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-19663

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 October 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 14 October 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting time was for an appointment to see a GP in each NHS board in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S2W-19658

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 October 2005
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 11 October 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been spent on legal aid in each year since 1997.

Question reference: S2W-19770

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 10 October 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 11 October 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive when the Minister for Justice will respond to my letter of 29 August 2005 regarding police attendance at incidents of drug overdosing.

Question reference: S2W-19168

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 September 2005
Current Status: Answered by George Lyon on 5 October 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-17919 by George Lyon on 9 September 2005, in how many deaths (a) heroin, (b) ecstasy, (c) amphetamines, (d) other illicit substances, (e) alcohol and (f) tobacco were recorded as causes in each year since 1997, broken down by (i) NHS board, (ii) local authority and (iii) parliamentary constituency.

Question reference: S2W-19305

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 September 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 3 October 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it holds centrally about waiting lists for diagnostic scanning services.

Our aim is to reduce waiting times for diagnostic services of all kinds, in line with the target announced recently to reduce diagnostic waits to nine weeks maximum by 2008. A variety of information on diagnostic waits is currently held by NHS boards and within the health department. The department is currently working with Information Services Division and NHSScotland to improve the collection and analysis of information about diagnostic waiting to enable boards to manage, report and improve performance against the Executive’s commitment.

Question reference: S2W-19410

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 September 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 29 September 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many offences of (a) perjury, (b) resisting arrest and (c) wasting police time and how many bail offences other than absconding and re-offending have been committed in each year since 1999, broken down by police force area.

The available information is given in the following tables.

Selected Crimes Recorded by the Police in Scotland, by Police Force Area, 1999

	Central	Dumfries and Galloway	Fife	Grampian	Lothian and Borders	Northern	Strathclyde	Tayside	Scotland
Public mischief (inc wasting police time)	61	29	73	71	137	47	1,883	276	2,577
Resisting arrest	269	144	309	433	914	244	3,113	338	5,764
Bail offences other than absconding/ re-offending	222	18	99	83	363	27	739	270	1,821
Perjury and subordination	3	1	0	1	4	2	20	0	31

Selected Crimes Recorded by the Police in Scotland, by Police Force Area, 2000

	Central	Dumfries and Galloway	Fife	Grampian	Lothian and Borders	Northern	Strathclyde	Tayside	Scotland
Public mischief (inc wasting police time)	61	28	78	63	162	42	319	243	996
Resisting arrest	277	116	333	393	963	239	3,169	320	5,810
Bail offences other than absconding/ re-offending	267	20	168	12	431	22	784	468	2,172
Perjury and subordination	3	1	0	1	2	5	3	2	17

Selected Crimes Recorded by the Police in Scotland, by Police Force Area, 2001

	Central	Dumfries and Galloway	Fife	Grampian	Lothian and Borders	Northern	Strathclyde	Tayside	Scotland
Public mischief (inc wasting police time)	80	21	71	59	151	50	286	201	919
Resisting arrest	391	119	349	455	1,069	307	3,625	253	6,568
Bail offences other than absconding/ re-offending	160	25	97	187	369	49	1,066	253	2,206
Perjury and subordination	1	0	2	4	4	3	3	1	18

Selected Crimes Recorded by the Police in Scotland, by Police Force Area, 2002

	Central	Dumfries and Galloway	Fife	Grampian	Lothian and Borders	Northern	Strathclyde	Tayside	Scotland
Public mischief (inc wasting police time)	88	23	89	89	151	47	283	249	1,019
Resisting arrest	396	172	399	471	1,024	302	3,775	308	6,847
Bail offences other than absconding/ re-offending	422	24	312	251	658	92	1,520	309	3,588
Perjury and subordination	0	0	1	1	13	1	6	6	28

Selected Crimes Recorded by the Police in Scotland, by Police Force Area, 2003

	Central	Dumfries and Galloway	Fife	Grampian	Lothian and Borders	Northern	Strathclyde	Tayside	Scotland
Public mischief (inc wasting police time)	101	38	114	112	159	63	297	253	1,137
Resisting arrest	395	224	397	444	834	340	3,932	335	6,901
Bail offences other than absconding/ re-offending	418	53	468	335	616	121	1,918	1,490	5,419
Perjury and subordination	0	0	2	2	4	2	8	0	18

Question reference: S2W-19303

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 September 2005
Current Status: Answered by George Lyon on 29 September 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many complaints it has received from individuals in respect of postal voting in local elections in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S2W-19306

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 September 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 28 September 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) nursing vacancies and (b) employed nurses there have been in each NHS hospital in each of the last five years.

Information on nursing staff in post and vacancies is not collected at hospital level. The lowest level of detail is by NHS board and this is published on the Scottish Health Statistics website under Workforce Statistics, at www.isdscotland.org/workforce.

Section E gives details of nursing and midwifery vacancies and staff in post in NHS Scotland. In particular, table E10 shows the whole-time equivalent (WTE) number of staff in post and vacancies broken down by NHS board area over the last five years. WTE adjusts headcount staff figures to take account of part – time staff. Latest available figures are at 31 March 2005.

Question reference: S2W-19307

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 September 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 28 September 2005

To ask the Scottish Executivehow many (a) doctors, (b) nurses, (c) consultants and (d) auxiliary staff have been victims of violence in each NHS hospital in each of the last 10 years.

The information asked for is not collected in the requested format. The data available on violence is published on the Scottish Health Statistics website under Workforce Statistics, www.isdscotland.org/workforce.

Section A gives details of the overall summary of Workforce Statistics in NHS Scotland. In particular, table A8 shows the number of occupational injuries by staff group and type of organisation. Latest available figures are at 31March 2004.

Question reference: S2W-19192

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 September 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 27 September 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-17976 by Mr Andy Kerr on 16 August 2005, how many operations were cancelled on (a) the day of and (b) the day after admission and how many of the patients involved were not readmitted within a month in each quarter of the last five years for which figures are available in each NHS (i) board and (ii) hospital.

The specific information requestedis not available centrally.

Limited information is availableon the number of inpatient/day case episodes where operations/procedures were notcarried out following admission. Information on the number of in-patientand day case episodes where operations/procedures were cancelled following admissionby NHS board of treatment and hospital, for calendar years 2000 to 2004, and thenumber of patients who were not subsequently admitted to hospital for an operationwithin 30 days of discharge has been placed in the Scottish ParliamentInformation Centre (Bib. number 37492). It is not possible to identify on what daythe operation was cancelled.

For the calendar years 2000 to2004 the percentage of operations which were cancelled has decreased from 2.0% to1.8%.

Operations can be cancelled dueto various unforeseen pressures. Some examples of these are; an influx of emergencyadmissions, widespread staff sickness, theatre equipment failure or infection inwards.

On occasions, some patients maybe sent home, following admission, when a planned procedure/operation has not beencarried out. Some reasons for this include; patient being unfit for treatment dueto illness (e.g. chest infection), having omitted to fast before admission, failingto follow pre-admission advice on medication, or where theatre time is unavailabledue to unexpected complications arising in earlier theatre cases.

In setting out an initial responseto Professor David Kerr’s report Building A Health Service Fit For The Future,I made it clear that I supported his proposals that we should stream planned care,separating it, where possible, from emergency care. I have asked the Regional PlanningGroups to develop arrangements for streaming planned care that will reduce cancellations,increase predictability and workflow and reduce waiting times.