Parliamentary questions

Mary Scanlon

4,514 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.

26 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are any plans to include the maintenance of Scotland's cultural and historic heritage in Historic Scotland's performance targets.

Answer · Frank McAveety: Responsibility for the maintenance of individual historic buildings and monuments rests with their owners. Historic Scotland is directly responsible for the maintenance of over 300 properties in the care of Scottish ministers and one of the agency’s keytarget…

26 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what guidelines or protocols the police have for dealing with incidents of male rape.

Answer · Hugh Henry: Procedures in relation to theinvestigation of serious sexual offences are contained within individual forcepolicies. These local procedures are to be augmented by detailed guidance onsexual assault which the Justice Department is currently developing with the…

26 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prosecutions for male rape there have been in each of the last five years.

Answer · Elish Angiolini: The definition of rape inScots law means it is a crime that can only be committed against a femalevictim. Offences of serious sexual assault against male victims are prosecutedat common law as indecent assault and/or sodomy. There is no data availableabout nu…

26 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what consideration it will give to recommendation 9 of the NCH Scotland report Where's Kilbrandon Now? recommending that Children's Panel members who are not in paid work or have no access to paid absence should be paid a fee to help increase participation.

Answer · Euan Robson: The first stage of theExecutive’s review of the Children’s Hearings System will involve wide and opendiscussions on the hearings system, its principles and its objectives. Laterthis year we will look constructively and critically at how the system isoperating…

26 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what research data is available to identify difficulties surrounding the retention of social workers by local authorities.

Answer · Euan Robson: The information referred tois given in a report Career Pathwaysin Scottish Social Services, a copy of which has been placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 31353).

26 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to extend the range of disposals available to Children's Panels and ensure that services recommended by the Children's Panel are fully resourced.

Answer · Euan Robson: Children’s Hearings havewide ranging powers to make whatever disposals they consider appropriate tomeet the individual needs of the child. If service providers such as local authorities and voluntary agenciescan make an appropriate disposal available, the hea…

26 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what information is available to monitor decisions made by Children's Panels, the outcomes of their decisions and the rate of re-offending.

Answer · Euan Robson: Localauthorities and managers of serviceshave responsibilities to monitor and improve their performance. Overall, the Scottish Executive undertakes monitoring through the Social Work Services Inspectorate annualreport and periodic thematic and specific report…

26 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what research has been carried out to monitor the implementation of Children's Panel decisions.

Answer · Euan Robson: The 2002 study into children on home supervision Children (Scotland) Act 1995 Research Findings No. 4: Home Supervision was conducted by Stirling University on behalf of the Scottish Executive Education Department.The Audit Scotlan…

26 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will evaluate and review the implementation of the Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002.

Answer · Tom McCabe: The Act contains a range ofdifferent provisions which are at varying stages of implementation and monitoringto ensure that they are achieving what was anticipated when it was enacted.

26 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the national standard is for social worker contact with a child on supervision.

Answer · Euan Robson: There are no national standardsfor the frequency of contact between a social worker and a child onsupervision.

25 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that 16 and 17-year-old homeless people designated as priority need under section 1 of the Homelessness etc. (Scotland) Act 2003 are given the support services essential to their needs.

Answer · Margaret Curran: Local authorities arerequired by section 1 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 to develop a homelessness strategy fortheir area. Scottish Executive guidance makes clear that the particular needs of homelesschildren and young people should be taken into account…

25 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether Scottish Water will deliver its Quality and Standards 2 investment programme in time to comply with legislative deadlines for fresh and wastewater quality.

Answer · Allan Wilson: Ministers have taskedScottish Water with delivering the current capital programme (Quality andStandards II) to quality and legislative standards as specified by theappropriate regulator and to overall efficiency targets as set by the WaterIndustry Commissione…

13 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what protection is provided for patients in psychiatric hospitals who have known or expressed suicidal tendencies.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The recommendations in SafetyFirst (published by the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide andHomicide by People with Mental Illness) include in “12 Points to a SaferService” a checklist on how best to support vulnerable patients in psychiatrichos…

13 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases of attempted suicide there have been in psychiatric hospitals and units in each of the last five years, broken down by hospital or unit.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: This information is not available.

13 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what performance targets have been set in respect of the provision of assessments by occupational therapists.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: No national performancetargets have been set for assessments by occupational therapists. However, from2004-05, we will be collecting information on the numbers of assessments bylead assessor and the time between referral and first service delivery.

13 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has in respect of the prevention of suicide of NHS patients.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: Recommendations on suicideprevention, detailed in Safety First: Five Year Report of theNational Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with MentalIllness, were issued to Health Boards in July 2001. NHS boards are expecte…

13 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it can take if a local authority does not deliver high quality and efficient local services

Answer · Andy Kerr: Local authorities are nowunder a statutory obligation to make arrangements to improve the outcome oftheir performance of their functions under the provisions of the Local Governmentin Scotland Act 2003. From this year the Accounts Commission will be auditing…

13 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients in psychiatric hospitals and units have committed suicide in each of the last five years, broken down by hospital or unit.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The information requested is shown in Table 1 below. Information for the years ending 31 March 2002 and 2003 is not shown, as the data on hospital discharges from mental illness hospitals and psychiatric units is incomplete at present.Table 1: Number o…

13 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to promote the provision of employment in social firms for people who are disabled and disadvantaged in the labour market.

Answer · Mary Mulligan: The Executive, throughCommunities Scotland, is providing financial support of £160,000 over 4 years toSocial Firms Scotland to help them set up new social firms across Scotland. Wehave also provided direct funding of £122,000 over 2 years to Social FirmsScotl…

13 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether a national analysis of the need for, and construction of, affordable housing is being carried out.

Answer · Margaret Curran: As part of current work on affordable housing, the Executive is undertaking analyses at national level of future requirements for affordable housing.

12 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made in relation to the proposed rural healthcare faculty, recommended in the report Solutions for the provision of health care in the remote and rural areas of Scotland in the 21st century in January 2002.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: This is a matter for educationalbodies, NHS boards and other organisations in rural areas to consider. The Scottish Executive has encouraged the development of education, training and research inrural areas through bodies such as the University of the Highlan…

12 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will roll out the proactive care programme approach of the community mental health team in Nairn and Ardersier Local Health Care Co-operative, which successfully reduced mental health occupied bed days in its locality by 50% between 1996 and 2000.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The benefits of planned careand early pre-discharge planning are well known. The care programme approach(CPA) which has a long history is designed to provide structured continuingcare for those with more complex needs. Properly approached and applied the CPAi…

12 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to address any shortage of mental health officers.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: Estimates on the impact of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 on the mental health officer (MHO)workforce were reached in consultation with the Association of Directors ofSocial Work and COSLA. £2.5 million per annum additional funding…

12 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many psychiatric patients were held in police cells while awaiting support from health services in the last year.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The information requested isnot held centrally.Dr Grant, in her publishedinterim and locality reports of the National Mental Health Services Assessment (Bib.numbers 30239, 30221-30234, 30236), has drawn attention to the importance ofplaces of safety an…

12 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to provide a place of safety for acutely disturbed psychiatric patients in remote and rural areas.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: Publication of the interimand locality reports from the National Mental Health Services Assessment (Bib numbers30239, 30221-30234, 30236) co-incided with the publication by the Remote andRural Areas Resource Initiative (RARARI) of Recommendations for the S…

12 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to reduce delays in transferring psychiatric patients in crisis to hospital.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: Dr Grant’s published interimreport of the National Mental Health Services Assessment (Bib number: 30239) highlightsproblems that can occur in patient transfers. That report calls for flexibleand responsive 24-hour support services to be developed which are se…

12 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to ensure that all NHS boards implement the recommendations in the report BID79 of the Remote and Rural Affairs Resource Initiative.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The Bid 79 report (Bibnumber 31082) covers a range of issues from Human Rights Act compliance totraining and staff governance issues. There are key recommendations forimprovement to the services provided to remote and rural areas and the Executivehas a…

6 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when the Social Economy Action Plan will be published.

Answer · Mary Mulligan: We are developing the actionplan and hope to make an announcement shortly.

4 Feb 2004 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will continue with the hedgehog cull in the Western Isles this year.

Answer · Allan Wilson: Thedecision to continue with the hedgehog cull in the Western Isles lies withScottish Natural Heritage as the relevant licensing authority.The Scottish Executive is of the view that SNH’s proposals,which include a continued programme of lethal control …

2 Feb 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether areas in the Highlands will be declared wind farm free 'ones due to the number of low-flying 'ones managed by the Ministry of Defence.

Answer · Mary Mulligan: There are no plans to do so.The Executive expects operators to work closely with the Ministry of Defence so that sites are chosen which donot compromise the safety of low flying aircraft.