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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-06206

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 9 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been fined under the Protection of Animals (Scotland) Act 1912 in each financial year since 1999-2000, stating in each case the value of the fine.

The available information, which relates to calendar years, is given in the following table:

Number of persons fined for offences under the Protection of Animals (Scotland) Act 1912, 1999-2002

Year	Number fined	Average fine imposed (£)
1999	28	386
2000	23	357
2001⁽¹⁾	20	859
2002	21	371

Note:

1.The relatively high figure for average fine imposedin 2001 reflects the disproportionate effect of a small number of cases withvery high fines imposed.

Question reference: S2W-06200

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 9 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding has been spent by social inclusion partnerships on addressing (a) alcohol and (b) drug misuse in each year since their inception.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is asfollows:

Separate social inclusion partnership(SIP) funding has been allocated since 2000 to tackle controlled drugs asdefined under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 but is not allocated specifically toaddress alcohol. Although projects dealing with controlled drugs can includesupport to address alcohol misuse details of these are not held centrally.

The total grant expenditureacross the SIP network under the SIP Tackling Drugs Misuse grant amounted to£0.844 million in 2000-01, £1.088 million in 2001-02 and £1.693 million in2002-03. Expenditure details are not yet available for 2003-04.

Question reference: S2W-06201

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 9 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what resources have been allocated to the NHS for alcohol treatment in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board.

Funding for servicesaddressing alcohol problems is provided within resources allocated to NHS boardsand local authorities, but is not specifically identified by the Executive. The release of funding isconditional on alcohol action teams having agreed outcome expectations and systemsin place to measure key indicators. We will be monitoring the use of the newresources through alcohol and drug action team annual reporting arrangements.

We will be announcingspecific funding for the implementation of local alcohol action plans,including treatment and support priorities, in the near future.

Question reference: S2W-04669

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 8 March 2004

The Rural Transport Fund comprises three elements: the Rural Community Transport Initiative (RCTI), the Rural Petrol Stations Grant Scheme (RPSGS) and the Rural Public Passenger Transport Grant Scheme (RPPTGS). Scottish Borders Council received no funding under RCTI or RPSGS, but received RPPTG of £0.158 million in 1999-2000, £0.167 million in 2000-2001, £0.193 million in 2001-02 and £0.212 million in 2002-03. Councils are free to spend these funds as they see fit. The following tables show Scottish Borders Council’s distribution of these funds in 1999-2000, 2000-01 and 2001-02. The Council has yet to provide data for 2002-03. We shall continue to pursue the Council and provide the missing information separately as soon as it is received.

Rural Public Passenger Transport Grant 1999-2000 Scottish Borders Council Expenditure

Route	Amount
Service 67: Kelso - Galashiels/Galashiels - St Boswells	£47,290
Service 30: St Boswells & Lauderdale to Edinburgh	£0
Service 73: Selkirk - Galashiels	£2,548
Service 102: Peebles - West Linton-Edinburgh	£25,052
Service 223: Yetholm - Kelso-Coldstream-Berwick	£4,383
Service 67: Kelso - Galashiels (evening service)	£6,566
Service 7:3 Selkirk-Galashiels (evening service)	£3,388
Service 92: Peebles - West Lothian	£2,804
Service 60: Berwick - Duns	£479
Services 23/67: Berwick - Kelso/Kelso - Galashiels	£12,676
Service 64: Kelso - Roxburgh - St Boswells	£2,816
Service 37: Chirnside - Ayton - Eyemouth	£12,865
Service 31: Selkirk - Edinburgh/Edinburgh - Newcastle	£24,850
Service 195: Galashiels - Carlisle	£12,000
Service 114: Jedburgh - Bonchester Bridge - Hawick	£2,901
Service 174: Ettrick-Selkirk	£2,109
Ettrick-Ettrickbridge (community bus route)	£1,202
Service 130: Moffat - Yarrow-Galashiels	£6,365
Kelso - Coldstream - Wooler - Newcastle	£2,881
Total	£173,175

Rural Public Passenger Transport Grant 2000-2001 Scottish Borders Council Expenditure

Route	Amount
Service 67 Kelso - Galashiels/Galashiels - St Boswells	£41,779
Service 30 St Boswells & Lauderdale to Edinburgh	£16,311
Service 73 Selkirk - Galashiels	£3,060
Service 102 Peebles - West Linton - Edinburgh	£33,378
Service 223 Yetholm - Kelso - Coldstream - Berwick	£4,548
Service 67 Kelso - Galashiels	£6,697
Service 73 Selkirk - Galashiels	£3,456
Service 67 Kelso - Galashiels	£4,841
Service 20 Kelso - Jedburgh - Hawick	£4,189
Service 37 Chirnside - Ayton - Eyemouth	£15,907
Service 31 Selkirk - Edinburgh/Edinburgh - Newcastle	£14,535
Service 195 Galashiels - Carlisle	£12,240
Service 61 Earlston - Galashiels	£2,555
Service 174 Ettrick - Selkirk	£5,565
Ettrick-Ettrickbridge (community bus route)	£1,065
Service 130 Moffat - Yarrow - Galashiels	£6,365
Kelso - Coldstream - Wooler - Newcastle	£2,938
Defecit brought forward from previous year	£15,175
Total	£194,604

Rural Public Passenger Transport Grant 2001-2002 Scottish Borders Council Expenditure

Route	Amount
Service 61 Earlston - Galashiels	£2,800
Service 67 Kelso - Galashiels	£6,878
Service 67 Kelso - Galashiels	£4,972
Service 73 Selkirk Galashiels (Sunday service)	£2,669
Service 73 Selkirk - Galashiels	£3,549
Service 195 Galashiels - Carlisle	£35,573
Service 102 Peebles - West Linton - Edinburgh	£64,797
Service 102 Peebles - West Linton	£13,200
Service 223 Yetholm - Kelso - Coldstream - Berwick (to 30/7/01)	£1,732
Service 20 Kelso - Jedburgh - Hawick	£1,588
Service 223 Yetholm - Kelso - Coldstream - Berwick (from 30/7/01)	£3,465
Service 37 Chirnside - Ayton - Eyemouth	£18,537
Service 31 Selkirk - Edinburgh/Edinburgh - Newcastle	£16,425
Service 67 Kelso - Galashiels/Galashiels - St Boswells	£11,375
Service 31 Selkirk - Edinburgh/Edinburgh - Newcastle	£6,532
Service 195 Galashiels - Carlisle	£7,911
Service 174 Ettrick - Selkirk	£12,979
Ettrick-Ettrickbridge (community bus service)	£1,003
Service 130 Moffat - Yarrow - Galashiels	£5,243
Kelso-Coldstream - Wooler - Newcastle	£2,938
Capital expenditure (Footway between Fountainhall and bus stops on A7)	£12,500
Defecit brought forward from previous year	£27,604
Total	£266,270

Question reference: S2W-06118

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 8 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many emergency dental admissions there have been in each financial year since 1999-2000, broken down by NHS board area.

Question reference: S2W-06123

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 8 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-504 by Mr Tom McCabe on 10 June 2003, how many dentists there have been whose patient registration status shows withdrawn in each financial year from 1999-2000 to 2001-02 and this financial year to date, broken down by NHS board area.

The information requested is provided in the following table. The presence of a dentist indicates that the status of at least one of his patients is “withdrawn”. The data do not necessarily indicate all NHS general dentists who have notified patients of their withdrawal of NHS services. In some cases, dentists may not formally request that a patient’s registration be withdrawn; instead, the registration may simply be allowed to lapse.

Number of NHS General Dentists with at Least One Patient whose Registration Status shows “withdrawn”^1,2 as at 12 February 2004.

NHS Board Area	April 1999 to March 2000	April 2000 to March 2001	April 2001 to March 2002	April 2003 to December 2003
Ayrshire and Arran	72	73	75	27
Borders	23	23	28	12
Argyll and Clyde	81	80	59	26
Fife	82	82	82	44
Greater Glasgow	209	203	190	64
Highland	32	41	37	16
Lanarkshire	116	122	96	31
Grampian	104	95	94	56
Orkney	2	1	1	2
Lothian	150	143	129	48
Tayside	86	97	82	42
Forth Valley	63	62	54	25
Western Isles	7	8	7	4
Dumfries and Galloway	24	23	20	16
Shetland	4	3	2	0
Scotland	1,055	1,056	956	413

Notes:

1. Based on patients whoseregistration status shows “withdrawn” and where the start date of theregistration period is between the dates in question. This occurs when there isa request for the registration record to be withdrawn (usually a request fromthe dentist, approved by the health board). It also includes withdrawalscarried out where more than one active registration exists for the same patientas part of data cleansing. This means that some withdrawals may be carried outvia an internal process.

2. A dentist can be presentin more than one health board.

Source: MIDAS (ManagementInformation & Dental Accounting System).

Question reference: S2W-06148

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 8 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many fixed penalty notices have been issued by each local authority under the Dog Fouling (Scotland) Act 2003.

As the provisions containedin the Dog Fouling (Scotland) Act 2003 only came into effect on 22 October lastyear this information is not yet available. However, as indicated in myresponse to S2W-5987 on 26 February 2004, we intend to undertake a survey towards the end of2004 to establish how effective the provisions have been and this will includeseeking details from local authorities as to the number of fixed penalties theyhave issued.

Question reference: S2W-06437

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 8 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how it monitors local authority funding for the provision of purchased bus services.

Question reference: S2W-06370

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 8 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the cost of continuous positive airway pressure machines should be attributed to the community pharmacy budget and what the reasons are for its position on the matter.

Continuous positive airwaypressure machines may be used in the treatment of sleep apnoea. These machines arenot attributed to primary care budgets because patients whose symptoms suggestthey may be suffering from sleep apnoea are referred by their GP’s to hospitalspecialist clinics for diagnosis and treatment. If needed they are suppliedthrough the hospital service, with the cost being met from the hospital’sbudget and the patients care being managed by a relevant specialist.

Question reference: S2W-06364

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 8 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-5925 by Malcolm Chisholm on 10 February 2004, whether the number of patients waiting for a first appointment at the Sleep Centre in Edinburgh at 3 February 2004 was 1,069 and how the figure of 655 patients referred to in that answer was calculated.

I have asked for the figuregiven in response to the earlier question to be checked. This checking hasrevealed that the earlier figure, which was provided by NHS Lothian, wasincorrect, since it excluded those patients who were referred to the SleepCentre before 1 April 2003, and also excluded those patients waiting for ajoint first appointment and sleep study. I apologise for this error.

The total number of patientswaiting for a first appointment with a consultant, following referral by a GP,at the beginning of February, was indeed 1,069.