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: S4W-21359

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 6 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many households were considered to be in fuel poverty in (a) Aberdeen and (b) Aberdeenshire in the most recent year for which information is available.

<>Figures on the number of people affected by fuel poverty are collected in the Scottish House Condition Survey. The most recent official statistics, including local authority analysis for 2010-2012, were published at the end of 2013: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/SHCS/LAtables2012)

A breakdown of figures for Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire local authority areas are provided in the following table.

Not Fuel Poor

Fuel Poor

000s	%	000s	%

Aberdeen City

Aberdeenshire

Question reference: S4W-21358

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 6 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many first-time buyers purchased property in (a) Aberdeen and (b) Aberdeenshire in the last five years.

Question reference: S4W-21257

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 May 2014
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 5 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the governor and other management at HMP Grampian regarding the recently-reported security breaches at the prison and, in light of these incidents, whether it will provide the prison with additional support.

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

Grampian prison was brought into operation on 3 March 2014 following a well-tested preparation approach. During both the pre-opening period and since, the local management team has been supported through normal line management arrangements and additionally, by way of both on-site and telephone support from senior staff from across the Service, including the Chief Executive of SPS. The Director General of Learning and Justice has also spent time on-site before and after the prison opened, in support of the local staff and managers.

Appropriate levels of support will be maintained to ensure that the local team are able to bring the prison back to full operation in a planned and sustainable way.

Question reference: S4W-21357

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 4 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many attendances there were at each accident and emergency department in NHS Grampian in (a) 2012 and (b) 2013.

The following table shows information on emergency departments and minor injuries units in NHS Grampian.

New and unplanned attendances at accident and emergency departments in NHS Grampian for 2012 and 2013

	2012	2013
NHS Grampian	146,476	147,367
Emergency Departments:	106,626	105,676
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary	63,607	62,217
Dr Gray's Hospital	24,646	24,952
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital	18,373	18,507
Minor Injuries Units (MIU)/Other:	39,850	41,691
Aboyne Hospital	992	984
Chalmers Hospital	3,615	3,601
Fleming Cottage Hospital	329	367
Fraserburgh Hospital	10,377	10,192
Insch and District War Memorial Hospital	623	704
Inverurie Hospital	297	164
Jubilee Hospital	3,350	3,449
Kincardine Community Hospital	988	1,248
Leanchoil Hospital	485	354
Peterhead Community Hospital	14,201	16,144
Seafield Hospital	689	680
Stephen Cottage Hospital	452	410
Turner Memorial Hospital	1,261	1,120
Turriff Cottage Hospital	2,191	2,274

Source: ISD Scotland A&E Datamart

Emergency Departments: Sites that provide a 24 hour emergency medicine consultant led service.

MIU/Other: Sites including MIU, small hospitals and health centres in rural areas that carry out Emergency Department related activity and are GP or nurse led. They may or may not be open 24 hours.

Information on emergency care is routinely published by Information Services Division and is available on the emergency care section of their website. This includes statistics on attendances at accident and emergency departments:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Emergency-Care/

SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT

Question reference: S4W-21356

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 May 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 4 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many alcohol-related deaths there have been in NHS Grampian hospitals in each of the last three years and how many of these were of people aged (a) under 18, (b) 18 to 29, (c) 30 to 55 and (d) over 55.

The information requested is given in the following table. These figures are provided on the same basis as the statistics of alcohol-related deaths published annually by the National Records of Scotland. The figures for 2013 are provisional; final statistics for 2013 will be available in August 2014.

Table 1: Alcohol-related deaths in NHS Grampian hospitals, 2011-13:

Year of registration of death	17 and under	18 to 29	30 to 55	56 and over	All ages
2011	-	-	15	30	45
2012	-	-	23	33	56
2013 (provisional)	-	-	16	34	50

Source: National Records of Scotland - deaths for which underlying cause had one of the following International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision (ICD-10) codes: F10, G31.2, G62.1, I42.6, K29.2, K70, K73, K74.0, K74.1, K74.2, K74.6, K86.0, X45, X65, Y15.

Question reference: S4W-21210

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 16 May 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 30 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) academic and (b) non-academic (i) managerial and (ii) other staff are employed at North East Scotland College.

Information on the number of staff employed in colleges and Universities is held by the Scottish Funding Council.

The latest information available is for 2012-13. It is not possible to provide the staff breakdown requested. Tables 1 and 2 contain headcount and full time equivalent information for teaching and non-teaching staff at Aberdeen and Banff and Buchan College; the two colleges that merged to form North East Scotland College in October 2013.

Table 1: Aberdeen College: Headcount and full-time equivalent staff employed by staff group.

	Staff Group	2012-13
Headcount	Teaching	256
Headcount	Non-Teaching	192
Full-time equivalents	Teaching	200
Full-time equivalents	Non-Teaching	157

Source: Scottish Funding Council

Table 2: Banff and Buchan College: Headcount and full-time equivalent staff employed by staff group.

	Staff Group	2012-13
Headcount	Teaching	180
Headcount	Non-Teaching	97
Full-time equivalents	Teaching	134
Full-time equivalents	Non-Teaching	77

Source: Scottish Funding Council

Note: these figures are not comparable to those provided in answers to previous parliamentary questions on staffing in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire due to a change in the methodology used by the Scottish Funding Council for its staffing survey, which was introduced in 2011-12.

Question reference: S4W-21209

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 16 May 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 30 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how much Housing Association Grant was awarded to each registered social landlord in (a) Aberdeenshire and (b) Aberdeen City in (i) 2012-13 and (ii) 2013-14.

The amount of Affordable Housing Supply Programme funding paid to individual registered social landlords was:

Housing Association Grant (£ millions) – Aberdeenshire

Grant Recipient	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15*
Aberdeenshire Council	2.105	0	1.392
Castlehill HA	0.542	0	0
Cornerstone Community Care	0.230	0.073	0
Grampian HA	0.937	1.738	0
Langstane HA	0.146	0	0
Total	3.961	1.812	1.392

*spend so far in 2014-15

Grant Recipient	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15*
Aberdeen City Council	0.848	0.044	0.555
Castlehill HA	0	0.251	0.178
Tenants 1^st HA	2.362	3.114	0
Grampian HA	0	0	0.862
Langstane HA	0.491	0.627	0
Total	3.702	4.037	1.596

* spend so far in 2014-15

Question reference: S4W-21208

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 16 May 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 30 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what the average cost is of private rented accommodation, broken down by city.

Rent Service Scotland collects market information on a representative sample of private sector rents by Broad Rental Market Areas, to meet the UK Government requirements related to Local Housing Allowance. This sample has not been designed to produce reliable rents broken down by individual cities. Information on the 30th percentile of private sector rents, by bedroom size, is published on the Scottish Government website, alongside corresponding information on Local Housing Allowance (LHA) Rates.

30th percentile figures, derived from 12 months of letting information up to the end of September 2013 are available for each Broad Rental Market Area at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/privaterent/tenants/Local-Housing-Allowance/figures

Local and planning authorities are required to examine local rent levels as part of their Housing Need and Demand Assessments which are then appraised by the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S4W-21211

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 16 May 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 28 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many people in the NHS Grampian area were (a) diagnosed with and (b) discharged from hospital after treatment for malnutrition in 2013.

(a) The term ‘malnutrition’ can be used to mean a range of different conditions. The definition used here comprises a specific group of diagnoses which would be used to identify cases of protein/energy malnutrition (ICD-10 codes E40-E46 only). Therefore, the information presented is not comparable with figures which have been previously provided in relation to the number of patients discharged from hospital following a diagnosis of malnutrition, broadly defined.

The recording of a malnutrition diagnosis for these patients indicates that malnutrition was part of the reason for hospital admission and was diagnosed at some point before or during the hospital episode. Information is not available on whether the condition was fully resolved by the time the patient was discharged.

The provisional number of patients that were discharged from hospitals in the NHS Grampian area following a diagnosis of malnutrition in 2013 is shown in the following table:

Number of patients diagnosed with malnutrition in NHS Grampian

Year	Count
2013^p	29

Source: SMR01

p - provisional

p - Data submissions for NHS Grampian are over 95% complete to December 2013. The figures provided above have been marked provisional until all patient records held on Grampian’s new IT Patient Management System have been fully updated.

Date: May 2014

(b) Data on procedures and treatments specific to malnutrition are not centrally held. There are no procedures or treatment explicitly used for malnutrition therefore these cases cannot be identified.

Question reference: S4W-21066

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 May 2014
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 21 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-15721 by Keith Brown on 28 June 2013, how many training roles Serco NorthLink offered to new ratings in 2013-14 as a result of its work with Orkney College and how many new ratings the company plans to train in 2014-15.

In the summer season 2013, Serco NorthLink recruited six new entrant ratings into the industry. Five were from Orkney and one from Aberdeen. In 2014 Serco Northlink recruited 14 new entrant ratings from the North-East: 11 from Orkney, one from Shetland and two from the Aberdeen area.

As part of this recruitment exercise a range of mandatory training is undertaken, elements of which are delivered in conjunction with Orkney College.

The Operations Director and HR Manager from Serco NorthLink are due to visit both Orkney and Banff Colleges in the immediate future to further enhance and develop local relationships in this area.