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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: S4W-06195

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 23 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children have been treated for alcohol addiction in each year since 2007, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S4W-06198

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 21 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on how many (a) grocers, (b) butchers, (c) bakers, (d) fishmongers, (e) newsagents, (f) confectioners, (g) tobacco retail outlets and (h) wholesalers there have been in each year since 2007.

Data on business sites by industrial sector are available from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR). The IDBR, maintained by the Office for National Statistics, is a database of all enterprises registered for VAT and/or PAYE in the UK. Those excluded are small businesses with no employees and an annual turnover below the VAT threshold (£70,000 at March 2011).

Business sites are categorised on the IDBR according to the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC). It is not possible to obtain figures for the exact categories requested due to the SIC structure. The data in the following tables are the closest SIC equivalents. Note that the SIC 2003 codes have now been replaced by new SIC 2007 codes. Data for 2008-11 are provided on a SIC2007 basis (Table 1), whereas data for 2007 are provided on a SIC2003 basis (Table 2). Therefore the data for 2007 are not directly comparable with that for 2008-11. Note also that it is not possible to identify newsagent retail outlets specifically for the year 2007 using the SIC2003 codes.

Table 1: Business Sites in Selected Codes (SIC2007), Scotland, March Each Year

SIC 2007	Description	2008	2009	2010	2011
46310	Wholesale of fruit and vegetables	210	210	190	180
46320	Wholesale of meat and meat products	175	170	155	150
46350	Wholesale of tobacco products	10	10	5	5
46360	Wholesale of sugar and chocolate and sugar confectionary	35	45	45	45
46380	Wholesale of other food, including fish, crustaceans and molluscs	280	265	265	270
47210	Retail sale of fruit & vegetables in specialised stores	400	355	365	360
47220	Retail sale of meat and meat products, in specialised stores	755	730	725	700
47230	Retail sale of fish, crustaceans and molluscs, in specialised stores	275	260	245	250
47240	Retail sale of bread, cakes, flour confectionary and sugar confectionary in specialised stores	815	810	820	835
47260	Retail sale of tobacco products in specialised stores	280	240	220	215
47620	Retail sale of newspapers and stationery in specialised stores	580	595	640	635

Source: Inter-Departmental Business Register, Office for National Statistics.

Notes:

Business site counts are rounded to the nearest five.

Business sites are the individual sites within an enterprise i.e. every store, branch, office.

Table 2: Business Sites in Selected Codes (SIC2003), Scotland, March 2007

SIC 2003	Description	2007
51310	Wholesale of fruit and vegetables	190
51320	Wholesale of meat and meat products	200
51350	Wholesale of tobacco products	10
51360	Wholesale of sugar and chocolate and sugar confectionary	30
51380	Wholesale of other food, including fish, crustaceans and molluscs	300
52210	Retail sale of fruit and vegetables	480
52220	Retail sale of meat and meat products in specialised stores	770
52230	Retail sale of fish, crustaceans and molluscs in specialised stores	280
52240	Retail sale of bread, cakes, flour confectionary and sugar confectionary in specialised stores	845
52260	Retail sale of tobacco products in specialised stores	350

Source: Inter-Departmental Business Register, Office for National Statistics.

Notes:

Business site counts are rounded to the nearest five.

Business sites are the individual sites within an enterprise i.e. every store, branch, office.

Question reference: S4O-00840

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 March 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what recent discussions it has had with police forces regarding the development and upgrade of emergency service communication equipment.

Question reference: S4W-06001

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 13 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what communities it has identified as being at risk from flooding.

Scotland’s first National Flood Risk Assessment was published by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency on 22 December 2011.

This National Flood Risk Assessment identified locations called Potentially Vulnerable Areas where potentially significant flood risk exists. This national picture of flood risk across Scotland is a key milestone in targeting efforts to plan and invest in reducing impacts in areas most vulnerable to flooding. This will help Scotland become more resilient to the potential impacts of flooding.

The National Flood Risk Assessment can be found on the Scottish Environment Protection Agency’s website at:

http://www.sepa.org.uk/flooding/flooding_publications.aspx.

Question reference: S4W-06009

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been spent on books for public libraries by each local authority in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S4W-06007

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many public libraries have been closed by each local authority in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S4W-06008

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 12 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many mobile libraries have been provided by each local authority in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S4W-06022

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 12 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how much income universities will receive from undergraduate fees from the rest of the UK in the current academic year.

Question reference: S4W-06000

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 8 March 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting time is to see a hearing specialist in the last year, broken down by NHS board.

The way audiology services are provided has continued to change over the last year with many more boards now offering a one stop clinic service. This means that some patients receive their consultation and where appropriate are fitted with a hearing aid or start any treatment in the one visit.

The following information provides the median wait for patients who received a first contact appointment with a hearing specialist for each quarter of 2011, by NHS board. Information has also been provided showing the median wait for patients who were seen by a hearing specialist at a one-stop clinic for each quarter in 2011, by NHS board.

Median Wait for Patients Seen at a First Contact Appointment for Quarters Ending March, June, September and December 2011

NHS Board	March 2011 (Weeks)	June 2011 (Weeks)	Sept 2011 (Weeks)	Dec 2011 (Weeks)
Ayrshire and Arran	x	x	x	x
Borders	9	4	6	9
Dumfries and Galloway	19	7	6	4
Fife^(a)	5	5	8	4
Forth Valley	23	12	8	12
Grampian	7	7	8	8
Greater Glasgow and Clyde^(b)	6	6	5	4
Highland	8	10	9	6
Lanarkshire	3	5	3	4
Lothian	6	9	7	6
Orkney	2	1	2	2
Shetland^(c)	7	10	7	10
Tayside	31	19	13	13
Western Isles^(c)	29	17	7	6

Median Wait for Patients Seen at a One-Stop Clinics for Quarters Ending March, June, September and December 2011

NHS Board	March 2011 (Weeks)	June 2011 (Weeks)	Sept 2011 (Weeks)	Dec 2011 (Weeks)
Ayrshire and Arran	x	x	x	x
Borders	7	5	5	6
Dumfries and Galloway	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Fife^a	13	12	12	12
Forth Valley^d	SP	SP	SP	SP
Grampian	SP	SP	SP	SP
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Highland	SP	SP	11	8
Lanarkshire	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Lothian^e	SP	SP	SP	7
Orkney	SP	SP	SP	SP
Shetland	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Tayside	37	21	13	13
Western Isles	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

Source: ISD Scotland.

Notes:

X Data not available.

SP Service provided but patients’ waits reported as first contact appointment.

n/a one-stop clinic service not provided.

(a) NHS Fife only record paediatric patients’ wait for a first outpatient contact appointment. All adult patients are seen at one stop clinics.

(b)Clyde data is not available for quarters March and June 2011 due to system issues.

(d) NHS Forth Valley started recording adult patients seen at a one-stop clinic in November 2011 and data is still under development.

(e) Provide a one-stop service for a small number of paediatric patients only.

Question reference: S4W-05559

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 February 2012
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 23 February 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children are in temporary accommodation, broken down by local authority.

Information on the number of children in temporary accommodation is collected at the end of each quarter. The most recent information available is for 31 December 2011.

At 31 December 2011, there were a total of 5,259 dependent children in temporary accommodation, a decrease of 1,160 children (-18%) compared to one year ago.

Overall, the most recent statistics for 31 December 2011 show an improving picture with:

Fewer households overall in temporary accommodation. There were 10,685 households in temporary accommodation - a decrease of 410 households (-4%) compared to one year earlier.

Fewer households with children in temporary accommodation. There were 3,364 households with children in temporary accommodation - a decrease of 516 households (-13%) compared with one year earlier.

The lowest number on record of households with children or pregnant women in bed and breakfast accommodation – a total of 15.

The lowest number on record of breaches of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order - just three were reported in South Lanarkshire (1) and Fife (2).

Table 14c of Operation of the Homeless Person’s legislation gives a breakdown by local authority. The most recent publication is available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/02/7556/0.