- Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 November 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 18 November 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to improve the provision of and access to occupational health services.
Answer
The Scottish Government, through the Partnership Information Network (PIN) policies, sets the minimum standard NHSScotland boards must meet when providing support for staff with health issues. The PIN policy Managing Health at Work makes clear that it is crucially important that staff have access to competent occupational health services.
Earlier this year the Scottish Government and the Management Steering Group of NHS Scotland established the Occupational Health and Safety Strategic Forum. As part of its remit, I have asked the Forum to develop a new strategic framework for occupational health and safety provision for staff within NHSScotland, to replace the current strategy, Towards a Safer, Healthier Workplace, published in 1999.
This strategic framework will provide an opportunity to confirm our commitment to a person centred approach towards health, wellbeing and safety at work, ensuring all staff are well supported by an integrated strategy that adds value to existing occupational health and safety policies and services.
- Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 25 October 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 3 November 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will receive Barnett consequentials as a result of the £4.4 million recently announced by the Minister of State for Care Services for awareness-raising and capacity-building projects for carers in England.
Answer
The £4.4 million announced by the Minister for Care Services in October 2010 is not new investment. It is being reinvested from the Caring with Confidence programme which came to an end in July 2010. Therefore this money does not carry any Barnett consequential.
- Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 August 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 14 September 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what impact it considers raising the age threshold for receipt of the winter fuel allowance to 66 will have on fuel poverty
Answer
The Winter Fuel Payment is included in the annual household income which is used to calculate fuel poverty. If this is deducted from the income of all 60 to 65 year olds approximately 1,100 more households would be in fuel poverty.
- Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 August 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 14 September 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people aged 60 to 65 are in fuel poverty.
Answer
In 2008 (the most recent year for which figures are available), there were approximately 137,000 people aged between 60 and 65 (inclusive) living in fuel poverty.
- Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 August 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 14 September 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people aged 60 to 65 receive the winter fuel allowance.
Answer
DWP have informed the Scottish Government that for winter 2008-09 (the latest period for which figures are available) there were 3,282,870 winter fuel payment recipients aged between 60 and 64 in Great Britain as a whole and 289,030 in Scotland. They expect the figures to be similar for winter 2009-10. (Figures are available in five year age bands for people between 60 and 79 and for all over 80s.)
- Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 August 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 14 September 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will ask the fuel poverty forum what impact the removal of winter fuel allowance from people aged 60 to 65 would have on fuel poverty.
Answer
The Scottish Fuel Poverty Forum has considered the issue of the winter fuel allowance. In its report published in October 2008 it recommended that the Westminster Government carry out a thorough review of both Winter Fuel Payments and Cold Weather Payments to ensure a better fit with fuel poverty. This was reinforced in the findings of its first annual report published in July this year.
The Scottish Fuel Poverty Forum will keep this issue under review as one of the outstanding recommendations from its Towards 2016 report.
- Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 August 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 26 August 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how much it would have cost to keep Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi under supervision (a) in a hospice and (b) at home since his release from prison.
Answer
Advice from Strathclyde police, at the time of Mr Al-Megrahi''s release, indicated that, if Mr Al Megrahi had been released to his home in Newton Mearns, the cost of maintaining the appropriate level of protection would have been in the region of £100,000 a week. This estimate does not include the additional protection costs which would have been incurred by trips to hospital or if his family had been residing in the home.
Had Mr Al Megrahi been released to a hospice, the expectation would be that the security costs would be at least at this level, and quite probably higher if a larger premises had to be secured.
Given that the variable cost of patient care (including accommodation costs and medical treatment which is patient specific) among hospices it has not been possible to determine accurately the additional costs that would have been incurred on these.
- Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 21 July 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average cost is of building a primary school with pupil numbers between 400 and 450.
Answer
The information that would be needed to calculate, by pupil numbers, an average cost of building a school is not held by the Scottish Government. Therefore, we are not able to provide an average cost for building a primary school with between 400 and 450 pupils.
- Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 February 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 22 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many assaults on police officers have been reported in the last 10 years, broken down by police force.
Answer
The information requested is given in tables 1 and 3 of Assaults on police officers and other emergency workers, in Scotland, 1999-00 to 2008-09 published by the Scottish Government in June 2010, a copy of which is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 50564).
- Asked by: Bill Kidd, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 May 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 May 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what further progress has been made in response to the campaign championed by Ryan McLaughlin with regard to the importance of taking vitamin D supplements to combat multiple sclerosis and potentially other illnesses.
Answer
We are working closely with the McLaughlin family and the Multiple Sclerosis Society to support a summit on vitamin D. Unfortunately the summit was postponed in May because of the volcanic ash, but has been rescheduled for 21 September 2010.
In addition we are working with our partners to raise public awareness of the importance of vitamin D.
