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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: S4F-01377

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 May 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 May 2013

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's position is on the use of electronic tagging of offenders as an alternative to short-term sentences.

Question reference: S4W-13060

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 7 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have received free personal care in each year, broken down by (a) parliamentary constituency and (b) NHS board.

Information on the number of people receiving free personal care in each year is collected at local authority level. It is not available by (a) parliamentary constituency, but the local authority has been used to estimate the number of people receiving free personal care in each (b) NHS board area:

Table: Estimate of all people aged 65+ receiving free personal care at home or in a Care Home, 2003-04 to 2011-12

NHS Board	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	5,180	5,510	5,690	5,920	6,370	6,780	6,820	6,970	6,880
NHS Borders	1,630	1,790	1,860	1,780	1,760	1,770	1,810	1,820	1,840
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	2,240	2,180	2,170	2,180	2,370	2,630	2,360	2,490	2,920
NHS Fife	5,200	5,320	5,350	5,440	5,370	5,560	5,570	5,360	4,930
NHS Forth Valley	3,290	3,480	3,620	3,650	3,710	3,840	4,070	4,230	4,210
NHS Grampian	6,920	7,050	7,490	7,900	7,920	7,820	7,810	7,750	7,610
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	15,960	17,380	19,230	17,900	18,410	18,460	19,230	19,150	19,480
NHS Highland	3,930	4,050	4,340	4,350	4,270	4,570	4,550	4,460	4,410
NHS Lanarkshire	5,270	5,750	6,890	6,660	7,040	7,230	7,540	7,430	7,140
NHS Lothian	8,990	9,150	9,450	9,670	10,060	10,130	10,650	10,800	10,870
NHS Orkney	270	270	290	280	270	320	350	350	330
NHS Shetland	300	300	280	290	320	330	350	340	340
NHS Tayside	5,030	5,390	5,290	5,210	5,260	5,380	5,740	5,750	5,580
NHS Western Isles	610	600	640	640	620	640	650	640	640
Scotland	64,760	68,160	72,560	71,850	73,730	75,480	77,480	77,530	77,110

Source – Free Personal and Nursing Care, Scotland, 2010-11

Note: All figures are rounded to the nearest 10. 2011-12 figures are provisional.

NHS board figures are estimated based on the Local Authority funding the support not the area of residence, which may be different.

Question reference: S4W-13059

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 7 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what the cost has been of free personal care provided in each year since it was introduced.

The cost of personal care provided in each year is given in the following table:

Table: Expenditure on Free Personal and Nursing Care, 2003-04 to 2010-11

Year	Self-funders receiving FPNC in a Care Home	Clients aged 65+ receiving FPC at home	Total (£millions)
2003-04	86	133	219
2004-05	93	158	251
2005-06	97	189	286
2006-07	99	228	327
2007-08	104	267	372
2008-09	106	277	383
2009-10	108	317	425
2010-11	108	342	451

Source: Free Personal and Nursing Care, Scotland, 2010-11

Question reference: S4W-12850

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 5 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what research there is into the (a) prevalence and (b) treatment of lipoedema.

We are unaware of any on-going or completed research studies examining the prevalence or treatment of lipoedema in Scotland.

The Scottish Government funds medical research through the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) which has responsibility for encouraging and supporting research into health and healthcare needs in Scotland. CSO would welcome research project proposals which seek to investigate the prevalence and treatment of the lipoedema. These would be subject to CSO’s standard peer and committee review processes.

Question reference: S4W-13058

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 5 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many households will be affected by the so-called bedroom tax in each (a) parliamentary constituency and (b) local authority area.

Question reference: S4W-13057

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 5 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many single bedroom rented households there are in each (a) parliamentary constituency and (b) local authority area.

The number of single bedroom rented households in each local authority is estimated to be as follows:

Local Authority	Number of single bedroom rented households
Aberdeen City	16,000
Aberdeenshire	8,000
Angus	6,000
Argyll and Bute	3,000
Clackmannanshire	2,000
Dumfries and Galloway	7,000
Dundee City	11,000
East Ayrshire	4,000
East Dunbartonshire	2,000
East Lothian	4,000
East Renfrewshire	2,000
Edinburgh, City of	24,000
Eilean Siar	1,000
Falkirk	4,000
Fife	12,000
Glasgow City	35,000
Highland	5,000
Inverclyde	4,000
Midlothian	2,000
Moray	3,000
North Ayrshire	3,000
North Lanarkshire	9,000
Orkney Islands	1,000
Perth and Kinross	5,000
Renfrewshire	9,000
Scottish Borders	5,000
Shetland Islands	1,000
South Ayrshire	4,000
South Lanarkshire	6,000
Stirling	2,000
West Dunbartonshire	4,000
West Lothian	5,000
Scotland	209,000

We have included social rented sector and private rented sector households in our analysis and our results are rounded to the nearest 1,000 households.

We are unable to provide a robust estimate of single bedroom rented households in each parliamentary constituency.

Question reference: S4W-12849

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 28 February 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what treatment is available on the NHS for (a) cancer and (b) non-cancer patients with lipoedema.

Patients may be referred to lymphoedema services as some of the treatment options for lymphoedema may be of benefit to people with lipoedema. In some cases, clinicians may consider referring patients for consideration of tumescent liposuction which would be determined following appropriate specialist assessment. Clinicians are best placed to determine the appropriate treatment for their individual patients.

Lipoedema, unlike lymphoedema, has no post-cancer treatment correlation, therefore this would not have any bearing on the referral or treatment process.

Question reference: S4W-12665

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 26 February 2013

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the criteria for access to the Rare Conditions Medicines Fund and whether the fund will be distributed on a first-come-first-served basis or allocated across NHS boards.

Question reference: S4W-12781

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 25 February 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what the legal basis is for the licensing regime operated by Scottish Natural Heritage regarding the use of snares to capture mountain hares.

Mountain hares are listed on Schedule 3 of the Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994 Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) considers that snares are non-selective traps and a licence is therefore required under Regulation 44 of the above Regulations.

SNH is, however, aware of the recent case at Inverness Sheriff Court concerning the snaring of mountain hares. SNH will be reviewing its position in light of this case before the end of the close season on 31 July 2013.

Question reference: S4W-12780

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 25 February 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that it complies with the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats regarding the (a) use of non-selective traps to capture protected species and (b) the reporting requirements under article 9.2.

The requirements of the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats as regards the use of non-selective traps to capture protected species are implemented in Scotland through the Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994 Schedule 3 of these Regulations lists species which may not be taken by specified means including traps which are non-selective according to their principle or their conditions of use, or any method which is indiscriminate and capable of causing its local disappearance or serious disturbance to a population. However, the Regulations allow licences to be granted under certain circumstances to permit the taking of these protected species by these non-selective methods, for example preventing serious damage to growing timber is a commonly used reason.

In order to comply with Article 9.2 of the convention, UK licensing authorities report biennially to the European Commission on the granting of all such licences.