Parliamentary questions
Ken Macintosh
1,334 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
24 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what national guidelines are available for prescribing anti-tumour necrosis factor alpha drugs to patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: No national guidelines are available at present on the prescribing anti-tumour necrosis factor alpha drugs to patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The Health Technology Board for Scotland will issue a Comment on the technology appraisal by the National Institu…
24 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether anti-tumour necrosis drugs for the treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis have been assessed by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: A technology appraisal of Etanercept and Infliximab for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis is expected to be issued by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence in March 2002.
24 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients with rheumatoid arthritis are currently being prescribed anti-tumour necrosis factor alpha drugs.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: This information is not available centrally. Infliximab and Entanercept are available on NHS prescription. However, their use depends on the clinical judgement of specialists experienced in the management of rheumatoid arthritis. Data on drugs dispensed in ho…
24 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has produced guidance to health boards on prescribing anti-tumour necrosis factor alpha drugs for the treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: Health boards determine their prescribing policy on new medicines, taking into account local needs and advice from their Area Drug and Therapeutics Committee. The Scottish Medicines Consortium will provide a single Scottish source of advice to local Area Drug…
24 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what funds have been made available to health boards to help them prescribe anti-tumour necrosis factor alpha drugs for the treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: Health boards' unified budgets include provision for the cost of prescribed medicines and are set to allow for the introduction of new medicines and the greater use of existing therapies. As these funds form part of their unified budget, health boards have th…
22 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients with suspected cancer failed to receive an appointment within two weeks after the referral from their general practitioner to the Royal Alexandra Hospital, Paisley, in each year since 1999-2000.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-22130.
22 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients with suspected cancer in the Argyll & Clyde NHS Board area failed to receive a hospital appointment within two weeks after the referral from their general practitioner in each year since 1999-2000.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: This information is not held centrally.<P>The Clinical Standards Board for Scotland recently completed its assessments of breast, lung, colorectal and ovarian cancer services across Scotland, including where applicable referral standards. National reports set…
14 Jan 2002 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the First Minister plans to attend the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg later this year.
Answer · Ross Finnie: The composition of the UK delegation will be decided in due course.
9 Jan 2002 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to improve cancer services for patients in Eastwood.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The Scottish Executive's cancer strategy, <I>Cancer in Scotland: Action for Change</I> is backed up by £40 million additional investment over three years, the emphasis of which is to build capacity within cancer services, across the total patient journey. Imp…
2 Jan 2002 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been charged with litter offences over the last three years.
Answer · Jim Wallace: The available information is given in the following table.<P>Persons proceeded against in Scottish Courts where the main offence was a litter offence, 1998-2000<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=7 WIDTH=170><TR><TD WIDTH="28%" VALIGN="TOP"><FONT FACE="Ar…
14 Nov 2001 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many Community Care Plans currently recognise the needs of deafblind children and adults.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The Scottish Executive does not collate the level of detail requested. However, each local authority is required to publish a community care plan which takes a broad view of the needs of vulnerable adults in their area and how they are going to be met. These …
31 Oct 2001 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken to implement the recommendations made in Sensing Progress.
Answer · Susan Deacon: The Scottish Executive has taken several steps to implement the recommendations made in <I>Sensing Progress</I> including the establishment of a short-life working group of representatives of local authorities, health services and people with a visual impairm…
24 Oct 2001 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress the Scottish Ministerial Group on Sustainable Development is making in helping to implement the plans outlined in Working together for Scotland: A Programme for Government.
Answer · Ross Finnie: The Ministerial Group on Sustainable Scotland has played a key role in ensuring that the plans outlined in <I>Working together for Scotland: A Programme for Government</I> are implemented in a way which takes sustainable development into account. Policy areas…
25 Sep 2001 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made in the review of Education for Work and Enterprise.
Answer · Nicol Stephen: I am today chairing the first meeting of an Education for Work Review Group to assess the effectiveness of Education for Work activities in schools and the scope to improve them throughout Scotland. Membership of the group is drawn from a wide range of experi…
18 Sep 2001 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make available to local authorities additional financial support for further school Public/Private Partnership projects.
Answer · Jack McConnell: Public/Private Partnerships have a significant role to play in our strategy for improving the school stock and the learning and teaching environment for our pupils and teachers.<P>10 education authorities in Scotland are already guaranteed financial support f…
29 Aug 2001 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what its performance has been in the first quarter of 2001 in answering ministerial correspondence.
Answer · Tom McCabe: In my reply to Mr McNulty's question (S1W-12613) answered on 22 December 2000 we undertook to report quarterly on the numbers of letters received by ministers and our performance in answering them. In the quarter January to March 2001, 3,960 letters were rece…
20 Jul 2001 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects to publish its report on the progress made against the Statistics Plan 2000-01.
Answer · Angus MacKay: I am pleased to announce that we have published the report of progress against the <I>Statistics Plan 2000-01</I>. The Scottish Executive Stewardship Report sets out the progress made against the <I>Statistics Plan 2000-01</I>, which was published in April 20…
27 Jun 2001 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects to receive the report of the review of the implications associated with implementing a neonatal hearing screening programme.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: A review of the implications of implementing a phased neonatal hearing screening programme was placed on the SHOW website on 27 June and is available at www.show.scot.nhs.uk.
26 Jun 2001 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish the key performance targets it has set Historic Scotland for 2001-02.
Answer · Allan Wilson: I have set Historic Scotland the following key performance targets for 2001-02:<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=2 WIDTH=614><TR><TD WIDTH="89%" VALIGN="TOP" HEIGHT=16><P>Key Performance Area</TD><TD WIDTH="11%" VALIGN="TOP" HEIGHT=16><P>Target</TD></TR…
20 Jun 2001 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to promote arts programmes for young people and children with disabilities.
Answer · Allan Wilson: Arts programmes are available in all schools to all children. The Executive also provides resources to SENSE Scotland who, as part of their work with the disabled, provide a number of arts programmes for children. The Scottish Arts Council runs various lotter…
23 May 2001 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when the Registrar General for Scotland will publish figures from this year's Census on the number of Gaelic speakers in Scotland.
Answer · Jim Wallace: The Registrar General for Scotland plans to publish detailed Census results, including counts of Gaelic speakers, by the end of March 2003.
16 May 2001 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to address the needs of people with attention deficit disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The day to day treatment of people with ADD and ADHD is a matter for health boards in conjunction with education and social work authorities. The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) is currently developing a clinical guideline on Attention Defi…
10 May 2001 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it is making in identifying schools where there is little or no provision of cycle training, and what steps it will take to encourage cycle training in such schools.
Answer · Sarah Boyack: A survey to provide baseline information on levels of cycle training in Scottish schools is due for completion shortly. When the report of the survey is available, I will consider its implications fully.
10 May 2001 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-10039 by Iain Gray on 30 October 2000, what progress has been made in ensuring that people with a disability continue to have access to the support and advisory services provided by Disability Scotland.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The Executive hopes to be in a position soon to set out proposals to ensure that disabled people and key organisations in the disability field play a major role in shaping and influencing how their views are represented and their needs met.
26 Apr 2001 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications for each type of work for which assistance is available under the Warm Deal have been made to Energy Action Grants Agency Ltd. (EAGA); how many such applications have been successful, broken down by local authority in each case, and what the average grant awarded by…
Answer · Jackie Baillie: Applications for the Warm Deal are not made on the basis of individual insulation measures. They are made for the package of measures. Eaga does not record information on the average grant in each local authority area. In 2000-01, over 27,200 homes were insul…
25 Apr 2001 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking in relation to third party rights in local planning decisions.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: Representatives of the Scottish Prison Service and the Prison Officers’ Association attended a conciliation hearing on 1 May 2001 which was chaired by the Director of ACAS for Scotland.<P>As a result, the dispute about staff attendance patterns has been refer…
28 Mar 2001 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it plans to take to address the concerns of the Cawley family over the handling of the prosecution case in relation to the murder of Christopher Cawley in September 2000.
Answer · Colin Boyd: A number of MSPs have written to me in connection with this matter. I have replied advising them that I have asked the Deputy Crown Agent to meet the Cawley family to discuss their concerns.
14 Mar 2001 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when it will respond to the Education, Culture and Sport Committee's 3rd Report 2001, Report on Inquiry into Special Educational Needs.
Answer · Nicol Stephen: Ministers hope to respond by 6 April 2001.
27 Feb 2001 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-11809 by Angus MacKay on 22 January 2001, when it expects to make an announcement on new independent assessors to oversee the public appointments system.
Answer · Angus MacKay: Following consideration of the nominations put forward by the main parties represented in Parliament and by the Convener of the Equal Opportunities Committee, I am pleased to announce that eight new Independent Assessors have been appointed for a period of on…
21 Feb 2001 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it is making in establishing a task force to develop a national physical activity strategy as promised in Towards a Healthier Scotland.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: Plans for the launch of the Physical Activity Task Force are now at an advanced stage and I expect to send invitations to potential task force members in the very near future. Meanwhile, we are making arrangements for an initial meeting to take place at the e…