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-06076

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 5 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding it has made available to upgrade private water supplies to enable compliance with new EU regulations or connection to public water supplies; who is responsible for the disbursal of such funds, and how owners of private water supplies can apply for funds.

Currently, funding toupgrade private water supplies is available from a number of sources. HousingImprovement Grants can be awarded to households for a range of purposesincluding the upgrade of the water supply. Citizens wishing to apply for ahousing improvement grant should contact their local authority.

In Scottish Water’s currentinvestment programme, some £41 million has been made available for investmentto address development constraints and provide first time connection in ruralareas. Ministers will give final approval to the allocation of this money laterthis year. Information on households requiring connection to the public watersupply has been provided to Scottish Water by local authority environmental healthofficers.

Finally, the Scottish Executive aims to bring into force a dedicated private water supplies improvementgrant scheme to assist citizens and business to comply with new private watersupply regulations. Proposals on this matter will be subject to fullpublic consultation, planned for later this year.

Question reference: S2W-06081

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 5 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the criteria are for trade union recognition for representation and negotiation in the NHS and whether such criteria will be reviewed following the Agenda for Change process.

The criteria for trade unionrecognition are set out in the Employment Relations Act 1999 in Sections1,5,6,25 and Schedule 1 of the provisions of the Act.

For the purposes of nationalcollective bargaining in the NHS, the General Whitley Council (GWC) determinesthe trade unions and staff organisations that are recognised for representationand negotiation in the NHS.

The staff side organisationswith national recognition are set down by the GWC and are listed in Appendix Bto the GWC Handbook.

As part of the proposedagreement on Agenda for Change, an NHS staff council will be established toreplace the relevant functions of the GWC and the separate functional WhitleyCouncils. This council will have overall responsibility for the new pay system.

The staff side organisationswith current national recognition for the purposes of the staff council arelisted in Section 12.13 of the Agenda for Change agreement.

Question reference: S2O-01336

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 26 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the review of science centres will include the role of centres such as Satrosphere in Aberdeen.

Question reference: S2W-06075

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 24 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many private water supplies there are, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S2W-05234

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 12 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many medical laboratory scientific officers (biomedical scientists) are employed by each NHS board, broken down by grade.

Centrally held information on medical laboratory scientific officers (MLSOs) does not allow the explicit identification of biomedical scientists. The followingfigures show the most recent available information (as at September 2002) forMLSOs by NHS board and grade.

Table 1a: Headcount of Medical Laboratory Scientific Officers by Grade and NHS Board at 30 Sept 2002 ².

	Grade
NHS Boards	Total	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Assistant	Trainee	Other¹
Scotland	3,172	1077	593	281	151	27	40	9	7	833	151	3
Argyll and Clyde	209	72	40	17	7	-	-	-	-	64	9	-
Ayrshire and Arran	168	43	32	12	6	-	-	-	-	73	2	-
Borders	40	17	7	4	1	-	-	-	-	9	2	-
Dumfries and Galloway	72	29	17	4	-	-	-	-	-	17	5	-
Fife	89	39	15	10	3	-	-	-	-	19	3	-
Forth Valley	135	55	18	6	4	-	-	-	-	45	7	-
Grampian	219	70	35	21	4	-	-	-	-	77	12	-
Greater Glasgow	702	251	129	82	22	-	-	-	-	176	42	-
Highland	104	33	21	8	7	-	-	-	-	33	2	-
Lanarkshire	245	100	45	18	4	-	-	-	-	71	7	-
Lothian	419	171	83	38	14	-	-	-	-	87	26	-
Orkney	5	-	1	1	1	-	-	-	-	2	-	-
Shetland	5	-	-	3	-	-	-	-	-	2	-	-
Tayside	223	89	32	18	7	-	-	-	-	66	11	-
Western Isles	6	1	3	1	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-
Common Services Agency	528	107	115	38	71	27	40	9	7	91	23	-
Golden Jubilee National Hospital¹	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	3

Source: National Manpower Statistics from payroll ISD Scotland.

Notes:

1. Golden Jubilee National Hospital was unable to provide a grade breakdown.

2. Includes qualified and unqualified medical laboratory scientific officers.

Table 1b: WTE of Medical Laboratory Scientific Officers by Grade and NHS Board at 30 Sept 2002^2,3,4

		Grade
NHS Boards	Total	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Assistant	Trainee	Other¹
Scotland	2800.0	950.5	564.9	277.2	148.9	25.8	37.7	9.0	7.0	626.0	150.0	3.0
Argyll and Clyde	176.9	64.0	37.5	17.0	7.0	-	-	-	-	42.4	9.0	-
Ayrshire and Arran	134.2	38.7	28.7	12.0	6.0	-	-	-	-	46.9	2.0	-
Borders	35.2	14.5	7.0	4.0	1.0	-	-	-	-	6.7	2.0	-
Dumfries and Galloway	63.4	23.2	17.0	4.0	-	-	-	-	-	14.2	5.0	-
Fife	81.8	35.8	14.0	10.0	3.0	-	-	-	-	16.0	3.0	-
Forth Valley	106.2	46.0	16.7	6.0	4.0	-	-	-	-	26.5	7.0	-
Grampian	183.3	59.6	32.9	21.0	4.0	-	-	-	-	54.3	11.5	-
Greater Glasgow	621.6	221.4	122.2	81.0	22.0	-	-	-	-	133.0	42.0	-
Highland	92.9	32.6	20.3	8.0	7.0	-	-	-	-	23.0	2.0	-
Lanarkshire	210.9	86.6	43.4	17.5	4.0	-	-	-	-	52.4	7.0	-
Lothian	385.7	153.9	80.1	37.1	14.0	-	-	-	-	75.2	25.5	-
Orkney	4.8	-	1.0	1.0	1.0	-	-	-	-	1.8	-	-
Shetland	5.0	-	-	3.0	-	-	-	-	-	2.0	-	-
Tayside	188.9	77.6	30.7	17.5	7.0	-	-	-	-	45.1	11.0	-
Western Isles	6.0	1.0	3.0	1.0	-	-	-	-	-	1.0	-	-
Common Services Agency	500.3	95.8	110.5	37.1	68.9	25.8	37.7	9.0	7.0	85.5	23.0	-
Golden Jubilee National Hospital¹	3.0	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	3.0

Source:National Manpower Statistics from payroll ISD Scotland.

Notes:

1. Golden Jubilee National Hospital was unable to provide a grade breakdown.

2. Includes qualified and unqualified medical laboratory scientific officers.

4. Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) is calculated by dividing the contracted hours by the conditioned (normal) hours for the group of staff.

Question reference: S2W-05871

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 12 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many Proof of Concept awards have been distributed; how much funding was allocated in each distribution round, and how many institutions or organisations received one or more awards in each year since 1999, broken down by institution and organisation level.

Question reference: S2W-05006

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 9 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what role it will play in implementing the objectives and principles of Part II of the European Charter on Regional and Minority Languages, with particular reference to Scots and Gaelic.

The policies, legislationand practice of the Scottish Executive plays an important role in implementing theobjectives and principles of Part II of the European Charter on Regional andMinority Languages, with regard to Scots and Gaelic.

In addition the Executivehas adopted two partnership commitments which will further strengthen its rolein implementing the objectives and principles of Part II of the charter. Theseare the commitment to a National Languages Strategy in support of Scotland’slanguages and securing the status of Gaelic by means of a Gaelic language bill.

The implementation of manyof the objectives and principles in Part II of the Charter are for other publicbodies and institutions. The Scottish Executive would expect that duerecognition would be given to these objectives and principles at these levels.

The Council of Europe’sCommittee of Experts are due to report soon on the UK’s recordon the charter. Following this the Executive will write to local authorities,public bodies and other institutions reminding them of the UK’s treatyobligations with regard to Scots and Gaelic.

Question reference: S2W-05350

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 5 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route will have a hard shoulder and, if not, how much it would cost to add one.

The Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route is being designed as a dual 2 lane, all purposecarriageway. In normal circumstances, this type of road does not have a hardshoulder. However, unlike significant stretches of the A90 dual carriagewaysouth of Aberdeen, the new by-pass road, it will have a 1m wide marginalstrip adjacent to the nearside running lanes. The costs of adding a hardshoulderhave not been explored.

Question reference: S2W-05598

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 29 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive when it now expects its Environment and Rural Affairs Department to publish its research organisation assessment exercise for 2003 and what action it will take in light of the exercise's recommendations.

The reports of theindividual research organisations are confidential, as are equivalent reportsfor other research organisations, although a summary of the outcomes andconclusions will be contained within the SEERAD Agricultural and Biological ResearchStrategy 1999-2003 Fourth Annual Report to be published shortly.

Recommendations arising fromthe research organisation assessment exercise (ROAE) will be taken forwardwithin the review of the research strategy for agricultural biological and relatedresearch, and in discussion with relevant stakeholders.

The department hopes to bein a position to publish its new research strategy in the spring along with afuller report on the process and outcomes from the ROAE.

Question reference: S2W-05566

Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 28 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients over 65 are currently being treated for dementia and how much treatment per patient costs in each NHS board and what the reasons are for any differences.