Parliamentary questions
Des McNulty
1,840 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
20 Apr 2005 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how it is working with trade unions to encourage workplace learning.
Answer · Allan Wilson: The Scottish Executive recognises the important role that unions play in workplace learning. Since 2000 we have committed £3.3 million to 54 projects under the Scottish Union Learning Fund, a scheme specifically designed to encourage workplace learning by tra…
14 Mar 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans the First Minister has to provide more detailed information on the international development policy.
Answer · Patricia Ferguson: The First Minister is placing copies of the international development policy with the Parliament’s Reference Centre today, (Bib. No. 35726).</p>
24 Feb 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what capital funds will be made available to NHS boards for (a) 2005-06, (b) 2006-07 and (c) 2007-08.
Answer · Andy Kerr: NHS boards have been given formula* capital allocations of £220 million for 2005-06, £266 million for 2006-07 and £321 million for 2007-08. Island Board allocations include an island uplift supplement. Details of each NHS board’s allocation is as follows:</p>…
3 Feb 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what work it is carrying out to promote Scottish design and creativity.
Answer · Patricia Ferguson: £3 million of funding has been allocated in the Executive's 2004 spending review for a festival of creative design centring on Scotland's six cities (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee, Inverness and Stirling). The First Minister's St Andrew’s Day speech in…
28 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how it is making its procurement processes and policies more accessible to small and medium-sized suppliers.
Answer · Tom McCabe: The Scottish Executive is committed to ensuring that, wherever possible, publicprocurement procedures offer fair opportunity for Scottish suppliers, includingSmall and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME’s), to compete. We are also committed toensuring that pre-qua…
24 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what evidence there is that the resources allocated through the central heating scheme are not being accessed by the most fuel-poor and whether a proportion of current funding could be ring-fenced to a more flexible discretionary scheme through which the most fuel-poor could be assisted q…
Answer · Johann Lamont: Research on the first year of the central heating programme suggested that over 60% of participants were fuel poor before entering the programme, and that nearly 90% of those participants were lifted out of fuel poverty by the programme. However, fuel poverty…
24 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any recipients of sizeable capital grants projects funded by the Scottish Arts Council since 1999 are experiencing financial difficulties which affect their continued viability.
Answer · Patricia Ferguson: This is a matter for the ScottishArts Council. The information requested is not held centrally but we have askedthe Scottish Arts Council to provide the requested information to the Member.</p>
24 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of capital grants projects funded by the Scottish Arts Council since 1999 has (a) been late, (b) been more than 20% over budget and (c) not met operating targets.
Answer · Patricia Ferguson: This is a matter for the ScottishArts Council. The information requested is not held centrally but we have askedthe Scottish Arts Council to provide the requested information to the Member.</p>
24 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to ensure that patients needing primary hip and knee replacement are treated by a surgeon who has the experience and knowledge gained by carrying out the operation frequently and whether it will issue advice to patients highlighting the advantages of seeking a surg…
Answer · Andy Kerr: The Scottish Executive believes that specialisation across various disciplines can improve outcomes for patients.</p><p>Trained surgeons are listed on the General Medical Council Specialist Register as having completed training in the relevant specialty, whil…
24 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive to what types of projects the Office of Government Commerce's (OGC) Gateway Review process is applied and what other mechanisms exist for appraising, monitoring and evaluating innovative or experimental initiatives.
Answer · Tom McCabe: The Scottish Executive has adopted the OGC Gateway Review process and appliesit to a range of procurement, business change, construction, re-location, IT enabled, legislative and policy delivery projects. We are committed, in the light of the Holyrood Inquiry…
24 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether a risk-based approach to inspection of child care and day-care provision, which would involve more frequent inspections for poorer-performing providers and longer intervals between inspections for better performers, would help ensure resources are targeted at high-risk providers w…
Answer · Rhona Brankin: The Care Commission is required under the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001 to inspect each care service at least once a year or at least twice a year where the service includes the provision of overnight accommodation. </p><p>Within that legislative fra…
24 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether additional research is needed to assess the impact of early years initiatives on the affordability of child care across Scotland and whether cost remains a barrier to take-up.
Answer · Euan Robson: The Parents’ Demand for and Access to Childcare in Scotland research published in 2004 found that 65% of parents did not pay for their child care. Of those who did pay, 72% found it easy to pay for their child care, 26% found it difficult to meet the costs, a…
24 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many child care and early education places there are per 100 children in each local authority area.
Answer · Euan Robson: The information requested is given in table 1.17 of Scottish Executive Statistics Publication Notice ISSN 1479-7569 Pre-school and Childcare Statistics 2004 published on July 21 2004 at <a href="http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00346.pdf">http://www…
24 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to convey to Executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) the importance of adopting good procurement practice.
Answer · Tom McCabe: The Scottish Public Finance Manual sets out a number of requirements in respect of procurement, including requirements that procurement decisions are based on value for money (usually following competition), that procurement processes are managed by staff wit…
24 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is represented on the cross-Whitehall Managed Migration Group of officials and whether it has been requested to make an input to the group's top-to-bottom review of managed migration.
Answer · Tom McCabe: Immigration is a reserved issue and any review of managed migration is an issue for the Home Office. However, as part of the further development of the Fresh Talent Initiative, the Scottish Executive and Home Office are in regular discussions about managed mi…
24 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what skills and labour shortages in the Scottish economy could be addressed through the selective admissions system operated by the UK Government.
Answer · Tom McCabe: Extensive research undertaken by our labour market intelligence unit, Futureskills Scotland, has consistently shown that skills shortages are not a major issue in the Scottish labour market. The most recent Employer Skills Survey, which was published on 27 Ja…
24 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made in establishing a community planning partnership in East Dunbartonshire and how the arrangements being put in place will ensure that the community is appropriately represented.
Answer · Tom McCabe: East Dunbartonshire Council is required to initiate, facilitate and maintain a process of community planning, in which all relevant public, private, voluntary and community bodies in the area should participate. This duty is established under section 15 of th…
24 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects to complete its appraisal of the Glasgow Crossrail scheme.
Answer · Nicol Stephen: In November 2003 the Executive awarded £0.5 million to Strathclyde Passenger Transport (SPT) to undertake a feasibility study into their Crossrail proposals. In November 2004 SPT appointed the consultants Scott Wilson to carry out the study. Its findings are …
24 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-6398 by Andy Kerr on 2 June 2004, what further discussions it has had with UK officials on the Atkinson Review on national statistics and what implications this review will have for Scotland.
Answer · Tom McCabe: The publication of the final report of the Atkinson Review on 31 January was an important and welcome development. The report will undoubtedly make a significant contribution to the measurement of public sector output and productivity in the UK.</p><p>The Sco…
24 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much additional funding has been allocated for school sport in East Dunbartonshire and what it has been spent on in each year since 1999.
Answer · Patricia Ferguson: East Dunbartonshire received £47,120 through the TOP programme in 2000-01and £348,853 through Active Schools in 2004-05.</p><p>In addition to the funding from<b>sport</b>scotland, East Dunbartonshire has been allocated over £1.5 million through the NewOpportu…
24 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much additional funding has been allocated for school sport in West Dunbartonshire and what it has been spent on in each year since 1999.
Answer · Patricia Ferguson: I refer the member to the answer to question S1W-33868, on 17 February 2003. 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/webapp…
24 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, as part of its consideration of new planning arrangements, it will introduce tighter restriction on permitted development rights to prevent these being used to avoid local authority development planning or environmental controls.
Answer · Johann Lamont: The Executive is currently involvedin a programme of modernisation of the planning system and has a number of projectsunderway, which are at various stages. We will be considering the possibility ofa review of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted …
24 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the measurable impact of the implementation of the European Working Time Directive has been on capacity in the acute sector.
Answer · Andy Kerr: Patient safety is of paramount importance and no NHS employee should be working when they are overtired. That is why implementation of the working time regulations is a key element in our work to improve patient care. By far the most significant impact of the…
24 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Prison Service is developing rehabilitation programmes intended to reduce reoffending rates in partnership with voluntary sector agencies and, if so, which agencies are involved.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:</p><p>Currently there are no rehabilitation programmes being developed in partnership with the voluntary sector. However, SPS runs an emplo…
24 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has made any representations to energy suppliers regarding the rise in the number of disconnections due to debt and, if so, whether these have led to any reduction in disconnections.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: I recently met with representatives from energy supply companies and discussed, among other things, levels of disconnections of power supplies. My predecessor Margaret Curran had similar meetings early in 2004.</p><p>Disconnections for debt in Scotland have f…
21 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people in West Dunbartonshire died from strokes or heart disease, shown also as a proportion of the national average, in each of the last five years.
Answer · Tavish Scott: The information requested is presented in the table:</p><table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3 width=565> <thead> <tr> <td> <p> </p> </td> <td> <p align=center>1999</p> </td> <td> <p align=center>2000</p> </td> <td> <p align=center…
21 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people in West Dunbartonshire died from respiratory cancer, shown also as a proportion of the national average, in each of the last five years.
Answer · Tavish Scott: The information requested is presented in the table:</p><table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3 width=576> <thead> <tr> <td> <p> </p> </td> <td> <p align=center>1999</p> </td> <td> <p align=center>2000</p> </td> <td> <p align=center…
21 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people in West Dunbartonshire died from cancer, shown also as a proportion of the national average, in each of the last five years.
Answer · Tavish Scott: The information requested is presented in the table:</p><table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3> <thead> <tr> <td> <p> </p> </td> <td> <p align=center>1999</p> </td> <td> <p align=center>2000</p> </td> <td> <p align=center>2001</p> …
21 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the waiting time was for orthopaedic treatment in Greater Glasgow; whether waiting times have increased or decreased in the last year, and what steps it is taking to reduce such waiting times (a) in Greater Glasgow and (b) across Scotland.
Answer · Andy Kerr: Information on waiting times for orthopaedic in-patient and day case treatment for 30 September 2003 and 2004 for NHS Greater Glasgow and NHSScotland is provided in the following table.</p><p><i>FAIR TO ALL, PERSONAL TO EACH – The next steps for NHSScotland</…
21 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the median number of days wait was for in-patient treatment in the NHS Greater Glasgow area in 2004.
Answer · Andy Kerr: The median waiting time for in-patient and day case treatment in NHS Greater Glasgow during the year ending 30 September 2004 was 34 days.</p><p>NHS Greater Glasgow's waiting list shows that on 30 September 2004, 1,707 patients with a guarantee had waited mor…