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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-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%

Question reference: S3W-02039

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 there have been to Disclosure Scotland for (a) basic, (b) standard and (c) enhanced disclosures in (i) each year since its establishment and (ii) each of the last 12 months.

It is not possible toprovide separate figures for standard and enhanced disclosures. The informationthat is available is set out in the following table.

Period	Applications Received
Period	Basic	Standard/Enhanced
2002-03	2,191	136,429
2003-04	178,818	187,162
2004-05	129,630	245,067
2005-06	209,484	331,267
2006-07	258,396	340,711
July 2006	21,035	30,141
August 2006	20,329	28,779
September 2006	19,633	30,411
October 2006	22,007	27,510
November 2006	22,461	32,455
December 2006	16,171	22,978
January 2007	21,328	23,751
February 2007	22,958	28,329
March 2007	28,339	32,292
April 2007	24,829	24,982
May 2007	28,601	30,328
June 2007	27,666	31,285

Question reference: S3W-02022

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 fly the Saltire permanently over governmental buildings for which it has responsibility.

Question reference: S3W-02026

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 plans to make for the responsibility for official flag stations in Scotland to be devolved to Scottish ministers.

Question reference: S3W-02050

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 were held between Scottish ministers and (a) the Director General of the Security Service, MI5, and (b) other directors from the Security Service from 3 May 2006 to 2 May 2007.

Question reference: S3W-02023

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 whether it will issue guidance to all non-departmental public bodies for which it has responsibility to encourage them to fly the Saltire as the principal flag above those of their properties for which there is an existing flagpole.