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: S2W-06886

Asked by: Jeremy Purvis, MSP for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 25 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of its health and community care portfolio's total spending of #7,251.08 million (real terms) in 2003-04, #7,640.09 million (real terms) in 2004-05 and #8,119.80 million (real terms) in 2005-06, as detailed in the Draft Budget 2004-05, will be spent on staff costs.

Question reference: S2W-06890

Asked by: Jeremy Purvis, MSP for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 25 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of its justice portfolio's total spending of #755.29 million (real terms) in 2003-04, #783.97 million (real terms) in 2004-05 and #792.52 million (real terms) in 2005-06, as detailed in the Draft Budget 2004-05, will be spent on staff costs.

Question reference: S2W-06880

Asked by: Jeremy Purvis, MSP for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 25 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of its administration and associated departments' total spending of #243.19 million (real terms) in 2003-04, #243.79 million (real terms) in 2004-05 and #240.78 million (real terms) in 2005-06, as detailed in the Draft Budget 2004-05, will be spent on staff costs.

This answer addresses thisand questions S2W-6881 to S2W-6990 answered on 25 March 2004, in whichsimilar information for the Executive’s other portfolios is sought. Whilst theexact figures are not available, the following comparable information may be helpful.As the proportion of budgets spent on staff costs will not change significantlyfrom year to year, the following figures cover 2005-06 only, and are on a cashbasis.

The administration portfoliocovers all the Executive’s own internal staff costs for all portfolios. Plansfor 2005-06 are for £176 million gross or £163 million net of that portfolio’sbudget to be used for pay and pensions costs. But this covers only theExecutive’s own staff costs, so that it is not a reflection of how much of the Scottish budget is finally spent on pay. It will for example exclude majorelements of budgets spent on staff costs that are classified either as outsidethe relevant accounting boundaries or fall in the private sector, such as localauthority and NHS pay and pay in further and higher Education institutions, andthat element of the Executive’s funding for concessionary fares that supportsprivate sector drivers’ pay.

We can make estimates of howmuch of the budget supports staff costs in this widest sense, but cannotprovide exact figures, since this depends on decisions by a wide range ofbodies, many of whom are fully independent of the Executive. Those estimatessuggest that around 50% of the total Scottish budget is spent on pay and otherstaff costs. The following table shows an estimate of the percentage of eachportfolio’s budget that supports staff costs in this widest sense. Theseestimates serve only to give an indication of the relative importance of staffcosts in each portfolio – they are not robust enough to make conversion intoprecise budgetary figures meaningful.

Portfolio	% staff costs
Admin and Associated Depts	70
Environment and Rural Affairs	23
Health and Community Care	60
Education and Young People	73
Justice	76
Finance and Public Services	n/a*
Enterprise and Lifelong Learning	38
Transport	-**
Communities	3
Tourism, Culture and Sport	20
Crown Office	59

Notes:

*Most spending by localauthorities on pay is shown under the relevant portfolio, so for exampleteachers’ pay falls under the Education and Young People portfolio.

**Data is not available forthe % of transport grants, for example, for rail, spent on pay.

Question reference: S2O-01757

Asked by: Jeremy Purvis, MSP for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 25 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what impact the introduction of NHS 24 has had upon ambulance call-out rates.

Question reference: S2W-06885

Asked by: Jeremy Purvis, MSP for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 25 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of its enterprise and lifelong learning portfolio's total spending of #2,351.29 million (real terms) in 2003-04, #2,404.24 million (real terms) in 2004-05 and #2,438.17 million (real terms) in 2005-06, as detailed in the Draft Budget 2004-05, will be spent on staff costs.

Question reference: S2O-01493

Asked by: Jeremy Purvis, MSP for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 11 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many new homes for rented accommodation will be built in 2004-05 and 2005-06.

The Executive is on track todeliver our commitment of funding 18,000 homes for social rent and low costhome ownership by 2006. An announcement will be made shortly about how manysocial rented homes we will be approving in 2004-05.

Last October we announced a £10 million two year boost foraffordable housing in rural areas, and this week Mary Mulligan publisheddetails of 21 new projects that we will be funding next year. These projectsare spread around Scotland and will provide over 130 new affordable homes inrural areas experiencing particular need.

Question reference: S2W-06381

Asked by: Jeremy Purvis, MSP for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 23 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Frank McAveety on 26 February 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether a decision has been taken to make the former premises of the Scottish College of Textiles in Galashiels a listed building.

Question reference: S2O-01084

Asked by: Jeremy Purvis, MSP for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 15 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is policy for an NHS board to have no consultant-led maternity services.

The national policy context is laid out in the Frameworkfor Maternity Services (2001) and the report of the Expert Group on AcuteMaternity Services (EGAMS 2002). This report provides guidance for NHS boardson levels of care ensuring that all women have access to the appropriate levelof care.

The report does not stipulate that each NHS board should have a consultant-led unit for intrapartum care but recommend that local maternity services should be planned in a regional context to provide services as close to a women’s home as isconsistent with safe clinical care.

The majority of antenatal and postnatal care will be provided on a local basis within, usually, a consultant-led service. For more highly specialised care, this may not be available locally, and patients may have to travel, but it will be within an integrated regional service.

Question reference: S2O-00987

Asked by: Jeremy Purvis, MSP for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 19 December 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on whether there should be a maximum time or distance limit within which people can access consultant-led maternity services.

There arenumerous variables that can affect travel time, such as transport links,population density, weather and rurality. These factors will affect differentparts of Scotland, in different ways, at differenttimes and as such the setting of maximum times and distance is not appropriate.

TheExecutive, in line with the recommendations of the Expert Group on AcuteMaternity Services, recognises that it is more important to plan in advancewhere a woman should deliver. This will take into account previous and currentpregnancy, medical history, locally available services, likely outcomes andtransport arrangements, including travel time to a specialist unit. Thisassessment would continue throughout a woman’s labour.

Improvedante-natal identification of potential abnormalities in a baby and theeffective use of the risk criteria means that transfers can be planned andemergency transports minimised.

Question reference: S2O-00583

Asked by: Jeremy Purvis, MSP for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 9 October 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what proposals it has to improve transport infrastructure in Midlothian.