- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 1 July 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many concessionary bus passes have been issued in each year since the scheme commenced, broken down by (a) eligible group, (b) cost to the taxpayer and (c) number of journeys undertaken in each case.
Answer
Information made available to Transport Scotland indicates that the following valid National Entitlement Cards were in circulation giving access to Scotland-wide Free Bus Travel for Older and Disabled People as of the specific dates. This information was obtained from the Local Authority Card Management System.
NECs Issued Allowing Access to Concessionary Travel
| Category of Eligibility | 23 June 2006 | 1 May 2007 | 8 April 2008 | 27 February 2009 | 10 June 2010 |
| 60+ | 767,555 | 850,890 | 926,726 | 957,852 | 1,003,065 |
| Disabled | 48,855 | 55,749 | 59,366 | 55,737 | 172,787* |
| Disabled + Companion | 66,306 | 80,082 | 88,255 | 93,005 |
| Visually Impaired | 6,457 | 5,257 | 5,179 | 4,980 |
| Visually Impaired + Companion | 9,192 | 9,876 | 11,466 | 11,272 |
| Total | =SUM(ABOVE) 898,365 | =SUM(ABOVE) 1,001,854 | =SUM(ABOVE) 1,090,992 | =SUM(ABOVE) 1,122,846 | =SUM(ABOVE) 1,175,852 |
Note: * Due to development work being undertaken with the local authority card management system, we are currently unable to obtain more recent figures broken down by disability type.
From figures held by Transport Scotland, as at 2009-10 year end, the number of journeys made each year, and the subsequent reimbursement costs to operators are as follows.
| Year | Journeys | Reimbursement |
| 2006-07 | 155.7m | £153.4m |
| 2007-08 | 158.7m | £163m |
| 2008-09 | 156.9m | £179.7m |
| 2009-10 | 151.2m | £186.8m |
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 1 July 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-7246 by Stewart Stevenson on 13 December 2007 and in light of the feasibility study carried out by Transport Scotland, whether a decision has been made on the possibility of introducing hard shoulder running.
Answer
Intervention 9 of the Scottish Government''s Strategic Transport Projects Review (
http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/stpr) has recommended using Intelligent Transport Systems on the most congested parts of the road network to enhance capacity and operations. This can include hard shoulder running.
We have completed a technical feasibility study for a pilot project for bus hard shoulder running on an 8km stretch of the northbound M77 between J4 and J1 in the morning peak period.
Subject to funding pressures, we shall take forward the project to a detailed design phase over the coming months.
We are also developing route strategies for the Forth Replacement Crossing and its approaches, the M8 and A720, and the remaining sections of the M74 and M80 (towards Glasgow). Hard shoulder running may also be appropriate at these locations.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 21 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 30 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress each local authority has made in establishing schemes for reducing council tax where improvements are made to the energy efficiency of homes, as outlined in section 65 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009.
Answer
The Scottish Government has no formal role in overseeing the introduction of such schemes under the 2009 act but we have been working with COSLA, local authorities, the energy companies and some other interested parties to support implementation. As a result, we understand that 15 local authorities currently have a scheme in place, 11 have plans which are at an advanced stage and the six remaining authorities are planning to introduce schemes for the start of the 2011-12 financial year.
The Scottish Government also provided a small amount of funding to allow COSLA and the Improvement Service to commission a review of energy efficient council tax rebate schemes in Scotland. The review has been completed and a copy of the review report, which is currently being finalised, will be placed in SPICe (Bib. number 51226) when it is published.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 17 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many transport related fines each publicly funded body has settled on behalf of its staff and at what cost in each year since 2007.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 May 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 1 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what provision is made by each NHS board to enable young people above 16 years of age to self-test and self-manage their anticoagulation therapy.
Answer
NHS boards generally do not provide support for self testing or self management of oral anticoagulation therapy (OAT) as recent evidence (which can be found at:
http://www.nhshealthquality.org/nhsqis/6010.html) and practice suggests that the process is not as cost effective as clinic-based care. However, all requests are dealt with on an individual basis currently.
The generally held clinical view is that very few young people on OAT would be eligible for consideration for self-testing and self monitoring.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 May 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 1 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken by each NHS board to facilitate the self-testing and self-management of anticoagulation therapy for appropriate patients.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-33739 on 1 June 2010. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 May 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 1 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people (a) under and (b) over 18 years of age self-test their INR for anticoagulation therapy, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
The question cannot be answered, as patient data are not held centrally.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 May 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 1 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what the estimated average cost per annum is of providing care within the NHS for a patient on anticoagulation therapy and how this compares with an estimate of the average cost of supporting a patient who is (a) self-testing and (b) self-testing and self-managing their anticoagulation therapy.
Answer
Whilst information on the costs of self-testing and self-management of oral anticoagulation therapy (OAT) is not held centrally, recent evidence (which can be found at
http://www.nhshealthquality.org/nhsqis/6010.html) and practice suggests that it is less cost effective than clinic based treatment.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 May 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 1 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people (a) under and (b) over 18 years of age both self-test their INR and self-manage their anticoagulation therapy, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
The information requested is not available centrally.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 May 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 1 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people (a) under and (b) over 18 years of age are on anticoagulation therapy, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
The numbers of patients receiving these medicines are not centrally available. However, the number of prescriptions for anticoagulants are available and he following table shows the numbers of items prescribed in Scotland during the financial year ending 31 March 2008 to 2009 inclusive, by NHS board.
Table 1. Numbers of items prescribed in Scotland during the financial year ending 31 March 2008 to 2009 inclusive, by NHS board:
| Health Board | Exemption Group1 |
| 18 or under | Over 18 | Total |
| NHS Ayrshire and Arran | 183 | 49,997 | 50,180 |
| NHS Borders | 55 | 22,901 | 22,956 |
| NHS Dumfries and Galloway | 69 | 29,408 | 29,477 |
| NHS Fife | 133 | 41,179 | 41,312 |
| NHS Forth Valley | 190 | 42,057 | 42,247 |
| NHS Grampian | 217 | 74,660 | 74,877 |
| NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde | 642 | 153,082 | 153,724 |
| NHS Highland | 203 | 60,418 | 60,621 |
| NHS Lanarkshire | 386 | 73,914 | 74,300 |
| NHS Lothian | 268 | 75,969 | 76,237 |
| NHS Orkney | 32 | 3,522 | 3,554 |
| NHS Shetland | 12 | 4,677 | 4,689 |
| NHS Tayside | 137 | 59,725 | 59,862 |
| NHS Western Isles | 8 | 7,215 | 7,223 |
| Total | 2,535 | 698,724 | 701,259 |
Source: Information Services Division Scotland. 1. Where under 16 years of age, 16 to 18 and in full-time education box has been checked. For the over 18, this is the total of all other exemption categories and includes charged prescriptions.
For the over 18, this is the total of all other exemption categories and includes charged prescriptions. British National Formulary sub sections 020801 (parenteral anticoagulants) and 020802 (Oral anticoagulants).
