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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: S1W-20655

Asked by: Brian Fitzpatrick, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 December 2001
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 7 January 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-19753 by Susan Deacon on 26 November 2001, how many vacancies for NHS consultant oncologist posts there now are in the Greater Glasgow NHS Board area.

Based on information provided by local NHS management, there is currently one vacant post in the existing consultant oncologist establishment. Three further consultant posts will become vacant over the next two to three months as resignations take effect. Four new, additional consultant posts also require to be filled, funded from the additional cancer services investment plans announced by Susan Deacon on 6 November 2001.

Question reference: S1W-21079

Asked by: Brian Fitzpatrick, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 December 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 7 January 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive how many arrests have been made in the vicinity of live railway lines in each year since 1997.

Question reference: S1W-21073

Asked by: Brian Fitzpatrick, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 December 2001
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 7 January 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the number and percentage of secondary school pupils who continued their education in state schools beyond the age of 16, broken down by education authority, in each year from 1994 to date.

The numbers and percentages of pupils staying on at school in S5 above school leaving age are given in the following tables.

	Voluntary S5 roll
	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000^p
Aberdeen City	1,267	1,405	1,300	1,438	1,357	1,300	1,356
Aberdeenshire	1,938	2,136	2,017	2,043	1,977	1,965	1,912
Angus	855	880	950	934	872	896	967
Argyll & Bute	766	834	769	809	815	819	782
Clackmannanshire	369	375	392	369	401	375	383
Dumfries & Galloway	1,180	1,157	1,223	1,280	1,180	1,211	1,257
Dundee City	1,024	1,040	1,058	1,092	1,008	1,020	980
East Ayrshire	1,000	991	1,026	1,032	1,062	1,029	1,043
East Dunbartonshire	1,123	1,278	1,324	1,226	1,269	1,263	1,263
East Lothian	539	531	615	571	595	572	651
East Renfrewshire	1,008	1,001	1,052	997	1,011	1,058	1,065
Edinburgh, City of	2,119	2,448	2,406	2,419	2,407	2,407	2,421
Eilean Siar	310	324	313	305	320	259	266
Falkirk	1,094	1,086	1,243	1,151	1,174	1,174	1,165
Fife	2,788	2,987	3,078	3,082	2,934	2,918	2,913
Glasgow City	3,578	3,459	3,667	3,409	3,256	3,454	3,365
Highland	2,042	2,112	2,205	2,178	2,114	2,010	2,084
Inverclyde	782	862	862	793	744	789	757
Midlothian	618	685	675	657	622	630	638
Moray	740	711	725	825	756	695	741
North Ayrshire	1,242	1,247	1,251	1,235	1,132	1,122	1,201
North Lanarkshire	3,115	3,228	3,289	3,167	2,920	3,003	3,015
Orkney Islands	203	201	192	187	188	184	172
Perth & Kinross	957	1,018	1,034	1,083	1,073	1,147	1,043
Renfrewshire	1,477	1,619	1,646	1,591	1,457	1,490	1,517
Scottish Borders	801	856	808	856	873	872	870
Shetland Islands	227	204	243	202	203	211	203
South Ayrshire	1,094	1,072	1,092	1,173	1,048	1,042	1,062
South Lanarkshire	2,840	3,002	2,999	2,827	2,700	2,806	2,775
Stirling	733	839	795	814	793	764	793
West Dunbartonshire	837	819	906	869	861	924	913
West Lothian	1,181	1,128	1,228	1,253	1,161	1,177	1,129
Scotland	39,847	41,535	42,383	41,867	40,283	40,586	40,702

	S5 voluntary staying on rate
	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000^p
Aberdeen City	60	64	60	65	62	61	65
Aberdeenshire	67	68	66	68	71	67	67
Angus	64	65	68	66	65	64	67
Argyll & Bute	77	73	71	75	76	77	77
Clackmannanshire	64	66	65	66	70	68	68
Dumfries & Galloway	66	63	65	67	64	69	64
Dundee City	61	61	60	60	59	58	56
East Ayrshire	64	68	64	66	68	69	70
East Dunbartonshire	73	76	74	75	78	79	78
East Lothian	65	59	63	63	65	65	68
East Renfrewshire	85	83	81	82	83	84	84
Edinburgh, City of	67	68	67	68	68	70	66
Eilean Siar	69	72	77	75	76	74	75
Falkirk	67	63	70	67	70	72	69
Fife	65	67	67	68	67	69	68
Glasgow City	62	57	58	56	56	58	57
Highland	73	73	72	73	75	73	74
Inverclyde	71	70	69	69	68	72	68
Midlothian	62	63	63	63	60	63	62
Moray	71	66	66	70	68	65	71
North Ayrshire	77	70	66	67	64	66	67
North Lanarkshire	70	69	67	67	67	69	69
Orkney Islands	75	76	69	65	70	67	64
Perth & Kinross	71	71	72	73	80	76	73
Renfrewshire	69	71	70	67	66	68	66
Scottish Borders	68	67	68	70	72	73	71
Shetland Islands	67	62	63	62	67	70	71
South Ayrshire	76	74	72	71	74	71	70
South Lanarkshire	75	72	70	68	69	71	71
Stirling	69	73	72	76	76	72	79
West Dunbartonshire	68	65	66	65	64	70	70
West Lothian	62	58	61	62	61	62	60
Scotland	68	67	67	67	67	68	68

Note: The data for Glasgow City includes Jordanhill School.Data for 2000 is provisional and subject to slight revision. The figures exclude pupils who leave school in S5 on reaching the school leaving age at the end of the first term. S5 voluntary staying on rates are calculated from the number of pupils in S3 two years earlier.

Question reference: S1W-20943

Asked by: Brian Fitzpatrick, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 December 2001
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 3 January 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the percentage of children under five years old in nursery places in each education authority in each year since 1994.

The following table shows the percentage of children under five years old in nursery places in each education authority for 2001. This was the first year for which an integrated census covering both pre-school education and daycare centres was carried out. Prior to that, figures for pre-school education centres were collected separately, and annually, from the figures from daycare services, which we collected on a three-yearly cycle. From previous data sets it is not possible to consistently identify nurseries and bring together the pre-school and daycare data for the period in question. Percentage of children in each local authority attending centres describing themselves as nurseries in the week of 29 January 2001

Age at 29 January 2001	Under 1 year old	1 year old	2 years old	3 years old	4 years old
Scotland	4	8	15	56	89
Aberdeen City	7	17	24	64	96
Aberdeenshire	2	4	12	29	73
Angus	1	4	10	42	85
Argyll & Bute	2	5	12	66	84
Clackmannanshire	1	3	11	67	97
Dumfries & Galloway	2	6	10	38	82
Dundee City	2	5	11	67	94
East Ayrshire	3	5	10	47	88
East Dunbartonshire	5	8	11	62	77
East Lothian	2	4	10	56	93
East Renfrewshire	3	8	17	55	99
Edinburgh, City of	9	16	24	67	100
Eilean Siar	4	9	16	28	36
Falkirk	2	6	10	50	93
Fife	3	6	11	53	94
Glasgow City	4	9	15	66	94
Highland	3	5	10	39	84
Inverclyde	2	6	11	60	73
Midlothian	3	4	8	63	92
Moray	1	2	6	34	65
North Ayrshire	2	5	17	51	88
North Lanarkshire	2	4	14	62	84
Orkney Islands	2	8	9	71	78
Perth & Kinross	6	11	23	69	96
Renfrewshire	5	13	23	67	83
Scottish Borders	1	6	18	56	83
Shetland Islands	1	2	7	41	77
South Ayrshire	6	10	19	63	92
South Lanarkshire	5	13	22	59	87
Stirling	8	15	25	59	96
West Dunbartonshire	4	9	18	59	95
West Lothian	3	6	16	46	94

Notes:1. Participation figures are taken from the January 2001 Census of Children's Daycare and Pre-School Education, as reported by individual centres. In order to give the most complete picture possible, figures from the census have been grossed up to take account of non-response. Some alterations and imputations were also made to compensate for problems caused by incomplete or incorrect data.2. Centres were asked to select the facility type (one only from nursery, playgroup, playscheme, out of school care club, crèche or family centre) which best suited them. Centres included here are those which described themselves as nurseries; these centres may also offer other services e.g. nurseries with crèche facilities. Centres offering nursery services which have not described themselves as predominantly nurseries are not included here.3. Centres reported all children attending at any time during census week. As the census was carried out at individual centre level, any child attending more than one centre during census week will have been counted more than once. For example, if a child attended two centres, that child will have been counted once by each centre. For this reason, actual participation rates may be lower than they appear here.4. The local authority figures relate to the geographical location of each centre, rather than the area in which attending children live. Children may attend centres in local authority areas away from their homes. For example, a child living in a rural area may attend a nursery in the city in which a parent or guardian works.5. Population figures are taken from the General Register Office (Scotland) mid-year estimates for 2000.

Question reference: S1W-19873

Asked by: Brian Fitzpatrick, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 November 2001
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 3 January 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive what advice, guidance or instructions it has given North Glasgow University Hospitals NHS Trust and Greater Glasgow Health Board on the placement of recruitment advertisements in medical journals or other media for (a) locum consultant clinical oncologists and (b) permanent consultant clinical oncologists and what reports it has received from the Trust and the Board on the recruitment campaign and, in particular, the placing of the recruitment advertisements.

Question reference: S1W-20409

Asked by: Brian Fitzpatrick, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 November 2001
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 3 January 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-19754 by Susan Deacon on 26 November 2001, what assistance in terms of resources or additional service planning or provision is being given to support the measures set out in the report by Mr Tom Divers, Chief Executive of Greater Glasgow NHS Board, relating to the continuity and improvement of cancer services for users of the West of Scotland cancer service.

As indicated in the published Action Plan, a variety of additional resources and support arrangements are being established including:a dedicated Joint Management Boardan external clinical support teama project monitoring and review groupdedicated organisational development supporta full time senior manager£2.4 million of the additional funding announced on 6 November for implementation of the cancer plan is going directly to Glasgow out of a total of more than £5 million for the West of Scotland cancer services.

Question reference: S1W-19874

Asked by: Brian Fitzpatrick, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 12 November 2001
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 3 January 2002

To ask the Scottish Executive what information or reports it has received on investigations made in respect of the recruitment of consultant clinical oncologists from Hong Kong or Australia as locum consultants for the Glasgow cancer service.

Question reference: S1W-20685

Asked by: Brian Fitzpatrick, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 December 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 28 December 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what consultations have been held with the Government Actuary to determine the rate of return expected from the investment of a sum awarded as damages for future pecuniary loss in an action of damages for personal injury and when it will bring forward an order prescribing an assumed rate of return on investment of damages.

Question reference: S1W-21074

Asked by: Brian Fitzpatrick, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 December 2001
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 27 December 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to promote teaching as a career.

This year the Scottish Executive mounted the first ever major national teacher recruitment advertising campaign, with the twin objectives of improving the public perception of teaching as a worthwhile and rewarding career and increasing the number of talented people entering the profession.The success of the campaign in meeting its objectives will be judged firstly by monitoring the numbers of applicants for the 2002-03 academic session and secondly by monitoring changes in public perception, through a System 3 survey completed in November 2001 and currently under analysis.

Question reference: S1W-21071

Asked by: Brian Fitzpatrick, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 December 2001
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 27 December 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive by how much employment has risen since 1997.