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: S1W-07069

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 May 2000
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 26 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive, for each year since the national lottery started, how much was paid by each of the lottery distributing bodies (a) in grants to projects or groups in Scotland; (b) for the administration of the lottery funds in Scotland; (c) to consultants commissioned by the lottery administration, and (d) to consultants by applicants for lottery funds.

Question reference: S1W-09910

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 15 September 2000
Current Status: Answered by Iain Gray on 10 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to increase the capital limits which apply before long-term patients or their families have to pay towards their care.

Question reference: S1W-09883

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 15 September 2000
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 9 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive, what plans, in addition to the "national audit of collections" mentioned in the National Cultural Strategy document, it has to help industrial heritage museums to remain open and develop.

Question reference: S1W-09880

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 15 September 2000
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 9 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to its National Cultural Strategy, what its policy is regarding painting and sculpture.

Question reference: S1W-09882

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 15 September 2000
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 9 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what the numbers are of (a) community psychiatric nurses; (b) district nurses, and (c) health visitors in each health board area, what the numbers were in each of the past five years and whether it plans to increase these numbers.

The Scottish Executive is committed to the promotion of better health and to reducing the need for hospital admissions. To support this we have recently announced funding for the current year onwards for the salary and training for 210 additional specialist nursing posts, including 50 district nursing posts and 50 community psychiatric nursing posts.

The tables below show the information available centrally on numbers of (a) community psychiatric nurses - Table 1, (b) district nurses - Table 2, and (c) health visitors - Table 3.

Table 1

Community Psychiatric Nurses employed in the NHS in Scotland by Health Board

Headcount: 30 September

	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999^p
Scotland	439	468	507	523	624
Argyll and Clyde	35	28	53	58	60
Ayrshire and Arran	58	71	77	88	103
Borders	13	17	16	14	17
Dumfries and Galloway	31	31	36	32	37
Fife	33	33	22	21	29
Forth Valley	31	33	39	45	53
Grampian	44	52	58	57	61
Greater Glasgow	36	35	34	31	33
Highland	30	40	40	41	47
Lanarkshire	29	27	27	25	80
Lothian	50	51	42	45	42
Orkney	-	1	1	1	1
Shetland	3	3	3	4	5
Tayside	40	40	52	55	51
Western Isles	6	6	7	6	5

Source: National Manpower Statistics from payroll

ISD Scotland

Pprovisional

Notes:

1. This category is incompletely recorded.

Table 2

District Nurses Employed in the NHS in Scotland by Health Board

Headcount: at 30 September

	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999^p
Scotland	2,174	2,242	2,271	2,321	2,457
Argyll and Clyde	198	209	208	205	211
Ayrshire and Arran	184	177	180	189	196
Borders	12	13	11	10	12
Dumfries and Galloway	65	66	64	72	84
Fife	150	156	118	128	178
Forth Valley	138	147	157	159	176
Grampian	193	228	227	216	211
Greater Glasgow	437	426	436	433	432
Highland	73	73	73	87	85
Lanarkshire	179	177	174	167	213
Lothian	336	352	367	378	393
Orkney	21	18	19	19	18
Shetland	10	8	9	12	11
Tayside	177	191	227	246	237
CSA	1	1	1		-

Source: National Manpower Statistics from payroll

ISD Scotland

P provisional

Table 3

Health Visitors employed in the NHS in Scotland

Headcount: at 30 September

		1995		1996		1997	1998			1999^P
Scotland	1,604		1,605		1,648			1,680	1,698
Argyll and Clyde	136		135		131			136	128
Ayrshire and Arran	101		102		104			107	108
Borders	25		25		24			24	23
Dumfries and Galloway	34		36		39			42	36
Fife	121		121		104			105	130
Forth Valley	86		89		89			91	95
Grampian	218		204		212			204	205
Greater Glasgow	287		289		314			313	312
Highland	54		52		49			57	58
Lanarkshire	166		171		178			185	201
Lothian	232		230		231			239	240
Orkney	5		4		4			5	5
Shetland	7		6		5			5	5
Tayside	124		132		151			155	137
CSA	8		9		13			12	15

Source: National Manpower Statistics from payroll

ISD Scotland

P provisional

Question reference: S1W-09881

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 15 September 2000
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 9 October 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to its Natural Cultural Strategy, what its policy is regarding community arts.

Question reference: S1F-00578

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 02 October 2000
Current Status: Answered by Donald Dewar on 5 October 2000

To ask the First Minister what progress is being made towards meeting its commitment to reduce primary one, two and three class si'es to 30 or less by August 2001.

Question reference: S1W-09919

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 15 September 2000
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 29 September 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what its estimate is of the total cost of the proposed Scottish Criminal Records Office police checks on paid and voluntary youth workers in the first year of operation and the subsequent two years.

Part V of the Police Act 1997 provides for extended access to criminal record checks. Different levels of checks will be available with more detailed checks being provided for positions which involve regularly caring for, training, supervising or being in sole charge of persons aged under 18. There will be a range of positions to which this definition may apply including certain youth workers. It is not possible at this stage to identify what the cost of checks for youth workers will be but the average cost of checks is currently estimated to be within the range of £10-15.

Question reference: S1W-09912

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 15 September 2000
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 29 September 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will encourage and support local authorities to develop services which help elderly, disabled or unemployed people to apply for the full benefits to which they are entitled.

Question reference: S1W-02116

Asked by: Donald Gorrie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 22 October 1999
Current Status: Answered by Sam Galbraith on 28 September 2000

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to clarify parent's rights to withdraw their children from school and educate them at home and councils' interpretation of sections 30 and 35(i) of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980.

We have accepted that guidance in this area would be helpful and the Standards in Scotland's Schools etc. Act 2000 which comes into force later this year includes provision to issue statutory guidance on the circumstances in which parents may choose to educate their children at home. My officials are currently consulting education authorities and home education organisations on the areas that should be covered and we plan to issue draft guidance for consultation by the end of the year.