- Asked by: Margaret McDougall, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 March 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Maureen Watt on 31 March 2015
To ask the Scottish Government what the rate of early-onset group B streptococcus infections per 1,000 live births has been and how many pregnant women have had (a) an enriched culture medium and (b) standard test for group B streptococcus carriage, in each year from 2003.
Answer
Group B Streptococcal infections are not notifiable under the terms of the Public Health (Scotland) Act 2008. Surveillance of invasive early onset Streptococcal B infection in Scotland is based on laboratory confirmed reports received through the electronic reporting system Electronic Communication of Surveillance in Scotland. Full implementation of this system took place during 2008, prior to this some laboratories may not have reported cases. Based on figures provided by Health Protection Scotland, from reviewing available data on the number of laboratory confirmed reports, gives the estimated incidence per 1000 births of early onset invasive Group B Streptococcal for the period 2009-2013 as:
| 2009 | 0.46 |
| 2010 | 0.46 |
| 2011 | 0.44 |
| 2012 | 0.47 |
| 2013 | 0.32 |
The figure for 2014 is 0.44, this is based on the number of births for 2014 extrapolated from the number of births reported for the first three quarters of 2014 and is likely to be amended later in 2015 based on the total number of births for 2014.
Data on the number of pregnant women who have had an enriched culture medium and standard test for Group B Streptococcus carriage in not collected nationally.
- Asked by: Margaret McDougall, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 March 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona McLeod on 18 March 2015
To ask the Scottish Government what additional support it is giving to councils where parents cannot access free childcare entitlement due to capacity issues.
Answer
£329 million was allocated to local authorities in agreement with COSLA for the first two years following implementation of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014. We are not aware of any local authorities unable to meet the new requirements.
Under the Act, local authorities must now consult and publish plans on the delivery of early learning and childcare. They must deliver a range of models and choice, within a framework of up to 8 hours a day across the whole year.
Most consulted voluntarily before the implementation of the Act and many have already started further consultation.
- Asked by: Margaret McDougall, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 23 February 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 6 March 2015
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the announcement in 2010 that the Spanish power company, Iberdrola, would invest £2.7 billion in Scottish business over the following two years, what companies received funding and what the nature was of each investment.
Answer
This is matter for the company, Iberdrola S.A. The information requested is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Margaret McDougall, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 23 February 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Allan on 5 March 2015
To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of (a) primary school children receives at least two hours and (b) pupils in S1 to S4 receives 100 minutes of PE each week, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
This information was published on 17 June 2014 as part of the Scottish Government Statistics Publication - Summary statistics for attainment, leaver destinations and healthy living, No. 4: 2014 Edition and can be accessed at the following address: http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0045/00453110.pdf
- Asked by: Margaret McDougall, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 23 February 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 4 March 2015
To ask the Scottish Government what (a) male, (b) female and (c) child obesity rates it recorded in each year from 2007 to 2014.
Answer
Obesity prevalence information is published in the Scottish Health Survey. The survey has run annually from 2008. The latest published information is for the 2013 survey.
The percentage of men and women aged 16 and over classified as ‘obese’ (BMI 30 or higher) in each year is as follows:
| % obese | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
| Men | 26.0 | 26.9 | 27.4 | 27.7 | 26.6 | 24.9 |
| Women | 27.5 | 27.6 | 28.9 | 27.6 | 27.5 | 29.3 |
The percentage of children aged two to 15 classified as ‘at risk of obesity’ (BMI at or above the 95th percentile) in each year is as follows:
| % at risk of obesity | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
| Children | 16.6 | 16.4 | 16.1 | 17.2 | 16.8 | 16.0 |
Child height and weight data is also collected in Scottish schools at the Primary 1 review. This data is used by Information Services Division (ISD) to produce BMI statistics, including the proportion of Primary 1 children at risk of obesity. Information on the BMI distribution (including at risk of obesity) of children in Primary 1 (aged approximately 4.5 to 6.25 years) is published on ISD’s website at:
https://isdscotland.scot.nhs.uk/Health-Topics/Child-Health/Publications/2015-02-17/P1_epidemiologicalBMI_2013_2014.xls
- Asked by: Margaret McDougall, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 23 February 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 3 March 2015
To ask the Scottish Government how much it is spending on initiatives to tackle childhood obesity and what these initiatives are.
Answer
Since 2008 the Scottish Government has directly funded NHS boards to deliver child healthy weight interventions. Three classes of intervention have been run – one to one, family group and school based supported by an annual £2 million funding.
This work goes together with a number of other initiatives whose actions indirectly support children of all ages reach and maintain a healthy weight for example supporting the actions outlined in Improving Maternal and Infant Nutrition: A Framework for Action with an annual funding of £2.5 million. A commitment of £11.6 million over 2012-16 to get children more active through two hours of physical education a week in primary schools and two periods a week for secondary school children, to more specific support of an annual £500,000 to increase the number of teenage girls participating in physical education through the Active Girls programme. In addition since 2007 sportscotland has invested over £80 million in the Active Schools Programme, support for Active Schools was reinforced on 3 July 2014 when sportscotland announced that it will invest up to £50 million over 2015-19 across all 32 of Scotland’s local authorities. Together with a number of measures to improve diet for which we are spending over £7.5 million between 2012 and 2015 on a range of projects to encourage healthy eating including the Healthier Scotland Cooking Bus as well as the Eat Better Feel Better campaign to provide advice to individuals and families on how to access and eat a healthier diet.
- Asked by: Margaret McDougall, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 23 February 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 3 March 2015
To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it makes available to (a) NHS boards and (b) local authorities for tackling obesity.
Answer
The Scottish Government and COSLA published Preventing Overweight and Obesity in Scotland A Route Map towards Healthy Weight in February 2010. The route map made a long-term commitment (over 20 years) to taking actions to prevent overweight and obesity. The route map recognised that obesity is not just a health issue – it is a consequence of our culture, society and lifestyle. The route map made it clear that work across all areas of government and public sector was required to ensure that both local and national policies are directed at supporting people to achieve and then maintain a healthy weight and to limit weight gain. This will require a level of re-prioritisation of investment to support both the short and medium term across the areas of action set out in the route map. At the time of publication it was estimated that between 2008 and 2011, up to £200 million was allocated by the Scottish Government to various organisations for actions that either directly or indirectly contributed to preventing obesity.
- Asked by: Margaret McDougall, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 23 February 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 25 February 2015
To ask the Scottish Government what (a) information and (b) guidelines it provides to NHS boards on (i) identifying and (ii) dealing with obesity in (A) adults and (B) children.
Answer
For both children and adults information and guidance on the identification and appropriate interventions is available through the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network publication SIGN 115 Management of obesity – A national clinical guideline.
- Asked by: Margaret McDougall, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 21 January 2015
To ask the Scottish Government how the coastal partnerships will feed into and work with the regional partnerships that are being established in conjunction with the draft National Marine Plan.
Answer
Local Coastal Partnerships were initially established to address local priorities and coastal zone issues. Marine planning partnerships will deliver statutory marine planning for Scottish Marine Regions out to 12 nautical miles. Where Local Coastal Partnerships want to become involved in regional marine planning, their understanding of local issues and existing engagement of stakeholders will potentially be of great benefit to the marine planning partnership. However, the precise role and relationship will be for Local Coastal Partnerships to consider as regional marine planning develops.
- Asked by: Margaret McDougall, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 21 January 2015
To ask the Scottish Government what resources will be made available to the Clyde 2020 initiative and the emerging regional marine planning partnership to (a) identify the indicators of Good Environmental Status (GES) relevant to the region and (b) deliver the practical measures needed to achieve GES by 2020.
Answer
Clyde 2020 is a broad-based initiative which aims to bring together existing activity and build on that through new action – both scientific research and practical measures – to achieve a healthier and more sustainable Clyde ecosystem.
A project steering group and a research group for Clyde 2020 are being established to facilitate the work of the Clyde 2020 programme, and additional funding of £11,063 has been provided to the Firth of Clyde Forum to contribute to work on the Clyde 2020 action plan which will be published later in 2015.
All of the eleven descriptors of GES under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive can inform our understanding of how the Clyde ecosystem operates. The directive operates at a broad regional sea level and the descriptors are designed to be relevant at that geographical level. However, there may well be linkages between action required at that broader scale and local management required for the Clyde.
The Clyde 2020 programme is being supported by existing research undertaken by Marine Scotland Science and other Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland partners.
Current research being undertaken through the European Fisheries Fund project ‘Evidence Gathering in Support of Sustainable Scottish Inshore Fisheries’, is due to report in August 2015. This research is targeted within the Firth of Clyde and should contribute to the understanding of GES and the outputs will be available to support the Clyde 2020 initiative and the marine planning partnership.
