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.

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Question reference: S4W-03946

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 17 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many assaults by prisoners on (a) prison officers and (b) other inmates have been recorded in each (i) prison and (ii) young offenders institution since 14 June 2010.

I have asked John Ewing, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

The following table illustrates the total number of assaults by prisoners on prison staff and other prisoners broken down by establishment. Included are serious, minor and non-injury assaults. The data is from 14 June 2010-16 November 2011.

	Prisoner on Prisoner Assaults	Prisoner on Staff Assaults
Aberdeen	28	7
Addiewell	75	37
Barlinnie	95	26
Cornton Vale	91	83
Dumfries	38	5
Edinburgh	112	25
Glenochil	49	1
Greenock	24	7
Inverness	22	2
Kilmarnock	86	19
Open Estate	4	1
Perth	84	8
Peterhead	6	8
Polmont	234	29
Shotts	18	6
Total	966	264

Question reference: S4W-03934

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 17 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to tackle sedentary behaviour in (a) early years, (b) children and young people, (c) adults and (d) older adults, as outlined in Start Active, Stay Active.

We are continuing to support a range of interventions by investing almost £3 million on physical activity projects including initiatives aimed at those specific groups furthest away from meeting the recommended physical activity guidelines, older adults and teenage girls. This is over and above National Programmes such as Active Schools which deliver almost five million opportunities for young people to be active.

Question reference: S4W-03936

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 17 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to implement “concerted action at all levels to create environments and conditions that make it easier for people to be active”, as noted in Start Active, Stay Active.

We are continuing to invest in ensuring that we provide easy access to local facilities for communities across Scotland with 37 Community Sports Hubs in place and we are committed to deliver at least 100 across all 32 local authorities by 2014.

This complements our wider approach to supporting sustainable transport activity such as cycling, walking and safer streets projects with a £7.458 million allocation this financial year across all 32 local authorities.

Question reference: S4W-03532

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 21 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 14 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many hospital admissions were as a result of deliberate self-harm by people aged (a) under 16 and (b) 16 and over in 2010-11.

The following table shows information on the number of acute hospital stays in Scotland which were associated with a diagnosis of intentional self-harm in the financial year ending 31 March 2011.

The data does not include patients treated solely within Accident and Emergency Departments. Number of acute hospital stays with a diagnosis of intentional self-harm¹; by age band for the financial year ending 31 March 2011.

Age on Admission	2010-11
Under 16	401
16 and Over	12,150
All Ages	12,551

Source: ISD Scotland, SMR01

Note: 1. Intentional self-harm has been defined as any of the following ICD-10 codes in any diagnosis position:

X60-X84 – Intentional self-harm

Y87.0 - Sequelae of intentional self-harm.

Data for NHS Scotland for 2010-11 are estimated to be only 95% complete. NHS Grampian and NHS Lanarkshire data are estimated to be 64% and 84% complete respectively. This is mainly due to the implementation of a new IT Patient Management System which has resulted in data submission backlogs for this time period. The NHS boards are working to resolve these submission issues.

Question reference: S4O-00368

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 November 2011
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what role it anticipates the Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland having once a single national police force is established.

Question reference: S4W-03698

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many deaths there were in cases where pressure ulcers or sores were (a) listed as a contributory cause or (b) mentioned anywhere on the death certificate in 2010, broken down by NHS board.

The information is not available in the requested format. For the purpose of producing statistics on causes of death, deaths registered in Scotland are classified using the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). The most relevant category in this classification is code "L89", which is used when the death certificate refers to bedsores, plaster ulcers and pressure ulcers. In all of the cases shown in the following table, the description of the underlying cause of death included a term such as "pressure sore", "pressure ulcer", "sacral sore" or "sacral ulcer".

Deaths Where Pressure Ulcers or Sores Were the Underlying Cause of Death by NHS Board Of Residence, 2010

Ayrshire and Arran	1
Borders	0
Dumfries and Galloway	0
Fife	3
Forth Valley	0
Grampian	1
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	0
Highland	1
Lanarkshire	2
Lothian	4
Tayside	1
Western Isles	0
All	13

Source: General Register Office for Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-03700

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prison sentences of three months or less have been issued since 1 February 2011.

Question reference: S4W-03704

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of prisoners has served (a) one or (b) more previous terms.

The conviction history of offenders receiving a custodial sentence is published in Table 14 of Criminal proceedings in Scotland 2009-10 (available on-line at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/01/20092640/0). This shows that 22% of individuals getting a custodial sentence in 2009-10 had one or two previous custodial sentences, and 44% had more than two.

Data for 2010-11 will be published in Reconviction rates in Scotland: 2008-09 and 2009-10 offender cohorts in summer 2012. This publication will be available on the Scottish Government website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PubReconvictions.

Question reference: S4W-03789

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 November 2011
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 9 November 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has made a formal request to the UK Government to devolve powers in relation to road safety of school transport to the Scottish Parliament, as discussed at the Public Petitions Committee on 26 October 2010 (Official Report, c. 2954).

Question reference: S4W-03534

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 21 October 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 November 2011

To ask The Scottish Executive how many orthopaedics-related outpatient appointments were there in the winters of (a) 2009-10 and (b) 2010-11, broken down by NHS board.

Information on the number of new orthopaedic attendances at a consultant-led outpatient clinic for the months of November to February 2009-10 and 2010-11 by NHS board of treatment is provided in the following table.

NHS Board of Treatment	Nov 2009	Dec 2009	Jan 2010	Feb 2010
Ayrshire and Arran	1,311	1,435	1,453	1,080
Borders	378	432	391	433
Dumfries and Galloway	441	457	489	515
Fife	1,261	1,328	1,226	1,192
Forth Valley	841	812	835	755
Golden Jubilee National Hospital	66	-	10	26
Grampian	984	985	976	889
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	4,368	4,468	3,894	3,804
Highland	852	779	741	766
Lanarkshire	1,717	1,871	1,726	1,480
Lothian	2,080	2,034	2,173	1,966
Orkney	31	11	37	21
Shetland	65	32	31	15
Tayside	1,540	1,450	1,595	1,473
Western Isles	159	93	146	103
NHS Scotland	16,094	16,187	15,723	14,518

NHS Board of Treatment	Nov 2010	Dec 2010	Jan 2011	Feb 2011
Ayrshire and Arran	1,257	1,175	1,088	915
Borders	467	249	288	309
Dumfries and Galloway	534	530	501	522
Fife	1,253	996	1,360	1,245
Forth Valley	831	691	1,165	689
Golden Jubilee National Hospital	25	27	-	27
Grampian¹	1,090	n/a	n/a	n/a
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	4,739	4,341	3,916	3,926
Highland	854	738	851	646
Lanarkshire	1,622	1,351	1,786	1,416
Lothian	2,176	2,050	1,943	1,816
Orkney	35	16	19	62
Shetland	58	21	24	35
Tayside	1,394	1,290	1,480	1,465
Western Isles	131	95	124	104
NHS Scotland	16,466	13,570	14,545	13,177

Source: ISD Scotland (SMR00) – new attendances at consultant outpatient clinics.

Data for orthopaedics specialty (C6).

Note: 1. Data for NHS Grampian are unavailable for the months of December 2010, January and February 2011. This is due to implementation of a new IT patient management system which has resulted in data submission backlogs for this time period. NHS Grampian is working to resolve these submission issues.