- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 July 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Adam Ingram on 28 July 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive, following the publication of Getting it Right for Every Child in Kinship and Foster Care, whether it has agreed with COSLA that fostering allowances should be paid to kinship carers in any period between now and the completion of the assessment and approval process.
Answer
Where a “looked after” child is already living with a kinship carer and the local authority is satisfied that its approval process and the current arrangements for the child are satisfactory, the authority may already be in a position to pay allowances equivalent to those paid to foster carers. This is a decision for each local authority.
The Getting it Right for Every Child in Kinship and Foster Care reference group will be producing guidance on the assessment and approval process for kinship carers of “looked after” children in the late summer.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 July 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 24 July 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what processes exist to support NHS boards in funding treatments for ultra-orphan disease and whether this includes a risk-sharing scheme for funding.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-13894 on 16 June 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 July 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 24 July 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-13709 by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 June 2008, whether the (a) 5,692 Code 50 outpatients, (b) 680 Code 59 outpatients, (c) 129 Code 50 in-patients and (d) 1,622 Code 59 in-patients had their “clock” stopped or reset to zero on transfer and whether each patient or their GP/referrer was advised of both the decision to transfer and the action in respect of the patient’s “clock”.
Answer
Patients on a waiting list who are transferred within the same NHS board to another specialty (removal reason code 50) or transferred to another NHS Board area (removal reason code 59) do not have their "waiting time clock" stopped or reset to zero.
We expect NHS boards to ensure that all patients are seen and treated within current waiting time standards. Where a patient is required to be transferred to another hospital, we would expect the patient to participate in any decision about their hospital care.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 27 June 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 24 July 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive which hospitals have registered cases of clostridium difficile above predicted numbers in each month since January 2008.
Answer
All data on cases of Clostridium difficile Associated Disease (CDAD) are published by NHS board. The latest quarterly report for the period January 2008 - March 2008 was published on 2 July 2008 and is available at:
http://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/ewr/article.aspx.
The Scottish Government also wrote to all NHS boards on 18 June to ask them to review their Clostridium difficile data by hospital over the previous six months and to report their findings back to Health Protection Scotland by the end of July. As a result of this exercise we shall examine how the surveillance systems can be improved. I will update members if anything arises from that exercise.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 26 June 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 24 July 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many children were in prisons in each quarter of 2007 and the first quarter of 2008.
Answer
I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:
Provisional information on the number of children (aged over 14 and under 16) who were held in a Scottish Prison or Young Offenders Institution under Unruly Certificate arrangements in each quarter of 2007 is given in the following table:
| Time Period of Interest | Number of under 16’s |
| Quarter 1: 01-01-2007 – 31-03-2007 | 4 |
| Quarter 2: 01-04-2007 – 30-06-2007 | 5 |
| Quarter 3: 01-07-2007 – 30-09-2007 | 6 |
| Quarter 4: 01-10-2007 – 31-12-2007 | 1 |
No child under 14 years was held in Scottish prisons during 2007.
Information for the first quarter of 2008 will not be available until after the publication of the final 2007-08 data in the Prison Statistics Scotland 2007-08 Bulletin on 29 August 2008.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 July 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 23 July 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what funding has been made available to each local authority for (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10 and (c) 2010-11.
Answer
The information requested is set out in the Scottish Government’s Finance Circular 1-2008, which details the Local Government Finance Settlements covering the period 2008-11. A copy of this circular is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Reference Centre (Bib. number 45732).
The allocations for 2009-10 and 2010-11 are currently provisional and will be subject to Parliamentary approval when the Local Government Finance (Scotland) Orders 2009 and 2010 are presented to Parliament early in 2009 and 2010 respectively.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 27 June 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 23 July 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in light of the new scales for dental charges in England and Wales introduced on 1 April 2008 whereby an individual pays a standard fee of £16.20, £44.60 or £198 for three levels of treatment, it will review the maximum charge of 80% of up to £348 (£278.40) in Scotland.
Answer
New contractual arrangements for the provision of NHS dental services have been introduced in England and Wales. Following a consultation in 2003, a decision was taken by the previous administration to retain item of service fees in Scotland, ie a fee for each item of treatment undertaken. The differences in the arrangements for NHS dental services in England and Wales and those in Scotland have resulted in the different patient charging systems which now exist and the disparity in the maximum patient charge. There are no current plans to review the maximum patient charge for a single course of NHS dental treatment in Scotland.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 July 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 22 July 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance exists to help NHS boards identify ultra-orphan disease and provide adequate and effective care for patients who have been diagnosed with such disease.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-13896 on 16 June 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 July 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 22 July 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what provision it has made to support access to treatment for patients with ultra-orphan disease.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-13894 on 16 June 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 July 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 22 July 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are some very rare diseases where risk sharing in the provision of drug treatment could benefit from a UK-wide scheme and whether it has considered or will consider initiating discussions to this end.
Answer
Arrangements are in place in Scotland to allow financial risk sharing for the provision of drug treatment for very rare diseases. There are no plans to introduce a UK-wide scheme.
