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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-03884

Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for Dundee East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 November 2003
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 19 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many of the expert groups it has set up are still due to report to it and when it expects to receive their reports.

Question reference: S2W-03882

Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for Dundee East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 November 2003
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 19 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many expert groups set up by it have reported to it since May 1999.

Question reference: S2W-03881

Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for Dundee East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 November 2003
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 19 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many expert groups it has set up since May 1999.

Question reference: S2W-03879

Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for Dundee East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 November 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many radiotherapists are required to ensure that the linear accelerators are used to their full capacity.

Question reference: S2W-03876

Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for Dundee East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 November 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many linear accelerators are (a) needed to meet patient demands and (b) currently in operation, (i) in total and (ii) in each NHS board area.

(a) The Royal College ofRadiologists (RCR) recommends that there should be five linear accelerators permillion population. Scotland’s current total is equivalent to 3.9 permillion population.

(b) Radiotherapy is ahighly specialised form of cancer treatment which is available only in cancercentres. Linear accelerators are sited in each of Scotland’sfive cancer centres in Inverness, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

There are currently 20linear accelerators, as follows:

Health Board Area	No. of Linear Accelerators
Highland	1
Grampian	2
Tayside	2
Lothian	5
Greater Glasgow	10
Total	20

A £33 million programme of modernisation and enhancement of radiotherapy equipment is currently under way across Scotland funded by the Scottish Executive. By the time of completion of the next planned (4th) wave, Scotland will have 24 linear accelerators, equating to 4.8 per million population.

Question reference: S2W-03880

Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for Dundee East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 November 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many linear accelerators there are per million of the population.

Question reference: S2W-03877

Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for Dundee East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 November 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive on how many days linear accelerators were not in use due to (a) maintenance, (b) breakdown and (c) lack of staff to operate them in each of the last five years, in each NHS board area.

Question reference: S2W-03309

Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for Dundee East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 October 2003
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 5 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive how many school-age children have been registered as having autism, either as their main or as a subsidiary difficulty in learning and what the total school-age population has been in each local authority area has been each year since December 2000.

There is no formal registerof school-age children with autism. The annual school census does, however,collect data on the main difficulty in learning, including autism, though notwhere it is a subsidiary difficulty. The following tables provide data from theschool census in 2001 and in 2002. The tables are not comparable because the2001 school census collected this information on pupils with records of needsonly, whereas the 2002 school census combined those with records of needs withthose pupils with Individualised Educational Programmes.

Total Number of Pupils andNumber of Pupils with Record of Needs with Autistic Spectrum Disorder as MainDifficulty in Learning in Publicly Funded Schools by Local Authority

	Pupils with Main Learning Difficulty Autistic Spectrum Disorder	All Pupils in Publicly Funded Schools
Scotland	1,515	745,074
Aberdeen City	63	25,853
Aberdeenshire	113	36,239
Angus	26	16,408
Argyll and Bute	35	13,016
Clackmannanshire	17	7,430
Dumfries and Galloway	42	22,045
Dundee City	39	20,272
East Ayrshire	23	18,808
East Dunbartonshire	27	19,260
East Lothian	19	13,494
East Renfrewshire	23	16,137
Edinburgh City	79	49,547
Eilean Siar	*	4,166
Falkirk	16	21,246
Fife	97	52,639
Glasgow City	236	76,728
Highland	113	33,326
Inverclyde	37	12,994
Midlothian	22	12,997
Moray	51	13,562
North Ayrshire	30	21,382
North Lanarkshire	112	52,150
Orkney Islands	*	3,130
Perth and Kinross	43	18,366
Renfrewshire	54	27,112
Scottish Borders	*	15,760
Shetland Islands	12	3,752
South Ayrshire	30	16,670
South Lanarkshire	71	46,702
Stirling	17	12,857
West Dunbartonshire	15	15,057
West Lothian	41	25,969

Source:Scottish Schools Census September 2001.

Note:

*denotes a figure of lessthan five pupils, or a figure which would enable the calculation of such afigure

Total Number of Pupils andNumber of Pupils with Record of Needs and/or Individualised EducationalProgrammes with Autistic Spectrum Disorder as Main Difficulty in Learning inPublicly Funded Schools by Local Authority

	Pupils with Main Learning Difficulty Autistic Spectrum Disorder	All Pupils in Publicly Funded Schools
Scotland	2,204	738,597
Aberdeen City	58	24,999
Aberdeenshire	182	36,160
Angus	9	16,290
Argyll and Bute	38	12,976
Clackmannanshire	21	7,312
Dumfries and Galloway	57	21,851
Dundee City	68	19,803
East Ayrshire	45	18,662
East Dunbartonshire	44	19,026
East Lothian	29	13,579
East Renfrewshire	30	16,267
Edinburgh City	181	48,974
Eilean Siar	11	4,153
Falkirk	29	21,170
Fife	172	52,079
Glasgow City	170	75,596
Highland	196	33,112
Inverclyde	35	12,757
Midlothian	38	12,777
Moray	52	13,660
North Ayrshire	45	21,374
North Lanarkshire	159	51,883
Orkney Islands	37	3,168
Perth and Kinross	58	18,438
Renfrewshire	79	26,871
Scottish Borders	50	15,779
Shetland Islands	20	3,740
South Ayrshire	48	16,347
South Lanarkshire	109	46,274
Stirling	28	12,870
West Dunbartonshire	20	14,810
West Lothian	86	25,840

Source:Scottish Schools Census September 2002.

Question reference: S2W-02722

Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for Dundee East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 4 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the Scottish Assessors Association regarding organ donation forms being sent out with electoral registration forms.

Question reference: S2W-02723

Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for Dundee East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 September 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 4 November 2003

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the Electoral Commission regarding organ donor forms being sent out with electoral registration forms.