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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: S2W-21994

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 31 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many freedom of information requests it dealt with from 1 January 2005 to 23 December 2005; how many of these requests it responded to within 20 working days, and how many are still outstanding.

Information on numbers of requests received and timeliness of responses to requests in the first six months of 2005 is available in a report on information request handling in the Scottish Executive. This report is available in the Scottish Parliament’s Information Centre (Bib. number 37868) and on the freedom of information pages of the Scottish Executive Website. The Executive will be publishing the report for requests received during the period 2 July 2005 – 31 December 2005 in March once the figures for this period have been analysed.

Question reference: S2W-21995

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 31 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive which Scottish Executive department has received the most freedom of information requests.

Question reference: S2W-21999

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 31 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what research it has carried out since 1999 to examine the economic impact of independence and, in particular, whether it would have a positive impact on the Scottish economy.

Question reference: S2W-21996

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 31 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many requests for information under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 that it has handled resulted in a fee notification being issued and how many of those applicants proceeded with their request after the notice was issued.

Question reference: S2W-22018

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 31 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many of its officials have received an honour in the (a) Queen’s Birthday Honours List and (b) New Year’s Honours List in each year since 1999.

The number of Scottish Executive officials who have received an honour in the (a) Queen’s Birthday Honours List and (b) New Year’s Honours List in each year since 1999 are detailed in the following table.

Honours List	Awards
New Year 2006	6
Birthday 2005	7
New Year 2005	6
Birthday 2004	5
New Year 2004	5
Birthday 2003	7
New Year 2003	8
Birthday 2002	6
New Year 2002	6
Birthday 2001	7
New Year 2001	4
Birthday 2000	7
New Year 2000	10
Birthday 1999	5
New Year 1999	9

Question reference: S2W-22452

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 30 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of convicted sex offenders were recorded as having a mental health problem in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S2W-22421

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 26 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-19911 by Mr Andy Kerr on 7 November 2005, how many neurologists and specialist registrars working in neurology there have been in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board area.

Question reference: S2W-22420

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 26 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-14562 by Mr Andy Kerr on 16 March 2005, what the most recent average waiting times are for a first out-patient appointment with a neurology consultant following referral by a GP, broken down by NHS board area.

NHSScotland has made excellent progress in reducing long waits for patients. On 30 September 2005, the number of patients waiting more than 26 weeks for a first outpatient appointment with a consultant in neurology, following referral, was 986 compared with 1,841 on 30 September 2004 - a reduction of 46%.

The number of first out-patient neurology appointments and the median waiting time for a first out-patient appointment with a consultant in the specialty of neurology, following referral by a general medical practitioner, by NHS board of residence, in the year ended 30 September 2005, is given in the table.

NHSScotland: Number of First Out-Patient Appointments and Median Waiting Times for a First Out-Patient Appointment with a Consultant in the Specialty of Neurology, Following Referral by a General Medical Practitioner, by NHS Board Area of Residence, Year Ended 30 September 2005^P

NHS Board	Number of Appointments	Median Waits (Days)
Argyll and Clyde	1,226	101
Ayrshire and Arran	547	95
Borders	323	100
Dumfries and Galloway	264	85
Fife	1,197	118
Forth Valley	671	74
Grampian	1,924	54
Greater Glasgow	3,750	92
Highland	395	130
Lanarkshire	1,067	127
Lothian	4,758	36
Orkney	16	60*
Shetland	22	74*
Tayside	1,401	188
Western Isles	55	168

Scotland	17,616	83

Source: SMR00, ISD Scotland.

^pProvisional.

Notes:

*Figures should be treated with caution as they are derived from a possible unrepresentatively small number of appointments (more than 14 but less than 50).

Excludes patients with an Availability Status Code.

Question reference: S2W-22451

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 26 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of individuals convicted of violent assault since 1999 have reoffended within one year of their release.

The available information is given in the following table.

Persons Released from a Custodial Sentence or Given a Non-Custodial Sentence in 1999-2002 Whose Index Conviction¹ was for a Violent Crime: Percentage Reconvicted Within One Year

	Percentage Reconvicted Within 1 Year
	1999	2000	2001	2002
All Violent Crime	22	24	23	24
Serious assault and homicide ²	16	18	20	19
Robbery	36	37	35	39
Simple assault	22	24	23	24
Other Violence	17	18	22	21

Notes:

1. For each offender in the cohort, this is the conviction which resulted in a non-custodial sentence being served or the one which had originally led to a custodial sentence being served.

2. Includes murder, culpable homicide, attempted murder and serious assault.

Question reference: S2W-22187

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 25 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many jobs have been lost in (a) textiles, (b) tourism, (c) electronics, (d) farming, (e) the public sector and (f) other sectors in the Scottish Borders in each year since 1999.