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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: S3W-02049

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 26 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many briefings have been held between Scottish ministers and (a) the Director General of the Security Service, MI5, and (b) other directors from the Security Service since 3 May 2007.

Question reference: S3W-02021

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 26 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were on the sex offenders’ register in each of the last five years.

The number of sex offendersrecorded by the Scottish Police Services Authority as being registered withScottish Police Forces in the last five years is shown in the following table.

Year	Number of Registrations
2002	1,724
2003	1,926
2004	2,244
2005	2,677
2006	3,122
2007 (1 June)	3,445

Question reference: S3W-02045

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 26 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many planned admissions for inpatient and day case treatment have been cancelled in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.

Information on plannedadmissions for in-patient and day case treatment that have been cancelled forthe years ending 31 March 2003 to 2006 by NHS board is shown in the followingtable. Data for the year ending 31 March 2007 is not yet complete.

Table 1: Cancellation ofPlanned Admissions for In-Patient or Day Case Treatment;

By Health Board Area: Years ending 31 March 2003-2007

In-patients	2003	2004	2005	2006
Scotland	9,380	7,959	6,898	7,111
Ayrshire and Arran	197	170	366	478
Borders¹	148	119	159	70
Fife	373	543	498	594
Greater Glasgow and Clyde¹	3,829	2,274	1,639	1,486
Highland	440	541	522	536
Lanarkshire	322	542	539	138
Grampian	1,036	1,116	1,013	1,000
Orkney	7	6	3	17
Lothian	1,347	1,441	1,164	1,609
Tayside	850	711	652	545
Forth Valley	277	459	321	620
Western Isles	14	36	22	12
Dumfries and Galloway¹	534	-	-	-
Shetland	6	1	-	6

Day cases	2003	2004	2005	2006
Scotland	7,341	7,383	8,081	7,513
Ayrshire and Arran	79	73	130	179
Borders¹	180	142	180	67
Fife	576	645	747	675
Greater Glasgow and Clyde¹	2,433	2,087	1,861	1,679
Highland	448	743	1,053	1,103
Lanarkshire	979	950	1,447	365
Grampian	821	786	704	625
Orkney	8	9	19	24
Lothian	1,015	968	1,029	1,490
Tayside	450	474	539	493
Forth Valley	327	471	312	753
Western Isles	22	34	53	19
Dumfries and Galloway¹	-	-	-	-
Shetland	3	1	7	41

Note:1 Information is missing/incomplete for the following locations:

Borders General Hospital; year ending 2006

SouthernGeneral Hospital; years ending 2003, 2005and 2006

VictoriaInfirmary, Glasgow; years ending 2005 and 2006

Dumfriesand Galloway Royal Infirmary; years ending 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Question reference: S3W-02024

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Linda Fabiani on 26 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it will make to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, whose responsibility covers official flag flying, to remove the rule that the department applies with regard to the flying of the Saltire and the Union flag when flown together that the Saltire must never be flown in a superior position to the Union flag.

The union flag is flown outside Scottish Government buildings on 18 dates a year by Royal Command. The Saltire flies outside Scottish Government buildings throughout the year.

The Scottish Government believes that the Saltire is Scotland''s national flag and all such matters should be the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Ministers.Such matters are currently the subject of a consultation exercise following the Government''s publication of the constitutional reform green paper The Governance of Britain, published on Tuesday 3 July 2007.

The flag-flying guidelines apply to the Scottish Government, its related agencies and associated departments. A copy is held in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 43157).

Question reference: S3W-02025

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Linda Fabiani on 26 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to encourage the flying of the Saltire throughout Scotland all year round.

Question reference: S3W-02042

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 26 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive on what percentage of applications to Disclosure Scotland for disclosure checks no charge was levied in (a) each year since its establishment and (b) each of the last six months.

The cost of disclosurechecks for volunteers working in the voluntary sector with children and adultsat risk is met by Scottish Ministers. The following table sets out the numberand percentage of applications to Disclosure Scotland for which ScottishMinisters met the fee.

Period	Applications from volunteers in the voluntary sector working with children and adults at risk	Percentage
2002-03	9,242	6.53%
2003-04	30,119	9.42%
2004-05	38,351	8.59%
2005-06	56,172	10%
2006-07	54,084	7.74%
January 2007	3,450	8%
February 2007	4,316	8.42%
March 2007	5,191	9%
April 2007	4,771	10%
May 2007	5,178	9%
June 2007	4,745	8%

Question reference: S3W-02043

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 26 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications for disclosure checks have been processed by Disclosure Scotland in each week since 1 April 2004 and what the average processing time has been.

Disclosure Scotland canprovide this information on a monthly basis. Since April 2004 the number ofapplications and the average turnaround time for correctly completedapplications where there was no need to gather information from police forcesis set out in the following table.

Period	Applications Processed	Average Turnaround (days)
April 2004	51,857	13
May 2004	38,810	13.8
June 2004	38,932	17
July 2004	55,686	21.5
August 2004	50,113	10.3
September 2004	30,611	4
October 2004	29,521	3.5
November 2004	37,012	3.5
December 2004	26,279	4
January 2005	26,641	3.3
February 2005	30,689	4.3
March 2005	33,307	4.6
April 2005	35,965	4
May 2005	33,571	4
June 2005	42,808	5.5
July 2005	42,217	7.3
August 2005	42,017	7
September 2005	50,897	4.7
October 2005	50,012	5.6
November 2005	56,033	7.3
December 2005	40,265	12.1
January 2006	55,215	10.8
February 2006	49,356	3.8
March 2006	54,344	4.4
April 2006	46,005	3.7
May 2006	51,607	2.4
June 2006	53,592	1.8
July 2006	50,771	2.3
August 2006	49,272	1.7
September 2006	38,602	2.5
October 2006	56,059	4
November 2006	52,611	3.8
December 2006	42,409	4.4
January 2007	46,492	4.1
February 2007	46,528	3.6
March 2007	51,944	4.3
April 2007	57,857	5.1
May 2007	55,090	4.1
June 2007	55,799	3.8

Question reference: S3W-02037

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 26 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost of hospital administration was for each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board.

The amount spent by each NHSboard since 1999 on hospital administration is included in the following table.

Table 1:	NHS Hospital Management Costs 1999-2000 – 2005-06
Table 1:	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Argyll and Clyde	20,196	22,884	23,896	25,680	25,548	35,411	37,743
Ayrshire and Arran	15,927	18,632	20,259	22,454	24,387	25,601	28,566
Borders	6,605	6,753	7,241	7,882	7,790	10,872	7,618
Dumfries and Galloway	8,806	8,662	8,939	9,212	7,438	9,222	9,975
Fife	15,009	16,066	19,397	19,142	22,823	20,014	20,989
Forth Valley	11,510	11,828	12,637	15,764	17,285	18,261	19,868
Grampian	27,188	29,609	31,862	34,923	35,849	31,650	34,010
Greater Glasgow	60,056	72,357	74,003	81,850	92,369	81,322	85,757
Highland	10,674	10,263	12,041	12,663	13,775	16,513	18,432
Lanarkshire	30,279	33,315	35,659	36,903	40,907	42,742	42,035
Lothian	41,552	48,099	47,758	57,599	58,732	63,475	57,194
Orkney	731	885	1,076	1,260	1,245	1,269	1,427
Shetland	835	872	1,152	1,280	1,556	2,277	2,390
Tayside	29,925	35,005	30,434	33,260	34,813	38,966	38,413
Western Isles	1,530	1,947	1,992	2,037	2,355	1,881	1,849
Total	280,823	317,177	328,346	361,909	386,871	399,478	406,265

The Boards’ spending onmanagement costs are taken from the Scottish Financial Return (SFR) 5.2, whichis completed by each hospital and submitted to the NHS National ServicesScotland Information and Statistics Division for publication in the Costs Book.

This expenditure reports thehospital management and administrative costs which includes the followingsupport services:

Medical: HospitalMedical/Paramedical Administrative Support;

Nursing: Senior Nursing andHospital Administrative Support;

Medical Records;

General: Hospitaladministration, including senior management; and

Agency: Administrativeagency staff and agency services.

Question reference: S3W-02038

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 26 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what average time is taken by Disclosure Scotland to respond to applications for disclosure checks.

Question reference: S3W-02041

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 26 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications to Disclosure Scotland for disclosure checks have been returned to the applicants due to errors in (a) each year since its establishment and (b) each of the last six months, expressed also as a percentage of the total number of applications in each category of disclosure.

Disclosure Scotland hasbeen recording application returns since April 2004. They do not gatherinformation separately for the different levels of check. The availableinformation is provided in the following table.

Period	Number of Applications Returned	% of Applications Returned
2004-05	36,870	9.84%
2005-06	44,828	8.29%
2006-07	47,270	7.89%
January 2007	3,255	7.22%
February 2007	3,847	7.50%
March 2007	4,917	8.11%
April 2007	3,522	7.07%
May 2007	4,974	8.44%
June 2007	4,740	8.04%