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: S3W-23233

Asked by: Nicol Stephen, MSP for Aberdeen South, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 24 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 8 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the target date is for the opening of the new 50-metre swimming pool in Aberdeen.

This is a matter for Aberdeen City Council and its partners.

A business plan has been received and comments obtained internally on its robustness. It is expected that a reply will be issued shortly and Aberdeen City Council encouraged to now engage formally with sportscotland through the normal process for applying for funds to support the development of facilities. A member of the sportscotland facilities team sits on the Steering Group overseeing the project.

Question reference: S3W-23232

Asked by: Nicol Stephen, MSP for Aberdeen South, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 24 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 5 May 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the number of deaths from chronic liver disease and liver cirrhosis since 1950, broken down by NHS board.

The numbers of deaths from various causes, broken down by NHS board, are published annually by the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS). Preliminary figures for 2008 are available from Table P6 of Births Marriages and Deaths - Preliminary Annual Figures:

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/publications-and-data/preliminary-return/2008-preliminary-return.html.

These figures are provisional, pending the publication of the Registrar General''s Annual Report for 2008, which is scheduled to appear in August 2009.

For each year from 2001 to 2007 figures are given in Table 6.3 of the relevant edition of the Vital Events Reference Tables:

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/publications-and-data/vital-events/index.html.

Prior to 2001 the corresponding figures for each of a number of earlier years were published in the relevant editions of the Annual Report of the Registrar General for Scotland. Those figures for 1996 to 2000 are available online:

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/publications-and-data/annual-report-publications/index.html.

Figures are not available by health board before 1974.

For ease of reference, and because of the size of the table showing deaths from liver disease by health board from 1974-2008, a copy of this table has been deposited in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 47936).

Question reference: S3W-22624

Asked by: Nicol Stephen, MSP for Aberdeen South, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 April 2009
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 23 April 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to support the oil industry in the north east.

Scottish Enterprise, through its energy team, and Scottish Development International provide specific business support and development activity and work in partnership with others including local authorities and the Scottish Government. They offer support in a number of different ways including supply chain development and trade missions.

Through a number of overseas visits, including my visits to Canada, the United States, Norway, Russia and Brussels, we have promoted the skills, knowledge and experience of the Scottish oil and gas industry to current and potential investors and also supported visits to Aberdeen such as that of President Calderon of Mexico.

Scottish Enterprise also keeps in close contact with the industry to assess current conditions and to offer additional help where possible. They are currently developing a number of initiatives to try and help counter the downturn. These include an advanced initiative for the development of an offshore decommissioning supply chain and increased access to specialist support.

We continue to support the work of the Oil and Gas Academy in Aberdeen and are committed to working with them and Cogent to ensure that we have a skills and qualifications system which is responsive to the needs of their employers.

Despite current difficulties, we are confident in the long-term future of the industry.

Question reference: S3W-22559

Asked by: Nicol Stephen, MSP for Aberdeen South, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 April 2009
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Executive what charities, including social enterprises, it funds (a) entirely or (b) in part and how much funding is provided to each, broken down by parliamentary constituency.

Question reference: S3O-06454

Asked by: Nicol Stephen, MSP for Aberdeen South, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 March 2009
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 26 March 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made on refinancing the Aberdeen 3Rs school project to allow building work on the affected schools to restart.

Question reference: S3O-05860

Asked by: Nicol Stephen, MSP for Aberdeen South, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Linda Fabiani on 5 February 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what support it is providing to Scottish charities that are assisting the humanitarian response to the situation in Gaza.

Question reference: S3O-05446

Asked by: Nicol Stephen, MSP for Aberdeen South, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 8 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made in review of the local government funding formula.

Question reference: S3O-05144

Asked by: Nicol Stephen, MSP for Aberdeen South, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 4 December 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children are eligible for priority access to NHS dental services and how many are receiving these services.

Question reference: S3W-14094

Asked by: Nicol Stephen, MSP for Aberdeen South, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 23 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what consideration it has given to the report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Dementia, Always A Last Resort, and whether, in light of the report’s findings, it intends to consider changes to policies and guidelines in Scotland regarding the prescription of antipsychotic drugs to people with dementia in care homes.

In Scotland, a number of policies and guidance documents already contain advice and information about the prescription of antipsychotic drugs to people with dementia in care homes.

The Standards for Integrated Care Pathways for Mental Health published by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (NHS QIS) provide a nationally agreed benchmark on the best approaches to social and health care management for those with dementia (Bib. number 44374). These include a specific standard to ensure people with dementia receive care to match their needs and includes advice that antipsychotic medication should be reserved for severe aggression or psychotic symptoms where other approaches have failed or would be inappropriate. NHS QIS are supporting NHS boards to implement the standards which are being accredited from 2008 onwards.

SIGN Guideline 86 on the management of dementia includes a section about the use of antipsychotics which advises that these should be used with caution. The SIGN guideline was issued in 2006 and would be considered for review in 2009.

In addition, the Care Commission and the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland are working together to examine the issue of chemical restraint and consent in the administration of medicines in care homes for older people, through a series of focused inspections of care homes to be undertaken later this year. We will consider the findings when the organisations report.

Question reference: S3W-14098

Asked by: Nicol Stephen, MSP for Aberdeen South, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 23 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what consideration has been given to the risks posed by antipsychotic drugs to dementia patients.

As with all medicines, the safety of antipsychotic drugs is continually monitored by the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the Commission for Human Medicines.

The MHRA has advised that no antipsychotic drugs are currently licensed specifically for the treatment of the behavioural disturbances associated with dementia. However, medicines legislation allows for the use of unlicensed medicines if it is considered to be an appropriate treatment for an individual patient. In these circumstances the prescriber bears a greater degree of responsibility for the use of the medicine.

The current advice in relation to the use of antipsychotics agents in dementia is that issued by the Committee on Safety of Medicines on 9 March 2004. This advice warned prescribers that there is a clear risk of stroke in elderly people with dementia who are treated with risperidone or olanzapine (two of the atypical antipsychotics) and the magnitude of this risk is sufficient to outweigh any likely benefits in the treatment of behavioural disturbances associated with dementia. Furthermore, the risk is a cause for concern in any patient with a high baseline risk of stroke. This advice was issued to healthcare professionals and is reproduced in the British national formulary issued free to prescribers.

Subsequently in 2005, following completion of further studies, a Europe-wide review of this issue concluded that an increased risk of stroke in elderly people with dementia could not be excluded for other antipsychotics (atypical and conventional antipsychotics). As a result of this review the product information for all antipsychotics is being updated to include warnings about this risk.