Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-40498

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 18 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of admissions for heart-related hospital admissions was repeat admissions, broken down by NHS board in each of the last five years.

The following table shows the number of admissions and the number of repeat admissions for patients admitted with a heart-related diagnosis for the financial years ending 31 March 2006 and 2010, by NHS board of residence.

A repeat admission is defined as a subsequent admission with a main diagnosis of a heart-related condition following a previous admission with a main diagnosis of a heart-related condition in the same financial year. If a patient has multiple repeat admissions then all of these are counted in the total number of repeat admissions.

It should be noted that repeat admissions may be part of a planned course of treatment or may be unrelated to the previous hospital stay. Number of admissions and the number of repeat admissions for patients with a heart-related diagnosis for the financial years ending 31 March 2006 to 31 March 2010, by NHS board of residence.

		Financial Year Ending 31 March
NHS Board of Residence		2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
NHS Scotland	Number of Admissions	56,459	54,478	53,824	52,749	50,346
	Number of Repeat Admissions	12,948	12,527	12,047	11,658	11,033
	% of Repeat Admissions	22.9	23.0	22.4	22.1	21.9
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	Number of Admissions	4,581	4,171	4,172	4,137	4,019
	Number of Repeat Admissions	1,119	1,027	972	1,072	944
	% of Repeat Admissions	24.4	24.6	23.3	25.9	23.5
NHS Borders	Number of Admissions	1,451	1,464	1,456	1,391	1,370
	Number of Repeat Admissions	328	357	336	313	280
	% of Repeat Admissions	22.6	24.4	23.1	22.5	20.4
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	Number of Admissions	1,628	1,583	1,643	1,655	1,554
	Number of Repeat Admissions	358	361	374	384	363
	% of Repeat Admissions	22.0	22.8	22.8	23.2	23.4
NHS Fife	Number of Admissions	3,692	3,577	3,523	3,692	3,325
	Number of Repeat Admissions	808	784	770	819	698
	% of Repeat Admissions	21.9	21.9	21.9	22.2	21.0
NHS Forth Valley	Number of Admissions	3,045	2,703	2,212	2,250	2,334
	Number of Repeat Admissions	750	583	361	402	469
	% of Repeat Admissions	24.6	21.6	16.3	17.9	20.1
NHS Grampian	Number of Admissions	5,095	5,101	5,271	5,120	5,099
	Number of Repeat Admissions	1,084	1,025	1,108	1,090	1,177
	% of Repeat Admissions	21.3	20.1	21.0	21.3	23.1
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	Number of Admissions	13,415	12,892	12,882	12,028	11,541
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	Number of Repeat Admissions	3,108	3,014	3,008	2,618	2,485
	% of Repeat Admissions	23.2	23.4	23.4	21.8	21.5
NHS Highland	Number of Admissions	3,705	3,735	3,720	3,779	3,425
	Number of Repeat Admissions	834	901	850	864	748
	% of Repeat Admissions	22.5	24.1	22.8	22.9	21.8
NHS Lanarkshire	Number of Admissions	6,793	6,761	6,538	6,364	5,844
	Number of Repeat Admissions	1,674	1,695	1,532	1,496	1,266
	% of Repeat Admissions	24.6	25.1	23.4	23.5	21.7
NHS Lothian	Number of Admissions	7,693	7,348	7,116	7,122	7,095
	Number of Repeat Admissions	1,633	1,607	1,510	1,496	1,591
	% of Repeat Admissions	21.2	21.9	21.2	21.0	22.4
NHS Orkney Islands	Number of Admissions	220	199	222	219	199
	Number of Repeat Admissions	51	28	48	40	43
	% of Repeat Admissions	23.2	14.1	21.6	18.3	21.6
NHS Shetland Islands	Number of Admissions	207	172	179	171	171
	Number of Repeat Admissions	44	23	27	32	42
	% of Repeat Admissions	21.3	13.4	15.1	18.7	24.6
NHS Tayside	Number of Admissions	4,505	4,339	4,568	4,486	4,039
	Number of Repeat Admissions	1,063	1,025	1,093	959	854
	% of Repeat Admissions	23.6	23.6	23.9	21.4	21.1
NHS Western Isles	Number of Admissions	429	433	322	335	331
	Number of Repeat Admissions	94	97	58	73	73
	% of Repeat Admissions	21.9	22.4	18.0	21.8	22.1

Source: ISD SMR01.

Question reference: S3W-40497

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 18 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of admissions to the Scottish Liver Transplant Unit was repeat admissions, broken down by NHS board in each of the last five years.

All liver transplants in Scotland are carried out by the Scottish Liver Transplant Unit at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. The following table shows the number of liver transplants carried out in each year from 2005-06 to 2010-11. It also shows the number of post transplant re-admissions and the average re-admissions per transplant.

Number of Liver Transplants, Post Transplant Re-admissions and Re-admissions per transplant, 2005-06 to 2010-11

	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11*
Number of Liver Transplants	42	50	60	62	74	80
Number of Post Transplant Re-admissions	151	175	156	150	140	142
Average Re-admissions per transplant	3.6	3.5	2.6	2.4	1.9	1.8

Source: Scottish Liver Transplant Unit.

Note: *2010-11 data is incomplete as financial year ends at 31 March 2011. Data received at 15 March 2011.

Question reference: S3W-40496

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 18 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of admissions for general surgery wards was repeat admissions, broken down by NHS board in each of the last five years.

The following table shows the total number of admissions and the number of repeat admissions for patients admitted to the specialty of General Surgery for the financial years ending 31 March 2006 to 31 March 2010, by NHS board of residence.

A repeat admission is defined as a subsequent admission to the specialty of General Surgery following a previous admission to General Surgery in the same financial year. If a patient has multiple repeat admissions then all of these are counted in the total number of repeat admissions.

It should be noted that repeat admissions may be part of a planned course of treatment or may be unrelated to the previous hospital stay.

Number of admissions and the number of repeat admissions for patients admitted to the specialty General Surgery for the financial years ending 31 March 2006 and 2010, by NHS board of residence.

		Financial Year ending 31 March
NHS Board of Residence		2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
NHS Scotland	Number of Admissions	185,584	190,828	191,793	198,261	201,261
	Number of Repeat Admissions	39,663	41,151	42,019	43,263	44,567
	% of Repeat Admissions	21.4	21.6	21.9	21.8	22.1
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	Number of Admissions	19,450	19,203	19,017	20,843	21,336
	Number of Repeat Admissions	5,591	5,727	5,613	5,772	6,335
	% of Repeat Admissions	28.7	29.8	29.5	27.7	29.7
NHS Borders	Number of Admissions	3,412	3,179	3,346	3,349	3,137
	Number of Repeat Admissions	642	504	602	564	554
	% of Repeat Admissions	18.8	15.9	18.0	16.8	17.7
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	Number of Admissions	7,202	7,196	8,077	7,906	8,301
	Number of Repeat Admissions	1,367	1,330	1,600	1,609	1,670
	% of Repeat Admissions	19.0	18.5	19.8	20.4	20.1
NHS Fife	Number of Admissions	11,138	11,475	11,375	9,034	9,692
	Number of Repeat Admissions	2,158	2,156	2,356	1,736	1,884
	% of Repeat Admissions	19.4	18.8	20.7	19.2	19.4
NHS Forth Valley	Number of Admissions	7,117	7,160	7,280	7,105	6,749
	Number of Repeat Admissions	1,357	1,266	1,314	1,220	1,096
	% of Repeat Admissions	19.1	17.7	18.0	17.2	16.2
NHS Grampian	Number of Admissions	15,109	15,920	15,582	16,259	15,736
	Number of Repeat Admissions	3,034	3,322	3,027	3,047	3,067
	% of Repeat Admissions	20.1	20.9	19.4	18.7	19.5
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	Number of Admissions	48,064	49,024	50,807	52,033	52,424
	Number of Repeat Admissions	10,516	10,790	11,425	11,479	11,509
	% of Repeat Admissions	21.9	22.0	22.5	22.1	22.0
NHS Highland	Number of Admissions	17,224	17,240	17,514	17,444	16,886
	Number of Repeat Admissions	3,807	3,597	3,819	3,785	3,736
	% of Repeat Admissions	22.1	20.9	21.8	21.7	22.1
NHS Lanarkshire	Number of Admissions	22,882	26,511	24,951	28,713	30,352
	Number of Repeat Admissions	5,001	6,006	5,679	7,076	7,410
	% of Repeat Admissions	21.9	22.7	22.8	24.6	24.4
NHS Lothian	Number of Admissions	16,951	16,881	17,581	18,672	19,086
	Number of Repeat Admissions	2,954	3,038	3,303	3,567	3,608
	% of Repeat Admissions	17.4	18.0	18.8	19.1	18.9
NHS Orkney Islands	Number of Admissions	1,851	1,952	1,929	2,116	2,005
	Number of Repeat Admissions	375	405	435	460	388
	% of Repeat Admissions	20.3	20.7	22.6	21.7	19.4
NHS Shetland Islands	Number of Admissions	2,380	2,462	2,312	2,091	2,199
	Number of Repeat Admissions	519	573	520	388	429
	% of Repeat Admissions	21.8	23.3	22.5	18.6	19.5
NHS Tayside	Number of Admissions	10,770	10,213	9,713	10,088	10,568
	Number of Repeat Admissions	1,883	1,856	1,734	1,860	1,926
	% of Repeat Admissions	17.5	18.2	17.9	18.4	18.2
NHS Western Isles	Number of Admissions	2,034	2,412	2,309	2,608	2,790
	Number of Repeat Admissions	459	581	592	700	955
	% of Repeat Admissions	22.6	24.1	25.6	26.8	34.2

Source: ISD SMR01.

Question reference: S3W-40097

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 16 March 2011

The figures provided in the following table are for delegated running costs for which Directors General (DG) have responsibility, and exclude capital and running costs associated with IT, buildings and other corporately-managed activities. For comparative purposes, figures have been shown in cash and real terms. However it is not possible to make meaningful year on year comparisons of spending in individual DG commands because of changes to the structure of business areas, changes to DG responsibilities, and movements of some functions into and out of the Scottish Government core. However, comparisons can be made between annual totals. These show declining spend in real terms in each of the years in question, with the biggest reduction in the final year.

	2007-08	2007-08
Directors General	Outturn	Outturn
	Cash Terms	Real Terms at 2010-11 prices
	£000	£000
Economy	39,565	42,616
Education	28,634	30,842
Environment	43,157	46,485
Health	18,915	20,374
Justice and Communities	28,132	30,302
Perm Sec Directorates	37,219	40,089
Total	195,622	210,709

	2008-09	2008-09
Directors General	Outturn	Outturn
	Cash Terms	Real Terms at 2010-11 prices
	£000	£000
Economy	25,456	26,681
Education	27,771	29,108
Environment	18,079	h18,949
Finance and Corporate Services	56,918	59,657
Health	24,923	26,122
Justice and Communities	36,822	38,594
Strategy and Ministerial Support	7,816	8,192
Total	197,785	207,304

	2009-10	2009-10
Directors General	Outturn	Outturn
	Cash Terms	Real Terms at 2010-11 prices
	£000	£000
Economy	22,020	22,703
Education	25,603	26,397
Health	25,887	26,689
Justice and Cummunities	41,474	42,760
Rural Affairs, Environment and Services	62,339	64,272
Permanent Secretary	23,285	24,007
Total	200,608	206,827

	2010-11	2010-11
Directors General	Budget	Budget
	Cash Terms	Real Terms at 2010-11 prices
	£000	£000
Enterprise and Environment	23,644	23,644
Finance	21,576	21,576
Governance and Communities	98,986	98,986
Health and Social Care	27,944	27,944
Learning and Justice	25,146	25,146
Total	197,296	197,296

Question reference: S3W-39681

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 16 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the UK Government proposal to allow civil partnerships to take place in consenting religious places, whether the law would have to be amended in Scotland to allow this and, if so, what plans the Scottish Government has to make any such amendment.

Question reference: S3W-39682

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 16 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what meetings or discussions ministers had in 2010 with (a) UK Government ministers, (b) faith leaders, (c) religious organisations and (d) other groups or organisations regarding civil partnerships in religious premises.

Question reference: S3W-39606

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2011
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 16 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will provide a substantive answer to question S3W-38732, which received a holding reply on 25 January 2011.

Question reference: S3W-40096

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 14 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what (a) agencies, (b) organisations and (c) public bodies and services it has provided with Saltire badges in each of the last four years and what the cost was.

The Saltire is Scotland''s national flag and is one of the most recognisable symbols of Scotland, encouraging a sense of pride amongst Scots. Under both this and the previous administration, the Scottish Government uses the Saltire to promote and advocate Scotland and its interests in Europe and the wider world.

We are unable to breakdown the agencies, organisations, public bodies and services provided with Saltire pin badges because this could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Question reference: S3W-40098

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 14 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has provided any (a) agencies, (b) organisations and (c) public bodies or services with (i) books and (ii) literature on old Scots dialect and, if so, what the cost was.

Question reference: S3W-40099

Asked by: George Foulkes, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 14 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what (a) guidance or (b) regulations there are on how school budgets should be spent.

There are no regulations but guidelines were issued to local authorities in February 2006 setting out the principles of Devolved School Management (DSM) which aimed to bring between 80% and 90% of school budgets under the control of headteachers. In November 2010 the Scottish Government announced a consultative review, seeking proposals for new and more flexible DSM guidance, by the end of this month.

Chamber and committees