Parliamentary questions

George Foulkes

1,927 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.

6 May 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the Scottish Medicines Consortium has done to develop its work on estimating the anticipated budget impact of new medicines.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Budget impact information is provided to NHS boards by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) for all new medicines assessed. These estimates are intended to give NHS boards an indication of the financial implications if the product is accepted for use withi…

6 May 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what it is doing to extend NHS Ayrshire and Arran’s hospital electronic prescribing and medicines administration system to other NHS boards.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The Scottish Government has commissioned a consortium of NHS boards to procure a Patient Management System which includes a hospital electronic prescribing and medicines administration system as an option. This procurement is due to get to award of contract s…

6 May 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action is it taking to reduce the amount of branded drugs used in the NHS and to increase the use of generic medicine.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The Scottish Government encourages the prescribing of generic medicines where clinically appropriate. However, where a branded medicine is still protected by patent generic copies are not available to be dispensed. Also, in certain circumstances, the use of t…

6 May 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive which recommendations in the 2005 Audit Scotland report, A Scottish prescription - Managing the use of medicines in hospitals, have been implemented and when it expects that all the recommendations will be in place.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The recommendations in the 2005 report A Scottish Prescription: Managing the use of medicines in hospitals have, wherever possible, been introduced into routine practice, are under active consideration or are part of on-going work within a larger prog…

6 May 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what contact it has had with the Northern Ireland Executive regarding the identification of efficiency initiatives.

Answer · John Swinney: Scottish Government are always keen to discuss efficiency initiatives in other administrations, including the other devolved administrations. I have discussed efficiency initiatives with the Northern Ireland Ministers.

6 May 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the rail journeys to and from official engagements that each cabinet secretary and minister undertook in 2008-09.

Answer · John Swinney: The information requested is being collated and I will write to the member as soon as the information is available. A copy of the response will be available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number. 48176).

6 May 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to change the travel arrangements of ministers and officials to and from official engagements to take account of the effect on climate change.

Answer · John Swinney: The Scottish Government is committed to reducing business travel related emissions by 20% between 2005-06 and 2010-11 and by 40% by 2019-20 against 2005-06 levels. We would hope to communicate this by, for example: Promoting video and tele …

6 May 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what powers it has to direct the chair of the Scottish Futures Trust to respond to inquiries from MSPs regarding interests declared by members of the trust.

Answer · John Swinney: The Scottish Futures Trust intends to publish a register of its board members'' interests on its website shortly. In the meantime, I understand that details have been supplied to the member.

6 May 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what recent correspondence the First Minister has had with the governments of signatory countries of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Answer · Bruce Crawford: The First Minister has had no correspondence with the governments of signatory countries of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty subsequent to his letter of 15 October 2007 and the responses received to this, which were published on the Scottish Government we…

6 May 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the visits by the First Minister to (a) schools, (b) hospitals and (c) prisons in 2008-09.

Answer · John Swinney: The schools and hospitals visited by the First Minister in 2008-09 are set out in the following table. <table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 > <thead> <tr > <td width=198 valign=top > Name of School </td> <td …

6 May 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what it estimates the cost of the First Minister’s office was in 2008-09.

Answer · John Swinney: The total actual cost for the First Minister''s office for 2008-09 was £619,940. The following table shows the comparison of costs over the last three years: <table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 > <thead> <tr > <td nowrap valign=bottom > …

6 May 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how it plans to encourage the development of credit unions.

Answer · John Swinney: Funding is available to encourage credit union development through the £30 million Scottish Investment Fund and the £12 million Third Sector Enterprise Fund (which incorporates the Third Sector Credit Union Fund). Funding may also be available through the Fai…

6 May 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the effectiveness of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 in relation to access to toilets and what action it intends to take.

Answer · Shona Robison: The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 is reserved to Westminster and the Scottish Government has not undertaken an assessment of its effectiveness in relation to access to toilets. The Scottish Government is committed to equality for disabled people…

6 May 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the change has been in the number of (a) prison places and (b) community service order placements since May 2007.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond to part (a). His response is as follows: The design capacity of all Scottish prisons since May 2007 has increased as follows: <table border=1 cellspacing=0 cel…

6 May 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions ministers or officials have had with the UK Government regarding the implications for Scotland of the draft Constitutional Renewal Bill.

Answer · John Swinney: Officials have been in regular contact with counterparts in the UK Government about the content of the Constitutional Renewal Bill and ministers have exchanged correspondence in relation to a range of issues.

6 May 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what estimate it has made of the impact on the Scottish economy of the UK Government’s defence facilities in the Clyde area and at Rosyth.

Answer · Jim Mather: The Scottish Government has asked the Working Group on Scotland Without Nuclear Weapons to examine the economic impact of removal of nuclear weapons from HM Naval Base Clyde and would urge the Ministry of Defence to provide access to information to help with …

6 May 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the implications for it are if the UK Government is unable to obtain a long-term derogation from the EU working time directive.

Answer · Jim Mather: The European Parliament and Council failed to reach a compromise at the conciliation stage on the proposed changes to the Working Time Directive. As such the current legislation will remain in force, allowing the UK to retain the existing opt-out. If…

6 May 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what mechanism it has in place in each directorate to ensure that parliamentary questions are answered within the time limit.

Answer · Bruce Crawford: The government has a corporate management system in place which sets out the necessary deadlines to answer parliamentary questions within the time limits.

6 May 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total payment made to the First Minister was in 2008-09, broken down by (a) salary, (b) expenses and (c) other payments.

5 May 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what political affiliations were declared by serving members of the Scottish Legal Aid Board at the time of their appointment, subsequently and currently.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The Code of Practice for Ministerial Appointments to Public Bodies in Scotland requires successful candidates to declare any political activity in the five years prior to the appointment, in so far as that information is already in the public domain. This inf…

30 Apr 2009 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive , in light of the current economic climate, what further support it is offering to homeowners in government supported shared equity schemes.

Answer · Alex Neil: Households on low to moderate incomes can buy their home through our Open Market Shared Equity Pilot and New Supply Shared Equity scheme within the Scottish Government''s Low-cost Initiative for First Time Buyers (LIFT). From 1 April, the Open Market scheme h…

16 Apr 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any minister has declared an account in any of the overseas territories, crown dependencies or other tax havens.

Answer · Bruce Crawford: Paragraph 11.3 of the Scottish Ministerial Code makes clear that, on appointment to each new office, ministers must provide the Permanent Secretary with a full list in writing of all interests which might be thought to give rise to a conflict. Paragraph 11.5 …

16 Apr 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance is given to ministers regarding the use of offshore accounts for their personal savings.

Answer · Bruce Crawford: The Scottish Ministerial Code provides Scottish ministers with general guidance in relation to their financial interests, but does not provide specific guidance on the treatment of any particular category of financial interest, such as offshore accounts. The …

16 Apr 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken to ensure that there are no further outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease.

Answer · Richard Lochhead: Scotland has not had an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease since 2001. The emphasis remains on prevention of disease entering Scotland and Scottish Government has in place robust measures to help minimise the risk of introduction of the disease, including a b…

15 Apr 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executivewhat procurement process it applied to the production of the Homecoming Scotland advertisement.

Answer · Jim Mather: The Union, the current supplier under the VisitScotland Direct Marketing Creative & Account Management Services contract, undertook the production of the Homecoming Scotland advertisement and as such the production work was made under the terms of an exis…

15 Apr 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-20441 by Jim Mather on 26 February 2009, to whom music usage costs were paid and under what terms.

Answer · Jim Mather: Music usage costs were paid to Dougie McLean and usage rights agreed with him as owner of this piece of music. The fee paid for this was for usage in the advertisement but also covered usage when it was played in various media channels.

15 Apr 2009 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that the Calman Commission on Scottish Devolution is making a positive contribution to the debate on Scotland’s constitutional options.

Answer · Michael Russell : This question was answered in the Chamber. The answer can be viewed in the Official Report using the following link: <a href="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor0423-01.htm">http://www.scott…

9 Apr 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) cost of administering prescriptions and (b) income from prescription charges was in 2008-09 and what it estimates this will be in 2009-10 and 2010-11.

Answer · Shona Robison: (a) The gross cost of dispensing prescriptions to patients across Scotland from April 2008 to December 2008* was approximately £834 million. This includes drug costs and related dispensing fees. Costs for 2009-10 and 2010-11 will depend upon various factors i…

9 Apr 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what consideration has been given to the cross-border arrangements for prescriptions being written in England and issued in Scotland and vice versa.

Answer · Shona Robison: The arrangements in relation to prescription forms issued in England and dispensed in Scotland are set out in the National Health Service (Charges for Drugs and Appliances) (Scotland) Regulations 2008, and have therefore been given full consideration by the S…

9 Apr 2009 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what arrangements it has in place for Scottish patients with long-term conditions requiring regular medication to have their prescriptions issued when visiting England.

Answer · Shona Robison: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-22935 on 7 May 2009. 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/Apps2/Bus…