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-29374

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 10 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what safeguards there will be in the NHS national database of patient details to ensure appropriate patient confidentiality.

National electronic databasescontaining patient details are protected by a range of safeguards to ensure appropriatepatient confidentiality. Staff access is governed by their contractual duty of confidentiality,backed by training and a specific protocol for each database which sets out appropriateuse. There are in addition a range of technical security safeguards. These includeuse of the secure intra-NHS telecommunications system, firewalls, encryption, individualuser passwords and audit log of all accesses.

Planning work and early implementationis underway towards the Electronic Health Record, an outcome of Delivering forHealth, which is expected to be fully deployed by 2010. Early components of the Electronic Health Record, such as the Emergency Care Summary are protected bythe full range of security measures outlined above and future versions of the ElectronicHealth Record will be similarly protected. Information on the Emergency Care Summarydatabase can only be accessed on a genuine “need to know” basis. This requires thatthose who use a patient’s information:

Are who they claim to be throughauthorisation identity checks

Have a legitimate care relationshipwith the patient

Only see information their roleallows

An audit trail record is keptof everyone who views a patient’s Emergency Care Summary record.

Question reference: S2W-29343

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 10 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what support it provides to organisations offering unpaid work placements to graduates to enable them to gain the necessary experience to find full-time employment.

The Executive does notdirectly support organisations offering unpaid work placements to graduates. Thereare however other opportunities available to such organisations which the Executive indirectly supports. ScottishEnterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise both have programmesavailable to businesses and graduates throughout their areas. These programmes offerpaid work placements for graduates, and business support and consultancy toparticipating organisations.

Also, the Scottish Executivesupports Project Scotland which facilitates and supports high quality full timevolunteering opportunities for all 16 to 25-year-olds, including graduates.

Question reference: S2W-29002

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 8 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many consultants were allocated distinction awards in category (a) A+, (b) A and (c) B in the 2005 awards round, as disclosed in the BMA Scottish Consultants Committee Annual Report 2006, broken down by gender and, in the event that this information is not held by gender, whether it (i) is aware that such information is published in relation to consultants in England and Wales and (ii) will encourage the committee to produce information comparable to that published in England and Wales, in particular showing the number of women and minority ethnic people who receive awards.

The number of consultants allocateddistinction awards in category (a) A+, (b) A and (c) B in the 2005 awards roundare as follows:

	Male		Female		All
	No	%	No	%	No	%
All Consultants	2,654	72.5	1,007	27.5	3,661	100
		% of Award Level		% of Award Level		% of Award Level
A+	38	88.4	5	11.6	43	8.7
A	127	89.4	15	10.6	142	28.7
B	272	88.0	37	12.0	309	62.6
Total Awards	437	88.5	57	11.5	494	100

Further details on the 2005 AwardsRound and on the number of women and ethnic minorities who receive awards can befound in the seventh Annual Report of the Scottish Advisory Committee on DistinctionAwards which was published in March 2006. The report is available in the ScottishAdvisory Committee on Distinction Awards (SACDA) section of the Scottish Healthon the Web (SHOW) website at www.sacda.scot.nhs.uk/.

I have recently set up a reviewgroup to carry out a fundamental review of both the distinction awards and discretionarypoints schemes. The group is in the process of hearing evidence from key stakeholdersand expect to report back to me early next year.

Question reference: S2W-29276

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 7 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many physiotherapy graduates there have been from each of Scotland's universities in each of the last three years.

The following table containsthe information you requested.

Graduates in Physiotherapy fromScottish Higher Education Institutions Academic Years 2002-03 to 2004-05

Academic Year	All HEIs	Postgraduate			First Degree
Academic Year	All HEIs	Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh	The Robert Gordon University	Glasgow Caledonian University	Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh	The Robert Gordon University	Glasgow Caledonian University
2002-03	210	20	15	25	40	35	75
2003-04	215	25	20	25	45	30	70
2004-05	220	30	20	20	45	40	60

Source: Higher Education StatisticsAgency (HESA).

Note: Numbers have been roundedto the nearest five to protect confidentiality. Values may not sum to total dueto rounding.

Question reference: S2W-29277

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 7 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many new physiotherapy graduates found employment in the NHS in Scotland in each of the last three years.

Question reference: S2W-28765

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 September 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 6 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how staffing numbers in the Scottish Prison Service have changed in the last five years, broken down by prison.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

The information in thefollowing table is shown per financial year.

Establishment	At April 2002	At April 2003	At April 2004	At April 2005	At April 2006
Aberdeen	158	154	151	145	130
Barlinnie	596	600	545	552	573
Cornton Vale	270	255	249	234	257
Dumfries	150	155	153	139	131
Edinburgh	465	465	433	406	395
Glenochil	459	461	399	386	350
Greenock	193	209	193	186	176
Inverness	109	109	108	108	106
Low Moss	181	174	178	155	158
Open Estate	131	126	124	126	151
Perth	425	441	440	411	359
Peterhead	210	219	216	215	197
Polmont	349	364	409	373	342
Shotts	421	416	395	367	350

These numbers are actualstaff in post including part-time staff. The SPS have been able to achievestaffing efficiencies through the development of a more modern prison estateand more efficient and effective deployment of staff in operational roles. The SPShave also made significant savings achieved in non-operational staff roles.

Question reference: S2W-28863

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 31 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of those who have graduated in computing and information technology since 1999 are now in full-time employment in that area.

Question reference: S2W-28862

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 31 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive which ministers have been involved in preparations to promote an Aberdeen-led Scottish bid to be the hub for the proposed Energy Technologies Institute.

Question reference: S2W-28864

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 31 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of those who have graduated in engineering since 1999 are now in full-time employment in that area.

Question reference: S2W-28866

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 31 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average length of time is for graduates with qualifications in computing and information technology to first find full-time employment in the related professional field.