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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-20427

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 24 February 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of its press release of 14 October 2008, how many senior charge nurses are operating within the senior charge nurse framework.

All senior charge nurses (SCN) in hospitals across NHS Scotland will be working within the context of this revised role by the end of 2010. At present, around 700 SCNs have either completed or are undertaking training, which includes one to one facilitation, taught training programmes and action learning. Whilst this process is at an early stage, we are putting in place arrangements to monitor NHS board progress.

The transition of SCNs to the revised role is being led by NHS board nurse Directors, supported by a national steering group. The success of embedding and sustaining the role change depends on a range of factors and all NHS boards have produced action plans to work towards achieving this goal. Work currently underway includes analysis of training needs, development and implementation of training programmes, and development of roll-out programmes.

Question reference: S3W-20428

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 24 February 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many senior staff charge nurses it expects to be operating within the senior charge nurse framework in (a) six months’, (b) 12 months’ and (c) 18 months’ time.

Question reference: S3W-20569

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 23 February 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many days were lost in local authorities through sickness absence in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

This information is not held centrally. The management of sickness absence within local authorities is a matter for individual local authorities as employers.

Local authorities are required by law to provide Audit Scotland with information on sickness absence levels among local government staff on an annual basis. This information can be accessed on the Audit Scotland website www.audit-scotland.gov.uk.

Question reference: S3W-20359

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 23 February 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHS patients were treated via the private or independent sector in each year since 1999, also broken down by NHS board.

The Information and Statistics Division of NHS National Services Scotland continues to work with the Scottish Government, NHS boards, and independent health care providers to improve the quality of this data, and ensure high levels of completion. It is intended that this information should be published on a regular basis, when the data is of sufficient quality and completeness.

The apparent increase in independent sector activity in some health boards for the year ending 31 December 2007 can be attributed to (a) improvement in the collection of these data in recent months, particularly at independent locations other than private hospitals (e.g. private nursing homes; hospices; homes run by local authorities or charities), and (b) the opening of the Scottish Regional Treatment Centre at Stracathro Hospital in 2006. However, as submission levels are believed to vary by location and over time, the figures should be considered of limited use and should be interpreted with caution.

The following table shows available information for in-patient / day case activity that has been submitted for NHS patients treated by independent healthcare providers in Scotland.

NHSScotland In-Patient and Day Case Episodes - Numbers of Records that have been Submitted for Private Health Care¹ in Scotland; by NHS Board of Residence; Years Ending 31 December²

	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Scotland	1,929	1,700	2,036	1,867	2,285	2,075	2,710	3,193	3,994
NHS Board area of residence
Ayrshire and Arran	200	44	32	39	13	121	284	276	295
Borders	70	78	53	59	105	74	99	71	153
Dumfries and Galloway	-	-	1	-	16	251	306	409	125
Fife	17	29	98	125	1	31	192	126	202
Forth Valley	3	12	6	2	168	254	256	267	439
Grampian	92	136	125	107	350	519	764	826	729
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	41	36	191	320	432	73	93	172	233
Lanarkshire	284	283	304	268	297	123	86	268	146
Lothian	996	876	975	767	720	463	490	633	1,089
Highland	185	182	183	139	158	143	120	112	114
Orkney	-	-	-	-	2	-	-	6	6
Shetland	-	-	-	-	-	1	5	11	2
Tayside	-	12	45	25	9	2	4	1	426
Western Isles	-	-	-	1	2	-	1	-	-
England/Wales/Northern Ireland	16	5	13	8	5	13	9	11	16
No Fixed Abode	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-
Not Known	25	6	9	6	6	6	-	2	19
Outside UK	-	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	-

Source: ISD Scotland [Form SMR01] Date: 3 February 2009.

Notes:

1. Comprises the following: private hospitals; private nursing homes; hospices; other independent providers (including homes run by local authorities or charities)

2. It is emphasised that the figures shown are based on incomplete returns. Submission levels are believed to vary by location and over time. For this reason, the figures will be of limited use and should be treated with caution.

Question reference: S3F-01455

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Alex Salmond on 12 February 2009

To ask the First Minister, in light of the decision to prevent local authorities from charging pensioners for assistance with food preparation, what guarantees the Scottish Government will offer that charges hitherto levied will be refunded.

Question reference: S3O-05870

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 12 February 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken to secure an agreement over funding between St Margaret of Scotland Hospice and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

Question reference: S3W-20360

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 11 February 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the (a) size of population, (b) number of staff employed and (c) ratio of local authority employees to head of population in each local authority.

The information requested is set out in the following table. Part (a) shows the latest estimate of working age population (males aged 16 to 64 and females aged 16 to 59) by local authority. Part (b) shows the latest statistics on the number of staff employed by each local authority. This includes both full-time and part-time staff.

Care should be taken when comparing local authority staff levels to the working age population as some members of local authority staff may work beyond standard working age.

Table 1: Working Age Population, Local Authority Staff and Ratio of Staff to Working Age Population by Local Authority

Local Authority	(a) Size of Working Age Population (2007)	(b) Staff Employed Local Authority (Head Count) 2008 (Q3)	(c) Ratio of Staff to Working Age Population
Aberdeen City	138,793	11,492	1 in 12
Aberdeenshire	148,042	13,831	1 in 11
Angus	64,938	5,765	1 in 11
Argyll and Bute	54,002	5,271	1 in 10
Clackmannanshire	31,176	2,869	1 in 11
Dumfries and Galloway	86,138	8,214	1 in 10
Dundee City	88,929	8,267	1 in 11
East Ayrshire	73,746	6,789	1 in 11
East Dunbartonshire	63,129	4,935	1 in 13
East Lothian	56,129	4,902	1 in 11
East Renfrewshire	53,078	4,796	1 in 11
Edinburgh, City of	318,108	20,116	1 in 16
Eilean Siar	15,354	2,559	1 in 6
Falkirk	94,225	8,010	1 in 12
Fife	222,954	22,454	1 in 10
Glasgow City	388,537	31,841	1 in 12
Highland	132,067	12,726	1 in 10
Inverclyde	49,996	4,760	1 in 11
Midlothian	48,666	4,734	1 in 10
Moray	52,615	5,121	1 in 10
North Ayrshire	82,188	7,454	1 in 11
North Lanarkshire	204,418	17,884	1 in 11
Orkney Islands	11,937	2,137	1 in 6
Perth and Kinross	84,773	6,084	1 in 14
Renfrewshire	106,034	8,844	1 in 12
Scottish Borders	65,745	5,774	1 in 11
Shetland Islands	13,425	3,825	1 in 4
South Ayrshire	66,165	5,654	1 in 12
South Lanarkshire	192,773	15,795	1 in 12
Stirling	54,367	4,440	1 in 12
West Dunbartonshire	57,287	6,266	1 in 9
West Lothian	106,858	8,419	1 in 13

Source:(a) General Register Office for Scotland “ Mid Year Population Estimates (June 2007).

(b) Scottish Government “ Joint Staffing Watch Survey “ Quarter 3 2008 (September 2008).

Question reference: S3W-20426

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 February 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 11 February 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive how many inspections have been carried out by the Care Environment Inspectorate since November 2008; where they have been carried out, and what conclusions have been reached.

The NHS Care Environment Inspectorate will provide robust, external inspection of NHS facilities, including unannounced visits. This is intended to enhance safety, assurance and public confidence.

Following a period of consultation which closed on 12 December 2008, the NHS Care Environment Inspectorate is now being established with the intent that it will be operational from April 2009. Accordingly, there have been no inspections since November 2008.

Question reference: S3W-20358

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 February 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what services are tendered out to private contractors by NHS hospitals and what plans there are to put additional services out to competitive tender.

For information relating to outsourced cleaning and catering contracts, I refer the member to answers to questions S3W-17133 and S3W-17134 on 5 November 2008.

Information on other contracted out services is not held centrally. NHS boards are responsible for the tendering of contracts for services and the information broken down by hospital can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Question reference: S3W-20357

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 January 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 February 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what evidence there is that banning private companies from cleaning hospitals will lower the prevalence of hospital-acquired infections, given that cleaning services were not contracted out at the Vale of Leven Hospital.