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: S3W-16750

Asked by: Derek Brownlee, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 27 October 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what the estimated loss of local income tax revenue would be if full-time students were exempted from the tax.

Question reference: S3W-16751

Asked by: Derek Brownlee, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 27 October 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many full-time students live in chargeable dwellings as defined in section 72(6) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992.

Question reference: S3W-15818

Asked by: Derek Brownlee, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 August 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 23 September 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what its anticipated total cost of employers’ liability insurance is for 2008-09, broken down by directorate

Question reference: S3W-16017

Asked by: Derek Brownlee, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 September 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 12 September 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prescriptions for diazepam were issued in (a) NHS Borders, (b) NHS Dumfries and Galloway, (c) NHS Lanarkshire, (d) NHS Ayrshire and Arran and (d) NHS Lothian in each year since 1999.

The flowing table shows the number of prescribed items for diazepam in NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Borders, NHS Dumfries and Galloway, NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Lothian for the financial years ending 31 March 2000 to 2008. The data given refer to prescription items dispensed in the community by community pharmacists and dispensing doctors but do not include medicines dispensed by hospitals or hospital-based clinics.

Year Ended 31 March	Ayrshire and Arran	Borders	Dumfries and Galloway	Lanarkshire	Lothian
2000	44,594	11,107	21,025	81,176	86,692
2001	44,418	11,575	22,692	86,244	90,055
2002	48,109	12,392	23,584	89,009	93,880
2003	49,577	13,251	23,965	89,909	96,253
2004	52,566	14,386	25,229	89,627	101,514
2005	56,906	14,902	25,637	90,279	105,001
2006	60,026	15,251	25,578	92,655	108,241
2007	63,530	15,428	25,178	95,744	111,343
2008	62,304	15,337	25,181	99,327	114,427

Note: The information in the table has been provided by NHS National Services Scotland.

Question reference: S3W-16018

Asked by: Derek Brownlee, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 September 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 12 September 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether statistics are available to show the number of prescriptions for diazepam being issued, with reference to the underlying condition being treated, nationally and at NHS board level.

Question reference: S3W-16016

Asked by: Derek Brownlee, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 September 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 12 September 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to tackle problems associated with the misuse of prescription drugs.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for monitoring the safety of all medicines on the UK market, including concerns about misuse. The MHRA uses a variety of methods to collect information on the safety of prescription medicines and takes appropriate action to safeguard public health. In the past the MHRA has taken regulatory action for a number of medicines including paracetamol, codeine, co-proxamol and pseudoephedrine/ephedrine.

Further information about the work of the MHRA can be found at www.mhra.gov.uk.

Question reference: S3W-15268

Asked by: Derek Brownlee, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 July 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 21 August 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive which of the policies set out in the timelines in Annex A of Delivering for Health (a) remain its policy and are (i) on time or have been implemented or (ii) behind schedule and (b) are no longer its policy.

Delivering for Health has been superseded by the Better Health, Better Care: Action Plan published in December 2007. Copies are available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 44287).

NHS CEL 20 2008 sets out the approach to implementing Better Health, Better Care This includes a process for considering any relevant outstanding items from Delivering for Health. NHS CEL 20 2008 is available from www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk.

Question reference: S3W-14388

Asked by: Derek Brownlee, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 16 July 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive on how many occasions since May 2007 (a) ministers and (b) Scottish Government officials have met HM Treasury (i) ministers and (ii) officials.

Between May 2007 and June 2008, Scottish ministers have met with Treasury ministers on five occasions with the last meeting being between the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth and Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 1 April.

During the same period the Scottish Government Finance Director met formally with Treasury officials on seven occasions during the period with the last of these meetings taking place on 29 April. The Director General for Economy met with Treasury officials on two occasions with the latest taking place on 7 March.

It should be noted that other contact takes place between officials throughout the year to discuss routine operational business on a very frequent basis.

Question reference: S3W-14387

Asked by: Derek Brownlee, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 16 July 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what employment practice standards, beyond those set out in employment law, it applies through guidance or contractual provisions to non-governmental organisations providing services funded by government resources.

Question reference: S3W-14169

Asked by: Derek Brownlee, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 24 June 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding was allocated for affordable homes for rent in each year since 2003-04 in (a) Dumfries and Galloway, (b) Scottish Borders, (c) South Lanarkshire, (d) East Lothian and (e) South Ayrshire and how much will be allocated in (i) 2008-09 and (ii) 2009-10, also expressed in real terms.

The grant allocation at the beginning of each financial year is a single figure which includes provision for all relevant elements of the Affordable Housing Investment Programme (AHIP). In addition to the provision of affordable housing for rent this includes an allocation for grant mechanisms providing low cost home ownership (LIFT) and grants for the physical and social environment. The allocation for affordable housing for rent is not recorded separately.

The grant allocation for AHIP for each year since 2003-04 for the local authorities requested is in table 1 below. This also shows the allocation in real terms.

Planned expenditure for 2008-09 by local authority area is set out in the answer to question S3W-13606 on 30 May 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

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

Over the period 2008-11 the Scottish Government will be providing investment of over £1.5 billion for affordable housing across Scotland. £493 million in 2008-09, £566 million in 2009-10 and £591 million in 2010-11. Taking into account the local government settlement this is 19% more than planned by the previous administration for 2005-08. Over the period 2008-11 the Scottish Government aims to deliver more than 21,500 new affordable homes nationally which is in line with levels of approvals achieved for 2005-08 despite increasing costs. These will be split 6,000 in 2008-09, 7,100 in 2009-10 and 8,400 in 2010-11.

Details of the programme split by local authority for 2009-10 will be available nearer the time.

Table 1, Investment

Local Authority	2003-04	2003-04	2004-05	2004-05	2005-06
Local Authority	Planned Total	Planned Real Terms	Planned Total	Planned Real Terms	Planned Total
East Lothian	2.089	2.396	1.866	2.083	2.921
Scottish Borders	3.286	3.769	2.975	3.320	4.808
Dumfries and Galloway	5.308	6.088	4.741	5.291	6.967
South Ayrshire	3.958	4.539	3.535	3.945	5.183
South Lanarkshire	10.136	11.625	11.852	13.228	12.250

Local Authority	2005-06	2006-07	2006-07	2007-08	2007-08
Local Authority	Planned Real Terms	Planned Total	Planned Real Terms	Planned Total	Planned Real Terms
East Lothian	3.192	4.981	5.297	5.600	5.768
Scottish Borders	5.253	6.577	6.994	7.200	7.416
Dumfries and Galloway	7.612	11.267	11.982	12.767	13.150
South Ayrshire	5.663	6.183	6.575	6.674	6.874
South Lanarkshire	13.385	16.380	17.420	19.284	19.863