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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-08013

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 May 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 May 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the General Medical Council was consulted with regard to the forms for application to the Skipton Trust.

Question reference: S2W-08015

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 May 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 May 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many of those infected with hepatitis C through contaminated blood products have died since the publication of the Health and Community Care Committee's 17th Report 2001 (Session 1) Report on Hepatitis C (SP Paper 398).

Question reference: S2W-07982

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 May 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 18 May 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it is taking to encourage and recruit more specialised social workers for deaf and hard of hearing people.

More social workers are beingtrained. There was a 25% increase in qualifying social workers in 2003, and thesenumbers will increase by a further 33% over the next two years. The Social WorkServices Inspectorate is significantly increasing investment in training over thenext three years and is keen to work closely with all service providers, includingthose who work with people who are deaf or hard of hearing, to improve trainingof staff.

The Sensory Impairment ActionPlan, launched by the Scottish Executive in January 2004 recognises the importance of having trainedstaff available to work with people who are deaf and hard of hearing, and is nowtaking the work of the Action Plan forward to address the needs identified.

Question reference: S2W-07980

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 May 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 18 May 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many specialised social workers there are for deaf and hard of hearing people, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S2W-07981

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 May 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 18 May 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what improvements in training in deaf awareness for social workers there will be when single shared assessment is fully implemented and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 comes into force.

The Sensory Impairment ActionPlan, launched in January 2004 recognises the importance of improving training forstaff who provide services for people with a sensory impairment, including thosewho are deaf or hard of hearing, and the Scottish Executive is now taking the work of theAction Plan forward to address issues, including training for social work and otherstaff.

We would expect local authoritiesto abide by the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act when it comesinto force.

We would expect the focus ona person-centred approach in single shared assessment to improve understanding ofindividual’s needs. Councils will determine their training needs in the light of the Scottish Executive’s guidance on single shared assessment.

Question reference: S2W-07978

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 May 2004
Current Status: Answered by Euan Robson on 18 May 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what best practices it is learning from the Department for Education and Skills' Early Support Pilot Programme and how these are informing processes and services in Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-07279

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 29 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 13 May 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many primary schools have been closed in each year since 1999, stating which closures required ministerial consent, broken down by local authority area.

The number of local authority primary schools closed in each of the calendar years concerned is shown in table 1 below. The table includes schools that have merged to form new schools in the local area and also, in a small number of cases, where a separate educational unit has closed and then been integrated into a school. The information is derived from the annual Scottish Executive Education Department school opening and closing exercise.

Local Authority	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Aberdeen City	1	1			1
Aberdeenshire	1	1			1
Angus		2	1
Argyll and Bute	1				1
Dumfries and Galloway		2		3	1
Edinburgh City	1			4	4
Eilean Siar		1	2	1
Fife					2
Glasgow City	1			6
Highland		3	5	4	1
Moray		3
North Lanarkshire	2	5
Orkney		1
Scottish Borders		1
West Lothian			1

Closures for which the Consent of Ministers was Required

Angus	St Vigean’s Primary School	Closed 2001
Argyll and Bute	Portnahaven Primary School	Closed 1999
Dumfries andGalloway	Westerkirk Primary School	Closed 2000
	All Soul’s RC Primary School	Closed 2002
	Laurieston Primary School	Closed 2002
	St Cuthbert’s RC Primary School	Closed 2002
	Corsock Primary School	Closed 2003
Eilean Siar	Manish Primary School	Closed 2000
Eilean Siar	Dunskellar Primary School	Closed 2002
Highland	Loch Choire Primary School	Closed 2000
Moray	Boharm Primary School	Closed 2000
Moray	Glenrinnes Primary School	Closed 2000
West Lothian	Abercorn Primary School	Closed 2001

Question reference: S2W-07900

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 April 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 12 May 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps will be taken to reduce the figure of 77% of blind or partially-sighted people who live alone and are in poverty, as referred to in the Royal National Institute of the Blind's report, Unseen: Neglect, isolation and household poverty amongst older people with sight loss.

Although welfare benefits area reserved matter, the Executive is committed to improving the services for blindand partially sighted people in Scotland and has recently launched its Eye Care Review which willpromote better integration of services within the NHS, and between the NHS and otheragencies.

It has also begun working withother bodies on implementing the recommendations in the Sensory Impairment ActionPlan which will address the community care needs of people who are blind, deaf ordeafblind. The action plan was written in consultation with the Royal National Instituteof the Blind, The Scottish Council on Deafness and Deafblind Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-07901

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 April 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 12 May 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the Royal National Institute of the Blind's report, Unseen: Neglect, isolation and household poverty amongst older people with sight loss, what steps will be taken to ensure the safety and well-being of the 64% of blind or partially-sighted people who currently do not have daily visits from someone they trust.

The Scottish Executive has recently worked with the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB),Deafblind Scotland, the Scottish Council on Deafness and sensory impairedpeople to produce a Sensory Impairment Action Plan. This document contains a seriesof recommendations to improve access to community care services for sensory-impairedpeople and the Scottish Executive will be working in partnership with the RNIB, DeafblindScotland and the Scottish Council on Deafness and other organisations to implementthem.

The needs of blind and visuallyimpaired people are also being addressed through the Eye Care Review which is examiningthe existing arrangements for the provision of eye care services and will make recommendationsfor effective models of care.

Question reference: S2W-07899

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 April 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 12 May 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the Royal National Institute of the Blind's report, Unseen: Neglect, isolation and household poverty amongst older people with sight loss, what targets have been set for eye health and community care services for people with sight loss and what date has been set for such targets to be met.