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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

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Question reference: S2W-09026

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 8 July 2004

The cost of bank nurses, broken down by NHS board area, is shown in the table below. Information on agency nurses is published in tables E12 to E15 on the Scottish Health Statistics website at www.isdscotland.org/workforce.Table E14 provides a breakdown of agency nurse costs by NHS board area. Information for the year 2003-04 is not currently available.

Table A: Cost of Bank Nursing and Midwifery staff; trend by NHS Board

	Bank Cost
1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03
Total	21,604,589	24,887,686	31,262,459	38,964,926
Qualified	12,583,106	14,500,531	17,418,060	21,009,771
Argyll and Clyde	1,062,302	916,881	1,433,734	1,439,255
Ayrshire and Arran	597,460	712,906	636,966	670,635
Borders	441,479	388,994	499,133	577,034
Dumfries and Galloway	26,108	52,375	131,702	112,050
Fife	816,222	1,017,115	993,307	1,353,110
Forth Valley	285,853	357,867	490,591	1,223,219
Grampian	1,816,785	2,231,590	2,183,714	2,453,245
Greater Glasgow	2,205,412	2,669,129	3,014,238	3,889,517
Highland	701,147	867,490	1,057,952	1,153,761
Lanarkshire	509,310	853,111	790,805	1,271,099
Lothian	2,892,078	3,169,205	4,827,831	5,399,373
Orkney	72,737	92,516	164,120	182,335
Shetland	79,335	90,038	100,874	141,900
Tayside	887,211	906,948	950,294	871,909
Western Isles	103,215	158,853	128,788	213,512
Special Health Boards	69,780	10,803	8,614	46,711
Unqualified	9,021,483	10,387,155	13,844,399	17,955,155
Argyll and Clyde	610,977	589,300	1,099,805	1,227,354
Ayrshire and Arran	841,888	1,099,425	1,182,610	1,425,957
Borders	351,405	406,807	519,456	538,621
Dumfries and Galloway	5,307	-	15,413	3,261
Fife	572,585	578,472	624,662	747,370
Forth Valley	190,639	304,281	395,774	1,210,864
Grampian	977,906	1,265,578	1,514,693	1,504,279
Greater Glasgow	1,824,883	2,455,682	3,500,659	4,842,372
Highland	371,654	445,277	558,409	687,574
Lanarkshire	413,156	661,852	762,735	1,117,152
Lothian	2,342,527	1,917,739	2,797,841	3,609,200
Orkney	24,598	26,321	51,865	56,755
Shetland	49,532	51,090	52,765	64,455
Tayside	161,643	470,356	653,401	778,223
Western Isles	59,288	118,029	116,884	149,803
Special Health Boards	240,168	1,655	2,824	3,021

Source: Earning Related Base Of Data

Bank nurses are employees of NHSScotland whilst agency nurses are employed by private nursing agencies and both are utilised by individual NHS employers to cover temporary nursing gaps. These gaps will continue to occur but employers have been encouraged to follow the guidance in Temporary Measures the Accounts Commission for Scotland Report 2000 on reducing usage and costs through a hierarchy of options in which preference for bank is higher than more expensive agency nurses.

The Partnership Agreement commits to implementing nationally co-ordinated nursing bank arrangements in Scotland and a project is currently examining a range of options to reduce the reliance on agency nurses, assist nurse placement across Scotland and improve patient services. This will report in the autumn.

The Scottish Health Workforce Plan 2004 Baseline report published inApril 2004, focuses on our drive to increase our capacity, reduce waiting times,improve outcomes and provide care in new and better ways.

Question reference: S2W-09292

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 7 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how much capital debt is owed by each local authority, expressed as also per capita.

Question reference: S2W-09306

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 6 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of all victims of sexual assault in each of the last five years was children.

Question reference: S2W-09197

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 1 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to paragraph 5.1 of Final Consensus Statement of the Royal College of Physicians' Consensus Conference on Hepatitis C, what measures it is taking, and are planned, to reduce non-attendance at hepatitis C virus services (HCV), enhance referral to HCV services, improve data collection and service audit within the framework of managed clinical networks.

Question reference: S2W-09194

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 1 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to paragraph 4.4 of Final Consensus Statement of the Royal College of Physicians' Consensus Conference on Hepatitis C, what its response is in respect of the call for new drug therapies.

The regulation and safety of medicines is reserved and is the responsibility of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MRHA), or, for certain types of drugs, the European Medicines Agency (EMEA).

The MRHA has advised that any new drug applications, including those for Hepatitis C must achieve the required standards of safety, quality and efficacy before being granted a licence. The Scottish Executive would welcome any new drug therapies, which satisfied these criteria.

Question reference: S2W-09192

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 1 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to paragraph 3.3 of Final Consensus Statement of the Royal College of Physicians' Consensus Conference on Hepatitis C, what measures are being taken to encourage patient involvement, given that half of those referred do not attend clinics.

Question reference: S2W-09296

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 1 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-8837 by Cathy Jamieson on 18 June 2004, how many people were convicted of drink-driving in (a) 1999-2000, (b) 2000-01 and (c) 2001-02.

Question reference: S2W-09193

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 1 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to paragraph 3.6 of Final Consensus Statement of the Royal College of Physicians' Consensus Conference on Hepatitis C, how many outreach clinics there are for patients with hepatitis C, broken down by NHS board area.

Question reference: S2W-09195

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 1 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many hepatitis C patients there have been in (a) Scotland as a whole and (b) each NHS board area in (i) 1999-2000, (ii) 2000-01, (iii) 2001-02, (iv) 2002-03, (v) 2003-04 and (vi) 2004-05 to date.

The latest available figures are for the year ended 31 December 2003, and are set out in the table below.

Persons in Scotland Reported to be Hepatitis C Antibody-Positive; Number and Rate/100000 Population* by NHS Board and Year of Earliest Positive Specimen to 31 December 2003

	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Argyll and Clyde	Number	160	149	128	163	127
Rate/100,000	37.6	35.2	30.4	38.9	30.5
Ayrshire and Arran	Number	119	145	103	145	149
Rate/100,000	31.8	38.8	28.0	39.5	40.6
Borders	Number	3	8	5	11	13
Rate/100,000	2.8	7.5	4.7	10.2	12.0
Dumfries and Galloway	Number	34	57	88	54	46
Rate/100,000	23.2	39.1	59.5	36.7	31.2
Fife	Number	62	66	63	37	30
Rate/100,000	17.8	18.8	18.0	10.6	8.5
Forth Valley	Number	86	98	81	91	67
Rate/100,000	31.0	35.3	29.0	32.6	24.0
Grampian	Number	278	381	343	341	320
Rate/100,000	52.9	72.8	65.2	65.2	61.1
Greater Glasgow	Number	753	701	644	845	576
Rate/100,000	83.1	77.5	74.2	97.6	66.5
Highland	Number	41	34	47	43	44
Rate/100,000	19.7	16.3	22.5	20.7	21.0
Lanarkshire	Number	110	131	95	180	124
Rate/100,000	19.6	23.3	17.2	32.6	22.4
Lothian	Number	186	266	209	181	103
Rate/100,000	23.9	33.9	26.8	23.2	13.2
Orkney	Number	0	0	1	2	0
Rate/100,000	0.0	0.0	5.2	10.4	0.0
Shetland	Number	1	5	2	3	3
Rate/100,000	4.4	22.3	9.1	13.7	13.7
Tayside	Number	128	134	95	229	177
Rate/100,000	33.0	34.8	24.4	59.1	45.8
Western Isles	Number	0	0	0	0	0
Rate/100,000	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Scotland	Number	1961	2175	1904	2325	1779
Rate/100,000	38.3	42.5	37.6	46.0	35.2

Source: The Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health, Glasgow, Scotland – 24 June 2004.

Note:

*Based on population estimates at 30 June of given year.

Question reference: S2W-09190

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 18 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 1 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the key messages of Final Consensus Statement of the Royal College of Physicians' Consensus Conference on Hepatitis C, what resources have been allocated to improving the (a) prevention of hepatitis C and (b) delivery of care to patients with hepatitis C in (i) 1999-2000, (ii) 2000-01, (iii) 2001-02, (iv) 2002-03, (v) 2003-04 and (vi) 2004-05 to date in (1) Scotland as a whole and (2) each NHS board area.

As recommended in the Report of the HIV Health Promotion Strategy Review Group, published in January 2001, the Executive extended the earmarked HIV prevention funding provided annually to NHS Boards to include other bloodborne viruses, particularly Hepatitis C. Funding for this purpose was accordingly increased from £6.1 million in 1999-2000 to £8.1 million in 2001-02. Allocations to individual boards are shown in the table below.

NHS Board	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Argyll and Clyde	£415,922	£415,922	£415,922	£415,922
Ayrshire and Arran	£370,000	£350,000	£350,000	£350,000
Borders	£116,498	£115,498	£115,498	£115,498
Dumfries and Galloway	£116,804	£115,804	£115,804	£115,804
Fife	£408,062	£408,061	£408,061	£408,061
Forth Valley	£276,705	£276,705	£276,705	£276,705
Grampian	£690,825	£690,825	£690,825	£690,825
Greater Glasgow	£1,555,208	£1,560,208	£1,560,208	£1,560,208
Highland	£200,197	£200,197	£200,197	£200,197
Lanarkshire	£441,775	£441,775	£441,775	£441,775
Lothian	£2,505,627	£2,524,627	£2,524,627	£2,524,627
Orkney	£39,000	£36,000	£36,000	£36,000
Shetland	£56,000	£55,000	£55,000	£55,000
Tayside	£854,377	£861,377	£861,377	£861,377
Western Isles	£48,000	£47,000	£47,000	£47,000
State Hospital	£24,000	£20,000	£20,000	£20,000
Totals	£8,119,000	£8,119,000	£8,119,000	£8,119,000

In addition, the Executive has provided an additional £34 million to NHS boards and local authorities over the three years 2001-02 to 2003-04 to support treatment and rehabilitation programmes for drug misusers, including those who inject drugs. There is evidence that treatment reduces the use of illegal drugs and levels of injecting. Sharing of contaminated injecting equipment is one of the main routes through which Hepatitis C can be transmitted.

As well as these specific allocations, NHS boards are given a unified budget to meet the healthcare needs of their resident populations. It is for each board to decide how best to utilise this funding, based on their assessment of local needs, including Hepatitis C