Parliamentary questions

Alex Neil

3,059 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.

9 Nov 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many incidents of serious assault on fellow prisoners there have been by prisoners in Reliance's custody in the financial year 2005-06 to date, broken down by quarter, and what the comparable figures were in 2004-05.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows: I refer the member to the answers to questions S2W-8431 and S2W-16511 on 8 June 2004 and 23 May 2005 respectively which clearly outl…

9 Nov 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many incidents of serious assault against staff and/or other non-prisoners there have been by prisoners in Reliance's custody in the financial year 2005-06 to date, broken down by quarter, and what the comparable figures were in 2004-05.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows: I would refer the member to the answers questions S2W-8431 and S2W-16511 on 8 June 2004 and 23 May 2005 respectively which clearly outline…

9 Nov 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many incidents of serious self-harm of prisoners there have been in Reliance’s custody in the financial year 2005-06 to date, broken down by quarter, and what the comparable figures were in 2004-05.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows: I refer the member to the answers to questions S2W-8431 and S2W-16511 on 8 June 2004 and 23 May 2005 respectively which clearly outline th…

8 Nov 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when it hopes to fill the remaining vacancies in the Scottish Higher and Further Education Funding Council and whether it will improve the representation from the further education sector in filling these vacancies.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: I would expect an appointment round for the two Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council vacancies to begin in early 2006. This will give the new chair an opportunity to assess the skills and knowledge of members and to identify those gaps which …

2 Nov 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether NHS Quality Improvement Scotland has made any recommendations for any particular drugs not to be used for the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease on the NHS.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) provides a licence for any given medicine in the UK. This ensures that medicines meet acceptable standards on safety, quality and efficacy. The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) advises NHSScotl…

2 Nov 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what drugs are available for the treatment of medical conditions on the NHS (a) in Scotland but not in England and Wales and (b) in England and Wales but not in Scotland and what medical conditions each drug can be used to treat.

Answer · Andy Kerr: When a medicine receives a UK marketing authorisation, either from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency or the European Medicines Agency, it can be prescribed on the NHS unless it is subject to a direction by Scottish ministers under sectio…

2 Nov 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-18253 by Tavish Scott on 18 August 2005, whether there are any extra costs in addition to the estimated £22.24 million for the improvements to the Auchenkilns roundabout that have to be met by the contractor for the project and, if so, what these ext…

Answer · Tavish Scott: I understand that there will be extra costs which will be met by the contractor and his supply chain. The amount of these costs is not known to the Scottish Executive.

2 Nov 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what provision there is to allow nurses from abroad resident in Scotland to retrain to be able to nurse in Scotland.

Answer · Andy Kerr: Over the years, a number of programmes have been run locally by NHS health boards to provide internationally qualified nurses (IQN’s) with “supervised practice” programmes. This is the term used by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) as the recommended pe…

2 Nov 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what provision there is for tuberculosis testing in each NHS board area.

Answer · Andy Kerr: Each of the NHS boards offers screening tests for tuberculosis in the form of skin testing, with further investigations or laboratory testing of clinical samples undertaken as determined by national guidelines on this topic.

2 Nov 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the new bacteriology department at Wishaw General Hospital is capable of accommodating the necessary equipment to enable the provision of a tuberculosis laboratory.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The Clinical Laboratories at Wishaw General Hospital, which opened in May 2001, are capable of providing the facilities necessary for a Clinical Microbiology Service in a District General Hospital, including the initial culture facilities required at hospital…

2 Nov 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether a decision has been taken in respect of whether Glasgow Royal Infirmary or Hairmyres Hospital will no longer participate in the thoracic centre of excellence at the Golden Jubilee Hospital and, if so, what the reasons are for the decision.

Answer · Andy Kerr: I understand that NHS Greater Glasgow and NHS Lanarkshire have concluded that cardiothoracic services should be transferred to the Golden Jubilee National Hospital. I expect to receive the proposals for my consideration and final decision in the near future.<…

1 Nov 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is satisfied that all experts within the new Scottish Fingerprint Service agree as to what the definition of a fingerprint identification is.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: I refer the member to the answerto question S2W-20245 on 9 November 2005. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for whichcan be found at <a href="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/w…

1 Nov 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it is able to provide on any fingerprint experts working in any of the fingerprint bureaux outside of the Scottish Criminal Records Office (SCRO) who have disagreed with any of the SCRO experts fingerprint identifications in the last 10 years, on what the level of disagre…

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The only known incidents concernthe case of Shirley McKie when staff at Aberdeen and Edinburgh subsequently formed an opinion which differed from theoriginal identification made by their colleagues in Glasgow.During the past 10 years, underthe guidance…

1 Nov 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether all experts within the Scottish Fingerprint Service agree that fingerprint identification is a matter of opinion and not of fact.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: All experts within the Scottish Fingerprint Service agree that fingerprint evidence is expert opinion of identification based on the scientific fact that fingerprints are unique to every individual.

1 Nov 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Fingerprint Service and the Scottish Criminal Records Office use the same standards in respect of what constitutes fingerprint identification.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: All experts within the ScottishFingerprint Service, which is part of the Scottish Criminal Record Office, adoptthe same standards for fingerprint identifications – an identification is made whenthe expert is personally satisfied that the order, relationship a…

1 Nov 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it is able to provide on whether there have been any disagreements between experts from Aberdeen fingerprint bureau and experts from the Scottish Criminal Records Office in Glasgow on what constitutes fingerprint identification and, if there there have been any such disag…

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: Experts in the Aberdeen officeof the Scottish Fingerprint Service (SFS) recently disagreed with colleagues inthe Glasgow office about the identification made in 1997 of a markin the case of Shirley McKie.There is no difference of opinionin the SFS abou…

28 Oct 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) individual pensioners and (b) pensioner households are exempt partially or wholly from council tax payments; what the total cost is of these exemptions, and what the total cost to it would be of making all pensioners wholly exempt from paying council tax.

Answer · George Lyon: Information on the numbers ofpensioners and pensioner households who are exempt from council tax in Scotland is notheld centrally. Information on the estimated numbers of pensioner household-equivalentunits receiving council tax benefit in Scotland and the av…