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-32146

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 15 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what total number of home help hours was delivered in each year since 1997-98, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S2W-32147

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 15 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the expenditure by unweighted head of population and (a) in-year and (b) accumulated financial positions were of each NHS board for (i) 2003-04, (ii) 2004-05 and (iii) 2005-06.

The expenditure by unweightedhead of population for each NHS board from 2003-04 to 2005-06 was:

Health Board	2003-04 (£)	2004-05 (£)	2005-06 (£)
Argyll and Clyde	1,344	1,480	1,562
Ayrshire and Arran	1,216	1,387	1,526
Borders	1,263	1,367	1,457
Dumfries and Galloway	1,312	1,426	1,527
Fife	1,127	1,243	1,343
Forth Valley	1,153	1,271	1,393
Grampian	1,122	1,229	1,288
Greater Glasgow	1,403	1,538	1,656
Highland	1,314	1,480	1,612
Lanarkshire	1,178	1,290	1,384
Lothian	1,277	1,260	1,340
Orkney	1,570	1,675	1,923
Shetland	1,520	1,718	1,872
Tayside	1,346	1,466	1,550
West Isles	1,937	2,173	2,392

Under resource accounting, anyunder/over spend against the resource limit is dealt with by an adjustment to thefollowing year’s resource limit. Therefore the accumulated and in year positionare effectively the same.

The financial position of NHSboards in Scotland from 2003-04 was:

Health Board	2003-04 (£000)	2004-05 (£000)	2005-06 (£000)
Argyll and Clyde	(35,370)	(59,492)	569
Ayrshire and Arran	13,549	22,901	17,405
Borders	299	3,380	3,314
Dumfries and Galloway	5,491	9,455	14,223
Fife	2,366	5,400	4,582
Forth Valley	392	410	407
Grampian	(4,804)	(10,774)	456
Greater Glasgow	5,010	12,103	12,284
Highland	2,522	1,838	1,369
Lanarkshire	(21,208)	(20,042)	(8,393)
Lothian	13,207	19,566	179
Orkney	34	60	50
Shetland	339	24	341
Tayside	4,298	4,460	1,141
West Isles	(271)	(738)	(2,484)
Special Health Boards	12,733	22,459	24,153
Total	(1,413)	11,010	69,596

Question reference: S2W-32259

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 15 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average (a) output of farm businesses by farm type and (b) change in output was in each year since 1997.

The information requested is given in the following table.The table uses data from the Farm Accounts Survey (FAS) which covers the farmtypes listed below but does not cover horticulture, specialist pigs and poultryfarms. The final column shows the number of farms sampled in 2005-06.

Average Output (Farm Type)	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02
LFA: Specialist Sheep	48,984	44,220	38,163	41,127	42,276
LFA: Specialist Beef	68,471	67,314	69,414	68,944	80,451
LFA: Cattle and Sheep	82,473	77,887	73,250	73,708	84,563
Cereals	102,403	95,560	103,664	101,106	79,921
General Cropping	146,502	156,289	171,966	170,946	134,124
Dairy	160,410	144,571	142,182	153,937	183,148
Lowground Cattle and Sheep*	-	-	-	64,500	-
Mixed	110,563	101,958	103,536	106,493	108,765
All	98,852	94,345	96,710	98,620	97,866

Note:*Results are not shown for farm types of less than five holdings, as theresults may not be reliable.

TheFAS covers farms that are equal to or greater than 0.5 Standard LabourRequirements - smaller farms are excluded. The FAS does not cover horticulture,specialist pigs and poultry farm types.

Average Output (Farm Type)	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2005-06
LFA: Specialist Sheep	50,977	54,968	54,939	51,039	47
LFA: Specialist Beef	102,797	104,152	106,646	104,523	118
LFA: Cattle and Sheep	99,951	108,983	110,556	107,621	70
Cereals	106,361	135,274	120,037	128,005	59
General Cropping	157,565	166,838	160,296	151,580	40
Dairy	181,554	195,698	209,731	209,945	63
Lowground Cattle and Sheep*	83,380	84,845	78,622	84,754	12
Mixed	120,772	148,982	140,520	140,984	65
All	112,225	124,123	121,960	120,912	474

Note:*Results are not shown for farm types of less than five holdings, as theresults may not be reliable.

The FAS covers farms that areequal to or greater than 0.5 Standard Labour Requirements - smaller farms areexcluded. The FAS does not cover horticulture, specialist pigs and poultry farmtypes.

Question reference: S2W-32256

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 15 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what estimate it has made of the number of nursing vacancies in the NHS at the end of August 2007.

From analysis of NHS board workforce plans submitted inApril 2006, the number of qualified nursing and midwifery vacancies at the endof August 2007 is expected to range from 593.6 to 766.6 whole-time equivalent,or 1.5% to 2.0% of the expected establishment in August 2007.

For comparison, the vacancy rate as a percentage ofestablishment was 4.5% at the 31 of March 2005 and 3.6% at the 31 of March2006.

Question reference: S2W-32284

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 15 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what change there has been in the number of (a) NHS beds, (b) general and acute beds, (c) intermediate care beds, (d) non-residential intermediate care places and (e) adult critical care beds in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS hospital.

Information on average available staffed beds for each NHShospital and the yearly change in bed numbers for the years ending 31 March1999 to 2006 is contained in a document NHSScotland Average Available StaffedBeds (1999-2006) a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament InformationCentre (Bib. number 42272).

Table 1 shows information for all average available staffedbeds.

Table 2 provides information for beds in acute specialties.

Table 3 shows the number of critical care beds (beds inintensive care, high dependency and cardiac care units) excluding beds inchildrens hospitals.

Information on intermediate care beds and non-residentialintermediate care places is not held centrally.

Question reference: S2W-32285

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 15 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many and what percentage of outpatient operations were cancelled in each NHS hospital in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S2W-32223

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 15 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many dentists have exhausted their 2006-07 NHS budgets.

Question reference: S2W-32253

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 15 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) men and (b) women are diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder, broken down by age.

Question reference: S2O-12345

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 15 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive to where staff and prisoners from HM Prison Low Moss will be moved after its closure.

Question reference: S2W-32109

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 14 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive when the First Minister will reply to Alex Salmond MP’s letter dated 17 January 2007 regarding Government Expenditure and Revenues in Scotland (GERS) calculation data, which was passed to the First Minister by HM Treasury.