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-39937

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 25 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what mandatory independent external audit or inspection is carried out of the number of older people recorded on the delayed discharge database.

Figures on Delayed Discharges in Scotland are published as National Statistics and therefore comply with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. This means they are produced entirely independently of Ministers and go through rigorous quality assurance and validation before they are published. The UK Statistics Authority is about to begin an assessment of the Delayed Discharge publication produced by ISD Scotland and will report any recommendations in Summer 2011.

Question reference: S3W-39938

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 25 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2011

Question reference: S3W-39624

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will update the Local Alcohol Profiles produced in 2004-05 in order to assist public health specialists on licensing boards in determining the case for reduced availability of alcohol on the grounds of public health interest.

Local Alcohol Profiles were produced by ISD in both 2004 and 2006. These were replaced with a Local Drug and Alcohol Information publication which was first published in 2008 and subsequently in 2010. This publication incorporated information previously included in the Local Alcohol Profiles and Corporate Action Plan Information Packs and provides links to relevant local level information and also additional analysis of some data at local level.

Additionally, ISD publishes Alcohol Statistics Scotland biennially, with the most recent version being published in February 2011. This publication provides a wide range of statistics on alcohol with information shown at a local level where possible. All alcohol-related publications are available at http://www.alcoholinformation.isdscotland.org/alcohol_misuse/1407.html.

ISD Substance Misuse Programme is currently consulting with stakeholders to seek views on existing products and services - including frequency, format and content of publications - and will be producing an action plan to take forward any identified changes.

Question reference: S3W-39627

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 10 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive when it last met stakeholders to discuss the social responsibility levy on alcohol; which stakeholders attended, and what the outcome was.

The Social Responsibility Levy Working Group last met on 24 June 2010. Representatives of the Scottish Retail Consortium, individual retailers and producers, Scottish Grocers Federation, Scottish Licensed Trade Association, Scottish Beer and Pub Association and BII attended. Apologies were received from other bodies. Further meetings with individual stakeholders were held subsequently.

These meetings informed the proposals included in the Alcohol etc (Scotland) Act 2010 and the current consultation issued on 8 November 2010 entitled, Initial Consultation on Social Responsibility Levy.

Question reference: S3W-39626

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 14 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 10 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to support councillors facing the threat of legal action when proposing to curtail availability of alcohol on the grounds of public health interest.

The public health objective is still a new concept and the government is encouraging those with an interest in public health to discuss with licensing boards what information they can provide but also enter into a dialogue over how such evidence should be presented to enable licensing board decisions to be made from an informed and evidenced standpoint.

Licensing board decisions made on the grounds of protecting and improving public health are no more prone to appeal than those based on preventing crime and disorder. To minimise such risks licensing boards must ensure that the necessary decision making procedures are followed and that decisions are consistent with the licensing board''s policy statement or reflect the views presented at a board hearing.

Question reference: S3W-39927

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how it distributed the £9 million made available to support local delivery of the smoking prevention action plan, broken down by (a) NHS board, (b) year and (c) activity.

£4.5 million was made available to support NHS boards over three years (2008-09 to 2010-11) to support local delivery of the smoking prevention action plan, the key aim of which is to dissuade children and young people from smoking.

A similar amount of £4.5 million was allocated to local authorities to enable them to step up enforcement activity.

Smoking Prevention Distribution to NHS Boards, Allocation Per Annum from 2008-09 to 2010-11

NHS Board	£
Ayrshire and Arran	115,400
Borders	40,800
Dumfries and Galloway	53,800
Fife	104,100
Forth Valley	82,900
Grampian	135,400
Greater Glasgow	344,300
Highland	98,200
Lanarkshire	157,800
Lothian	196,900
Orkney	15,800
Shetland	16,300
Tayside	118,400
Western Isles	19,900
Total	1,500,000

Question reference: S3W-39929

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what systems there are for NHS boards to report on how they have distributed the funding to support local delivery of the smoking prevention action plan.

NHS boards are held accountable for all their actions within the broader accountability framework which is in place to monitor and assess their performance, including local delivery plans and annual reviews held with ministers. In addition, there is regular and ongoing dialogue with tobacco programme leads within NHS boards regarding tobacco programme delivery, including in relation to prevention.

Question reference: S3W-39869

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken to apply real (a) wages and (b) alcohol prices to the Sheffield Alcohol Pricing Model against outcome data for the period 2005-06 to 2009-10.

The updated Sheffield Alcohol Pricing Model for Scotland (published in April 2010) is based on actual 2008-09 price distribution data of off-trade alcohol in Scotland. Scottish survey consumption and off-sales price distribution data is not collated on an annual basis making it impossible to construct a robust time-series from 2005-06 to 2009-10. Survey consumption estimates are required to estimate the potential impact of any changes in price on health and other outcomes.

The model does not extend to an analysis of the effect of price changes to real wages as the level of detail for wage data which would be required for the Sheffield model (at the individual level) is not available.

Question reference: S3W-39871

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many head injuries as a result of skiing or snowboarding accidents were reported in 2009-10.

Question reference: S3W-39872

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what changes it has made to the approach to child heath development since the publication of Fair Society, Health Lives: The Marmot Review in February 2010.

The Marmot report was based on a review for the Department of Health on health inequalities in England but the Scottish Government is also committed to giving children in Scotland the best possible start in life and has identified, and is already tackling in Scotland, many of the issues raised in the Marmot Review.

The Early Years Framework was published in December 2008, in recognition of the key importance of the early years of life in determining life chances and outcomes, including health outcomes. Along with Equally Well and Achieving our Potential it forms part of a coherent approach to addressing disadvantage and breaking the intergenerational cycles of inequalities.

The Early Years Framework highlights the importance of all national and local agencies, the third sector and independent sector working together to deliver improved outcomes for our children.

In June 2010, we published the review of Equally Well, the report of the Scottish Task Force on Health Inequalities. This review reported on the implementation of Equally Well, the Early Years Framework and Achieving our Potential - the Government''s framework for tackling poverty. In relation to child health development the review recommended that an early years pathfinder approach should be established to promote the integration of front-line services, taking a whole-systems approach to implement rapid change in a community planning partnership area. The review also stressed the importance of NHS boards ensuring the provision of healthcare and health improvement services to looked after children and agreed to endorse the Looked After Children and Young People Strategic Implementation Group programme of work to build greater cooperation between partners and a shared sense of responsibility for the outcomes of looked after children. In addition, the review agreed on the importance of developing the focus on health and wellbeing in the Curriculum for Excellence, and also noted the importance of literacy and numeracy skills in increasing young people''s long-term prospects.

Within the measurement framework for the Healthcare Quality Strategy, a set of high-level outcome indicators is being developed to provide evidence of progress towards the three over-arching Quality Ambitions. Work is underway to include in this set an indicator relating to Early Years.

In January this year we launched A New Look at Hall 4 - The Early Years “ Good Health for Every Child which recommends that: all children should have a Named Person; all children should have a Health Plan Indicator “ Core or Additional “ by the age of six months; a 24-30 month review should be carried out for all children; and health improvement materials should be promoted to provide parents/carers with appropriate and tailored information.

We also launched a refreshed Framework for Maternity Care together with outcome focused evidence into action guidance for NHS boards in January this year. These are in line with the recommendation in the Marmot review that universal services should be appropriate and proportionate so as to address the social gradient nature of antenatal health inequalities and the emphasis on the importance of improving access to healthcare amongst those groups who most need it but often benefit least from it.

At the same time, the Maternal and Infant Nutrition Framework was also launched which has an emphasis on maternal nutrition for the first time and the importance of good nutrition in providing the best start in life.