Questions and answers

Question reference: S4W-23912

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 15 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what level of (a) physiotherapy, (b) occupational therapy and (c) speech therapy each (i) NHS board and (ii) local authority provides for people who have had a stroke.

This information is not held centrally.

While policies, frameworks and resources are provided by the Scottish Government, individual NHS boards are responsible for planning and funding services in their area and for securing and determining the workforce to deliver them.

Each health board and/or local authority decides the level of stroke service required in their area with the service provided to individuals depending on local/individual need.

Personalised and integrated services for adults who have had a stroke will be strengthened further with implementation of the Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013 and the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014.

Question reference: S4O-03876

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 December 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met representatives of NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Forth Valley.

Question reference: S4F-02448

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 December 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 December 2014

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's position is on the accuracy of the reporting of crime statistics.

Question reference: S4W-22936

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 6 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how much the NHS spent on overtime payments in each month of 2013, broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) speciality.

Question reference: S4O-03595

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 October 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 October 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how it is monitoring proposals for local government budget savings to ensure that they have no adverse consequences for public safety.

Question reference: S4W-22466

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 August 2014
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 19 September 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what the "technical difficulties" are that have delayed the publication of prison statistics and projections for 2012-13.

The prison statistics published by the Scottish Government are derived from daily data from the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) live management information system. The Scottish Government statistical system is designed to rearrange detailed individual records into an accessible format suitable for a wide range of statistical analyses. There were two major IT changes across the Scottish Government during 2012 which meant that the system had to be extensively redesigned. This resulted in a backlog of data which then had to be uploaded and processed.

The complexity of the data and the system redesign mean that a range of technical problems have emerged in the course of processing the 2012-13 data, and it is anticipated it will take until the end of the year to fully resolve any outstanding issues. Once resolved, however, it is anticipated that these problems will not re-occur when processing more recent data. We are therefore planning to review our position, with a view to processing and publishing data for 2013-14 alongside the 2012-13 data in order to provide a more complete picture of recent trends, with an anticipated publication date in summer 2015.

While the Scottish Government statistical system allows more detailed analyses of trends in the prison population over time than is possible to carry out directly from the SPS information system, the latter provides accurate figures on the prison population which are published in the SPS annual reports. The annual report for 2013-14 can be found on the SPS website at:http://www.sps.gov.uk/Publications/Publication-5433.aspx.

Weekly population figures are published by SPS at:http://www.sps.gov.uk/Publications/ScottishPrisonPopulation.aspx.

The Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services have also used figures from the SPS information system to analyse recent trends in the May 2014 edition of the monthly Safer Communities and Justice brief available at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/Justicebrief.

Question reference: S4W-22227

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 August 2014
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 17 September 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what the average time from caution and charge to verdict for (a) sheriff summary and (b) Justice of the Peace court cases has been in each month since April 2014.

The overall timescales for the processing of cases are kept under review on a national basis by the justice board. Local criminal justice boards keep the position in individual courts under review and respond to changes as appropriate. The available information is given in the following table:

Average time taken (in days) for summary criminal cases (caution and charge to verdict) by month from April 2014

	Apr-14	May-14	Jun-14
District Court/Justice of the Peace Court¹	177	178	189
Sheriff Court	147	143	157

1. Data for Glasgow and Strathkelvin Stipendiary Court are included in the Justice of the Peace data. Justice of the Peace courts replaced District courts between March 2008 and February 2010.

Source: Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service Management Information

Question reference: S4W-22228

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 August 2014
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 17 September 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of (a) sheriff summary and (b) Justice of the Peace court cases in each month since April 2014 has been dealt with within 20 weeks from first calling to sentence.

The overall timescales for the processing of cases are kept under review on a national basis by the justice board. Local criminal justice boards keep the position in individual courts under review and respond to changes as appropriate. The available information has been provided by the Scottish Court Service and is given in the following table:

Summary accused persons disposed during the period - percentage disposed of within 20 weeks of 1st calling

	Apr-14	May-14	Jun-14
Sheriff Court - National	60.7%	59.7%	58.4%
JP Court - National	84.5%	84.3%	83.3%

Source: Scottish Court Service Management Information Reports

The Scottish Court Service uses a live operational case management system for the processing of court business. The information held on the system is structured for these operational needs, rather than for statistical reporting or research purposes.

The information provided is based on the best information available from the case management system as at 4 August 2014.

Question reference: S4W-22226

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 August 2014
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 17 September 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of (a) sheriff summary and (b) Justice of the Peace court cases in each month since April 2014 has been dealt with within 26 weeks from caution and charge to verdict.

The overall timescales for the processing of cases are kept under review on a national basis by the justice board. Local criminal justice boards keep the position in individual courts under review and respond to changes as appropriate. The available information is given in the following table:

Percentage of summary criminal cases dealt with within 26 weeks (caution and charge to verdict) by month from April 2014

	Apr-14	May-14	Jun-14
District Court/Justice of the Peace Court¹	64%	63%	60%
Sheriff Court	68%	68%	66%
Total	66%	66%	63%

1. Data for Glasgow and Strathkelvin Stipendiary Court are included in the Justice of the Peace data. Justice of the Peace courts replaced District courts between March 2008 and February 2010.

Source: Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service Management Information

Question reference: S4W-21812

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 June 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 15 July 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4O-03329 by Alex Neil on 11 June 2014 (Official Report, c. 32073), how many people have developed malnutrition (a) at home, (b) in hospital and (c) in residential care in each of the last five years.

Chamber and committees