- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 17 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what the three-month vacancy rate was for (a) consultant psychiatrists, (b) psychiatric nurses and (c) all medical and dental staff in the NHS in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answer
Three-month vacancy rates arenot held for consultant psychiatrists. Instead a total vacancy rate and one forover six months is collected via the annual census. At September 2004, the oversix months vacancy rate for consultants within all psychiatric specialties
was4.7%.
Vacancy rates for other gradesof medical and dental staff are not collected centrally.
The three-month vacancy ratefor qualified nurses working within mental health services is 0.9%. This compareswith a rate of 1.2% for all qualified nurses and midwives in NHSScotland.
Further details are availableat:
http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/info3.jsp?pContentID=1346&p_applic=CCC&p_service=Content.show&.
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 07 March 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 17 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many out-patients were waiting for (a) less than nine weeks, (b) less than 13 weeks, (c) less than 26 weeks, (d) more than 26 weeks and (e) more than 52 weeks for an NHS appointment in June 1999, broken down by individual speciality and NHS board.
Answer
The information requested isbeing compiled by the Information Services Division of NHS National Services Scotland.I will write to the member as soon as the information is available and will arrangefor a copy of my reply to be placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre.
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 March 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 17 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-10232 by Ross Finnie on 29 September 2004, on what date the comprehensive guidance for rural communities across Scotland on developing village halls will be published.
Answer
The work of producing the guidanceon developing village halls was put out to a competitive tender in October of lastyear. However, we did not receive a tender that met the required specification andare considering options as to the most appropriate way forward.
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 17 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 17 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many 0845 numbers (a) it uses, (b) its agencies use and (c) non-departmental public bodies use and what revenue it has derived, or costs it has incurred, from each such number in each year since 1999.
Answer
Information on the use of 0845numbers across the Scottish Executive, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies is notheld centrally and therefore the information requested could only be provided atdisproportionate cost.
Communications and InformationServices Division manages telephony services used within the Scottish Executive. The Division uses one 0845 number in the provision of telephony services,specifically to facilitate calls to the Scottish Executive on a local call tariff from anywhere in the UK. This service costs about £9,000 per annum.
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 17 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 17 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive to what extent it advertises a geographic telephone number as an alternative to each non-geographic number used to access services provided by it or its agencies and non-departmental public bodies.
Answer
The Scottish Executive advertises telephone numbers for services through British Telecommunicationsplc phonebooks, the Scottish Executive website and individual publications and leaflets.
The Scottish Executive’s central switchboard and enquiry facility has two published numbers, onegeographic and one non-geographic. In 2004 the decision was made to promote theuse of the 0845 774 1741 number rather than the 0131 556 8400 in order to provideequality of access across Scotland. The British Telecommunications plc phonebook entriesare being updated to reflect this and work is currently underway on redesigningthe content and format of these entries.
The Scottish Executive website advertises both the geographical and non-geographical numbers whereverappropriate.
Information on the use of advertisingof non geographic numbers as an alternative to geographic numbers across the Scottish Executive, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies is not held centrally andtherefore the information requested could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 17 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 17 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what its estimate is of the amount of public funding required to finance PPP projects (a) in each of the last seven years and (b) which are repayable in each of the next 15 years.
Answer
Theestimated annual expenditure to service PPP projects undertaken by public sectorbodies over the period requested is shown in the table below.
Existing Deals (Operational andSigned): Total Estimated Service Payments (in Cash Terms)
| Year | Amount (£ Million) |
| 1997-98 | 13.8 |
| 1998-99 | 28.0 |
| 1999-2000 | 83.7 |
| 2000-01 | 108.9 |
| 2001-02 | 226.7 |
| 2002-03 | 297.8 |
| 2003-04 | 364.4 |
| 2004-05 | 380.7 |
| 2005-06 | 413.5 |
| 2006-07 | 431.5 |
| 2007-08 | 453.0 |
| 2008-09 | 455.5 |
| 2009-10 | 461.6 |
| 2010-11 | 470.6 |
| 2011-12 | 479.9 |
| 2012-13 | 491.2 |
| 2013-14 | 496.2 |
| 2014-15 | 507.6 |
| 2015-16 | 527.4 |
| 2016-17 | 531.5 |
| 2017-18 | 545.6 |
| 2018-19 | 555.0 |
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 17 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 17 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what 0870 numbers (a) it uses, (b) its agencies use and (c) non-departmental public bodies use and what revenue it has derived from each such number in each year since 1999.
Answer
Information on the use of 0870numbers across the Scottish Executive, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies is notheld centrally and therefore the information requested could only be provided atdisproportionate cost.
Communications and InformationServices Division manages telephony services used within the Scottish Executive. The division does not use any 0870 numbers in the provision of telephonyservices.
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 17 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 17 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many 0800, 08000, 0500 or other "free to the caller" numbers (a) it uses, (b) its agencies use and (c) non-departmental public bodies use and what revenue it has derived, or costs it has incurred, from each such number in each year since 1999.
Answer
Information on the use of 0800,08000, 0500 numbers across the Scottish Executive, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies is notheld centrally and therefore the information requested could only be provided atdisproportionate cost.
Communications and InformationServices Division manages telephony services used within the Scottish Executive; the Division makes use of two 0800 numbers to provide remote access tothe Scottish Executive’s IT network at a combined cost of around £100,000 perannum. A call to an 0800 number is free to the caller with the called party payingthe full cost of the call. A further four 0800 numbers in use and registered inthe name of the Scottish Executive have been identified by British Telecommunications plc but no cost data is heldcentrally.
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 17 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 17 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what changes it will make to its use of telephone numbers, in light of Ofcom's guidance for government departments using 0845 and 0870 numbers, referred to in Number Translation Services - Options for the future, published by Ofcom on 22 October 2004.
Answer
The Ofcom consultation document
Number Translation Services - Options for the future was published by Ofcomon 22 October 2004 with the consultation closing on 7 January 2005. Following receipt and consideration of responses,Ofcom will set out its decision as to the NumberTranslation Services optionto be implemented in a Statement likely to be published in calendar quarter twoof 2005.
The Scottish Executive is aware of this review and will adopt Ofcom recommendations on best practicefor the use of these services when the review is complete.
- Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 17 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 17 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many 09 or other premium rate numbers (a) it uses, (b) its agencies use and (c) non-departmental public bodies use and what revenue it has derived from each such number in each year since 1999.
Answer
Information on the use of 09or other premium numbers across the Scottish Executive, its agencies and non-departmentalpublic bodies is not held centrally and therefore the information requested couldonly be provided at disproportionate cost.
Communications and InformationServices Division manages telephony services used within the Scottish Executive. The division does not use any 09 or other premium rate numbers in the provisionof telephony services.
