Nicola Sturgeon

19 Dec 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any contracts by or on behalf of the NHS have been entered into, or will now be entered into, with Life Resources Incorporated following the purchase of the company by the Department of Health.

Answer · Frank McAveety: The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) has its own independent sources of non-UK plasma and keeps these under constant review. <P>Life Resources is one of a number of commercial US plasma supply organisations which would be treated no differe…

27 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many extra acute hospital beds will be provided through the allocation of the #12 million announced by the Chief Executive of the NHS on 27 November 2002 for additional funding for winter pressures, broken down by NHS board area.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: It is for each NHS board to decide, based on local circumstances and clinical needs over the winter period, how to allocate its additional funding for winter. For Scotland as a whole, this winter, there will be 400 extra beds available, if required, and 20 ex…

14 Nov 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the placing of automated external defibrillators in public places.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-30646 on 29 October 2002. 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.u…

28 Oct 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) final outturn expenditure for 2000-01, (b) planned outturn expenditure for 2001-02 and (c) actual final outturn expenditure for 2001-02 were, broken down by NHS board area.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The gross revenue expenditure figures for 2000-01 and 2001-02, together with the planned expenditure for 2001-02 is given in the following table:<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=2 WIDTH=531><TR><TD WIDTH="29%" VALIGN="TOP"><P>Health Board</TD><TD WIDTH…

28 Oct 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average number of days lost due to ill health was in each of the last five years for NHS (a) medical and (b) nursing staff.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: Occupational Health and Safety Minimum Dataset information was collected nationally for the first time during September to December 2001 and covers the period 2000-01. Sickness absence levels form part of the data. Collection of the 2001-02 data is currently …

28 Oct 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many GP lists are currently closed, broken down by NHS board area.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The number of GP practices which have indicated to their Primary Care Trust/Island NHS Board that they are not currently accepting new patients is as set out within the following table: <TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=7 WIDTH=482><TR><TD WIDTH="49%" V…

28 Oct 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many locum consultant doctors there currently are working in each NHS board area.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The information requested is given in the following table:<P>Locum Consultants Directly Employed in NHSScotland at 30 September 2001 by Health Board<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=2 WIDTH=380><TR><TD WIDTH="40%" VALIGN="TOP"><P>Health Board</TD><TD WI…

28 Oct 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-29330 by Malcolm Chisholm on 27 September 2002, why the Information and Statistics Division of the Common Services Agency has no plans to compile key health indicators using the same criteria as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Developm…

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The Information and Statistics Division (ISD) compiles and publishes a large number of key health indicators for Scotland and these are presented on ISD Online, SKIPPER and in the Performance Assessment Framework, for example. These publications have develope…

28 Oct 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average Scottish Ambulance Service response time is for calls that are (a) life-threatening, (b) serious but not immediately life-threatening and (c) neither serious nor life-threatening, broken down by NHS board area.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: These response times concern the performance of the emergency ambulance service following the introduction of priority-based dispatch. This system was introduced into the south east of Scotland from 1 August 2002 and is scheduled to be rolled out across Scotl…

28 Oct 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-28610 by Malcolm Chisholm on 17 September 2002, how much money it actually made available to the National Review of Resource Allocation for the NHS in Scotland.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The information requested is currently being collated. Once complete, I will write to the member with a full response and place a copy in the Parliament's Reference Centre.

23 Oct 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what support has been offered to the people affected by the failure of the free'er tanks holding sperm samples at the Western General Hospital in July 2001.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: Lothian University Hospitals NHS Trust established a telephone helpline, and those who asked for specialist appointments with fertility or genetic experts had these arranged quickly. Expert counselling from nurses specialising in oncology and in genetics was …

23 Oct 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made on developing a code of practice to respond to situations in the NHS such as the failure of the free'er tanks holding sperm samples at Western General Hospital in July 2001.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The <I>Code of Practice on Openness in the NHS in Scotland</I> is being reviewed and the lessons of this incident are being considered as part of that review.

11 Oct 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans the Information and Statistics Division of the Common Services Agency has to collect and publish more information on the use of specialist nurses within the NHS.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-29329 on 27 September 2002. 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…

11 Oct 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding was allocated and (a) how much and (b) what percentage of the staff budget was spent on pay for each workforce group listed by the Information and Statistics Division of the Common Services Agency in each year since 1997-98.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: No specific allocations are made for staff budgets. Staff costs are met from the overall sums allocated to NHS boards to enable them to meet the health care needs of their resident populations. Therefore, information on funding allocation by workforce group i…

11 Oct 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the percentage uplift in the prescribing element of the unified budget has been in each of the last three years and (a) how much and (b) what percentage of these uplifts have been determined according to the Arbuthnott formula, broken down by NHS board area.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: NHS boards are given a unified budget to enable them to meet the health care needs of their resident populations. There is no specific prescribing element uplift in the unified budget. It is for each individual NHS board to decide how much money to allocate t…

9 Oct 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether non-GM crops grown in close proximity to the GM crop trials can be harvested and sold to the public without the location of such crops being identified.

Answer · Ross Finnie: Crops grown outwith the separation distance around a GM crop do not come within the scope of the legislation regulating GM releases. Growers, whether they are the farmer involved in the trial or neighbouring landowners, are at liberty to do what they wish wit…

9 Oct 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what safeguards are in place to protect the public from any potential contamination of non-GM crops that may have been grown in close proximity to the GM crop trials.

Answer · Ross Finnie: Separation distances are in place around the GM crops to minimise the dispersal of pollen to adjacent crops. The distances deployed in the farm-scale evaluations are based upon decades of experience in conventional agriculture where they have proved extremely…

9 Oct 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether non-GM crops grown within 100 m of the GM crop trials are tested to ascertain whether there has been any contamination of the crops with GM material and which organisation carried out any such tests.

Answer · Ross Finnie: No. Such tests do not form part of the protocols applicable to the farm-scale evaluations and would only serve to confirm what is already known about the behaviour of pollen from these crops. The possibility of tiny quantities of pollen from the GM crop trave…

9 Oct 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what tests are carried out on non-GM crops grown within a 100 m radius of the GM crop trials.

Answer · Ross Finnie: In the farm scale evaluations, the same ecological research is conducted on the non-GM crops grown as a control crop as is conducted on the adjacent GM crop. Those tests involve the collection of information on the following indicators:<P>soil seed bank; <P>a…

4 Oct 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHS specialist nurses there currently are in each NHS board area, broken down by speciality.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The development of specialist nurses is primarily a matter for individual NHS trusts to determine in light of their clinical needs and service developments. Information on the numbers of specialist nurses is not centrally available.

4 Oct 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive which voluntary organisations currently fund NHS specialist nurses; how many specialist nurses each organisation funds and what the estimated cost is to each organisation.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The information requested is not held centrally.

30 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Care Commission always charges independent health care services the maximum fee of #510 as detailed in the schedule to the Regulation of Care (Fees) (Scotland) Order 2002 in respect of the variation of removal of condition.

Answer · Frank McAveety: The setting of fees within the maxima specified in the Fees Order is an operational matter for the Care Commission. In setting fees, the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act requires the commission to have regard to its reasonable expenses in carrying out its fu…

30 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there is any proposal for compensating beekeepers and farmers whose produce may be contaminated by GM crop trials.

Answer · Ross Finnie: There are no plans to introduce statutory provisions allowing claims for compensation for contamination specifically by a genetically modified organism.<P>It is recognised that some GM crops produce pollen, very small quantities of which may be dispersed by o…

30 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the introduction of GM organisms into the food chain as a result of the contamination of honey with GM pollen breaches any laws and, if so, which specific laws are breached.

Answer · Mary Mulligan: I am advised by the Food Standards Agency that all GM foods to be marketed in the EU must comply with the EC Novel Foods Regulation (258/97). The European Commission has, however, stated that honey unintentionally containing pollen transferred by bees from GM…

30 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it retains confidence in the separation distances contained in the Supply Chain Initiative on Modified Agricultural Crops (SCIMAC) guidelines following the report in the Sunday Times on 15 September 2002 regarding the contamination with GM pollen of honey from hives in the Newport…

Answer · Ross Finnie: It is widely acknowledged that bees foraging on oil seed rape may disperse pollen beyond the trial site no matter what separation distances are in place. The Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment considers this issue as part of the environmental r…

30 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive on what scientific evidence the Supply Chain Initiative on Modified Agricultural Crops (SCIMAC) guidelines recommending separation distances between GM and non-GM crops are based.

Answer · Ross Finnie: The guidelines prepared by SCIMAC are that organisation's own responsibility and have no regulatory authority. Any separation distances stipulated in consents to release GM crops have the confidence of our statutory advisory bodies that they will minimise pol…

20 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make representations to the Secretary of State for Transport to publish the report on the review of the disabled persons parking badge scheme.

Answer · Lewis Macdonald: The four UK administrations are currently undertaking a review of the Blue Badge Scheme and have received a report from the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC) - the UK Government's statutory adviser on the transport needs of disabled people…

20 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any policy or recommendations with regard to the provision of parking facilities and level access close to the entrance areas of public buildings and facilities for able-bodied companions accompanying disabled passengers and whether it will seek to increase such provision.

Answer · Lewis Macdonald: In Scotland, all new building work, including alterations and extensions, which is covered by building regulations must comply with the Technical Standards for compliance with the Building Standards (Scotland) Regulations 1990, as amended. The issues of parki…

20 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what its policy is with regard to exemption from congestion charging, road and estuarial crossing tolls and parking place levies for those disabled people who hold a valid disabled persons blue or orange parking badge; how it makes this policy known to all highway authorities and estuari…

Answer · Lewis Macdonald: Disabled people who hold a valid disabled persons blue or orange parking badge are exempt from payment of tolls at the Erskine, Forth Road and Tay Road Bridges. Disabled people who are exempt from payment of vehicle excise duty are exempt from payment of toll…

17 Sep 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive by what percentage it will reduce food-borne illness in Scotland as part of the UK 20% reduction target by 2006 as stated in the health and community care section of Building a Better Scotland - Spending Proposals 2003-06: What the money buys and what funding it will allocate in each year…

Answer · Mary Mulligan: The Food Standards Agency have advised me that they are committed to reducing food-borne illness in Scotland by at least 20%, by 2006.<P>The funding allocated to reduce food-borne illness across the spending review period is:<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPA…