- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 25 August 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether and why police officers are allowed to keep firearms in their own home, whether this practice has given rise to any security or public safety issues and whether it has any plans to review any existing guidance.
Answer
Police officers may keep personally owned firearms, such as rifles or shotguns, in their own homes provided that they have an appropriate certificate issued by the relevant chief constable. They are not permitted to keep police issue firearms in their own homes under any circumstances.
Police issue firearms are always stored within secure accommodation by forces at all times. Firearms are only issued on the authority of a senior officer for a specific purpose and only to an authorised firearms officer. Thereafter the weapons are signed out to the authorised firearms officer and on completion of the operation returned to the security of the force armoury. There are no plans to review existing guidelines.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 August 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 24 August 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what position it has taken in its discussions with the Department of Social Security about the harmonisation of student support and state benefit provision.
Answer
My officials are presently in discussions with the Department of Social Security and the other UK education departments about the relationship between the student support and the benefits systems with a view to identifying areas where greater harmonisation would be particularly desirable. These discussions are examining a wide variety of issues.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 August 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 24 August 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how many students have received discretionary assistance from the Student Awards Agency for Scotland for a period during which they temporarily withdrew from their course since 1990.
Answer
A student who has temporarily withdrawn from his or her course, for whatever reason, is ineligible to receive student support from the Awards Agency as he or she is no longer a registered student in attendance on a course.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 25 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients in NHS mental health care are kept in locked wards inappropriately because no other beds are available.
Answer
This information is not available.
In keeping with the Framework for Mental Health Services for Scotland it is for health boards, NHS Trusts and local authorities, in planning and delivering services, to ensure that the care and security afforded to patients is appropriate to meet assessed need and to reduce any delay which occurs in matching care to assessed need in all cases.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 15 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 12 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHS Trusts have implemented the Working Time Regulations; whether these Trusts have incorporated the extra costs of implementing these regulations into their financial projections, and how much of the #86 million additional health funding earmarked for Scotland will be available for improving patient care after these costs have been taken into account.
Answer
All Trusts and health boards in the NHS in Scotland are expected to comply with the provisions of the Working Time Regulations. An additional £173 million has been allocated to the health budget in Scotland, following the Chancellor's budget in March. This brings the total health budget in Scotland in 1999-2000 to £5.4 billion.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 3 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the future of the Heart Transplant Unit at Glasgow Royal Infirmary is secure and when it will make a statement confirming its continued operation.
Answer
I made the Scottish Executive's position on the Scottish Heart Transplant Unit clear during the debate on Wednesday 24 May.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 3 July 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review its intention to allocate further money to the NHSiS only if targets relating to waiting times and lists and efficiency improvements, amongst others, are achieved, in the light of present demands on the NHS.
Answer
Health boards have received allocations for the current year for their hospital and community health services and prescribed drugs totalling £4.1 billion. In addition, health boards will be able to spend the £60 million announced on 2 May once they have developed satisfactory plans showing how the resources will contribute to meeting waiting list and waiting times targets, reducing delayed discharges and dealing with peak pressures.
Plans have now been submitted by all health boards and are currently being assessedby the Executive.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 29 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive on how many occasions major operations at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow have been cancelled, after the patients have been admitted to hospital and prepared for surgery, due to a lack of intensive care beds in the hospital.
Answer
The information requested is available from South Glasgow University Hospitals NHS Trust, which has management responsibility for the Southern General.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Frank McAveety on 27 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-1752 by Mr Frank McAveety on 25 May 2000, whether local authorities should abide by industrial tribunal decisions in relation to local authority employees.
Answer
Local authorities, like other employers, must comply with the terms of Employment Tribunal decisions but may seek a review or appeal on a point of law to the Employment Appeal Tribunal as they see fit.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 27 June 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-6963 by Henry McLeish on 24 May 2000, whether Coatbridge College's recognition and procedures agreement, in particular insofar as it allows the college management a role in determining acceptable trade union representatives, accords with the Executive's expectation that further education colleges should maintain high standards of union recognition and negotiation in respect of both academic and non-academic staff.
Answer
The Board of Management of a further education college has a statutory duty to manage the college.
