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-32222

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 19 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) average and (b) longest waiting times were for care assessments by each local authority in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S2W-32333

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 19 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many nurses it expects to receive a pay increase of 1.9% in the next 12 months.

Question reference: S2W-32255

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 19 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the percentage increase in nurses’ pay has been in each year since 1997.

The information requested is set outin the following table:

Year	Percentage Increase as at 1 April Each Year
1997	3.3% (2.8% from 1 April then a further 0.5% on 1 December)
1998	3.8% (2% from 1 April then a further 1.8% on 1 December)
1999	4.7% plus an increase of one point to the maximum of the D grade scale and the deletion of the bottom 2 points equalling an increase of 12% to the bottom of the D grade scale, to aid recruitment and retention.
2000	3.4% plus an increase for C grade nurses equalling 7% and to E grade scale equalling 7.8%, to aid recruitment and retention.
2001	3.7%, plus average 2% for F-I grades by consolidation of discretionary points.
2002	3.6%
2003	3.225%
2004	3.225%
2005	3.225%
2006	2.5%
2007	2.5%

Including the pay rise for 2007, this represents a cumulativerise since 1997 of over 37% for all nursing staff and significantly more for thosestaff groups identified above as receiving additional uplifts. It should also benoted that many nurses will have gained financially as a result of having been assimilatedonto the new Agenda for Change pay, terms and conditions package.

Question reference: S2W-32297

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 19 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what work is being undertaken in, or for, the criminal justice system to link with either the present or future Schengen Information System in relation to (a) European arrest warrants or (b) other functions.

Question reference: S2W-32254

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 19 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many acute beds there have been in each year since 1997, broken down by hospital.

Information on average available acutestaffed beds is given in Average available acute staffed beds by hospital; Financialyears ending 31 March 1998 - 2006 a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 42281).

The Executivedoes not set target numbers for beds. These are local planning decisions taken byNHS boards who have the information necessary to make the correct judgements.

There are good reasons for reductionsin acute bed numbers:

Medical advances continue to reduce lengths of stay associated with many plannedprocedures, and some are now routinely carried out in a few hours without the needfor any overnight stay.

Numbers of acute in-patient beds do not include beds in dedicated day surgeryunits. Around 65% of elective admissions are day cases where there is no need foran overnight bed.

There are more beds targeted where they are needed. For example, the numberof intensive therapy unit beds has increased by over 11% since 1999. These are byfar the most expensive beds to staff and equip.

NHSScotland is making better use of available beds in acute specialties.Average bed occupancy has risen from 78% in the year ending March 1998 to 82.2%in the year ending March 2006.

Question reference: S2W-32154

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 16 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) violent assaults and (b) arrests took place in hospitals in each of the last 10 years, broken down by police force area.

Question reference: S2W-32152

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 16 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases of credit card fraud were committed in each of the last 10 years, broken down by police force area.

Question reference: S2W-32151

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 16 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many gun-related crimes there were in each of the last 10 years, broken down by police force area.

The number of gun-related crimeor offences by police force area, from 1996-97 to 2005-06 are shown in the followingtable:

Crimes and Offences Recordedby Police in which a Firearm was Alleged to have Been Used, by Police Force

	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Central	29	33	69	42	56	33	22	19	35	17
Dumfries and Galloway	33	22	14	9	14	45	34	22	25	27
Fife	42	23	23	25	21	26	33	12	11	10
Grampian	76	66	66	80	68	72	74	41	33	38
Lothian and Borders	211	189	242	227	225	214	297	329	407	418
Northern	8	9	10	0	0	5	0	0	2	11
Strathclyde	928	637	552	536	522	531	520	452	531	474
Tayside	154	75	75	56	54	77	54	83	92	73
Total	1,481	1,054	1,051	975	960	1,003	1,034	958	1,136	1,068

Question reference: S2W-32145

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 16 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many 16-year-olds were recorded as homeless in each of the last 10 years, broken down by local authority area.

The following table gives thenumber of households assessed as homeless where the main applicant was aged 16.This information is available from 2002-03 onward.

Households Assessedas Homeless with Main Applicant Aged 16: 2002-03 to 2005-06

	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Aberdeen City	50	30	30	30
Aberdeenshire	40	45	35	30
Angus	20	30	20	30
Argyll and Bute	40	40	35	30
Clackmannanshire	15	20	25	25
Dumfries and Galloway	25	35	45	35
Dundee City	25	20	20	20
East Ayrshire	15	25	25	20
East Dunbartonshire	5	5	10	5
East Lothian	15	5	15	30
East Renfrewshire	5	5	15	5
Edinburgh, City of	195	170	165	140
Eilean Siar	5	5	5	5
Falkirk	45	30	25	45
Fife	85	140	110	140
Glasgow City	240	210	245	205
Highland	40	65	60	70
Inverclyde	15	15	20	10
Midlothian	20	25	30	25
Moray	5	15	15	20
North Ayrshire	70	60	35	50
North Lanarkshire	50	50	75	75
Orkney	-	5	5	5
Perth and Kinross	20	25	25	10
Renfrewshire	15	25	20	25
Scottish Borders, The	20	30	20	15
Shetland	10	-	-	-
South Ayrshire	20	15	20	25
South Lanarkshire	65	45	45	45
Stirling	15	20	25	25
West Dunbartonshire	25	25	35	40
West Lothian	70	45	65	60
Scotland	1,295	1,275	1,320	1,295

Source: HL1 returns submittedby local authorities to the Scottish Executive Development Department AnalyticalServices Division (Housing Statistics).

Notes:

1. All assessments in period.

2. Due to small numbers, figureshave been rounded to the nearest five, and may therefore not sum to the Scotland total.

3. Due to the live nature of the data collection system, figures are updated on a continuous basis and the informationpublished here may differ from that published previously.

4. The following symbols areused in the tables:

- nil.

.. missing.

Question reference: S2W-32332

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by George Lyon on 16 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what average life expectancy for (a) men and (b) women was in each parliamentary constituency in each year since 1997.