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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: S4W-02155

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 5 September 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications to shoot seals have been or were (a) made, (b) granted and (c) refused in 2011 and each of the previous five years; what the reasons were for the refusals, and in what geographic areas applications were granted.

The Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 makes it an offence to kill or take any seal at any time except under licence or for animal welfare concerns. Details of applications received and licences granted across all geographic areas of Scotland as of 31 January 2011 are available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/topics/marine/licensing/seallicensing.

In 2011 three licences applications were refused, one because the application was for a fish farm that was not yet operational and the others because the applicant failed to provide appropriate information.

Prior to 31 January 2011, applications to shoot seals were made under the Conservation of Seals Act 1970 which allowed unregulated shooting of seals out with the annual close seasons. The netsmans defence allowed unlicensed shooting during close seasons. Licences were therefore only required during the close season for each species, namely 1 September to 31 December for grey seals and 1 June to 31 August for common seals. The 1970 act was completely repealed by the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010. Details of applications, licences and refusals for the previous five years under the 1970 act are listed in the following table.

Year	Applications	Licences	Refusals
2010	13	9	4
2009	12	8	4
2008	13	13	0
2007	11	11	0
2006	8	8	0

All applications that were refused under the 1970 act were for common seals due to the common seal decline in certain areas of Scotland.

Question reference: S4O-00133

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2011
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with UK ministers regarding enhancing Scotland’s influence at European Council level.

Question reference: S4W-02087

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 05 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 30 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it holds on the use of hyperbaric chambers for (a) training and (b) emergencies, broken down by NHS board area.

The following table details the number of patients treated for diving decompression Illness in each chamber from 2003-2010. The chamber in Aberdeen is an NHS facility, the other chambers are independent. Information is not held centrally on the use of hyperbaric chambers for training.

Table: Patients Treated for Diving Decompression Illness 2003-10, by Hyperbaric Chamber

Year	Aberdeen (NHS Grampian)	Oban (NHS Highland)	Millport (NHS Ayrshire and Arran)	Stromness (NHS Orkney)	Total
2003-04	37	17	11	19	84
2004-05	12	11	8	18	49
2005-06	17	14	13	18	62
2006-07	9	19	10	18	56
2007-08	13	18	5	20	56
2008-09	19	14	9	24	66
2009-10	14	8	3	22	47

Question reference: S4W-02086

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 05 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 30 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how funding for the provision, maintenance and use of hyperbaric chambers is allocated, broken down by NHS board area.

The total cost to the NHS of hyperbaric provision in Scotland for the seven years from 2003-04 to 2009-10 was £8,264,255. The following table details the breakdown of costs by health board.

Table: Combined cost of both Independent and National Hyperbaric Provision by each NHS Board 2003 to 2010

Health Board	Cost of National Service	Cost to the NHS of services provided by independent services	Total Cost
Ayrshire and Arran	466,201	68,800	535,001
Borders	135,719	0	135,719
Dumfries and Galloway	194,823	0	194,823
Fife	411,171	54,005	465,176
Forth Valley	321,969	62,040	384,009
Grampian	554,735	55,000	609,735
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	1,530,005	387,494	1,917,499
Highland	392,930	242,097	635,026
Lanarkshire	652,754	182,433	835,187
Lothian	832,437	188,180	1,020,617
Orkney	25,599	805,000	830,599
Shetland	30,099	0	30,099
Tayside	484,747	41,016	525,763
Western Isles	47,429	97,573	145,002
Total	6,080,618	2,183,637	8,264,255

The National Hyperbaric Medicine Unit at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary is a nationally designated service commissioned by National Services Division and funded by health boards on a proportionate basis (using the NHSScotland Resource Allocation Committee (NRAC) formula).

The independent chamber in Orkney at Stromness is operated by Orkney Hyperbaric Trust, a non-profit making charitable trust. NHS Orkney has an agreement with the Orkney Hyperbaric Trust to provide a level of funding to support medical and nursing cover for the chamber in Orkney.

The independent chambers in Oban and Millport are funded in part through public funding, but currently receive no NHS funding other than through payment of invoices for patients treated.

The Oban chamber is part of National Facility for Scientific Diving, which is part of the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS). The main purpose of SAMS is to promote and deliver high quality independent research and education in marine science and it takes its funding from a variety of sources both public and private. The National Facility for Scientific Diving is funded by the National Environment Research Council (NERC), which is a quasi-public body which awards funding to various programmes. The majority of NERC’s funding comes from Government Departments and therefore the funding to Oban for the National Facility for Scientific Diving is mainly public funding.

The Millport chamber is part of the University Marine Biological Station Millport (UMBSM) and its host body is the University of London. Its main function is to provide undergraduate and post graduate courses in marine biology and marine microbiology for the University of London and University of Glasgow and thereby receives funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England and the Scottish Funding Council. It therefore receives public funding from Government for the infrastructure but not for the treatment of recreational divers treated for Diving Decompression Illness.

Question reference: S4W-02088

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 05 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 30 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how funding provided for the provision, maintenance and use of hyperbaric chambers is agreed and what this covers.

National Services Division commissions the National Hyperbaric Medicine Unit in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary as a nationally designated service to provide and co-ordinate emergency treatment and advice in Scotland for diving related illness. The national service also operates the Hyperbaric National Registration Service which recognises chambers that meet specific criteria to treat patients with Diving Decompression Illness on an emergency basis. Chambers need to apply to be part of the National Registration Service. The Hyperbaric National Registration Service currently recognises three independent chambers in Scotland, based in Orkney, Oban and Millport.

The Aberdeen service receives nationally designated funding (top sliced from NHS boards based on the NHSScotland Resource Allocation Committee (NRAC) formula). The three independent chambers invoice each NHS board for treatment of divers with diving related illness on a cost per case basis but also receive funding from public organisations to support their infrastructure as set out in the answer to question S4W-02086 on 30 August 2011.

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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Question reference: S4W-02089

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 05 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 30 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding will be made available for the provision, maintenance and use of hyperbaric chambers over the next three years, broken down by NHS board area.

Question reference: S4W-02090

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 05 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 30 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with NHS boards about the way in which funding is allocated for the provision, maintenance and use of hyperbaric chambers.

Question reference: S4W-02085

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 05 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 30 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many hyperbaric chambers that receive public funding are available, broken down by NHS board area.

Question reference: S4W-02163

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 12 August 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 19 August 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what the reasons are for the difference between the figures provided in the Drug and Alcohol Delivery Bulletin of March (£70.6 million) and July 2011 (£65.6 million) in respect of allocations for supporting recovery-focussed frontline drug services and tackling the wider health and social issues associated with alcohol misuse.

The figure for alcohol quoted in the march bulletin represents the total budget for tackling alcohol misuse in 2011-12 (£42 million).

The figure quoted in the july bulletin for alcohol represents the funding allocated to NHS boards in 2011-12 to deliver local services in line with the priorities determined by their local Alcohol and Drugs Partnerships (£37 million).

The figure for drugs quoted in both bulletins reflect the allocation to NHS boards in 2011-12 (£28.6 million). The total funding for tackling drugs in 2011-12 is £31.9 million.

Question reference: S4W-01422

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 25 July 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people in Orkney are entitled to free dental care and, of them, are registered with a NHS dentist.