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-31207

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 1 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in light of chicken production in Scotland representing only 50% of consumption, it will consider taking action to raise the proportion of chickens consumed in Scotland that are produced in Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-31221

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Robert Brown on 1 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) average and (b) longest waiting time was between a pupil being referred to and seen by an educational psychologist in the last period for which figures are available.

Question reference: S2W-31248

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 1 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases of MRSA were recorded in each of the last five years, broken down by hospital.

Health Protection Scotland publishedthe latest figures on MRSA bacteraemia (blood infection) rates on 16 January 2007. A copyof this report is available from: http://www.documents.hps.scot.nhs.uk/hai/sshaip/publications/mrsa-quarterly-reports/jan-2003-to-sept-2006.pdf

Hospital specific informationis not held centrally.

MRSA bacteraemia rates have remainedstable in Scotland as a whole since national mandatory reporting began in2003.

As part of our drive to improvesurveillance, compulsory reporting of all Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemias (whichincludes MSSA and MRSA) was introduced in July 2006. As expected, this has increasedreporting of MSSA infections (which was previously voluntary), but this will enablemore effective targeting of measures to reduce these infections.

Wide-ranging measures to addresshealthcare associated infection (HAI), set in place by the HAI Task Force, includea national campaign to raise awareness amongst NHS staff, patients, visitors andthe public of the benefits of improved hand hygiene to public health. localhealth board co-ordinators are being appointed to help implement and monitor compliancein hospitals. Additional training courses for NHS staff, and robust monitoring of the standards of cleaning in Scotland’s hospitals are also part of the Task Force’s DeliveryPlan.

Question reference: S2W-31240

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 1 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much money withheld from single farm payments under modulation in each year since modulation commenced has yet to be allocated.

There are two forms of modulationand all funds raised are allocated to different measures.

European modulation is compulsoryand contributions from farmers and crofters are allocated to fund the Land ManagementContract Menu Scheme, as part of the Scottish Rural Development Programme.

Member state modulation has beenallocated to support agri-environment and afforestation measures that are also partof the Scottish Rural Development Programme.

Details of expenditure for themeasures mentioned above, were provided in answer to question S2W-31085 on 31 January 2007. Allanswers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s websitethe search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Question reference: S2W-31214

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 1 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what evidence there is of adverse effects from manure being spread annually on the same ground.

Question reference: S2W-31225

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 1 February 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners have made (a) one to five, (b) 6 to 20, (c) 21 to 50, (d) 51 to 100 and (e) over 100 freedom of information requests.

Question reference: S2W-31157

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 31 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much was spent on repairing damage to schools caused by vandalism in each local education authority in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S2W-31161

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 31 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total change was in the number of beds in (a) the NHS and (b) each NHS board between 2004-05 and 2005-06.

Question reference: S2W-31160

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 31 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many teachers (a) were recruited and (b) retired in each year from 1997 to 2006, broken down by local authority.

Available information on thenumber of teachers who were (a) recruited by and (b) retired from each local authoritysince 1997 is set out in the following tables. Up to 2002-03 the data representsall teachers in the workforce, excluding supply and part-time temporary staff.

From 2003-04 the recruitmentdata is obtained by comparing all those in schools on census day, with those inschools on census day of the previous year, excluding supply teachers covering absenceand centrally employed teachers. It will also therefore exclude teachers who wererecruited during the year but who left before the census day. While informationon those leaving is therefore also available, information on why they left, andtherefore how many have retired, is incomplete.

Teachers Recruited	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Aberdeen City	127	114	129	96	73	125	240	237
Aberdeenshire	189	166	193	234	210	54	470	441
Angus	99	101	139	68	99	111	121	158
Argyll and Bute	72	129	80	50	70	78	169	110
Clackmannanshire	27	10	16	16	26	19	59	60
Dumfries and Galloway	115	123	140	90	139	130	239	195
Dundee City	62	69	73	69	89	107	168	121
East Ayrshire	20	35		78	1	72	137	146
East Dunbartonshire	90	84	69	43	65	85	175	140
East Lothian	34	18	52	11	75	39	156	153
East Renfrewshire	45	38	36	38	133	92	151	176
Edinburgh, City of	247	210	387	244	273	203	443	462
Eilean Siar	27	29	51	37	32	34	81	83
Falkirk	56	28	80	37	108	128	159	206
Fife	78	89	189	167	85	145	368	363
Glasgow City	140	49	155	134	123	96	636	587
Highland	74	88	155	84	52	61	316	342
Inverclyde	35	43	50	63	51	46	71	94
Midlothian	32	30	42	33	19	54	106	133
Moray	57	61	73	76	120	83	144	125
North Ayrshire	31	19	35	47	27	12	162	242
North Lanarkshire	149	182	275	172	120	116	463	625
Orkney Islands	16	6	6	4	15	21	48	47
Perth and Kinross	92	31	37	31	10	33	178	153
Renfrewshire	28	61	38	114	100	11	173	127
Scottish Borders	55	65	75	44	76	44	147	142
Shetland Islands	27	21	76	26	27	45	62	62
South Ayrshire	10	2	17	4	45	17	154	118
South Lanarkshire	33	106	216	140	78	195	336	370
Stirling	67	45	129	44	95	98	140	152
West Dunbartonshire	100	32	127	71	62	77	155	136
West Lothian	91	63	129	74	112	136	118	275

Source: Up to 2002-03, TeacherFlow Survey, From 2003-04 Teacher Census.

Notes:

1. Teacher Census data is notcomparable with the Teacher Flow Survey as it includes all temporary staff.

2. Data does not include thoserecruited during the year but not present at the census.

3. Numbers are Headcounts

Teachers Retired	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03
Aberdeen City	33	21	39	26	33	51
Aberdeenshire	32	29	109	20	28	44
Angus	29	18	27	22	26	43
Argyll and Bute	6	6	7	6	14	20
Clackmannanshire	6	6	11	7	16	9
Dumfries and Galloway	15	21	23	17	37	28
Dundee City	28	33	16	17	36	33
East Ayrshire	28	28	37	23	33	51
East Dunbartonshire	7	18	19	9	14	8
East Lothian	3	11	14	18	15	4
East Renfrewshire	12	14	11	15	19	16
Edinburgh, City of	52	46	55	45	47	56
Eilean Siar	10	10	6	9	5	16
Falkirk	15	15	21	18	27	53
Fife	33	34	87	87	110	95
Glasgow City	37	30	32	29	109	40
Highland	20	40	39	35	50	52
Inverclyde	1	5	8	7		6
Midlothian	19	6	8	5	10	24
Moray	18	16	23	14	24	24
North Ayrshire	20	29	28	13	37	18
North Lanarkshire	60	51	87	53	71	97
Orkney Islands	4	2		1	3	12
Perth and Kinross	23	13	21	18	5	25
Renfrewshire	23	18	24	29	77	17
Scottish Borders	9	2	16	11	12	23
Shetland Islands	4	6	15	8	8	16
South Ayrshire	18	22	16	18	19	12
South Lanarkshire	30	36	75	35	44	246
Stirling	23	11	29	17	6	19
West Dunbartonshire	8	10	21	21	22	19
West Lothian	17	18	30	16	31	56

Source: Teacher Flow Survey.

Note: 1. Numbers are Headcounts.

Question reference: S2W-31158

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 31 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many incidents involving (a) sale and (b) use of illegal drugs on school property have been reported in each local education authority in each year since 2000.