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-25022

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 April 2006
Current Status: Answered by George Lyon on 24 April 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the projected percentage increase is for the population aged 65 and over in (a) Scotland and (b) each local authority area between (i) 2004 and 2010 and (ii) 2004 and 2014.

The projected percentage changesin the population aged 65 and over for Scotland and for each local authority area for 2004-10 and2004-14 are shown in the following table:

	2004-10	2004-14
Scotland	7.0	17.4
Aberdeen City	0.6	8.3
Aberdeenshire	18.7	39.8
Angus	12.6	27.0
Argyll and Bute	10.7	22.2
Clackmannanshire	14.6	31.3
Dumfries and Galloway	13.9	26.8
Dundee City	-2.0	2.0
East Ayrshire	7.9	18.8
East Dunbartonshire	10.4	21.0
East Lothian	9.2	20.1
East Renfrewshire	9.9	21.7
Edinburgh, City of	-0.1	6.9
Eilean Siar	5.0	14.4
Falkirk	8.3	19.4
Fife	10.5	23.9
Glasgow City	-8.9	-9.1
Highland	14.5	29.4
Inverclyde	1.8	8.9
Midlothian	7.4	19.8
Moray	11.7	23.8
North Ayrshire	12.1	25.5
North Lanarkshire	8.7	18.9
Orkney Islands	18.7	33.8
Perth and Kinross	11.4	24.8
Renfrewshire	5.7	14.3
Scottish Borders	12.5	27.0
Shetland Islands	19.0	34.6
South Ayrshire	8.7	18.9
South Lanarkshire	9.9	20.5
Stirling	9.6	22.2
West Dunbartonshire	0.0	7.7
West Lothian	18.9	38.2

Question reference: S2W-25261

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 April 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 20 April 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive who Scotland’s full and alternate members of the Regional Chamber of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe will be for the two-year mandate which begins in May 2006.

Question reference: S2W-24189

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 23 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the implications for the public sector in Scotland of the decision by the House of Lords in the case of Matthews and others v Medway Towns and Fire Authority and others.

Question reference: S2O-09426

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 23 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total cost was to the Scottish Ambulance Service in 2005 of hiring of Ministry of Defence or Coastguard Service helicopters to undertake air ambulance missions (a) in the whole of Scotland and (b) originating from Orkney.

Question reference: S2W-24190

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 22 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what cost was incurred by the Scottish Ambulance Service to call out a Ministry of Defence helicopter to airlift a patient from Kirkwall to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary on 12 March 2006.

Question reference: S2O-09162

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 2 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many petitions it has received from Orkney opposing the proposed withdrawal of the Kirkwall-based BN Islander air ambulance; which particular areas of Orkney the petitions have come from, and how many signatures in total are on the petitions.

Question reference: S2W-22877

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 23 February 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many air ambulance flights originating in Orkney have been classified as “emergency” in each year since 1998.

Between 1998 and 2003, the Scottish Ambulance Service categorised its air ambulance flights into four sections – emergency, very urgent, urgent and planned. The criteria for these four categories were:

Emergency – 999 calls or doctors’ emergencies which require an aircraft to be activated as soon as possible.

Very urgent – Time for air ambulance to be with patient up to six hours.

Urgent – Time for air ambulance to be with patient up to nine hours.

Planned – This category applied when ordering doctors considered it necessary, because of the patient’s medical condition, that he/she was transported to hospital by air ambulance, but where it was not required to get the patient to hospital within the nine hour period. This category applied to most inter-hospital transfers.

In January 2004, the categories were reduced to two – emergency and planned. The criteria for these two categories are:

Emergency – Immediate threat to life or limb – a time factor can be agreed with the clinician ordering the air ambulance if they feel that is appropriate.

Planned – For all cases where there is a time factor agreed with the clinician ordering the air ambulance.

The following table shows the number of air ambulance flights from Orkney by case type in each calendar year since 1998.

Year	Emergency	Very Urgent	Urgent	Planned	Total
1998	76	97	70	46	289
1999	46	73	72	34	225
2000	59	97	92	49	297
2001	62	83	69	38	252
2002	85	99	92	70	346
2003	114	71	71	191	447
2004	101	-	-	276	377
2005	30	-	-	310	340

Of the 30 missions categorised as emergencies, 27 had a timescale which had been agreed with the requesting clinician. The ambulance service met the timescale in all but one of those cases – a performance of 96% against a target of 95%.

There have been fluctuations in the number of calls classified as “emergency” in the past eight years and over the last year the ambulance service has been trying to ensure that the definitions for ordering air ambulance services - across the whole of Scotland - are followed more consistently. A new guidance leaflet describing the ordering process is due to be issued to clinicians shortly.

Question reference: S2W-22879

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 23 February 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish the terms of any agreement or protocol between the Scottish Ambulance Service and the (a) Ministry of Defence or (b) Maritime and Coastguard Agency in respect of the use of helicopters to supplement the aircraft and helicopter resources of the Scottish Ambulance Service.

There is a protocol between the Scottish Ambulance Service and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for tasking MoD to carry out air ambulance missions. The MoD decides on the most appropriate response, one of which may be the deployment of the Coastguard. This is an operational matter for the ambulance service and MoD and it would be for those organisations to consider whether or not the protocol is published.

Question reference: S2W-22880

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 23 February 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the available capacity for shipping livestock from Orkney, in light of the decision by the Rural Payments Agency not to provide or support on-island facilities on Orkney for the procesing of cattle under the Older Cattle Disposal Scheme.

Question reference: S2W-22881

Asked by: Mr Jim Wallace, MSP for Orkney, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 17 February 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the animal welfare implications of the decision by the Rural Payments Agency not to provide or support on-island facilities on Orkney for the processing of cattle under the Older Cattle Disposal Scheme.