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-18763

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 7 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of recommendations made by the Smoking Prevention Working Group, what steps it is taking to reduce the volume of tobacco smuggled into Scotland.

As I made clear in my statement to the Parliament on 21 May 2008 when I launched the Smoking Prevention Action Plan Scotland''s Future is Smoke-free which is based on the recommendations of the Smoking Prevention Working Group, the Scottish Government is keen to see proposed action to tighten the enforcement of illegal sales from legitimate business, matched by firm action on sales of smuggled and counterfeit tobacco. Fiscal policy matters are reserved to Westminster. However, in line with the HM Revenue and Customs and the UK Border Agency''s integrated strategy Tackling Tobacco Smuggling Together the Scottish Government, the Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland and HM Revenue and Customs/the UK Border Agency have been exploring how best to work in partnership to reduce the impact of these illicit sales on Scottish communities. We will be making an announcement early in 2009 about this collaboration.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/05/19144342/0.

Question reference: S3O-04767

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 November 2008
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 13 November 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to support fishermen in the west of Scotland.

Question reference: S3W-16995

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 27 October 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what the level was of (a) balance sheet and (b) non-balance sheet debt for each local authority in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S3W-16766

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 October 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHS complaints were (a) responded to within target timescales, (b) upheld and (c) regarded as being dealt with satisfactorily by the original complainant each year since 1997, also broken down by NHS board.

Information Services Division (ISD) holds certain information on complaints made against Hospital & Community Health and Family Health Services. Summary information is also held on NHS24 and Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service complaints. A set of four tables, under the title of NHS Complaints Statistics and setting out the available data, can be obtained from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 46798).

It should be noted that:

The target for acknowledging NHS complaints is three days.

The target for responding to NHS complaints is 20 days.

Comprehensive information on the response times and outcomes for the Family Health Service complaints is not held centrally.

Specific information on whether complainants considered their complaint was dealt with satisfactorily is not held centrally.

Question reference: S3W-16767

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 October 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what the prescribing budget was (a) nationally and (b) for each NHS board in each year since 1997, both in real and cash terms.

NHS boards do not have a ring-fenced prescribing budget. Expenditure on Prescribing is met from within their overall budget allocations.

Information on expenditure for Prescribing is provided in following tables:

1. Drug Expenditure for Financial Years Ending 31 March 1997 to 31 March 2008

Provided in Cash Terms (Bib. number 46770).

2. Drug Expenditure for Financial Years Ending 31 March 1997 to 31 March 2008

Provided in Real Terms (Bib. number 46771).

Question reference: S3W-16994

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 October 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 22 October 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of total expenditure each local authority spent on frontline services in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S3W-16453

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 September 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 30 September 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it would cost to remove the car park charges from the PFI hospital car parks in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee.

Question reference: S3W-15744

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 August 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 12 September 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many babies have been born addicted to drugs in each year since 1997, also broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) local authority area.

The information requested in each year from 1997-98 to 2004-05 is provided in a document containing four tables, a copy of which is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 46517).

Information for 2005-06 and 2006-07 will become available in the 2008 Drugs Misuse Report, which is due to be released later this year at:

http://www.drugmisuse.isdscotland.org/publications/abstracts/ISDbull.htm.

Question reference: S3W-15746

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 August 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 12 September 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many emergency contraception treatments were dispensed by the NHS in each year since 1997, also broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) local authority area.

The figures below show the numbers of prescription items dispensed in Scotland for Levonorgestrel^® products licensed for use as emergency hormonal contraception (EHC). The following table gives figures by NHS board for 1997-98 to 2007-08, information by local authority is not held centrally.

These figures do not capture all emergency contraception treatments supplied under the NHS. Depending on the model of service delivery some data from Family Planning Clinics and Community Pharmacies is not held centrally.

	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02
NHS Scotland	0	0	864	19,134	29,706
NHS Argyll and Clyde¹	0	0	50	1,057	1,752
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	0	0	60	1,388	1,935
NHS Borders	0	0	*	692	963
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	0	0	15	605	1,008
NHS Fife	0	0	56	1,728	2,260
NHS Forth Valley	0	0	128	1,545	2,076
NHS Grampian	0	0	96	2,199	3,200
NHS Greater Glasgow	0	0	190	3,451	4,637
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde²	-	-	-	-	-
NHS Highland (pre April 2006)	0	0	68	1,243	1,629
NHS Highland (post April 2006)²	-	-	-	-	-
NHS Lanarkshire	0	0	85	1,884	3,158
NHS Lothian	0	0	51	1,684	4,354
NHS Orkney	0	0	*	125	176
NHS Shetland	0	0	*	161	196
NHS Tayside	0	0	47	1,275	2,198
NHS Western Isles	0	0	*	97	164

	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
NHS Scotland	32,563	31,894	27,198	25,751	22,343	20,905
NHS Argyll and Clyde¹	2,033	2,060	1,831	1,714	-	-
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	1,606	1,302	1,009	968	783	714
NHS Borders	988	880	881	773	713	614
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	1,007	1,006	614	589	435	445
NHS Fife	1,812	1,617	1,150	1,054	808	709
NHS Forth Valley	2,215	2,284	1,967	1,471	1,282	1,037
NHS Grampian	3,154	3,038	2,761	2,594	2,176	2,190
NHS Greater Glasgow	5,139	5,123	4,634	4,946	-	-
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde²	-	-	-	-	5,613	5,035
NHS Highland (pre April 2006)	1,792	1,675	1,461	1,479	-	-
NHS Highland (post April 2006)²	-	-	-	-	1,623	1,541
NHS Lanarkshire	3,864	3,924	3,427	3,145	2,927	2,772
NHS Lothian	6,083	6,093	5,060	4,790	4,065	3,968
NHS Orkney	193	235	162	115	86	99
NHS Shetland	231	212	188	182	152	130
NHS Tayside	2,256	2,261	1,914	1,814	1,559	1,548
NHS Western Isles	190	184	139	117	121	103

Notes:

1. NHS Argyll and Clyde ceased to exist as a single entity from April 2006.

2. From April 2006, the Argyll and Bute part of old NHS Argyll and Clyde was absorbed into NHS Highland and the remainder into NHS Greater Glasgow to become NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

*These numbers have been suppressed in order to protect against the risk of disclosure for small numbers (<5).

Data in the table refer to prescriptions dispensed by community pharmacists and dispensing doctors in Scotland, but do not take into account medicines dispensed by hospitals or hospital based clinics.

Question reference: S3W-15745

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 August 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 11 September 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many acute hospital beds there were in each year since 1997, also broken down by (a) NHS board area and (b) acute hospital.