Parliamentary questions

Andrew Welsh

539 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.

10 May 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what financial impact the increase in landfill tax announced in the UK Budget 2002 will have on each local authority and what additional financial resources will be allocated to each local authority specifically to compensate for the increase.

Answer · Peter Peacock: The intention to increase the rate of landfill tax for active waste from £12 to £13 per tonne in April 2002 had previously been announced in the Government's 1999 Budget. The tax is intended to be an incentive for all those disposing of waste, including local…

10 May 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with COSLA following the announcement in the UK Budget 2002 of an increase in employers' National Insurance contributions by 1%.

Answer · Andy Kerr: This issue is being considered as part of our discussions with COSLA on the current Spending Review.

10 May 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what financial impact the 1% increase in employers' National Insurance contributions announced in the UK Budget 2002 will have on non-departmental public bodies.

Answer · Andy Kerr: I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-25291 on 14 May 2002.

10 May 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what financial impact the 1% increase in employers' National Insurance contributions announced in the UK Budget 2002 will have on each NHS board and trust and what additional financial resources will be allocated to each board and trust specifically to compensate for the increase.

Answer · Andy Kerr: I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-25291 ON 14 May 2002.

10 May 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what financial impact the 1% increase in employers' National Insurance contributions announced in the UK Budget 2002 will have on each local authority and what additional financial resources will be allocated to each local authority specifically to compensate for the increase.

Answer · Andy Kerr: I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-25291 on 14 May 2002.

19 Apr 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what impact actions taken to tackle hospital-acquired infection are having.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The Scottish Executive has put in place a range of measures to tackle hospital acquired infection (HAI). These include the introduction of service standards by the Clinical Standards Board for Scotland (CSBS) for infection control and cleaning services, a nat…

19 Apr 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what account will be taken of Dr Andrew Walker's report into hospital-acquired infection and bed use in the NHS.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: Dr Walker's report will contribute along with other information and studies to the development of policy for dealing with health care associated infection.

19 Apr 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it accepts the number of 1,416 acute hospital beds occupied full-time by patients with hospital-acquired infection (HAI) as estimated by Dr Andrew Walker in his report into HAI and bed use in the NHS.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: There are no statistics on hospital-acquired infection (HAI) and bed use. Any figure can only be an estimate based on studies conducted in a few hospitals in England and elsewhere.<P>The new HAI surveillance system currently provides data on the incidence of …

18 Apr 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to increase the provision of ambulance services in Angus.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-25215.

18 Apr 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of patients in Angus requiring ambulance transfers within one or two hours are not transported within this timeframe.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: There has been an improvement in the performance in response to GPs' urgent calls. These calls mostly concern the admission of patients to hospital following a doctor's home visit. Here the service aim to transfer 95% of such requests to hospital within 15 mi…

18 Apr 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what changes there have been to the provision of ambulance services for Angus since the withdrawal of acute services from Stracathro Hospital.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: An additional seven front line emergency ambulance staff are now operational in the Angus area and there are another two vacancies waiting to be filled. All the ambulance stations in the area are now operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A paramedic-le…

18 Apr 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether ambulance response times have increased in Angus since the withdrawal of acute services from Stracathro Hospital.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: There has been a marginal increase in the average length of time the emergency service has been taking to respond to 999 emergency calls. But in the Angus area, the service is still exceeding the national target that is designed to provide for 50% of emergenc…

18 Apr 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what monitoring is undertaken of ambulance response times in Angus.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: Demand levels and response times across the East Central Ambulance Division, which covers the Angus area, are reported twice daily. This in turn supports weekly monitoring information that is used for performance management purposes by officers from ambulance…

17 Apr 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what specific instructions have been given to the enterprise network with respect to providing opportunities for the development of refrigerator decommissioning industries.

Answer · Wendy Alexander: No specific instructions have been given to the Enterprise Networks with respect to providing opportunities for the development of refrigerator decommissioning industries. Decommissioning firms will be attracted by the clear market opportunity and I would exp…

17 Apr 2002 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what impact the removal of acute services from Stracathro Hospital has had on the ambulance service provision for patients in Angus.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The Tayside NHS Board and the Scottish Ambulance Service agreed that for modern, safe and responsive patient services to be sustained in Angus then investment in additional emergency ambulance service resources was required. That investment has been and is co…

27 Mar 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what information is held on how each local authority deals with discarded refrigerators and free'ers.

Answer · Ross Finnie: In order to inform its consideration of the fridges issue, on 6 December 2001 the Executive advised local authorities of the volumes of discarded fridges and freezers expected to arise in their area and asked whether their plans for dealing with such waste co…

27 Mar 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-24005 by Ross Finnie on 25 March 2002, why information on the number of refrigerators and free'ers currently estimated to be held by local authorities is not held centrally.

Answer · Ross Finnie: Collating information on the number of redundant fridges and freezers held in storage at any given time does not help to manage the problem, and asking local authority personnel to supply information which changes by the day merely diverts their attention fro…

27 Mar 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when the last audit was carried out into NHS orthopaedic services, whether the audit was published and, if so, when and, if it was not, whether it will now be published.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: An on-going national audit of hip fracture patients, provides regular feed back to participating centres and to annual professional meetings. An annual report is to be published within the next two months. This will be linked with the evidence based SIGN Guid…

22 Mar 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-4927 by Ross Finnie on 21 March 2002, how the #18 million made available to fish processors has been, or will be, distributed.

Answer · Ross Finnie: The £18 million available to fish processors, is distributed through the FIFG Lowland Scotland Processing and Marketing Scheme, under a six-year programme ending in 2006. Processors can apply at any time, and awards are made on a quarterly basis through a com…

22 Mar 2002 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-4927 by Ross Finnie on 21 March 2002, what grants have been awarded to date under the 2002-06 Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance programmes, broken down by geographical region.

Answer · Ross Finnie: As at 11 April, under the 2000-06 FIFG programmes, £4.95 million has been awarded to 52 projects in the Highlands and Islands Transitional Objective 1 area and £4.52 million to 44 projects in the rest of Scotland. Details of individual awards are set out in t…