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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-03038

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 December 1999
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 21 December 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make representations to Her Majesty's Government through the Inter-Departmental Group on Older People to change the law to reduce the council tax benefit taper which requires pensioners to pay 20p in every # earned from their occupational or private pension over the income support level towards council tax and what assessment it has made of the effect on poverty levels such a change may have.

Question reference: S1W-03064

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 December 1999
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 21 December 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review the New Warm Deal so that cross subsidy of eligible flats within a given tenemental project can be considered providing that the average grant per flat does not exceed the maximum available.

Question reference: S1W-03068

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 December 1999
Current Status: Answered by Wendy Alexander on 21 December 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the New Warm Deal will operate indefinitely and, if not, how long will it operate for.

Question reference: S1W-03008

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 1999
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 20 December 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of people who died from cold-related illnesses in the last years for which figures are available were males over 65 and females over 60.

Question reference: S1W-03007

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 1999
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 20 December 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive what is the estimated cost of ending excess winter deaths in Scotland.

Question reference: S1W-03004

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 1999
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 20 December 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive how many excess winter deaths in Scotland it estimates there will be from cold-related illnesses this winter.

Question reference: S1W-03003

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 1999
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 20 December 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people in Scotland it estimates are at risk from cold-related illness this winter.

There is no recognised and quantifiable grouping or selection of cold-related illnesses. Many illnesses, including illnesses such as coronary heart disease, may be exacerbated by cold conditions, but it is impossible to say in what proportion of these cold had an impact on the final outcome. There are therefore no figures collected centrally which would provide a simple count of those who may die of cold related illness, or on which basis any estimates of risk of illness or death, or subsequent cost to the NHS could reliably be calculated.

Whatever the issues surrounding such calculation, it is clear that cold can exacerbate poor health and that many people on low incomes can have difficulty in heating their homes adequately. In order to address this issue, a new grant scheme, called the Warm Deal, was introduced in Scotland on 1 July this year. The purpose of the scheme is to provide a package of home insulation measures up to a value of £500 for low income families. The Warm Deal can lead to savings on current fuel bills of up to £170. People can reinvest this amount to provide the extra warmth they need when they need it.The UK government has also taken a number of other measures to address these issues.

Question reference: S1W-03006

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 December 1999
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 20 December 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive what is the estimated cost to the NHS this year of treating cold-related illnesses.

Question reference: S1W-03062

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 December 1999
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 17 December 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it has undertaken to eliminate age discrimination in treatment and care within the NHS.

Question reference: S1W-02886

Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 December 1999
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 16 December 1999

To ask the Scottish Executive to list the birth and mortality rates and life expectancies for males and females for the years 1995-96, 1996-97, 1997-98 and 1998-99, broken down by health board.

The information available is given in the following tables:

Birth and death rates, by health board, Scotland, 1995 -1998
	Birth rate¹				Death rate²
	1995	1996	1997	1998		1995	1996	1997	1998
Scotland	11.7	11.6	11.6	11.2		11.8	11.8	11.6	11.6
Argyll & Clyde	11.8	11.6	11.7	10.9		12.2	12.6	12.3	12.5
Ayrshire & Arran	11.1	11.0	11.1	10.8		12.3	12.0	12.7	12.1
Borders	11.0	10.7	10.7	9.8		13.2	12.8	12.9	12.6
Dumfries & Galloway	11.1	10.9	10.6	10.3		11.9	12.8	12.4	12.3
Fife	11.5	11.0	11.0	11.0		11.3	11.4	11.2	11.5
Forth Valley	11.6	11.6	11.5	11.5		11.1	11.7	11.0	11.0
Grampian	11.5	11.4	11.4	11.4		10.3	9.9	9.8	9.9
Greater Glasgow	12.2	12.1	12.1	11.3		13.1	13.0	12.7	12.5
Highland	11.6	11.4	11.7	11.8		11.7	11.4	11.5	11.5
Lanarkshire	12.0	12.2	12.1	11.8		11.0	10.9	10.9	10.7
Lothian	12.0	11.8	11.9	11.4		11.0	11.3	10.8	10.7
Orkney	11.6	10.9	11.3	9.9		11.9	11.6	12.0	12.5
Shetland	12.6	11.7	12.4	11.6		10.1	10.9	10.6	10.6
Tayside	11.1	11.0	11.2	10.8		12.7	12.9	12.4	12.7
Western Isles	10.4	9.7	8.9	9.8		14.8	14.9	14.8	14.1
¹ Live births per 1,000 population² Deaths per 1,000 population

Expectation of life at birth, by sex and health board, Scotland
	1994-1996		1995-1997		1996-1998
	Males	Females	Males	Females	Males	Females
Scotland	72.0	77.7	72.2	77.8	72.4	77.9
Argyll & Clyde	71.0	77.2	71.2	77.3	71.1	77.3
Ayrshire & Arran	72.5	77.8	72.6	77.4	72.8	78.0
Borders	75.0	79.4	74.7	79.6	74.9	79.7
Dumfries & Galloway	73.7	78.8	73.9	79.1	74.2	79.0
Fife	73.1	78.5	73.4	78.8	73.4	78.7
Forth Valley	72.8	77.6	73.1	78.0	73.1	78.3
Grampian	73.7	79.1	73.9	79.4	74.2	79.6
Greater Glasgow	69.8	76.1	69.9	76.2	70.2	76.4
Highland	72.5	78.7	72.6	78.6	72.8	78.9
Lanarkshire	71.1	76.8	71.7	76.8	71.9	77.0
Lothian	72.8	78.1	72.9	78.2	73.0	78.2
Orkney	73.9	80.5	74.1	79.6	74.1	79.3
Shetland	71.9	79.0	72.1	80.6	72.6	80.0
Tayside	72.6	78.1	73.0	78.3	73.4	78.3
Western Isles	71.5	79.1	70.7	79.0	70.9	79.7