Parliamentary questions

Nanette Milne

1,264 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.

17 Jun 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will establish a minimum level for local government funding and what the minimum level will be.

Answer · Aileen Campbell: The Scottish Government is committed to introducing a new funding floor to ensure no local authority receives less than 85 per cent of the Scottish average revenue support per head. It is our intention that this new floor will be in place for the 2012-13 loca…

15 Jun 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prosecutions there have been for assaulting an NHS employee under regulations introduced in 2007 to extend the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The available information is given in the following table. Persons Proceeded Against in Scottish Courts for Offences Under the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 20051,2, 2004-05 to 2008-09 Offence 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 Section 1(1)3 …

15 Jun 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to bring forward flood defence schemes in the next five years.

Answer · Stewart Stevenson: The development of flood prevention schemes is a matter for individual local authorities.

8 Jun 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been cared for in (a) mental health facilities and (b) hospitals while waiting for a place in a care home in each month since May 2007.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The specific information requested is not available centrally. However, information is provided from the quarterly census on delayed discharges and includes details on all patients delayed and awaiting placement in a care home on the census dates. NHS Delaye…

8 Jun 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) local authority and (b) privately operated care home places have been available in each year since May 2007, broken down by local authority area.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Tables showing the number of care home places in Scotland, each year since 2007, broken down by sector and local authority area have been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 52967).

8 Jun 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting time has been for orthopaedic treatment in each NHS board in each year since 2007.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Median waiting times are collected from the New Ways of Defining and Measuring Waiting Times which was introduced on 1 January 2008. Prior to that date median waits were collected from Scottish Morbidity Records which is not directly comparable with New Ways …

1 Mar 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people are waiting to be assessed for a wheelchair, broken down by NHS board.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-40060 on 14 March 2011. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at <a href="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/…

1 Mar 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting time was for a short-term wheelchair loan in each of the last 12 months, broken down by NHS board.

1 Mar 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting time was to be issued with a wheelchair in each of the last 12 months, broken down by NHS board.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: This is a matter for the NHS. The information requested is not held centrally.

24 Feb 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the cost of awarding contracts to non-Scotland based companies under the Central Heating Programme.

Answer · Alex Neil: The Central Heating Programme managing agent was responsible for any contracts it awarded. Companies contracted to the managing agent were appointed by competition and in accordance with EU Public Procurement Regulations. The managing agent was requi…

24 Feb 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it gave on awarding contracts under the Central Heating Programme.

Answer · Alex Neil: Within the contract awarded to the Central Heating Programme managing agent, the managing agent was required to contract with suppliers and contractors through a competition process and subsequently in accordance with EU Public Procurement Regulations. The ma…

24 Feb 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many contracts were awarded to Scottish companies under the Central Heating Programme.

Answer · Alex Neil: This information is not held. Companies contracted to the Central Heating Programme managing agent were appointed by competition arranged by the managing agent and in accordance with EU Public Procurement Regulations.

24 Feb 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much was spent on the Central Heating Programme in each year since the programme was introduced.

Answer · Alex Neil: The total spend on the Central Heating Programme in the public and private sector since it was introduced is shown in the following table. <table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 > <thead> <tr > <td nowrap rowspan=2 > Yea…

11 Feb 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how the Scottish Medicines Consortium incorporates its modifiers into the health-economic case for ultra-orphan medicines and what importance it gives these in the final decision-making process.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) operates independently from the Scottish Government. Details about the nature of the SMC processes are available at: <a href="http://www.scottishmedicines.org.uk/">http://www.scottishmedicines.org.uk</a></p…

11 Feb 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to increase the transparency of the Scottish Medicines Consortium’s decision-making process for ultra-orphan medicines and the amount of information made available when modifiers have been used as part of its appraisal process.

11 Feb 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that the cancer drugs fund proposed for England will produce an imbalance in equality of access to cancer drugs between Scotland and England and, if so, what action it will take.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Decisions regarding the introduction of new medicines are taken by each of the UK countries through their own appraisal arrangements in line with established national priorities. Scotland''s independent and robust arrangements for the appraisal o…

3 Feb 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many processing jobs have been directly associated with the fishing industry in each year since 2007.

Answer · Richard Lochhead: The following table shows the estimated level of employment in fish processing in Scotland for 2007 and for 2008, the most recent year for which data is currently available. This includes employment in the processing of fish from Scotland''s sea fish…

3 Feb 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the fishing industry’s contribution to the Scottish economy has been in each year since 2007.

Answer · Richard Lochhead: First-sale value of landings by Scottish vessels from 2007 are as follows: 2007: £400 million 2008: £401 million 2009: £443 million Gross value added (GVA) of the Scottish fishing industry has been estimated as follows for …

3 Feb 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been employed in the fishing industry in each year since 2007.

Answer · Richard Lochhead: The available information is given in the following table: Number of Fishermen Employed1 on Scottish-Based Vessels, 2007 to 2009 <table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 > <tr > <td nowrap valign=top >  …

2 Feb 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to establish a test for prostate cancer that would be suitable as a universal screening tool.

Answer · Shona Robison: The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) sets out the criteria to assess screening programmes; the introduction of proposed new population screening programmes; the modification and withdrawal of existing programmes; and the quality and management of such…

2 Feb 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of (a) men and (b) GPs was aware of the availability of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test in each year since 1997, also broken down by (i) NHS board and (ii) parliamentary constituency.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: This information is collect or held centrally.

2 Feb 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to ensure that men are made aware of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test and are given sufficient information to make a choice regarding taking it.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-39296 on 24 February 2011. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Scottish Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/App…

2 Feb 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken to increase awareness of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests, including the risks and benefits, and whether it will provide information regarding these to (a) GPs and (b) the public.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: In 2010 the Scottish Government circulated the prostate cancer risk management programme pack to all general practitioners across NHS Scotland. Full details of this programme can be found at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/health/cancer…

2 Feb 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it takes to (a) monitor and (b) improve the experience of the treatment and care of cancer patients.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: a. The measurement of patient experience is a recent development and while there is no national monitoring of the experience of cancer patients in Scotland, the first ever national GP and inpatient patient experience surveys, published in 2010, does…

2 Feb 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many emergency admissions by patients with a primary diagnosis of prostate cancer there have been in each year since 1997-98, also broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) parliamentary constituency.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Figures confirming the number of emergency admissions with a main diagnosis of prostate cancer by NHS board are available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 52507). Figures confirming the number of emergency admissions with …

2 Feb 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many attendances at GP surgeries by prostate cancer patients there have been in each year since 1997-98, also broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) parliamentary constituency.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: This information is not held centrally however Table 1 shows the estimated numbers of patients attending consultations at Scottish GP practices for prostate cancer related conditions during the financial years 2003-04 to 2008-09. Patients with prost…

2 Feb 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of reports made by prostate cancer patients regarding their treatment and care and what steps are being taken to addressing variations experienced.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The Better Together Programme, Scotland''s national patient experience programme, will be reviewing the first national datasets produced through the two national patient experience surveys undertaken in 2009-10 to establish if there are reported differences i…

2 Feb 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests there have been in each year since 1997-98, also broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) parliamentary constituency.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The data requested is not routinely collected or held centrally.

2 Feb 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) age-standardised incidence for prostate cancer and (b) number of diagnoses of prostate cancer there have been in each year since 1997-98, also broken down by (i) NHS board and (ii) parliamentary constituency.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Data on newly diagnosed cancers in Scotland are recorded on the Scottish Cancer Registry. The most recent calendar year of data currently available is 2008. Incidence (number of registrations) and age-standardised incidence rates of prostate cancer b…

2 Feb 2011 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many deaths from prostate cancer there have been in each year since 1997-98, also broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) parliamentary constituency.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Deaths data in Scotland is sourced from General Register Office for Scotland; Data is supplied annually in September. The most recent calendar year of data currently available is 2009. Number of deaths from prostate cancer by NHS board area of reside…