Parliamentary questions

Mike Rumbles

1,089 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.

28 Jun 2001 · Written Question

Answer · Susan Deacon: Grampian Health Board were allocated the following amounts from the Out Of Hours Development Fund over the past three years. It is for the board and the Trust to decide how to allocate these funds to out of hours providers locally.<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 …

28 Jun 2001 · Written Question

Answer · Susan Deacon: Listed in the table is the amount of money allocated to the health boards for the years requested.<TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=7 WIDTH=609><TR><TD WIDTH="33%" VALIGN="TOP" ROWSPAN=2><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Health Board</TD><TD WIDTH="20%" VALIGN="TOP"><…

28 Jun 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding is available to support the development of rural out-of-hours GP services.

Answer · Susan Deacon: The Out of Hours Development Fund is intended to support improvements in out-of-hours services across Scotland, including rural areas. The aim of the fund is to reduce pressure on individual GPs and/or make more cost-effective use of GP time.<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY…

28 Jun 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much commercial bus operators have received in subsidies from the Scottish Executive since July 1999.

Answer · Sarah Boyack: The Executive, under the Bus Fuel Duty Rebate Scheme (BFDR), paid grant to Scottish bus operators amounting to £94.5 million between 1 April 1999 and 31 March 2001 to reimburse them for excise duty paid on fuel consumed in operating local registered services.

28 Jun 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many health boards have given the drugs Enbrel and Remicade to patients.

Answer · Susan Deacon: This information is not available centrally. Enbrel and Remicade are available on the NHS. However, their use depends on the clinical judgement of specialists experienced in the management of rheumatoid arthritis. Data on drugs dispensed in hospitals is not h…

28 Jun 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers when approving new drugs or treatments for use by the NHSiS (a) how much demand there will be within each health board area for such drugs and treatment and (b) what additional resources would be required to meet that demand.

Answer · Susan Deacon: When a medicine receives a UK marketing authorisation, either from the Medicines Control Agency or the European Medicines Evaluation Authority, it becomes prescribable on the NHS unless it is added to Schedule 10, or in certain circumstances, Schedule 11 to t…

28 Jun 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what volume of rail freight was transported to, from and through Aberdeen in each of the last ten years.

Answer · Sarah Boyack: The information requested is not held centrally.

28 Jun 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress local authorities are making in delivering local plan policies and issuing supplementary guidance to developers on the development of affordable housing, and how it is assisting local authorities to do this.

Answer · Lewis Macdonald: We are aware that planning authorities have been considering ways in which they can assist in the provision of affordable housing. Delivery of local plan policies is the responsibility of the planning authority in question.<P>The Executive sets the national p…

28 Jun 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to lower the male age of qualification for concessionary travel on public transport to 60 years of age to bring it in line with the qualification age for females.

Answer · Sarah Boyack: I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-13592.

28 Jun 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what forms of non-domestic rate relief are available to new small non-agricultural businesses developed on land or property formerly used for agricultural purposes.

Answer · Angus MacKay: All businesses occupying properties with a rateable value of £10,000 or less benefit from a 2p reduction in the poundage this year. In addition, the rateable value of certain lands and buildings used for breeding or rearing horses is reduced by £2,500 or the …

28 Jun 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what forms of non-domestic rate relief are available to small rural businesses.

Answer · Angus MacKay: All businesses occupying properties with a rateable value of £10,000 or less benefit from a 2p reduction in the poundage this year. In addition, the rural rate relief scheme provides 50% mandatory relief for any sole general store (selling food and household …

28 Jun 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when the results of the Fuel Duty Rebate (FDR) and Community Transport Services consultation will be announced.

Answer · Sarah Boyack: Following a wide-ranging consultation exercise, we intend to bring forward regulations in the autumn to extend the availability of fuel duty rebate to a wide range of community transport services. Full details will be made available at that time.

28 Jun 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when the results of the Rate Relief for Small Businesses consultation will be announced.

Answer · Angus MacKay: We are considering next steps in the light of the many helpful and diverse responses we received and an announcement will be made in due course.

28 Jun 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when the results of the consultation on the Forthcoming Review of the Common Fisheries Policy will be announced.

Answer · Rhona Brankin: The Scottish Executive conducted a written consultation in Scotland on the European Commission Green Paper on the Future of the CFP between 22 March and 31 May this year. 27 responses were received. A summary of these responses has been prepared and will be p…

28 Jun 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when the results of the Livestock Welfare (Disposal) Scheme consultation will be announced.

Answer · Ross Finnie: My department passed copies of the consultation responses to the Scottish Parliament's Reference Centre during the course of week commencing 16 July.

28 Jun 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to encourage nurses to continue working within the NHSiS.

Answer · Susan Deacon: There are a number of ways in which this is being achieved. For example, <I>Our National Health: A plan for action, a plan for change</I> makes clear that all NHS employers will be required to meet or exceed best practice guidance on family-friendly policies …

28 Jun 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when the results of the Scottish National Heritage consultation on the proposals for the Cairngorms National Park will be published.

Answer · Rhona Brankin: I expect to receive the report from Scottish Natural Heritage in late August. I will immediately make it available on the internet and a limited number of copies will be made available to the Parliament and relevant local authorities. Wide circulation of prin…

28 Jun 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many visitors salmon and sea trout angling have attracted to Scotland in each of the last 10 years.

Answer · Wendy Alexander: Information is not available in the form requested. It is estimated that around 110,000 visitors fish in Scotland every year, generating tourism spend of around £30 million.

28 Jun 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the value was to the Scottish economy of salmon and sea trout angling in each of the last 10 years.

Answer · Rhona Brankin: We do not hold this information centrally. I am, however, proposing to commission the necessary economic study.

9 May 2001 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will implement a system of direct funding for area tourist boards.

Answer · Alasdair Morrison: This matter is kept under constant review, although we have no plans at present to implement a direct system of funding. However, I endorsed the recommendation in last years management review of the STB that we should move toward a "de facto network" involvin…

4 May 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether Grampian Health Board has the lowest level of cancelled operations of all health boards and, if so, why, and whether it will identify any best practice procedures the Board employs which other health boards could adopt.

Answer · Susan Deacon: I strongly support the efforts of the NHS to reduce the number of cancelled admissions to hospital and to spread good operational practice. The development of new performance assessment and accountability arrangements for NHSScotland, as described in <I>Our N…

4 May 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether all NHS Trusts have a procedure to contact by telephone all patients awaiting surgical operations in order to reconfirm appointments.

Answer · Susan Deacon: This is a matter for individual NHS Trusts.

4 May 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will ensure that the operating procedures of all NHS Trusts are reviewed to ensure that best practice is employed to reduce the number of cancelled surgical operations across Scotland.

30 Apr 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many staff are currently working in the infection control team at Grampian University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Answer · Susan Deacon: This is a matter for the Trust. I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-15463.

30 Apr 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the recommended level of staffing is of the infection control team at Grampian University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Answer · Susan Deacon: The Scottish Office Department of Health provided guidance to the NHS on infection control arrangements, policy and procedures in the <I>Scottish</I> <I>Infection Manual</I> (1998). The guidance does not make recommendations about the level of staffing requir…

30 Apr 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHS Hospital Trusts have infection control teams.

Answer · Susan Deacon: Infection control teams are in place in every NHS Trust in Scotland, including some in which teams are organised on a health board-wide basis to cover both acute and primary care settings in the area.

30 Apr 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the remarks made by the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning on 28 March 2001 (Official Report, col. 978) regarding refunds of area tourist board subscriptions, whether any such refunds have yet been made to businesses affected by the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak.

Answer · Alasdair Morrison: All ATBs have been provided with funding from visitscotland specifically to reduce the subscription burden on their members. It is for individual ATBs to decide exactly how this is to be implemented, for example, by cash refund or future credit.

30 Apr 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to improve service provision for deafblind people.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-15107 on 8 May 2001.

30 Apr 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to privatise any aspect of Scotland's frontline police operations.

Answer · Jim Wallace: No. Trained civilians are already employed within the police service in Scotland in certain well-defined roles to support the work of the police. Deployments along these lines will continue where they are appropriate.

30 Apr 2001 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps have been taken to ensure that any potentially environmentally damaging material contained on the two United States Air Force jets which crashed in the Cairngorms recently is removed from the crash site.

Answer · Rhona Brankin: I understand that the Royal Air Force (RAF) has produced a written recovery plan for the crash sites in consultation with a working group comprising of the two landowners involved, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the National Trust fo…