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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: S3O-05981

Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 26 February 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what quantity of chlorofluorocarbons and hydrofluorocarbons was contained in buildings demolished in the last year.

Question reference: S3W-20927

Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2009
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Executive how many pensioners between the ages of 64 and 74 not in receipt of the guaranteed element of the pension credit have received a central heating system under the central heating programme as a result of their system being (a) broken beyond repair or (b) partial or inefficient since 22 May 2008.

Question reference: S3O-05922

Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 12 February 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive when the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing was first aware of the emergence of the new and potentially more dangerous 078 strain of Clostridium difficile in hospitals.

I was alerted to the emergence of this strain shortly before Health Protection Scotland published their Surveillance of Clostridium difficile Associated Disease in Scotland quarterly report dated 2 July 2008.

Health Protection Scotland (HPS) are undertaking further studies to better understand the virulence of this strain. Meantime, they have issued revised guidance to laboratories to allow them to build a clearer picture of ribotype distribution and antibiotic resistance in Scotland.

I have also asked Health Protection Scotland to co-ordinate a study of all Clostridium difficile ribotypes to give us an accurate picture of the epidemiology of Clostridium difficile strains across Scotland.

Question reference: S3O-05776

Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 5 February 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that the local authority settlement 2008 and 2009 provides sufficient resources for education.

Question reference: S3O-05463

Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 15 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what its reasons are for not introducing a dedicated webpage that would provide at one source publicly-accessible information on hospital-acquired infections and mortality figures for every hospital.

Work is currently in hand to develop a web based portal through which all published information relating to healthcare associated infection (HAI) can be accessed. This will include links to the data now being collected using the new infection reporting template I announced earlier this week and which ensures for the first time that clear, standardised and transparent information on infection rates and other key HAI information will be available not only at NHS board level but by hospital and specialty as well.

Question reference: S3W-18904

Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 8 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of Scottish Planning Policy 1 being superseded by Scottish Planning Policy, what the reasons are for the absence of timescales for the processing of planning applications, particularly large applications.

Question reference: S3W-18799

Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 8 January 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the reasons are for the absense in the Scottish Planning Policy document of targets or timescales for the determination of planning applications by planning authorities.

The Scottish Planning Policy (SPP) sets out the government''s priorities for planning and key policy issues rather than performance. The government intends to promote the use of processing agreements for major or national planning applications made under the Planning etc. (Scotland) Act which will link the period for determination more closely to the circumstances of each case. Where no processing agreement is in place, statutory periods for determining planning applications will remain. Accordingly, the reference to performance targets, previously set out in SPP1, was not included in the recent SPP.

From March this year, and annually thereafter, planning authorities will prepare improvement plans as part of their commitment to delivering planning reform. Following the Crerar review, and in line with the government''s commitment to the simplification of the public sector, the government wishes to see a more proportionate and coherent approach to the scrutiny of public services, involving fewer organisations, less duplication and less bureaucracy.

Question reference: S3W-18511

Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 17 December 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-16269 by John Swinney on 23 October 2008, whether it will provide in relation to each of the projects the (a) initial project announcement date, (b) project approval date, (c) contract signing date, (d) type of contract awarded or planned, for example PPP or NPD and (e) reasons for any delay.

The information requested for (a) to (d) is provided in the following table.

Project Name	(a) Date Project Publicly Announced	(b) Date Outline Business Case (OBC) Approved	(c) Date of Contract Signature
Forth Replacement Crossing	February 2007 (original), December 2007 (updated)	n/a	n/a
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde “ New South Hospital	April 2008	April 2008	n/a
Borders Railway NPD	July 2006 (original), March 2008 (updated)	n/a	n/a
Moray Council Flood Prevention Scheme for Rothes	February 2008	February 2008 ¹	Not held centrally ¹
Ravenscraig Sports Complex	October 2007	May 2004 (Stage 1 ), August 2007 (Stage 2)	March 2008
Broxburn Flood Prevention Scheme	September 2007	September 2007 ¹	Not held centrally ¹
HMP Bishopbriggs	January 2007 (original), October 2007 (updated)	November 2007	n/a
HMP Grampian	October 2007	n/a	n/a
Grampian Emergency Care Centre, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary	July 2008	July 2008	n/a
Forres flood prevention scheme	November 2007	July 2007 ¹	Not held centrally ¹
Moray Schools NPD	June 2004	March 2004 (original), February 2008 (updated)	n/a
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar Schools NPD	June 2004	December 2003 (updated), January 2006 (updated)	n/a
Orkney Islands Schools NPD	November 2006	April 2007 (updated), February 2008 (updated)	n/a
NHS Tayside - Mental Health Development NPD	May 2006	May 2006	n/a
Edinburgh to Glasgow Rail Improvement	Published in 2008 IIP ⁴	n/a	n/a
A90 Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route NPD	January 2003 (original)	n/a	n/a
M74 Raith Interchange NPD	Published in 2008 IIP ⁴	n/a	n/a
M8 Baillieston to Newhouse NPD	Published in 2008 IIP ⁴	n/a	n/a
M8 Associated Network Improvements NPD	Published in 2008 IIP ⁴	n/a	n/a
NHS Forth Valley - Clackmannanshire Community Health Services Project PPP	May 2003	May 2003	July 2007
NHS Forth Valley - Forth Valley Acute Hospital Project PPP	December 2003	December 2003	May 2007
NHS Fife - St Andrews Community Hospital and Resource Centre PPP	August 2004	August 2004	November 2007
East Dunbartonshire Schools PPP	March 2003	August 2004	August 2007
West Lothian Schools PPP2	June 2002	February 2006	August 2007
Aberdeen City Schools NPD	March 2003	December 2002	December 2007
Falkirk Schools PPP2 NPD	June 2004	February 2004	May 2007
Perth and Kinross Schools PPP	March 2003	September 2003	October 2007
Dumfries & Galloway Schools PPP	June 2002	September 2005	January 2008
West Dunbartonshire Schools PPP	October 2003	March 2004	January 2008
Inverclyde Schools PPP	June 2002	September 2004	October 2008
A7 Auchenrivock Improvement	March 2003	November 2005	November 2007
A77 Haggstone Climbing Lane and Glen App Improvement	May 2004	September 2004 ²	September 2007
The State Hospital	June 2006	June 2006	October 2007
M74 Completion	June 2006 (original), February 2008 (updated)	September 2000 ³	March 2008
Royal Botanical Gardens Gateway Visitor Centre	November 2006	May 2005	August 2007

Notes :

1. For these projects, the date of OBC approval is not held centrally. The date provided is the date that an official scheme confirmation was sent out by the Scottish Government. Contract details are also not held centrally as these projects have been procured by a public sector body other than the Scottish Government.

2. There was no OBC for this project. It was approved through the Investment Decision Making (IDM) framework which is in place to allow Transport Scotland to make key investment decisions and monitor programmes.

3. The OBC was undertaken by Glasgow City Council, South Lanarkshire Council and Renfrewshire Council in September 2000. This was prior to Scottish Government becoming a funding partner. The subsequent economic case for the scheme has been reviewed at various key stages following the Scottish Government becoming a funding partner.

4. IIP refers to the Scottish Government''s Infrastructure Investment Plan which was published on 27 March 2008.

Note also for (d) that all projects in the table have been or are being procured conventionally apart from those where PPP or NPD is highlighted in project name.

With regards to the information requested at (e), projects where the Scottish Government is not the contracting authority are not normally tracked beyond the contract signature stage. I am, however, aware of the delays to two projects: in Aberdeen City schools NPD due to the nationalisation of the main funder, Landsbanki, the Icelandic Bank, and of the decision to hold a public local inquiry in the A90 Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route.

Question reference: S3W-18573

Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 17 December 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive why the Transport Scotland website states that the motorway and trunk road preparation programme is updated quarterly but the version shown at 4 December 2008 has not been updated since June 2007.

Question reference: S3W-18574

Asked by: Ms Wendy Alexander, MSP for Paisley North, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 05 December 2008
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 17 December 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there have been changes to the motorway and trunk road preparation programme in the last 12 months and, if so, for what reason this has not been publicly reported by Transport Scotland.