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-23171

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2014
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 28 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many public sector jobs were based in Aberdeen in 2013 and how this compares with other cities in Scotland.

The Business Register and Employment Survey provide estimates of employee jobs in the public and private sector at local authority level.

The following table provides the number of people employed in the public sector in Scottish cities for 2013.

Public sector employees in Scottish cities, 2013

Local Authority	Public Sector Employees
Aberdeen City	33,100
Dundee City	23,300
Edinburgh, City of	87,300
Glasgow City	85,500
Highland	30,800
Perth and Kinross	12,800
Stirling	9,100

Source: Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES) and the Office for National Statistics

Notes:

1. Figures rounded to the nearest hundred.

2. Estimates available at local authority level only, therefore estimates for the cities of Perth, Stirling and Inverness are included within the larger local authority areas of Perth and Kinross, Stirling and Highland.

3. BRES does not include employment within HM Forces.

Question reference: S4W-23198

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 November 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 27 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many offences of wasting police time were recorded in the former Grampian Police force area in 2013-14.

Question reference: S4W-23172

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2014
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 27 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it allocated to alcohol support services in (a) Aberdeen and (b) Aberdeenshire in 2013-14.

The Scottish Government allocates funding to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) via NHS boards. In those areas where there is more than one ADP, the NHS board should agree with ADPs how this funding should be distributed between them.

Information on funding allocations to each of the three Alcohol and Drugs Partnerships (Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray) in NHS Grampian is not held centrally.

In 2013-14 a total of £3,029,458 was allocated to NHS Grampian for the funding to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships.

Question reference: S4W-23169

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 14 November 2014
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 27 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients in the NHS Grampian area have had operations in (a) private hospitals and (b) the Golden Jubilee National Hospital in order to meet waiting times targets in (i) 2012-13 and (ii) 2013-14, broken down by hospital.

The number of NHS Grampian patients who had an operation in a private hospital and at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital is provided in the following table. This information relates to acute surgical specialties and is derived from the Information Services Division Scottish Morbidity Return for inpatient and day case.

Hospital of Treatment	2012-13	2013-14
Golden Jubilee National Hospital	125	235
Fernbrae Hospital	127	152
Kirk’s Park Hospital	*	*
Murrayfield Hospital	*	*
Ross Hall Hospital	310	699

*Indicates values where the information has been suppressed as less than five patients were recorded, this prevents the potential risk of disclosure and helps to maintain patient confidentiality.

NHS Grampian have been investing to build additional capacity in their own services by making available £18 million in 2013-14 to build new theatres and employing more doctors and a further £7 million in 2014-15 to support improvements, including in the specialties of orthopaedics, general surgery and urology.

The Scottish Government policy is that NHS boards should use NHS funding to build sustainable capacity. The use of the private sector should only be used in the margins to deal with short-term capacity issues.

Question reference: S4W-23197

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 November 2014
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 26 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-17876 by Keith Brown on 6 November 2013, whether a further estimate of the cost of the Haudagain roundabout improvements has been carried out and, if so, (a) when and (b) how much was calculated.

The STAG Report prepared by Aberdeen City Council estimated that Option 5 would cost in the region of £14.5 million (May 2007 prices, and excluding VAT).

The independent cost review undertaken by Transport Scotland as part of the Stage 2 Route option confirmation process in April 2014 identified the updated construction cost for Haudagain to be in the region of £26 million (2014 prices, excluding land and VAT).

The scheme cost estimate will continue to be refined and updated as the detailed design develops.

Question reference: S4W-23196

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 November 2014
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 26 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many deaths per 1,000 of population in the NHS Grampian area were attributable to (a) alcohol and (b) other substance misuse in the latest year for which information is available, and how this compares with the national average.

Data on deaths per 1,000 population which were attributable to (a) alcohol and (b) other substance misuse are provided in the following table.

Deaths registered in 2013, per 1,000 population, by underlying cause

	NHS Grampian	Scotland
Alcohol-related	0.15	0.21
Drug-related	0.09	0.10

National statistics on both alcohol and drug related deaths, broken down by NHS board, are published annually by the National Records of Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-23060

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 November 2014
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 19 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what progress has been made in taking forward the business rates incentivisation scheme and how much it expects Aberdeen City Council will receive from it.

The Scottish Government and COSLA leaders have agreed the basis of a revised business rates incentivisation scheme (BRIS). Officials are now agreeing the final details and we expect to announce the revised scheme for 2014-15, including confirmation of the individual local authority targets, shortly.

Aberdeen City Council will retain 50 per cent of any new business rates generated over and above their agreed local BRIS target.

Question reference: S4W-23061

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 November 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 17 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government when it will announce an interim chair for NHS Grampian and when the post will be filled on a permanent basis.

Question reference: S4O-03684

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 November 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support the construction industry in North East Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-22941

Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 5 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government which NHS boards will be brought to parity with the sums identified by the NHS Scotland Resource Allocation Committee (NRAC) formula by 2016-17.

The NRAC formula is a funding approach agreed by all boards and the Technical Advisory Group on Resource Allocation that oversees the formula is a group made up of representatives from across the NHS. It is accepted that the NRAC formula will always be subject to refinement and development. In 2014-15, an update to the NRAC formula to more closely reflect remoteness and rurality came into effect.

The NRAC formula has been phased in since 2009-10. It has been made clear that any adjustments made to the 14 territorial health boards’ funding would be phased in over a number of years by way of ‘differential growth’ as has been the practice under both the previous SHARE and Arbuthnott formulae, and that no board would receive a cut in funding.

Through a combination of the revised data informing the 2014-15 NRAC formula and current forward financial planning assumptions, it is expected that no NHS board will be below one per cent from funding parity by 2016-17.