- Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 May 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 16 May 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of recent reports that the incidence of low birth weight is increasing and in view of the evidence that effective smoking cessation interventions in pregnancy reduce the prevalence of low birth weight, whether the Executive has any plans to set targets for reducing smoking in pregnancy broken down by deprivation quintile, given that in 2003 the smoking rate among pregnant women was in the least-deprived quintile 13.6% but in the most-deprived quintile 35.8%.
Answer
As part of the Spending Review in 2004 the Scottish Executive announced new targets aimed at increasing the rate of health improvement for the most deprived communities. This includes a target to reduce smoking during pregnancy for mothers in deprivation quintile 5 by 10% from 35.8% in 2003 to 32.2% in 2008.
A Breath of Fresh Air for Scotland (published January 2004), the first ever Tobacco Action Plan designed specifically for Scotland, confirmed that key priority groups for action and smoking cessation support should be pregnant women, children and young people and adult smokers in deprived communities.
- Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 25 April 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 10 May 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-15561 by Cathy Jamieson on 22 April 2005, which consultancy firm carried out the further review of the criminal history service replacement project in January 2005 and what the cost of the review was.
Answer
Following a tendering exercise Real Time Engineering Ltd were commissioned in January 2005 to develop a plan which identified key outputs and milestones for the successful delivery of the criminal history system replacement project being developed by the Scottish Police Information Strategy including an informed assessment of the required human, financial and physical resources necessary to implement the plan. This consultancy cost £39,000 plus VAT.
- Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 25 April 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 10 May 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-15561 by Cathy Jamieson on 22 April 2005, which consultancy firm carried out the initial review of the criminal history service replacement project after March 2004; what the (a) cost and (b) remit was of the review, and whether the consultants were asked to assess the performance requirements of the new system.
Answer
In March 2004, Logica CMG carried out consultancy work to assess whether the project being undertaken by the Scottish Police Information Strategy would deliver a replacement criminal history system by June 2004. The cost was £3,375 plus VAT. Assessing the performance requirements of the new system was not within the remit of the Logica CMG consultancy.
- Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 25 April 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 10 May 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-15561 by Cathy Jamieson on 22 April 2005, what the total cost of the criminal history system replacement project has been to date, including consultancy costs.
Answer
The criminal history system replacement project was progressed in-house by the Scottish Police Information Strategy and they did not define a separate budget.
- Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 25 April 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 10 May 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-15561 by Cathy Jamieson on 22 April 2005, whether either of the consultancy firms which carried out the reviews of the criminal history service replacement project has any involvement with the new stages of the project and, if so, in what way.
Answer
Currently, there are no consultancy firms involved in the criminal history system replacement project being undertaken by the Scottish Police Information Strategy. Further input will be required to deliver the replacement project, particularly fresh project management. Additional input will be secured following a tendering exercise using companies appointed to the Framework for IT Services Scotland contracts.
- Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 25 April 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 10 May 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-15561 by Cathy Jamieson on 22 April 2005, what the cost of the procurement exercise will be which will run in parallel with the first phase of the new criminal history service replacement project.
Answer
A procurement exercise is not being run in parallel with the work to generate a revised project initiation document and the performance testing of the criminal history system replacement project being undertaken by the Scottish Police Information Strategy. As a contingency against concerns about performance, preparations will be undertaken for a procurement exercise.
- Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 April 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 5 May 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were diagnosed with acoustic neuroma in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board, and how many were treated with (a) ENT surgery, (b) neurosurgery, (c) stereotactic radiosurgery and (d) stereotactic radiotherapy.
Answer
Table A shows the incidence of acoustic neuroma in Scotland for 2000 to 2001. Cancer registration has included acoustic neuromas since 2000 and the cancer registry is currently considered complete up to the end of 2001. Data at NHS board level are not provided because of the small numbers involved. This is regarded as potentially identifiable in terms of the Data Protection Act 1998.
Table A
| Year of diagnosis | 2000 | 2001 |
| Scotland | 30 | 17 |
Source: ISD, NHS National Services Scotland.
Table B shows the number of patients undergoing treatment, either singly or in combination.
Table B
| Treatments | 2000 | 2001 |
| Surgery | 24 | 14 |
| Radiotherapy | 1 | 0 |
| Other therapy | 1 | 3 |
Source: ISD, NHS National Services Scotland.
Note: Details of the type of surgery and radiotherapy are not available.
- Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 April 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 3 May 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-14446 by Mr Andy Kerr on 17 March 2005, in which specific locations the treatments for acoustic neuroma (a) ENT surgery, (b) neurosurgery, (c) stereotactic radiosurgery and (d) stereotactic radiotherapy are carried out.
Answer
The information on the specific locations for ENT surgery and neurosurgery for acoustic neuroma is not held centrally. Stereotactic radiosurgery and stereotactic radiotherapy equipment is currently available in Edinburgh and Dundee.
- Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 April 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 3 May 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-14446 by Mr Andy Kerr on 17 March 2005, whether there are any treatments for acoustic neuroma that are not provided in Scotland for which patients have to be sent to another country and, if so, how many patients have been sent to other countries in each of the last five years, broken down by country.
Answer
Surgical techniques, stereotactic radiosurgery and stereotactic radiotherapy to treat acoustic neuroma are available in Scotland. An alternative method of delivery of radiotherapy treatment is a Gamma Knife. There is only one centre in the United Kingdom that provides this form of treatment.
For 2000 and 2001 (the most recent years for which data is available) the Scottish Cancer Registry has no record of any patients with acoustic neuroma being treated in other UK countries. Information is not held centrally on treatment that may have been provided in countries outside the United Kingdom.
- Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 April 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 29 April 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the finding of Professor James McEwen's review of the provision of chronic pain services that pain clinics generate direct health service savings equal to twice their running costs, what plans there are to (a) produce a national strategy for pain services and (b) fund the provision of comprehensive pain services in order to achieve these savings.
Answer
This was not a finding of Professor McEwen’s review but a quotation from one of the published studies he used as references. In recommendation 10 of his report, Professor McEwen said that it should be noted that the evidence from economic evaluations indicates that by bringing chronic pain services to an agreed standard substantial savings can be achieved. The Executive has made Professor McEwen’s report available to NHS boards and will be holding a conference to discuss best practice on pain management in the near future.
