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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: S2W-17926

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Colin Boyd on 15 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-16432 by Colin Boyd QC on 8 July 2005, how many of the individual charges with a guilty verdict resulted from a guilty plea and in how many cases the convictions were after trial, and how many “not proven” verdicts there were, in each year from 2002-03 to 2004-05.

Further to the answer to questionS2W-16432, between April 2002 and March 2005 there were 168 charges involving eithera statutory racial offence or a racial aggravation which resulted in a verdict of“not proven”. A breakdown of this figure into financial years, statutory chargesand racial aggravations is provided in the following table:

Number of individual chargesreported (as a statutory racial charge or racial aggravation) which resulted ina verdict of “not proven” by financial year.

	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	Total
Statutory Charge	20	16	18	54
Aggravation	46	45	23	114
Total	66	61	41	168

The Crown Office and ProcuratorFiscal Service’s national database does not record for the financial years 2002-03to 2004-05 whether a guilty verdict was as a result of a trial or a plea of guilty.A change has been made to the database to allow this information to be collectedand the first full financial year for which it will be available is 2005-06.

Question reference: S2W-17922

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by George Lyon on 15 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether, since the enactment of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, there have been any changes in its practices in respect of recording meetings, telephone calls and e-mail exchanges and, if so, what these changes were and whether there has been guidance issued to ministers and officials regarding these matters and, if so, whether that guidance will made public.

Guidance on recordkeeping isconstantly under review. Much of the Executive’s internal guidance has been updatedand adapted this year to reflect the transition from paper to electronic recordkeepingthat is currently underway. An updated Records Management Manual reflecting thesechanges should be issued around the end of 2005. The Records Management Manual ispublished on the Executive's website.

Training is available to ScottishExecutive staff covering a range of good practice issues, including on the styleand content of records of meetings. The Executive’s recommended best practice isthat minutes of meetings should record key discussion points and key decisions,and that they should be published where possible in line with the Executive’s generalcommitment to transparency and openness.

Question reference: S2W-17958

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 15 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive when the additional £4 million for drug action teams was allocated and how much each drug action team (a) bid for and (b) was allocated.

On 1 July 2005, the ScottishExecutive announced the following allocation by drug action team (DAT) area. Thesum of proposals received from each DAT is also detailed.

Drug Action Team	Sum of Proposals	Allocation
Aberdeen City	£844,532	£102,000
Aberdeenshire	£816,000	£68,000
Angus	£601,773	£77,584
Argyll and Clyde	£1,542,759	£238,000
Ayrshire and Arran	£966,123	£117,781
Borders	£315,702	£18,877
Dumfries and Galloway	£574,000	£210,800
Dundee City	£530,458	£251,038
East Lothian	£450,322	£105,654
Edinburgh City	£1,062,435	£470,564
Fife	£1,264,682	£549,212
Forth Valley	£1,616,160	£242,680
Greater Glasgow	£1,840,350	£904,200
Highland	£1,603,000	£54,400
Lanarkshire	£682,878	£68,000
Midlothian	£354,029	£20,225
Moray	£256,634	£68,000
Orkney	£124,754	£19,720
Perth and Kinross	£547,000	£77,584
Shetland	£60,000	£13,600
Western Isles	£71,600	£9,560
West Lothian	£596,740	£329,058

Following reassurances fromdrug action teams of expected impact, it is anticipated that the funding will beallocated to the relevant NHS board in August.

Question reference: S2W-17959

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 15 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the criteria were for allocation to the drug action teams of their share of the additional £4 million.

The additional drug treatmentand rehabilitation money was allocated to drug action teams (DAT) on the basis of the quantified impact of DAT proposals on the three identified national prioritiesnamely: increasing the number of clients entering treatment; reducing waiting timesand increasing the range of interventions, and on evidence of deliverability withinagreed timescales.

In terms of “evidence of deliverabilitywithin agreed timescales” we considered DAT performance to date and looked for clearlyplanned, well thought out proposals which included some indication of how the aimof the proposal would be achieved with timescales and a brief breakdown of cost.In particular we looked for proposals which complemented existing provision (i.e.filled a clearly identified and evidenced gap in existing services or provided additionalityto existing provision), proposals which demonstrated a strategic approach to developmentand proposals which had secured part-funding from elsewhere. The underlying principlesof Best Value and Integrated Care were also considered.

Question reference: S2W-18044

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 12 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-9961 by Malcolm Chisholm on 7 September 2004, how many patients had to travel outwith their own NHS board area for dialysis in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board area.

The information requested isnot collected centrally by the Scottish Renal Registry (SRR), which is thesource for national data on renal dialysis. The figures provided in the answerto S2W-9961 were collected specifically for that question. Iunderstand that the SRR Steering Group is now considering whether these datashould be collected routinely on a routine basis in future.

The SRR data suggest thatthe majority of patients who dialyse outwith their own NHS board area do sofrom choice.

Question reference: S2W-18043

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 12 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-15784 by Mr Andy Kerr on 3 May 2005, how many (a) adults and (b) children have been receiving home dialysis in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board area.

The number of patients in Scotland usinghome dialysis as treatment for established renal failure on 31 December foreach year since 1999 is set out in the table. Due to the small numbersinvolved, the figures have not been presented by age or NHS board area.

Year	No. of Patients
1999	54
2000	51
2001	46
2002	41
2003	43
2004	43*

Source:Scottish Renal Registry.

Note: * the Scottish Renal Registry continually refines the data it holds, and the figureof 44 given in the Answer to the previous Question reflected the data as theystood at the time it was answered.

Question reference: S2W-18047

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 12 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how may renal transplants there have been in each year since 1999.

The number of renaltransplants carried out in Scotland in each year since 1999 is set out in the table. Thefigures include patients who received a kidney only transplant, as well askidney/liver, kidney/pancreas and kidney/heart transplants.

Year	Cadaveric Donor	Living Donor	Total
1999	138	27	165
2000	138	41	179
2001	121	35	156
2002	114	31	145
2003	105	40	145
2004	94	30	124

Source; UKTransplant.

Question reference: S2W-18048

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 12 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients have been awaiting renal transplants in each year since 1999.

The number of patients in Scotland onthe active waiting list for a kidney transplant in each year since 1999 is setout in the table.

Year	No. of Patients
1999	491
2000	466
2001	455
2002	481
2003	433
2004	471

Source: UKTransplant.

Question reference: S2W-18046

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 12 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-30537 by Malcolm Chisholm on 7 November 2002, which NHS boards operate a scheme for reimbursement of travel costs of patients eligible for assistance under the statutory travel schemes where this is viewed as an extension of the patients' treatment costs and deemed clinically necessary.

Question reference: S2W-18042

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 12 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) children and (b) adults have been receiving hospital dialysis in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board area.

The information is set outin the table. Due to the small number of children involved, the data have notbeen split by age.

NHS Board Area	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Argyll and Clyde	81	79	96	106	112	124
Ayrshire and Arran	61	63	77	87	95	97
Borders	14	15	16	21	19	22
Dumfries and Galloway	40	38	44	44	48	43
Fife	68	75	78	78	86	94
Forth Valley	46	59	63	70	77	78
Greater Glasgow	268	276	273	286	293	288
Grampian	96	106	128	150	135	150
Highland	28	32	46	53	69	72
Lanarkshire	115	128	142	161	168	162
Lothian	168	159	156	168	182	206
Tayside	105	99	94	107	116	121
No NHS Board reported *	7	9	11	11	14	48

Source:Scottish Renal Registry.

Notes:

On groundsof patient confidentiality, the Island NHS Boards have not been includedbecause of the very small patient numbers.

* NHS boardof residence is derived from the patient’s postcode. Some postcodes weremissing. It is not possible to determine if these patients are receivingdialysis in their own NHS Board area.