Mr Brian Monteith

28 May 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients in the Forth Valley NHS Board area (a) have received and (b) are still to receive hip or knee surgery in a private hospital under the initiative announced in its news release SEhd319/2003 on 20 February 2003 and whether it will extend the initiative to include (i) more p…

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: At 3 June 2003, 11 patients in the Forth Valley NHS Board area had received hip and knee surgery at a private sector hospital in Scotland under the second stage of the orthopaedic initiative, which started on 1 April 2003. It is planned that a further 57 resi…

28 May 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what new drugs have been approved in the last three years for treating rheumatoid arthritis and how many patients are being treated with each such drug.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The licensing of medicines is reserved and is the responsibility of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).<P>The MHRA has advised that, according to their licensing records, nine products with new active substances were granted market…

28 May 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what fitness tests the police use during their recruitment process and whether any changes to the tests have been implemented in the past two years or are planned.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: Under the Police Regulations 1976, no person may be appointed as a constable unless he or she has been certified to be "in good health, of sound constitution and fitted both physically and mentally to perform the duties of constable". All police forces in Sco…

22 May 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding will be allocated to create urban regeneration companies as referred to in A Partnership for a Better Scotland.

Answer · Margaret Curran: The urban regeneration company is a structure designed to enable a group of organisations to deliver a complex regeneration project that will support their individual and shared objectives. The organisations that jointly create the new company provide the res…

22 May 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding has been provided by (a) each NHS board, (b) each local authority, (c) Communities Scotland, (d) each local enterprise company, (e) Scottish Natural Heritage, (f) the Scottish Arts Council, (g) sportscotland and (h) the Unemployed Voluntary Action Fund to support the creation…

Answer · Margaret Curran: As part of the Executive's Social Economy Review, published in January 2003, a new funding stream of £2 million per annum is being provided over the next three years in order to develop the social economy. Information on this type of investment has not previo…

22 May 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many social enterprises were created in each year since 1999.

Answer · Margaret Curran: The information requested is not held centrally, partly because there is no accepted definition of what is a &quot;social enterprise&quot;.

19 May 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) births, (b) births outside marriage, (c) births to teenagers, (d) marriages, (e) civil marriages, (f) divorces and (g) deaths broken down by gender there were in each year since 2000 and what the average (i) age at first marriage and (ii) length of marriage at divorce was in …

Answer · Hugh Henry: The information requested is given in the following table. As is conventional with such data, the average age at first marriage is given separately for males and females and the "average" length of marriage at divorce is expressed as a median.<TABLE BORDER CE…

19 May 2003 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will extend the provision of mobile NHS chiropody facilities in rural areas where NHS chiropody services are no longer available.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The provision of chiropody services in both urban and rural areas is the responsibility of local NHS systems, who will consider the needs of the community and service delivery when planning and developing local services.

26 Feb 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether a local authority road can become part of the trunk road network and thereby be maintained by the Executive and, if so, what the process is for achieving this.

Answer · Lewis Macdonald: Trunking of local roads, or detrunking of parts of the existing network, is effected by means of an order made under section 5(2) of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984. Significant changes were last made in 1996 following a major review and extensive consultation,…

20 Feb 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many times the Minister for the Environment and Rural Development has led the United Kingdom delegation to an EU Council meeting since 1999.

Answer · Ross Finnie: The Minister for Environment and Rural Development has been part of the UK delegation at EU Council meetings on 16 occasions since 1999. At these Councils, the leader of the UK delegation has been a United Kingdom Government Minister.

19 Feb 2003 · SPCB Written Question

To ask the Presiding Officer how much has been spent on providing free food and refreshments to MSPs and parliamentary staff in each of the last four years.

Answer · David Steel: Details of annual spend by the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body and a brief explanation of the costs are outlined below. <P>Costs for the supply of tea, coffee, bottled water and fresh fruit during plenary sessions, and sandwiches occasionally provided f…

13 Feb 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) net revenue expenditure on roads maintenance and winter maintenance and (b) gross capital expenditure on the structural maintenance of roads has been in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority.

Answer · Lewis Macdonald: The information requested is given in tables number 11.1 to 11.4 of <I>Scottish Transport Statistics No. 21</I>, a copy of which is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 23316). <P>For trunk roads, expenditure is expressed for the networ…

13 Feb 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-33057 by Lewis Macdonald on 21 January 2003, whether it has received a final copy of the Society of Chief Officers of Transport (SCOTS) roads condition report.

Answer · Lewis Macdonald: No. The national condition survey of local roads is being carried out by SCOTS on behalf of COSLA and local authorities. The findings of the first year's survey work have not yet been published and will be reported to those bodies in the first instance, not t…

12 Feb 2003 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when the Scottish Arts Council's Youth Music Audit will be published and when it will respond to the report.

Answer · Elaine Murray: The publication of the report is a matter for the Scottish Arts Council and its commissioning partners. Ministers will respond after considering the report and the council's associated proposals.

11 Feb 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when the Scottish Arts Council's Youth Music Audit will be published.

Answer · Elaine Murray: The Audit of Youth Music Provision by the Scottish Arts Council, Youth Music and the Musician's Union, <I>What's going on</I>, was published on 26 February 2003.

10 Feb 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance or guidelines there are for NHS boards in receipt of requests from patients wishing to leave hospital with the assistance of an ambulance provided by an independent health care provider.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: None. Hospitals will arrange transport most appropriate to patients' clinical, social or other needs.

7 Feb 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-32995 by Nicol Stephen on the 22 January 2003, what forms guidance, guidelines and official circulars initiated by it and the former Scottish Office can take.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: These items can take the form of standard circulars, letters, leaflets, booklets, reports and the like.

5 Feb 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether each police force has targets for the recruitment and retention of special constables and whether any such targets are being met.

Answer · Jim Wallace: This is an operational matter for each police force. While no national targets relating to the Special Constabulary have been set by the Scottish Executive, Scottish ministers have made clear their desire to see an increase in the number of special constables.

5 Feb 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive which departments, other than its Education Department and its Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Department, have issued written guidance, guidelines and official circulars that are still operational in respect of pre-school centres, primary schools, secondary schools, special schools and…

Answer · Nicol Stephen: The issue of material of the kind you have asked about is not subject to central logging. It is not possible, therefore, to provide a comprehensive list of all departmental sources of such material.

4 Feb 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when its Environment and Rural Affairs Department offices in Dundee, Forfar and Stirling will close following the transfer of work and personnel to the new regional office in Perth.

Answer · Ross Finnie: The department's offices in Dundee, Forfar and Stirling will close on 14 February 2003.

4 Feb 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what additional costs have been incurred following the delay from September 2002 in opening its new Environment and Rural Affairs Department office at Broxden Business Park, Perth.

Answer · Ross Finnie: There will be no additional costs directly resulting from the slight delay in moving into the new office in Perth.

4 Feb 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when its new Environment and Rural Affairs Department office at Broxden Business Park, Perth, will become fully operational.

Answer · Ross Finnie: The department's new office at Broxden Business Park, Perth will be fully operational on 17 February 2003.

4 Feb 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the costs were of printing, publishing and distributing Building Our Future: Scotland's School Estate.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The costs of printing and publishing have amounted to £17,600, with a further £100 for distribution.

30 Jan 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish figures on the incidence of violence against local authority school staff in each year since 1997, broken down by local authority area.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The Scottish Executive does not publish by local authority area data on the incidence of violence and anti-social behaviour because variations in recording between authorities make it difficult to make reliable comparisons. Individual local authorities may ch…

29 Jan 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many confirmed cases of meningococcal infection there have been in each NHS board area in each of the last five years.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The following table gives details of cases of invasive meningococcal infection known to the Scottish Meningococcal and Pneumococcal Reference Laboratory, grouped according to the NHS board area in which the patient was first diagnosed.<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACIN…

29 Jan 2003 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when the Minister for Health and Community Care will next meet representatives of Forth Valley NHS Board and what issues they will discuss.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: I have no immediate plans to do so. Regular discussions take place, however, between the Scottish Executive and representatives of NHS boards, on a variety of issues.

28 Jan 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the costs were of printing, publishing and distributing Growing Support - A Review of Services for Vulnerable Families with Very Young Children.

Answer · Cathy Jamieson: We are still in the process of distributing this report. The total anticipated cost is likely to be £20,790.

28 Jan 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when it determined the annual grant aid for 2002-03 for Jordanhill School in Glasgow.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: Jordanhill School's annual recurrent grant for 2002-03 was determined on 26 March 2002.

28 Jan 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the annual recurrent grant is for 2002-03 for St Mary's Episcopal School in Dunblane and, if it has not been determined, what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: The school's annual recurrent grant for 2002-03 is £193,106.

22 Jan 2003 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-32995 by Nicol Stephen on 22 January 2003, which of its "areas" have issued written guidance, guidelines and official circulars that are still operational in respect of pre-school centres, primary schools, secondary schools, special schools and terti…

Answer · Nicol Stephen: Such material has been issued principally, but not exclusively, by the Scottish Executive Education Department and the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Department, and, prior to 1999, by their predecessor Departments in the former Scottish Office.