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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: S3W-31795

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 February 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 March 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many alcohol-related accident and emergency admissions there were in NHS (a) Highland, (b) Orkney, (c) Shetland and (d) Western Isles in each of the last three years.

Information on the number of alcohol-related accident and emergency admissions in NHS (a) Highland, (b) Orkney, (c) Shetland and (d) Western Isles is not available centrally.

Information on the number of accident and emergency (A&E) attendances which resulted in an alcohol related inpatient or day case episode in hospitals in Highland, Orkney, Shetland or Western Isles is shown in table 1.

Table1: SMR01 acute¹ inpatient² and day case discharges with an alcohol-related diagnosis^3,4,5recorded in any position, where the patient was referred from an A&E department to hospitals in Highland, Orkney, Shetland and Western Isles Health Boards of treatment, 2006-07-2008-09^P:

	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09^P
Highland	172	248	101
Orkney	-	-	-
Shetland	-	*	*
Western Isles	225	135	78

^PProvisional.

Notes:

1. Excludes mental illness hospitals, psychiatric units and maternity hospitals.

2. Figures in this table relate only to those individuals who are treated as inpatients or day cases in an acute hospital. They do not include individuals managed as outpatients.

3. Discharges where alcohol-related diagnosis is recorded as primary or secondary reasons for admission to hospital.

4. Diseases recorded using the World Health Organization''s International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD10). Alcohol-related: F10, K70, X45, X65, Y15, Y90, Y91, E24.4, E51.2, G31.2, G62.1, G72.1, I42.6, K29.2, K86.0, O35.4, P04.3, Q86.0, T51.0, T51.1, T51.9, Y57.3, R78.0, Z50.2, Z71.4, Z72.1. These codes were defined in a recent in-depth review of ISD''s core alcohol related code set. Further information about the review and resulting consultation process is available at:

http://www.alcoholinformation.isdscotland.org/alcohol_misuse/3986.html.

6. Caution is necessary when interpreting these figures. The recording of
alcohol-related problems may vary from hospital to hospital.

*Indicates values that have been suppressed due to the potential risk of disclosure.

Question reference: S3W-31798

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 February 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 March 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many attendances there were at accident and emergency units in NHS (a) Highland, (b) Orkney, (c) Shetland and (d) Western Isles in each of the last three years.

The numbers of accident and emergency (A&E) new and unplanned return attendances from 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2009 are presented in the following table.

A&E departments are classified as either core or non-core sites. Core sites include all A&E departments within large hospitals. Non-core sites include minor injury units, small hospitals with manual systems and health centres in rural areas that carry out A&E type activity. Data has been collected from core sites since 1 April 2006 and from non-core sites 1 July 2007.

Table1: A&E Attendances per Calendar Year, 2007 to 2009

	2007	2008	2009
NHS Highland^(a)	62,631	91,370	94,885
Core sites	35,638	35,685	36,251
Non-core sites	26,993^(a)	55,685	58,634
NHS Orkney^(b)	2,404	2,522	3,426
Core sites	x	x	x
Non-core sites	2,404	2,522	3,426
NHS Shetland	8,880	8,802	8,875
Core sites	8,880	8,802	8,875
Non-core Sites	x	x	x
NHS Western Isles^(a)	8,676	8,544	8,599
Core sites	7,885	7,089	7,013
Non-core sites	791^(a)	1,455	1,586

Source: ISD Scotland A&E data mart (1 July 2007 to 31 December 2009) and Weblogic reporting system (1 January 2007 to 30 June 2007).

Key to symbols:

x not applicable

Notes:

(a) NHS Highland and NHS Western Isles data for non-core sites was collected from 1 July 2007.

(b) NHS Orkney data was collected from 1 January 2007. Data prior to March 2009 is not fully reflective of activity due to incomplete recording. New processes have now been implemented to resolve this issue.

Further data on attendances at accident and emergency departments can be found on the ISD website at http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/4024.html.

Question reference: S3W-31801

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 February 2010
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 8 March 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many enquiries for assistance that have not yet led to purchase have been received by the Low-cost Initiative for First-Time Buyers scheme in (a) Highland, (b) Western Isles, (c) Orkney, (d) Shetland, (e) Moray and (f) Argyll and Bute.

The following table shows the number of Open Market Shared Equity Programme (OMSEP) application forms issued, the number of application forms returned, the number of passports issued and the number of sales that have taken place. We do not centrally collate details of purchasers for all LIFT products.

	Number of application forms issued	Number of application forms returned	Number of passports issued	Number of sales up to 31 December 2009
Highland	279	125	125	72
Western Isles	3	3	2	1
Orkney	43	12	10	5
Shetland	27	2	0	0
Moray	51	9	9	0
Argyll & Bute	54	19	13	5

An update to Housing Statistics for Scotland - AHIP Summary will be published towards the end of May 2010 on the Scottish Government website and will include number of sales in the period January “ March 2010.

Question reference: S3W-31799

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 February 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 2 March 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many roadside emergency ambulance incidents there were in the NHS (a) Highland, (b) Orkney, (c) Shetland and (d) Western Isles areas in each of the last three years.

Question reference: S3W-31796

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 February 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 2 March 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many new outpatient attendances there were in NHS (a) Highland, (b) Orkney, (c) Shetland and (d) Western Isles in each of the last three years.

The number of new outpatient attendances for the last three financial years ending 31 March in Highland, Orkney, Shetland and Western Isles is shown in the following table.

Number of New Outpatient Attendances

NHS Board	2007	2008	2009
Highland	68,132	69,837	71,694
Orkney	3,094	3,175	3,286
Shetland	5,504	5,052	5,445
Western Isles	6,790	6,934	6,791

Source: ISD Scotland, ISD(s)1.

^PProvisional.

Further information on outpatient attendances can be found on the ISD website at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/4156.html.

Question reference: S3W-31802

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 15 February 2010
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 23 February 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many purchases for properties using assistance from the Low-cost Initiative for First-Time Buyers scheme have fallen through due to buyers failing to secure a mortgage on the open market.

Question reference: S3O-09372

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 February 2010
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 4 February 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive , of the 251 new schools referred to in the SNP press release of 25 January 2010, SNP build more schools than promised, how many were planned or under construction prior to May 2007.

Given normal lead-in times for major capital projects, it is not unexpected that planning and construction began on a number of the 251 schools prior to May 2007. This was the same situation faced by the first Scottish Executive administration. Of the school projects completed during the first administration''s term of office, over half were pre-devolution projects.

Responsibility for funding those projects fell largely upon the first Executive administration, just as responsibility for paying for most of the 260 projects has fallen on this government.

Question reference: S3W-30770

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 29 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects the conclusions of the traffic capacity study carried out by Scotland Transerv on the A9 Longman roundabout to be published.

Question reference: S3W-30129

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 29 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-29603 by John Swinney on 11 December 2009, whether staff continue to be paid while attending the mobile blood transfusion units visiting Scottish Government buildings during working hours.

Question reference: S3W-30508

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 21 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what emergency funding is available to ensure that no older person is unable to access key services due to the current weather conditions.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) provide cold weather payments to those in receipt of income related benefits, including pension credit, when specified criteria are met. Payments of £25 are made when the area in which the person lives is, or is forecasted to be, zero degrees celsius or below for a period of seven consecutive days. Payments are made automatically to those who qualify. As with all DWP benefits the policy on cold weather payments is reserved to the UK Government.

As for local authority and health board funding for the delivery of key services during the severe weather, both are expected to deal with some rise and fall in expenditure demands within the money allocated to them by the Scottish Government.