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-23930

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2002
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 22 March 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive which local authorities currently have strategies in place to offer help and advice to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.

The information requested is not held centrally. It is entirely up to local authorities if they wish to develop strategies to provide help and support to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. However, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) would be better placed to offer information regarding individual authorities.Jon Harris, Director of Policy and Legislation at COSLA has offered himself as a point of contact. His address is: COSLA, Rosebery House, 9 Haymarket Terrace, Edinburgh, EH12 5XZ.

Question reference: S1W-23921

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2002
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 22 March 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how many planning applications were (a) made and (b) approved in each local authority area in each of the past three years.

The information requested is given in the following table:

Unitary Authority	1998-99Total Applications Received	Total Applications Granted	1999-2000Total Applications Received	TotalApplications Granted	2000-01Total Applications Received	TotalApplications Granted
Aberdeen City	2,303	1,997	2,142	1,890	2,060	1,767
Aberdeenshire	3,420	3,046	3,522	3,046	3,308	2,882
Angus	1,213	1,082	1,151	1,045	1,089	942
Argyll and Bute	1,519	1,271	1,502	1,295	1,497	1,209
Clackmannanshire	381	326	381	343	323	293
Dumfries and Galloway	1,532	1,692	1,650	1,515	1,703	1,527
Dundee City	812	670	871	766	768	658
East Ayrshire	836	738	846	741	799	734
East Dunbartonshire	852	766	814	718	860	750
East Lothian	559	452	1,103	1,084	1,229	952
East Renfrewshire	683	623	678	653	689	587
Edinburgh	3,747	2,919	4,442	3,547	4,233	3,263
Falkirk	951	745	834	823	944	814
Fife	3,492	3,123	3,564	2,988	3,265	2,908
Glasgow City	3,039	2,595	3,311	2,692	3,371	2,689
Highland	3,911	3,270	4,035	3,465	3,888	3,282
Inverclyde	494	446	492	466	448	395
Midlothian	643	578	766	616	738	656
Moray	974	926	1,113	1,001	994	963
North Ayrshire	825	720	889	751	790	759
North Lanarkshire	1,610	1,456	1,531	1,393	1,393	1,232
Orkney	402	373	409	388	379	334
Perth and Kinross	1,749	1,471	1,855	1,553	1,834	1,639
Renfrewshire	1,119	872	1,015	853	1,000	851
Scottish Borders	1,460	1,391	1,437	1,389	1,536	1,325
Shetland	380	371	376	323	407	341
South Ayrshire	1,268	1090	1,298	1,079	1,251	1,056
South Lanarkshire	1,834	1,558	1,873	1,603	1,691	1,467
Stirling	979	845	1036	850	885	773
West Dunbartonshire	485	414	489	443	461	382
West Lothian	1,021	929	1,103	897	1,098	970
Western Isles	430	420	341	306	363	310
Scotland	44,923	39,175	46,869	40,522	45,294	38,710

Note:The figures are collected for the six month periods from April to September and October to March for each financial year. Figures for East Lothian in the first half of 1998-99 were not available. The relevant annual figures in the table for this council are therefore underreported.

Question reference: S1W-23927

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2002
Current Status: Answered by Richard Simpson on 22 March 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have died as a direct result of ecstasy consumption in each of the past three years.

Question reference: S1W-23919

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2002
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 22 March 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of mothers currently continue to breastfeed at six weeks in each NHS board area.

Centrally held figures are not available for all NHS board areas. The following table, which is compiled by ISD and is drawn from the child surveillance pre-school system, shows the percentage of mothers breastfeeding at the six- to-eight week review point for those boards participating:

NHS Board	Breastfeeding %
Ayrshire and Arran	31.7
Borders	45
Argyll and Clyde	31.5
Fife	34.4
Greater Glasgow	33.4
Lanarkshire	24.5
Lothian	46.9
Tayside	39.1
Forth Valley	32.2

Notes:1. Missing and unknown data have been excluded.2. Figures are for exclusively breastfed and both breast and formula milk fed.

Question reference: S1W-23928

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2002
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 22 March 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients have been prescribed methadone in each health board area in each of the past three years.

Question reference: S1W-23925

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2002
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 22 March 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how many successful claims were made against the insurers of each health board in each of the past three years.

Health boards and NHS trusts do not carry commercial insurance for clinical negligence and most areas of public and employer liability. Cover for these is provided through the departmentally administered Clinical Negligence and Other Risks Indemnity Scheme (CNORIS).Where individual health bodies choose to carry insurance for other risks not covered by CNORIS, neither details of these policies nor any history of claims lodged are held centrally.

Question reference: S1W-23924

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 08 March 2002
Current Status: Answered by Mary Mulligan on 22 March 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how many audiologists trained in (a) the diagnosis of a patient's suitability for digital hearing aids and (b) the fitting of such aids there were in each health board area at 31 March and 30 September in each of the past three years.

Information on the total number of qualified audiologists working in NHSScotland is not held centrally, but will be held by local NHS management. Contact details for NHS management personnel are available on: www.show.scot.nhs.uk.The supplier generally undertakes training on the fitting of digital hearing aids.I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-23079 on 13 March 2002, which provides information on the number of medical staff in the specialty of audiological medicine in the last three years for which information is available.

Question reference: S1W-23086

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 February 2002
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 13 March 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive what the annual salary was of each local authority chief executive in each of the past three financial years.

Question reference: S1W-23091

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 February 2002
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 13 March 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of its waste plastic was sent for recycling in each year since 1998-99.

The Scottish Executive has introduced a system for collecting and recycling plastic cups at Victoria Quay. There are plans to extend the system of recycling plastic, including plastic cups, to other major occupancy buildings. In 2000-01 the Scottish Executive recycled 40% of general waste. We expect to achieve our recycling target of 50% recycled waste for 2001-02. We do not hold specific recycling information for waste plastic.

Question reference: S1W-23079

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 February 2002
Current Status: Answered by Mary Mulligan on 13 March 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how many trained audiologists there were in each health board area at 31 March and 30 September in each of the past three years.

Information on the number of trained medical staff employed in NHSScotland is collected annually by ISD Scotland at 30 September only. The following table shows the number of medical staff working in the specialty of audiological medicine in the last three years for which information is available.Audiological Medicine staff directly employed by NHSScotlandHeadcount at 30 September by Health Board

	Consultant			Associate Specialist
	1998	1999	2000	1998	1999	2000
Fife	-	-	-	1	1	1
Tayside	-	-	1	-	-	-