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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 854 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S3W-32418

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 March 2010
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 14 April 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what role the ideas of E D Hirsch on the importance of background and general knowledge played in the development of the Curriculum for Excellence.

The development of Curriculum for Excellence involved consideration of a wide range of educational research and theories. While the work of Hirsch did not have a explicit role, his theories on the importance of developing key knowledge and skills are consistent with the principles of Curriculum for Excellence.

Curriculum for Excellence aims to raise standards for every child by offering breadth, depth and progression in the development of both knowledge and skills. The curriculum guidance sets out expectations for learning, describing the stages in acquiring knowledge and skills, and in the establishment of understanding. Within this framework, subjects are an essential feature, providing an important structure for knowledge, particularly as learners progress.

Question reference: S3W-32414

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 March 2010
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 14 April 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will monitor the pilot in Glasgow schools to educate pupils regarding the importance of sleep.

Question reference: S3W-32416

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 March 2010
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 14 April 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what emphasis the Curriculum for Excellence will place on the teaching of non-European languages.

Modern languages are central to our aspirations for Curriculum for Excellence and our ambitions that all young people become responsible, global citizens equipped with the skills needed in the 21st century global marketplace. Modern languages are also key to achieving the Scottish Government''s overall purpose of creating a more successful Scotland with opportunities for all to flourish through increasing sustainable growth.

It is up to individual local authorities to tailor the shape of modern languages provision in their schools, taking into account local circumstances and demands in order to meet the needs of all their learners but we expect Curriculum for Excellence will encourage the teaching and learning of both European and non-European languages. In particular, we are seeing a significant increase in the number of young people across Scotland learning Mandarin, an increasingly important language for business purposes. This is being supported through a network of 10 Confucius Classroom Hubs serving 15 local authorities, the latest of which were launched in Fife and East Renfrewshire on 17 and 30 March respectively.

Question reference: S3W-32413

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 March 2010
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 April 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of any overseas sporting competitors withdrawing from tournaments in Scotland due to UK taxation laws.

Question reference: S3W-32421

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 March 2010
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 April 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many canisters of each type of portable oxygen were prescribed in each of the last five years and at what cost, broken down by NHS board.

The information is set out in the following tables.

Number of 460 Litre Portable Oxygen Cylinders¹ by NHS board, 2004-05 to 2008-09

NHS Board	Financial Year
NHS Board	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	976	1,492	1,862	1,953	2,269
NHS Borders	277	424	495	518	376
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	215	554	832	1,236	1,302
NHS Fife	317	717	1,229	1,454	962
NHS Forth Valley	237	260	314	579	731
NHS Grampian	534	974	1,338	1,736	1,318
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	1,074	1,732	1,996	2,727	3,446
NHS Highland	462	700	996	1,039	998
NHS Lanarkshire	958	1,032	1,026	1,374	1,483
NHS Lothian	406	750	1,085	1,640	1,443
NHS Tayside	156	441	792	890	660
NHS Island Boards²	8	23	42	169	113
Scotland Total	5,620	9,099	12,007	15,315	15,101

Number of 300 Litre Portable Oxygen Cylinders by NHS Board, 2004-05 to 2008-09

NHS Board	Financial Year
NHS Board	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	206	174	193	159	239
NHS Borders	74	34	36	26	100
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	155	150	114	102	169
NHS Fife	329	219	238	227	803
NHS Forth Valley	119	82	58	111	123
NHS Grampian	158	94	84	72	462
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	426	380	454	438	483
NHS Highland	183	179	155	105	218
NHS Lanarkshire	237	153	208	227	220
NHS Lothian	400	370	255	220	500
NHS Tayside	286	178	160	163	355
NHS Island Boards²	26	41	37	20	88
Scotland Total	2,599	2,054	1,992	1,870	3,760

Gross Ingredient Cost of 460 Litre Portable Oxygen Cylinders ¹by NHS Board, 2004-05 to 2008-09

NHS Board	Financial Year
NHS Board	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	26,268	45,351	73,055	104,718	122,391
NHS Borders	8,709	16,228	22,849	33,885	25,416
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	9,893	23,448	53,602	87,550	86,428
NHS Fife	9,800	26,258	51,984	95,617	61,977
NHS Forth Valley	16,266	18,520	20,658	41,356	53,084
NHS Grampian	19,974	34,838	55,535	92,015	88,933
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	54,066	91,165	126,203	222,599	320,824
NHS Highland	22,218	47,651	65,299	85,786	71,169
NHS Lanarkshire	47,831	50,133	60,383	95,555	92,563
NHS Lothian	21,204	42,387	68,390	118,699	111,246
NHS Tayside	5,064	18,011	46,796	74,954	42,053
NHS Island Boards²	732	1,106	2,117	13,713	8,870
Scotland Total	242,024	415,096	646,872	1,066,445	1,084,955

Gross Ingredient Cost of 300 Litre Portable Oxygen Cylindersby NHS Board, 2004-05 to 2008-09

NHS Board	Financial Year
NHS Board	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	3,725	3,889	6,851	3,284	5,042
NHS Borders	1,833	873	660	634	2,695
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	4,202	3,118	2,253	2,366	4,546
NHS Fife	9,531	6,601	4,821	5,463	22,971
NHS Forth Valley	4,151	1,837	1,320	4,902	7,617
NHS Grampian	2,974	1,634	1,839	2,101	14,657
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	18,617	17,289	18,619	18,067	20,839
NHS Highland	4,101	9,419	3,563	3,309	8,824
NHS Lanarkshire	9,571	2,852	7,562	8,918	7,764
NHS Lothian	12,637	10,680	8,120	10,349	22,998
NHS Tayside	8,506	4,357	3,725	3,506	17,165
NHS Island Boards²	944	761	782	398	2,387
Scotland Total	80,792	63,311	60,114	63,298	137,506

Notes:

1. CD type 460 litre and DD type 460 litre cylinders have been aggregated together due to low numbers and potential risk of disclosure.

2. Figures for Orkney, Shetland and Western Islands have been merged together into NHS Island Boards due to potential risk of disclosure.

Question reference: S3W-32420

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 March 2010
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 April 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients were prescribed portable oxygen in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) type of portable oxygen and (b) NHS board.

Some of this information is not held centrally. However, partial information is held by National Services Scotland and this is as follows.

The following table shows the number of patients provided with a form of portable oxygen* via National Services Scotland as at December 2008 and 2009.

NHS Board	2008	2009
Ayrshire and Arran	61	75
Borders	17	20
Dumfries and Galloway	27	34
Fife	38	57
Forth Valley	21	44
Grampian	30	55
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	130	199
Highland	22	38
Lanarkshire	29	47
Lothian	70	112
Tayside	42	52
Island Boards**	***	16

Notes:

*Includes Homefill, Portable Concentrators, BabyOx and Liquid Oxygen. Figures have been aggregated together due to low numbers and potential risk of disclosure.

**Figures for Orkney, Shetland and Western Islands have been merged together into Island Boards due to potential risk of disclosure.

***The figure here was less than five and has been removed due to potential risk of disclosure.

Additionally, information on the number of portable oxygen cylinders dispensed broken down by cylinder type and NHS board is set out in the answer to question S3W-32421 on 13 April 2010. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Question reference: S3W-32406

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 March 2010
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 April 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what the diagnosis rate per 100,000 population was for alcoholic liver disease in each of the last 10 years, broken down by NHS board.

Centrally held information does not allow the explicit identification of the diagnosis rate for alcoholic liver disease by NHS board. Patients may be diagnosed with alcoholic liver disease by their GP or in an acute hospital setting. Neither information on GP contact rates or acute hospital incidence rates would provide an accurate estimate of the number of patients diagnosed with alcoholic liver disease.

Information on discharges from acute non-obstetric, non-psychiatric hospitals is available from the Scottish Morbidity Record 01 (SMR01). Information on GP diagnosis rates is available form Practice team information (PTI). PTI data is obtained from a sample of Scottish GP practices. The PTI does not provide estimates for individual NHS boards.

Question reference: S3W-32419

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 March 2010
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 April 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were supplied with oxygen for home use in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.

Some of this information is not held centrally. However, partial information is held by National Services Scotland and is as follows.

The following table shows the number of Home Oxygen Concentrators installed as at December in each of the past five years.

Year	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Patients	3,111	3,322	3,479	3,770	3,955

The following table shows the number of Home Oxygen Concentrators installed as at the end of February 2010, broken down by NHS board. A breakdown for previous years is not available.

NHS Board	Patients
Ayrshire and Arran	336
Borders	104
Dumfries and Galloway	230
Fife	228
Forth Valley	194
Grampian	366
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	932
Highland	281
Lanarkshire	371
Lothian	651
Orkney	43
Shetland	45
Tayside	328
Western Isles	36
Total	4,145

Question reference: S3W-32755

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 March 2010
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 26 March 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what targets it expects Registers of Scotland to achieve in 2010-11.

Scottish ministers have set the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland the financial target of delivering 2% increasing cash-releasing efficiencies each year of her department''s 2010-13 Corporate Plan.

In addition, the Keeper of the Registers has set the following registration and customer service targets for 2010-11, which ministers endorse:

Where it is in the Keeper''s power and is legally appropriate, to:
Complete the registration of Sasine writs within an upper limit of 40 days, with 80% completed within 20 days
Complete the registration of Dealings with Whole carried out as ARTL transactions within 24 hours
Complete the registration of Dealings with Whole, that are not carried out as ARTL transactions, and standard First Registrations within an upper limit of 120 days, with 80% completed within 60 days
As a milestone in year four of the five-year strategy to deal with older, complex casework, where it is in the Keeper''s power and is legally appropriate, to:
Eliminate all pre-1 March 2010 First Registration casework by 31 March 2011
Eliminate 30,000 Transfer of Part cases by 31 March 2011
Achieve a registration accuracy rate of at least 98.5% for applications despatched
Achieve a 98% rating for overall customer care in the annual customer satisfaction survey
Process 98% of all customer enquiries in compliance with RoS'' published response standards
Record all applications for registration on the application record within one working day. (Entrance on the application record safeguards the rights of applicants until the registration application is determined.)

Question reference: S3W-32412

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 March 2010
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 March 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many overseas sporting competitors have come to Scotland to compete in each year since 2000.