- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 February 2013
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 8 March 2013
To ask the Scottish Government how many people currently qualify for passported benefits, broken down by benefit.
Answer
The latest figures available for take up of passported benefits are shown on the following table:
| Benefit | Latest Numbers Held |
| Legal Aid | 2011-12 - 137,000 legal assistance cases (to nearest 1000). |
| Court Fee Exemptions | 2011-12 - 838 exemptions as a result of passported benefits, from 29,000 total exemptions. |
| Free School Lunches | 2012 - 130,477 children and young people in Scottish schools were registered to receive a free school lunch. This figure includes a small number of children in P1-P3, who might not meet the eligibility criteria prescribed in statue, but are registered to free school lunches as part of local initiatives designed to promote healthy eating in the early years. [Source: Summary statistics for attainment, leaver destinations and healthy living, No. 2: 2012 Edition, published June 2012] |
| Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) | 2011-12 - 34,390 young people received an EMA. |
| Individual Learning Accounts (ILA) | 2011-12 54,082 individuals funded learning using an ILA account. |
| NHS Optical Vouchers | Year ending March 2012 - 340,258 voucher claims processed for the provision of glasses/contact lenses for those on a passported benefit. However, this is a demand led service with information collected on the number of claims processed in respect of eligible people who have received a voucher towards the cost of glasses/contact lenses. An individual may receive more than one voucher a year if it is considered necessary. |
| Free NHS Dental Treatment | No figures are published. This is a demand led service which those in receipt of a passported benefit access as needed. Claims are submitted and counted for individual courses of treatment, not for individuals, and an individual may receive more than one course of treatment in a year if necessary. |
| NHS Patient Travel | This information is not collected centrally. |
| Blue Badge Parking | 125,534 out of a total of 263,045 Blue Badges on issue at 31 March 2012 were awarded to individuals who passported automatically (without further assessment) to a Blue Badge. The 125,534 includes individuals in receipt of: the Higher Rate Mobility Component of Disability Living Allowance (HRMCDLA; a War Pensioners Mobility Supplement; a lump sum (at tariffs 1-8) of the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme; blind or registered blind people. We are unable to extract from the total number of badges issued automatically how many were to individuals in receipt of HRCMDLA. [Source: Scottish Transport Statistics 2012] |
| Concessionary Travel | 283,650 people in Scotland are eligible for the higher rate of the mobility component of disability living allowance or the higher or middle rate of the care component of disability living allowance and could therefore apply for the National Concessionary Travel Scheme. Please note that this is the number for eligibility, not take up of the Scheme. [Source: DWP, Feb 2012] |
| Student Loans Exemptions | 2011-12 (academic year) under 50 borrowers were affected. |
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 February 2013
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 8 March 2013
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish the annual returns from local authorities setting out how they have implemented the Disabled Persons' Parking Places (Scotland) Act 2009.
Answer
Scottish Ministers will publish and lay before the Scottish Parliament by 30 September 2013 a report on the performance by local authorities of their function and performance in relation to the Disabled Persons’ Parking Places (Scotland) Act 2009.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 February 2013
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 8 March 2013
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with COSLA regarding the provision of resources to enable local authorities to carry out their duties under the Disabled Persons' Parking Places (Scotland) Act 2009.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-13108 on 8 March 2013. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 February 2013
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 8 March 2013
To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that local authorities comply with the Disabled Persons' Parking Places (Scotland) Act 2009.
Answer
Compliance of the Disabled Persons’ Parking Places (Scotland) Act 2009 is a matter for local authorities, not the Scottish Government.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 February 2013
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 8 March 2013
To ask the Scottish Government what resources it currently allocates to each local authority to enable them to carry out their duties under the Disabled Persons' Parking Places (Scotland) Act 2009.
Answer
The Scottish Government is providing local government in Scotland with almost £11 billion in 2012-13. It is the responsibility of each local authority to allocate the total financial resources available to it on the basis of local needs and priorities having first fulfilled its statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities including the Scottish Government’s key strategic objectives.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 February 2013
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 7 March 2013
To ask the Scottish Government how many hospital wards were closed due to norovirus in (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11 and (c) 2011-12 and have been closed in 2012-13, broken down by (i) NHS board and (ii) hospital.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally.
Health Protection Scotland (HPS) monitors and publishes point prevalence surveillance data on a weekly basis by board reporting the number of hospitals and wards closed due to presumed or confirmed norovirus. This is management information data and not official statistics. This provides an indication of the impact that the norovirus is having on NHS Scotland but it is not incidence data. For example, it would not include an outbreak which started on a Tuesday and was over by a Sunday, while a ward closure occurring on a Monday that was still on-going the following Monday would be counted twice even though it related to a single outbreak.
These norovirus prevalence reports are published by HPS at:
http://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/haiic/ic/noroviruspointprev.aspx.
We have asked HPS to produce board, hospitals and ward prevalence information for the years you have requested and I will write to you once this information becomes available. However, HPS cannot provide named hospitals within the boards.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 February 2013
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 7 March 2013
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-12122 by Alex Neil on 22 January 2013, whether the investigation into claims of bullying and intimidation at the Scottish Ambulance Service headquarters has been completed and, if so, when the report will be published.
Answer
The investigation is concluded and a report has been made. This is now a matter for the Scottish Ambulance Service to take forward.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 February 2013
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 7 March 2013
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will collect data on the (a) number and (b) geographical distribution of GPs in 2012-13 and at regular intervals thereafter.
Answer
<>The number (headcount) of GPs working in Scottish general practices will continue to be published on an annual basis at
http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/General-Practice/GPs-and-Other-Practice-Workforce/ and will add to the figures for 1988-2012 (inclusive) already published.
In addition, a 2013 survey of the GP workforce in general practices and the NHS board out of hours services is currently underway. The results of the survey, anticipated to include estimates of the whole time equivalent numbers of GPs working in Scotland overall with geographical breakdown by NHS board and CHP, will be published later in the year.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 February 2013
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 7 March 2013
To ask the Scottish Government how many vacancies there are for medical physicists, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
The information requested on how many vacancies there are for medical physicists, broken down by NHS board is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 February 2013
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 7 March 2013
To ask the Scottish Government whether the claims of bullying and intimidation at the Scottish Ambulance Academy have been investigated and, if so, when the report will be published.
Answer
I am aware that the allegations to which you refer are being investigated by the Scottish Ambulance Service. This is a matter for the Scottish Ambulance Service to take forward.
