Parliamentary questions
Stewart Maxwell
854 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
27 Jan 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to allow the retention of DNA samples taken from people who voluntarily give samples for elimination purposes to assist in a police investigation.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The police can already retain DNA samples from people who voluntarily provide them to the police, provided they have the written consent of the person who provided the sample. That consent may be withdrawn in writing at any time.</p> <p>The Executive has no p…
27 Jan 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to allow the retention of DNA samples taken from an accused person aged under 18 if they are subsequently cleared of any offence.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-22739 on 6 February 2006. 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.uk/webap…
27 Jan 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to allow the retention of DNA samples taken from an accused person if they are subsequently cleared of any offence.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland raised with the Executive the issue of retaining DNA samples that are taken from persons who are arrested but not subsequently convicted as a potentially valuable tool in solving crimes and catching crimina…
27 Jan 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-9007 by Malcolm Chisholm on 5 July 2004, what the response has been from NHS boards and local authorities in respect of the implementation and effectiveness of the National Guidance on Managing Head Lice Infection in Children.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: Officials in the Health Department wrote to NHS boards, local authorities, schools, pre-school establishments, school nurse managers and others, in October 2005 to raise awareness of the National Guidance on Managing Head Lice Infection in Children.</p> <p>Wh…
26 Jan 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what education is given, and in which years, to nursery and primary schoolchildren on the importance of hand washing to prevent the spread of infection.
Answer · Robert Brown: Education on the importance of hand washing to prevent the spread of infection is given to both nursery and primary school children.</p> <p>The Care Commission regularly inspects all registered nursery providers against the <i>National Care Standards – Early …
25 Jan 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many fire fatalities there have been in each year since 1999 and how many of these resulted from fires identified as having been caused by cigarettes, broken down by (a) fire brigade area and (b) deprivation category.
Answer · Hugh Henry: Fire fatalities caused by cigarettes or other tobacco products by brigade area are shown in the table. Information on fire fatalities by deprivation category is not held centrally.</p> <p>Fatal Casualties in Primary Fires Started by Cigarettes or other Tobacc…
23 Jan 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the highest recorded cost has been of implementing an anti-social behaviour order where the recipient has been removed from home.
Answer · Hugh Henry: There is no centrally-held current information on the cost of antisocial behaviour orders (ASBOs) available for Scotland.</p>
23 Jan 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average cost of implementing an anti-social behaviour order where the recipient is removed from home is in each local authority area.
Answer · Hugh Henry: There is no centrally-held current information on the cost of antisocial behaviour orders (ASBOs) available for Scotland.</p>
23 Jan 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the highest recorded cost has been of implementing an anti-social behaviour order.
Answer · Hugh Henry: There is no centrally-held current information on the cost for granting an antisocial behaviour order (ASBO) available for Scotland.</p>
23 Jan 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average cost of implementing an anti-social behaviour order is in each local authority area.
Answer · Hugh Henry: There is no centrally-held current information on the average cost for granting an antisocial behaviour order (ASBO) available for Scotland. Research published in 2003 on the use of mediation to tackle antisocial behaviour collected some cost data on ASBOs in…
20 Jan 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many, and what percentage of, pregnant smokers have been prescribed nicotine replacement therapy in each of the last five years.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: This information is not held centrally.</p>
18 Jan 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many children have had fissure sealants in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) NHS board area and (b) deprivation category, expressed also as a percentage of all children of these ages.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: Under NHS general dental services, dentists are paid enhanced monthly fees according to the Deprivation Category of their practice postcode to provide registered child patients aged six and seven years with an appropriate preventive treatment programme. This …
18 Jan 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many children aged (a) five and under, (b) six to 12 and (c) 13 to 18 have had teeth extracted in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) NHS board area and (b) deprivation category, expressed also as a percentage of all children of these ages.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: The information requested is detailed in the table: <i>Number and percentage of children who have had teeth extracted; 2001 to 2005; by NHS board area and deprivation category; years ending 31 March</i> a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliame…
18 Jan 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many dental prescriptions for fluoride were issued in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) NHS board area and (b) deprivation category.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: Information on the number of prescription items for sodium fluoride preparations issued by dentists in Scotland during the financial years ending 31 March 2001 to 2005 inclusive broken down by NHS board is given in the following table. The data given refer to…
10 Jan 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will launch an advertising campaign highlighting the benefits of healthy eating in schools.
Answer · Peter Peacock: Hungry for Success takes a whole school approach to promoting healthy eating. This means not only providing nutritionally balanced meals, but also promoting healthy eating at the point of sale, in the curriculum and through newsletters and other communication…
10 Jan 2006 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will produce pamphlets for schools to provide parents with suggestions of healthy options for packed lunches.
Answer · Peter Peacock: The recent report on the implementation of Hungry for Success confirmed that many schools and local authorities had already introduced positive initiatives to encourage parents to provide balanced selections of food in packed lunches, to ensure that they refl…
16 Dec 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what research is being carried out into the reasons for 144.8 per million males under one year old being victims of murder, given that this is the highest risk group in society.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The Scottish Executive has not carried out any research into the reasons that 144.8 per million males under one year old are the victims of murder. I believe this figure reflects the fact that four such babies were counted in 2004-05, when three of these were…
16 Dec 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many children under one year old who were victims of homicide were known to social services agencies prior to their deaths in each of the last five years, broken down by gender.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: This information is not held centrally.</p>
14 Dec 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to follow the UK Department of Health’s practice and apply a prescription charge to hospital day patients for discharge drugs.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: Under the terms of the NHS (Charges for Drugs and Appliances) (Scotland) Regulations 2001, if drugs are supplied at an NHS hospital to a patient who is not resident in the hospital and the drugs are not for administration in the hospital, prescription charges…
8 Dec 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to issue an update to the Coronary Heart Disease and Stroke Strategy in 2006 and, if not, whether it will issue a new strategy.
Answer · Andy Kerr: The Executive has a long-termcommitment to cutting premature deaths from coronary heart disease and stroke inScotland, and has a clear strategy to achieve this. We aim to reduce under-75’s mortalityin coronary heart disease by 60% and in stroke by 50% by 2010…
8 Dec 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that those groups of people with the highest levels of coronary heart disease and the highest associated premature mortality rate receive equitable access to appropriate preventative treatments.
Answer · Andy Kerr: These groups are found disproportionately in deprived communities. <i>Delivering for Health</i> gave a commitment to strengthen and enhance primary care services in deprived areas to reduce health inequalities. Prevention 2010 will target resources in these a…
8 Dec 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made towards its Closing the Opportunity Gap target of reducing health inequalities by increasing the rate of improvement for under 75 coronary heart disease mortality and under 75 cancer mortality (1995-2003) for the most deprived communities by 15% by 2008.
Answer · Andy Kerr: For CHD, this target equates to reducing the standardised mortality rate for people in the most deprived areas by 21.7% between 2003 and 2008. During the first year of the target period, from 2003 to 2004, standardised mortality fell by 8.12%.</p> <p>For canc…
25 Nov 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many homeless children under the age of five have (a) received all appropriate developmental checks and (b) a designated health visitor in the area in which they are temporarily housed, expressed also as a percentage of all homeless children of this age.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: The information requested is not held centrally.</p>
25 Nov 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many homeless children aged (a) under 12 months and (b) between 12 and 24 months have received the full set of immunisations for their age, expressed also as a percentage of all homeless children of these ages.
Answer · Lewis Macdonald: This information is not held centrally.</p>
25 Nov 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many children are homeless.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The numbers of householdswith children assessed as homeless under the homelessness legislation by localauthorities are shown in the reply to S2W-21082 answered on 9 December 2005. Itis not possible to ascertain from the data how many children are assessed ash…
25 Nov 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many children were registered as homeless in each of the last five years, expressed also as a percentage of the total number of children, in each local authority area.
Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: The following table shows the numbers of households with children assessed as homeless by local authorities during the years 2002-03, 2003-04 and 2004-05, and the proportion of such households relative to all households with dependent children. The final colu…
22 Nov 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many football pitches in each local authority area do not have separate changing facilities for women, broken down by type of pitch and expressed also as a percentage of the total number of pitches.
Answer · Patricia Ferguson: This information is not held centrally.</p>
22 Nov 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many football pitches in each local authority area do not have adjoining changing facilities, broken down by type of pitch and expressed also as a percentage of the total number of pitches.
Answer · Patricia Ferguson: This information is not held centrally.</p>
16 Nov 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-19220 by Mr Andy Kerr on 26 September 2005, how many members of staff, broken down by role, are available before and after midnight at each NHS Greater Glasgow out-of-hours centre to determine whether a patient’s clinical condition has changed betwee…
Answer · Andy Kerr: The following tables show a breakdown of staffing before and after midnight at each</p> <p>Out-of-Hours Centre in Greater Glasgow. The information provided was supplied by the Greater Glasgow NHS Board.</p><p>Greater Glasgow Out-of-Hours Centres: Staffing Bef…
9 Nov 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to publish a statistical database for Scotland similar to Statistics Sweden or Statistics Norway and, if so, when such a database will be published and, if not, what the reasons are for its position on the matter.
Answer · Tom McCabe: The Scottish Executive is currently in the process of scoping out a series of improvements, to be implemented to the statistics topic of the internet site, aimed at improving the usability and accessibility of statistics in Scotland. A usability study of the …