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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-30688

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Johann Lamont on 23 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what restrictions there are on local authorities making resources available to fire and rescue boards.

Question reference: S2W-30689

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 December 2006
Current Status: Answered by Johann Lamont on 23 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether local authorities have the authority to “top up” fire and rescue boards’ funding for functions that are delegated to such boards.

Question reference: S2O-11714

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 January 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 18 January 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what recent progress has been made to secure the funding for the upgrade of the A801 Avon Gorge road.

Question reference: S2W-29769

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 7 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what average time is taken by (a) women and (b) men to repay outstanding student loans.

The time taken to repay a loanvaries depending on the type of loan taken. For mortgage-style loans (those startingtheir course before 1998-99), borrowers who have finished paying off their loanstake an average time to repay of (a) 5.21 years for women and (b) 5.44 years formen.

As an example of repayment timeson the newer income contingent loans (those starting their course in 1998-99 orlater) for 2005 graduates commencing repayment in 2006, the forecast average lengthof time to repay a student loan for (a) women, is approximately 14.9 years and (b)men, is approximately 10.6 years.

The times taken for each typeof loan are not comparable. Those provided for mortgage-style loans are based onthe time from entering repayment to paying off the loan. These loans are repaidover a fixed period of five or seven years.

The forecasts for income-contingentloans estimate the average time taken from the 1 April after graduating or leavinghigher education to fully repaying the loan.

Question reference: S2W-30170

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 7 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to address the funding shortfall resulting from increased energy costs in schools.

Question reference: S2W-30171

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 7 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the City of Edinburgh Council’s decision to allocate an extra £50,000 to schools in Edinburgh to address the funding shortfall resulting from increased energy costs in schools and whether it will confirm that the projected shortfall is £1.2 million.

All local authority budgetarydecisions rest with the local authority concerned. The Executive is providing recordlevels of funding and it is the responsibility of each local authority to allocateits total resources, including locally raised income, on the basis of local needsand priorities. The Executive is not in a position to confirm any projected budgetshortfall within the City of Edinburgh Council.

Question reference: S2W-30091

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 4 December 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been identified as having Crohn’s disease since 1999, broken down by NHS board, gender and age.

The following tables gives theinformation requested, broken down by NHS board and gender. To break down the informationby age, or by gender in the case of the island boards, would run the risk of compromisingpatient confidentiality.

Argyll and Clyde	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Males	43	33	44	47	35	31	43
Females	58	48	58	52	61	43	47
Both Sexes	101	81	102	99	96	74	90

Ayrshire and Arran	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Males	27	22	29	39	29	30	29
Females	35	33	39	48	41	37	55
Both Sexes	62	55	68	87	70	67	84

Borders	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Males	6	6	4	8	5	7	17
Females	8	11	6	12	6	5	9
Both Sexes	14	17	10	20	11	12	26

Dumfries and Galloway	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Males	11	7	11	17	10	6	10
Females	23	14	18	12	14	8	16
Both Sexes	34	21	29	29	24	14	26

Fife	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Males	58	36	59	73	84	73	83
Females	69	61	74	94	123	84	91
Both Sexes	127	97	133	167	207	157	174

Forth Valley	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Males	27	41	33	32	19	15	22
Females	46	38	38	37	27	25	13
Both Sexes	73	79	71	69	46	40	35

Grampian	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Males	50	31	43	55	55	52	41
Females	54	72	63	74	70	66	57
Both Sexes	104	103	106	129	125	118	98

Greater Glasgow	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Males	85	55	68	79	64	72	55
Females	88	119	75	93	78	95	96
Both Sexes	173	174	143	172	142	167	151

Highland	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Both Sexes	60	39	38	55	56	43	54

Lanarkshire	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Males	40	42	45	42	37	34	39
Females	62	68	47	45	56	54	51
Both Sexes	102	110	92	87	93	88	90

Lothian	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Males	47	59	31	29	54	51	64
Females	89	83	60	60	58	72	60
Both Sexes	136	142	91	89	112	123	124

Orkney	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Both Sexes	1	2	2	2	3	4	5

Shetland	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Both Sexes	2	3	2	7	4	5	5

Tayside	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Males	35	32	37	33	35	38	49
Females	37	43	38	28	49	46	41
Both Sexes	72	75	75	61	84	84	90

Western Isles	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Both Sexes	4	5	2	1	3	5	3

Scotland	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Males	457	383	426	482	453	434	479
Females	608	620	538	592	623	567	576
Both Sexes	1,065	10,03	964	1,074	1,076	1,001	1,055

Notes:

1. These statisticsare derived from data collected on in-patient and day case discharges from non-obstetricand non-psychiatric hospital (SMR01) in Scotland.

2. Incidenceis based on the number of new or first occurrences of the Disease. Patients’ linkedSMR01 records have been screened back to 1981 and a patient can appear only oncein each table and are defined in the first year of occurrence of their condition.In other words only ‘new incident cases’ in the time period are included. For example,a patient with the condition recorded in 1999, 2001 and 2004 will only be includedunder 1999.

3. Crohn’s Diseasewas defined as ICD9: 555 and ICD10 K50. All six diagnostic positions on SMR01 weresearched for the disease.

Question reference: S2W-29775

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 10 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 30 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what additional funding will be made available to local authorities to make local authority-owned or rented buildings comply with the Disability Discrimination Act 2005.

It is for employers and serviceproviders, including local authorities, to decide what they need to do to complywith the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 and to allocate the necessary resources.

Local authorities have substantialresources at their disposal, including revenue funding provided by the Executivewhich includes support for capital expenditure. Councils can also supplement theircapital programmes through self-financed (Prudential) borrowing. It is for eachlocal authority to allocate its funding according to local needs and priorities,subject to fulfilling its statutory obligations.

Question reference: S2W-30090

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 30 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of any testing of daily herds in Scotland to establish if there is a link between dairy produce and Crohn’s disease.

The cause of Crohn’s diseaseis not known and there is no proven link between dairy produce and Crohn’s disease.

It has been suggested that Crohn’sdisease might be caused by Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis (MAP), abacterium that causes Johne’s disease in cattle and that has been found in milk.Published evidence in this field has been considered at both UK and EU levels inrecent years and the evidence remains inconclusive for or against a link betweenMAP and Crohn’s disease.

From an animal health and welfareperspective Johne’s disease is important. The Scottish Animal Health and WelfareStrategy Advisory Group has identified Johne’s disease in dairy cattle as an industrypriority. Given the implications of this disease for animal health and welfare aJohne’s disease prevalence study is currently being undertaken on behalf of the Executive and other UK Rural Affairs Departments. This survey is a first step towardsreducing the prevalence of Johne’s disease in dairy cattle.

Question reference: S2O-11298

Asked by: Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 November 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 30 November 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the financial provision that will be needed in future years to support a growth in the elderly population and increases in the numbers of children identified as being in need of support.