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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S4W-13817

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 15 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what inspections the Care Inspectorate has recently carried out or will carry out on care homes run by Castlebeck.

Castlebeck Care Group runs three care home services in Scotland for people with learning disabilities and complex needs which are regulated by the Care Inspectorate. The dates when these services were last inspected are as follows:

Ellen Mhor, Dundee - last inspected on 2510-12

Trinity House, Lockerbie - last inspected on 19-10-12

Ranaich House, Dunblane - last inspected on 5-10-12

Castlebeck also runs Monroe House, an independent hospital in Dundee, which is regulated by Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

The Care Inspectorate and Healthcare Improvement Scotland have been working closely with Castlebeck since it went into administration in March. All Castlebeck services have been visited and the regulators have held a meeting with the Administrators and Castlebeck to agree necessary actions to ensure that standards of care are maintained.

Question reference: S4W-13852

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 15 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many communities in Scotland have signed up to the armed forces community covenant.

Question reference: S4W-13975

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 15 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government with which (a) hospitals and (b) NHS boards it has had discussions in the last two years about hospital standardised mortality ratio data and what the outcomes were.

The Scottish Government commissions Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Information Services Division to review Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratio data on its behalf, to provide feedback on their findings, and to escalate to the Scottish Government any matters of concern.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-13099 on 12 March 2013. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Question reference: S4W-13814

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 15 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what the difference is between the 98% four-hour waiting time standard for accident and emergency and the new guidance of 95%.

The 98% four hour accident and emergency treatment HEAT Standard is being maintained. Some boards are already meeting this standard but we want this to be replicated across Scotland. Through the three year unscheduled care action plan we are going to be reshaping and enhancing services to ensure that this standard is met sustainably in future, and all year round.

To get there, from a performance of 90.3% in December 2012, we are putting in place an interim additional HEAT Target of 95% performance by all boards by the year ending September 2014. This will be the first Milestone to measure progress against the planned return to the Standard performance of 98%. Boards at or above 95% will be expected to demonstrate progress towards the 98% target over the same period, and boards at 98% will be expected to demonstrate that they will be able to sustain that position. The Scottish Government wrote to all boards on 25 February, to inform them that this new target would begin in April (as part of the new HEAT year of 2013-14).

Question reference: S4W-13820

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 11 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions there have been in each of the last five years for (i) the illegal sale of and (ii) selling illicit tobacco.

The available information on the number of people proceeded against for offences which relate specifically to the illegal sale of tobacco is given in the following table.

Selling illicit tobacco is dealt with under HM Revenue and Customs and Trading Standards legislation and regulations and cannot be separately identified from other types of these offences from the information held centrally.

People proceeded against for offences related to illegal sale of tobacco, 2007-08 to 2011-12

Main Offence	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12
Selling loose cigarettes
Proceeded against	0	0	0	0	0
Convicted	0	0	0	0	0
Not displaying notice cigarettes sold to 16 and over
Proceeded against	0	1	0	1	0
Convicted	0	1	0	1	0
Offences involving tobacco and persons under 18
Proceeded against	11	15	32	17	17
Convicted	9	12	25	12	10
All offences
Proceeded against	11	16	32	18	17
Convicted	9	13	25	13	10

Source: Scottish Government Court Proceedings Database.

Question reference: S4W-13819

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 11 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions there have been for selling tobacco by unregistered sales outlets.

<>Under the Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act 2010, The Sale of Tobacco (Register of Tobacco Retailers) Regulations 2010 came into force on 1 April 2011. There were no prosecutions or convictions under Section 20 of the Act recorded in the available data to 2011-12.

Information for 2012-13 will not be available until the publication of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2012-13 Statistical Bulletin. This is due to be published in November 2013.

The dates of all Scottish Government Official and National Statistics publications are pre-announced, and the up to date list of future publications can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Search/Forthcoming.

Source: Scottish Government Court Proceedings data

Question reference: S4W-13818

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 11 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that all guns in Scotland are licensed appropriately.

Firearms legislation is a reserved matter. At an operational level, police firearms departments are responsible for ensuring that only legitimate users with good reason to possess a firearm, and suitable security arrangements in place, are granted a firearm or shotgun certificate. The Scottish Government is responsible for issuing licences to shooting clubs and museums, as well as authorities for individuals to possess “specially dangerous” weapons as defined by section 5 of the Firearms Act 1968.

The Scottish Government remains committed to introducing a system of licensing for air weapons, using the powers granted under the Scotland Act 2012. A public consultation on this issue concluded on 15 March 2013, and we will seek to introduce legislation at the earliest opportunity.

Question reference: S4W-13828

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 11 April 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many prosecutions there have been for (a) selling alcohol to a person under 18, (b) selling alcohol to someone who is already intoxicated and (c) purchasing and supplying alcohol to a person under the age of eighteen in each of the last three years.

The available information is given in the following table:

People proceeded against in Scottish Courts for specific alcohol offences¹

	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12
Sale of drink to person under 18	143	109	52
Sale of alcohol to drunk person²	1	2	1
Purchasing excisable liquor for consumption by person under 18	156	98	64

1. Where main charge.

2. Prosecuted under Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976 Section 76 and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 Section 113(1)

Source: Scottish Government Courts Proceedings data

Question reference: S4O-02011

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S4W-13829

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2013
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 28 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government in how many cases of testing for alcohol by the police levels have been found to be below 80mg per 100ml of blood but above 50mg or the equivalent levels for urine tests in each of the last three years.

This information is not held by the Scottish Government. Transport Scotland publishes its Reported Road Casualties report annually. This report includes estimates of drink driving accidents, accident costs, and an estimate of under-counting of road casualties. The report provides estimates where the driver of the vehicle was over the current legal drink driving limit (80 milligrams (mg) of alcohol in every 100 millilitres of blood). This information is accessible and can be found in The Reported Road Casualties Scotland 2010 report. Table 22 (page 125) provides the information requested. The link to this document is:

http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/strategy-and-research/publications-and-consultations/j199237-00.htm.

If the Scottish Parliament agrees to approve regulations to lower the drink drive limit,

The Reported Road Casualties report will report estimates of drink driving accidents where the driver of the vehicle was over the new lower limit.