- Asked by: Margaret Jamieson, MSP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 25 May 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how long, on average, the Scottish Public Pensions Agency takes to award an ill-health pension.
Answer
The average period from receipt of the request to the issue of the decision is currently around five weeks.
- Asked by: Margaret Jamieson, MSP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 25 May 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of all new teacher pensioners have been awarded an ill-health pension in each of the last five years.
Answer
Figures for the numbers of ill health retirements and for the percentage of all retirements to have been ill health retirements are given in the table below. They are distorted by changes in the numbers of other early retirements, particularly in 1997-98.
Year | Number | Percentage |
1999-2000 | 367 | 31% |
1998-99 | 367 | 26% |
1997-98 | 435 | 13% |
1996-97 | 424 | 19% |
1995-96 | 468 | 21% |
- Asked by: Margaret Jamieson, MSP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 May 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 24 May 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions were held with Jaeger Tailoring, Kilmarnock prior to the announcement of 180 redundancies on 9 May 2000.
Answer
Jaeger Tailoring, Kilmarnock did not contact the Scottish Executive prior to this announcement. However, Scottish Enterprise Ayrshire has been in close touch with the company in recent months. This contact will continue in order to support future operations at the company and those affected by the recent announcement. We shall ensure that such support is being provided in accordance with the principles set out in our PACE (Partnership Action for Continuing Employment) document.
- Asked by: Margaret Jamieson, MSP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 April 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 19 May 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive when it will announce the outcome of negotiations regarding pay scales to be applied to senior managers in the NHS.
Answer
The new arrangements for the pay of general and senior managers was published to the service on 2 May by a Management Executive Letter (MEL). In addition to bringing the pay of these managers under ministerial direction the new arrangements will ensure a more robust system of performance management is in place which clearly ties pay to performance and improvements to patient care.
- Asked by: Margaret Jamieson, MSP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 17 May 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any health boards refer patients to orthoptists outside the NHS and what the cost is of such referrals by each health board.
Answer
This information is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Margaret Jamieson, MSP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 April 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 17 May 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive when it will conclude its deliberations on NHS contracts and publish its Management of Change procedures for the NHS.
Answer
NHS pay is a fully devolved matter. The Scottish Executive, along with the other three Health Departments, is taking forward negotiations on
Agenda for Change - Modernising the NHS Pay System on a UK basis.
No definite timetable for concluding these negotiations has yet been set. However, it is hoped that substantial progress on the main design of a new system can be made over this summer.
- Asked by: Margaret Jamieson, MSP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 10 May 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how many colorimeters are available within the health service and what are their locations.
Answer
This information is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Margaret Jamieson, MSP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 10 May 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what research it has funded into Meares-Irlen syndrome and whether it proposes to fund any further research.
Answer
The Chief Scientist Office (CSO) within The Scottish Executive Health Department has responsibility for encouraging and supporting research into health services and patient care within the NHS in Scotland. Although CSO has received no research proposals of a sufficiently high standard on Meares-Irlen syndrome (which is the term sometimes used to refer to the collection of symptoms and signs of visual fatigue when reading) and therefore does not directly fund research on this condition at present, they would be pleased to receive applications for research funding.
- Asked by: Margaret Jamieson, MSP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Sam Galbraith on 10 May 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how many qualified specialist teachers of visually impaired pupils are employed in mainstream education in each local authority.
Answer
Figures for each local authority cannot be given due to the limited data available. The latest information however shows that, as at September 1998, there were an estimated 33 full-time equivalent (FTE) publicly funded teachers in the pre-school, primary and secondary sectors who held a specialist qualification for teaching visually impaired pupils in Scotland.
- Asked by: Margaret Jamieson, MSP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 10 May 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what the current caseload is per orthoptist in each health board.
Answer
The tables below show the available information on (a) patient attendances and (b) orthoptists, but the two tables are not directly comparable and should therefore be interpreted with caution.
Numbers of attendances of patients seen by orthoptists by health board area for financial year 1998-99 are shown in Table 1.
The number of orthoptists employed in the NHS in each of the health boards in Scotland is shown in Table 2. This table shows the number and whole time equivalent employed at 30 September 1998. This data only includes staff in post at the time of the census and does not take into account any vacancies that existed at this point in time. Therefore, it may not represent staffing levels present throughout the financial year. For this reason this data, when related to throughput of patients, cannot be used to provide a robust comparison of workload per orthoptist in each health board.
Table 1
NHSiS - Orthoptist Activity; by Health Board Area of Treatment: Year Ending 31 March 1999
| | New patients | Total attendances |
Scotland | 27,909 | 112, 063 |
Ayrshire and Arran | 1,970 | 10,656 |
Borders | 814 | 2,077 |
Argyll & Clyde | 4,009 | 12,439 |
Fife | 1,434 | 5,448 |
Greater Glasgow | 5,526 | 18,199 |
Highland | 1,218 | 6,439 |
Lanarkshire | 2,476 | 10,770 |
Grampian | 1,290 | 9,576 |
Orkney | - | 199 |
Lothian | 2,948 | 11,278 |
Tayside | 2,595 | 11,116 |
Forth Valley | 1,161 | 7,278 |
Western Isles | 43 | 356 |
Dumfries & Galloway | 2,425 | 6,232 |
Shetland | - | - |
Source: ISD Scotland (Form ISD(S)1).
Table 2
Orthoptists Employed in the NHS in Scotland by Health Board
Headcount and Whole Time Equivalent: at 30 September 1998
| | Number | WTE |
Scotland | 94 | 68.6 |
Ayrshire and Arran | 8 | 7.0 |
Borders | 3 | 1.3 |
Argyll & Clyde | 7 | 6.1 |
Fife | 5 | 3.9 |
Greater Glasgow | 24 | 15.4 |
Highland | 4 | 4.0 |
Lanarkshire | 9 | 5.5 |
Grampian | 8 | 6.6 |
Orkney | - | - |
Lothian | 8 | 5.5 |
Tayside | 8 | 7.8 |
Forth Valley | 5 | 2.7 |
Western Isles | - | - |
Dumfries & Galloway | 5 | 2.9 |
Shetland | - | - |
Source: National Manpower Statistics from payroll, ISD Scotland.
