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-05247

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Frank McAveety on 15 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the rules governing the consideration of applications to sportscotland for capital funding under the Lottery Fund have altered and, if so, when such alteration was made; whether the maximum capital limit for any single application under the sports facilities programme has been, or will be, altered under such rules and, if so, what the alterations were; what representations the Executive has made to Her Majesty's Government in connection with any such change, and whether such representations will be made public.

Question reference: S2W-05303

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 15 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, in the light of reports in The Herald on 2 and 3 January 2003 that nearly one third of its suppliers are not paid within its target period of 30 days, what the precise reasons are for this; what steps it has taken, and what further steps it will take, to address this situation; what estimate it has made of the impact of late payments of these bills on businesses in Scotland, and whether any late payments have resulted in interest being added onto such unpaid bills and, if so, at what rate and in what proportion of cases.

Irecognise the importance to business of prompt payment of invoices. This is whyour policy is to aim for payment within 30 days. The Scottish Executive’s 2002-03 accounts reported that 68.5% of invoices were paid within thetarget period that year. This reflected difficulties some staff had in makingpayments following the introduction of a new computerised financial andaccounting system. The Executive acted promptly to deal with the difficulties,and continues to take specific action when particular problems arise. As theaccounts record, performance had improved to almost 80% by March 2003, and hassince improved further, with over 87% of invoices paid within 30 days inDecember, very similar to the average performance in 2001-02. I am keen toimprove the performance even more.

It is not possible to assessaccurately the impact of delays on business, because of the variability in thenature of the businesses, and the different delays that might be encountered.No late payments resulted in interest being added to unpaid bills.

Question reference: S2W-05248

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by George Reid on 14 January 2004

To ask the Presiding Officer whether members of the Holyrood Progress Group will offer to give evidence to the Holyrood Inquiry and whether non-MSP members of the group will provide a statement or precognition of their evidence to the Holyrood Inquiry.

Question reference: S2W-05307

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 14 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-919 on 1 August 2003, by Allan Wilson and S2W-1693 by Ross Finnie on 1 and 26 August 2003, whether it will reconsider its decision not to publish the cabinet papers and other documents requested.

Question reference: S2W-05308

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 14 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish the civil service advice to ministers in respect of the relocation of Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), with particular reference to the choice of Inverness as the location for the new headquarters for SNH and the input of SNH and its consultants in connection with this matter.

The advice given to ministersis exempt from disclosure under Part 2 of the Code of Practice on Access to Scottish Executive Information (Internal discussion and advice). This is in line with thelong standing convention that it is in the public interest to maintain theconfidentiality of exchanges between officials and ministers concerning policyadvice and to protect the processes by which government reaches a collectiveview.

Question reference: S2W-04900

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 13 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many beds are assigned to paediatric services in each NHS board area, broken down by hospital and detailing any specialisms in paediatric medicine assigned to those beds.

Information on averageavailable staffed medical and surgical paediatric beds for the year ending 31 March 2003 isshown in Table 1.

The information forspecialisms in paediatric medicine assigned to those beds is not heldcentrally.

Table 1: NHSiS - Average AvailableStaffed Beds; by Health Board Area and Location: Year Ending 31 March 2003 (Provisional)

Area	Medical Paediatrics	Surgical Paediatrics
Scotland	738	125
Argyll and Clyde	59	-
Inverclyde Royal Hospital Royal Alexandra Hospital Vale of Leven District General Hospital	19	-
	34	-
	6	-
Ayrshire and Arran	62	-
Ayrshire Central Hospital Crosshouse Hospital The Ayr Hospital	25	-
	26	-
	11	-
Borders	17	-
Borders General Hospital	17	-
Dumfries and Galloway	14	8
Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary	14	8
Fife	48	2
Forth Park Hospital	20	-
Victoria Hospital	28	2
Forth Valley	48	-
Falkirk and District Royal Infirmary	14	-
Stirling Royal Infirmary	34	-
Grampian	78	18
Aberdeen Maternity Hospital	38	-
Dr Gray's Hospital	7	4
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital	33	13
Greater Glasgow	142	71
Queen Mother's Hospital	28	-
Royal Hospital for Sick Children	64	71
Southern General Hospital	16	-
The Princess Royal Maternity Unit	34	-
Highland	33	-
Raigmore Hospital	33	-
Lanarkshire	63	-
Monklands Hospital	6	-
Wishaw General Hospital	58	-
Lothian	105	18
New Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh	44	-
Royal Hospital for Sick Children	36	18
St John's Hospital At Howden	25	-
Tayside	69	8
Ninewells Hospital	58	8
Perth Royal Infirmary	11	-
Western Isles	1	-
Western Isles Hospital	1	-

Source: ISDScotland [Form ISD(S)1.

Reference:ISD/ACIG/IR2003-01684.

Date:22-12-03.

Question reference: S2W-04915

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by George Reid on 13 January 2004

To ask the Presiding Officer what budget is available to meet the cost of the opening of the new Parliament building, showing costs of transport, security, hospitality and other components; how these costs were calculated, and what steps the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body will take to avoid any unnecessary expense.

No decision has been madeyet on the nature of the opening ceremony and therefore no specific budget hasbeen allocated for this purpose. The Clerk/Chief Executive stated in evidencehe gave to the Finance Committee on Tuesday 25 November that any fundingrequired would be met from the contingency budget for 2004-05. The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body would always seek to avoid any unnecessaryexpense.

Question reference: S2W-04898

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 13 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive which hospitals in each NHS board area have an (a) general paediatric and (b) specialist paediatric (i) department or (ii) unit, showing the specialism undertaken.

The Royal Hospital forSick Children Edinburgh, the Royal Hospital for Sick Children Glasgow and the Royal AberdeenChildren’s Hospital provide specialist services on a regional and nationalbasis whilst providing a general paediatric service to their local population.NHS board areas in Scotland that have a general paediatric unit are listed intable 1.

Table 1: General PaediatricMedical Units by NHS Board Area and Hospital¹

Area	Hospital
Argyll and Clyde	Inverclyde Royal Hospital Royal Alexandra Hospital Vale of Leven District General Hospital
Ayrshire and Arran	Ayrshire Central Hospital Crosshouse Hospital The Ayr Hospital
Borders	Borders General Hospital
Dumfries and Galloway	Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary
Fife	Forth Park Hospital Victoria Hospital
Forth Valley	Falkirk and District Royal Infirmary Stirling Royal Infirmary
Grampian	Aberdeen Maternity Hospital Dr Gray’s Hospital Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital
Greater Glasgow	Queen Mother’s Hospital Royal Hospital for Sick Children Southern General Hospital The Princess Royal Maternity Unit
Lanarkshire	Monklands Hospital Wishaw General Hospital
Lothian	New Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh Royal Hospital for Sick Children St John’s Hospital At Howden
Tayside	Ninewells Hospital Perth Royal Infirmary
Western Isles	Western Isles Hospital

Note:

1. As at March 2003.

Question reference: S2W-04897

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 13 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive which hospitals in each NHS board area are exclusively involved in paediatric medicine.

Question reference: S2W-04901

Asked by: Fergus Ewing, MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 13 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what ongoing training is available to NHS staff in hospitals in each NHS board area in respect of paediatric intensive care.