21,180	52	20,566	2	267	21	15	17	123	9	63	25	1	-	18	1	305
	Crosshouse Hospital	28,071	27,933	64	27,511	2	79	11	14	11	143	13	50	28	-	-	6	1	138
Day Cases	Ayr Hospital	13,967	13,961	10	13,841	-	99	-	-	-	9	-	-	2	- -	- - -	-	-	6
	Crosshouse Hospital	11,028	11,024	10	10,973	-	6	-	1	-	27	-	6	1	-	-	-	-	4

1998*
Out-Patients	Ayr Hospital	30,998	30,923	26	30,325	-	489	6	7	2	36	1	20	11	-	-	-	-	75
	Crosshouse Hospital	31,809	31,791	44	31,624	1	36	2	1	2	51	1	16	8	-	-	-	-	18
In-Patients	Ayr Hospital	22,825	22,550	46	21,860	5	330	17	19	17	123	11	72	37	-	-	12	1	275
	Crosshouse Hospital	28,773	28,593	64	28,165	2	64	4	10	13	174	10	41	29	-	-	16	1	180
Day Cases	Ayr Hospital	15,620	15,612	6	15,455	-	126	-	10	1	10	1	-	3	-	-	-	-	8
	Crosshouse Hospital	12,060	12,042	13	11,998	-	9	-	1	-	13	-	3	1	-	-	2	-	18

* Provisional Source: ISD Scotland

Table 2

Accident and Emergency New Patient Attendances at Ayrshire & Arran Health Board area hospitals; by year 31 March 1995 to 31 March 1998

	New Patients
	1995	1996	1997	1998
The Ayr Hospital	34,125	37,398	39,282	42,157
Crosshouse Hospital	48,208	50,356	49,785	52,585

Source: ISD Scotland Form ISD(S)1

SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE

Question reference: S1W-00673

Asked by: Adam Ingram, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 July 1999
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 6 August 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive to specify the number of people who were admitted for emergency fracture surgery in the last year to Ayr Hospital and Crosshouse Hospital, Kilmarnock.

Question reference: S1W-00670

Asked by: Adam Ingram, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 July 1999
Current Status: Answered by Henry McLeish on 5 August 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive what arrangements have been made to ensure that students applications for loans will be dealt with by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland timeously.

Eligible students entering higher education in academic year 1999/2000, and those who entered in 1998/99, are able to apply for means-tested help with their tuition fees and for a partly means-tested maintenance loan. The need to apply the means test to both elements of assistance has involved significant changes in the application process.

The students affected should apply to the Awards Agency in good time for both tuition fee and maintenance support. Details of their entitlement will be notified to the students and his or her parents or spouse, as appropriate. The information on tuition fee support will also be passed to the institution concerned and that on loan entitlement to the Student Loans Company Limited.The necessary changes to the Agency's computer software have been made and it is currently processing applications under the new arrangements. It has also engaged additional seasonal staff to meet the peak demand and it is accepting applications from students on the basis of conditional offers.

Chamber and committees