BUSINESS BULLETIN 94 / 2000

Monday 5 June 2000

Section E - Written questions lodged on 1 June 2000

S1W-7526 Ms Sandra White: To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has for the future of the Glasgow Dental Hospital.

S1W-7527 Des McNulty: To ask the Scottish Executive how it is addressing the situation whereby households which contain adults who qualify for disability living allowance (DLA) are eligible for grant assistance under the Warm Deal for Scotland (WDS), but households which contain children who qualify for DLA, but whose parents do not, are not eligible for grant assistance under the WDS.

S1W-7528 Robert Brown: To ask the Scottish Executive what the composition is of the Scottish Executive group which will appraise the bids under the new Housing Partnership proposals.

S1W-7529 Robert Brown: To ask the Scottish Executive what the composition is of the panel of independent advisers approved by Scottish Homes for the purpose of providing independent tenant advice in the housing stock transfer process.

S1W-7530 Robert Brown: To ask the Scottish Executive what the criteria are on which Scottish Homes approves appointments to the Tenant Adviser Panel.

S1W-7531 Robert Brown: To ask the Scottish Executive whether any guidance is issued to local authorities as to the procedure for choosing independent tenant advisers to advise tenants on the housing stock transfer proposals.

S1W-7532 Robert Brown: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to increase funding to the Scottish Tenants Organisation.

S1W-7533 Mr Keith Harding: To ask the Scottish Executive what its policy is on elected provosts.

S1W-7534 Mr Keith Harding: To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of National Lottery grants awarded in Scotland are given to organisations in Fife, broken down by parliamentary constituency.

S1W-7535 Mr Murray Tosh: To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S1W-6991 and S1W-6992 by Sarah Boyack on 1 June 2000, what the timescale will be for the introduction of secondary legislation, in the form of an amendment to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Scotland) Order 1992, to remove permitted development rights in general for telecommunications developments.

S1W-7536 Mary Scanlon: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it shares the concerns expressed by the General Medical Council in relation to the period before which a doctor can be considered for restoration to the register following erasure being increased from three to five years.

S1W-7537 Mary Scanlon: To ask the Scottish Executive what each Primary Care Trust's drugs overspend is.

S1W-7538 Mary Scanlon: To ask the Scottish Executive what the remit, aims and objectives of "modernisation action teams" are.

S1W-7539 Mary Scanlon: To ask the Scottish Executive whether doctors who are struck off the register by the General Medical Council can continue to practice in the private sector in Scotland.

S1W-7540 Mary Scanlon: To ask the Scottish Executive whether adequate measures are in place to ensure that incompetent doctors are not allowed to practise.

S1W-7541 Mary Scanlon: To ask the Scottish Executive which of the Acheson report's 39 policy recommendations have been or are being implemented in Scotland.

S1W-7542 Mary Scanlon: To ask the Scottish Executive what new information it obtained from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey and whether the £3.8 million cost of the survey represented value for money.

S1W-7543 Johann Lamont: To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to prevent those accused of sex offences personally cross-examining the victim in court.

S1W-7544 Karen Gillon: To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made with implementing the findings of the Scottish Red Tape Review Panel's report Review of the Regulatory Burden: IACS and Inspections in Scotland.

S1W-7545 Karen Gillon: To ask the Scottish Executive when the membership of the Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology Commission will be announced.

S1W-7546 Brian Adam: To ask the Scottish Executive which of its Departments have leased offices; where they are located, and when these leases are due for renewal.

S1W-7547 Brian Adam: To ask the Scottish Executive how many staff are employed by its Departments in offices which are leased.

S1W-7548 Brian Adam: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will detail offices which it currently owns or leases.

S1W-7549 Brian Adam: To ask the Scottish Executive whether any offices which it owns or leases are empty or not fully occupied.

S1W-7550 Mr Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Scottish Executive what are the fuel costs, broken down by mode of transport, for CalMac on an annual basis since 1997.

S1W-7551 Alex Neil: To ask the Scottish Executive what financial and non-financial input it has had to the operation and policy framework for the National Drugs Helpline.

S1W-7552 Alex Neil: To ask the Scottish Executive what financial and non-financial input it has had to the operation and policy framework for the National Aids Helpline.

S1W-7553 Alex Neil: To ask the Scottish Executive to provide a breakdown of monies spent by Scottish Natural Heritage on foreign travel in each of the last two years.

S1W-7554 Alex Neil: To ask the Scottish Executive to provide a breakdown of monies spent by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency on foreign travel in each of the last two years.

S1W-7555 Alex Neil: To ask the Scottish Executive to provide a breakdown of monies spent by the Highlands and Islands Enterprise Network on foreign travel in each of the past two years.

S1W-7556 Alex Neil: To ask the Scottish Executive to provide a breakdown of the monies spent by the Scottish Enterprise Network on foreign travel in each of the last two years.

S1W-7557 Alex Neil: To ask the Scottish Executive to provide a breakdown by department of monies spent on foreign travel by Ministers and officials since 6 May 1999.

S1W-7558 Alex Neil: To ask the Scottish Executive what definition is used by police authorities to determine what constitutes a "drugs related death".

S1W-7559 Alex Neil: To ask the Scottish Executive to provide a breakdown of the funding made available for the establishment and operation of the Drug Enforcement Agency.

S1W-7560 Ms Sandra White: To ask the Scottish Executive which museums and galleries are in receipt of funding from central government.

S1W-7561 Ms Sandra White: To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-4663 by Mr Sam Galbraith on 31 May 2000, how much money has been awarded by National Lottery distributing bodies annually since its inception prior to 1999, broken down by Parliamentary constituency.

S1W-7562 Mary Scanlon: To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to increase awareness of the causes and consequences of malnutrition among healthcare and social services staff.

S1W-7563 Mary Scanlon: To ask the Scottish Executive what work has been done to assess the role socio-economic factors play in the incidence of malnutrition.

S1W-7564 Mary Scanlon: To ask the Scottish Executive whether medical records state the nutritional status of patients and, if not, whether there are any plans for them to do so.

S1W-7565 Mary Scanlon: To ask the Scottish Executive how many hospital and community dieticians there are in each health board area.

S1W-7566 Mary Scanlon: To ask the Scottish Executive what measures are in place in the NHS to treat and manage malnutrition.

S1W-7567 Dorothy-Grace Elder: To ask the Scottish Executive whether ambulance services throughout Scotland were fully consulted before proposals were drawn up concerning acute service reviews of hospitals.

S1W-7568 Dorothy-Grace Elder: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make immediate funds available to the Glasgow Rape Crisis Centre and in particular in relation to its current court action regarding the Mike Tyson fight.

S1W-7569 Mrs Margaret Ewing: To ask the Scottish Executive how many local authorities have submitted plans for advocacy for mental health service users and whether the provision of such a service will be mandatory.

S1W-7570 Mrs Margaret Ewing: To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to ensure that working groups on advocacy for mental health users are independent and that service users are fully represented on and acknowledged by such groups.

S1W-7571 Mary Scanlon: To ask the Scottish Executive whether couples living in different health board areas have the same access to NHS in vitro fertilisation services.

S1W-7572 Mary Scanlon: To ask the Scottish Executive what progress the Scottish Prison Service is making in putting its general medical services out to tender.

S1W-7573 Mary Scanlon: To ask the Scottish Executive what quality measures will be included in the criteria used to judge the tenders for the care and treatment of prisoners in Scotland's jails.

S1W-7574 Mary Scanlon: To ask the Scottish Executive whether general medical services in the Scottish Prison Service will in future be provided by qualified general practitioners.

S1W-7575 Mary Scanlon: To ask the Scottish Executive whether prisoners will receive an equivalent level of care and access to treatment as elsewhere in the NHS in Scotland.

S1W-7576 Mary Scanlon: To ask the Scottish Executive how issues of consent and confidentiality in relation to medical treatment can be assured for prisoners in Scotland's jails.

S1W-7577 Mary Scanlon: To ask the Scottish Executive what measures are in place to ensure seamless care for prisoners in relation to mental health and drug misuse.

S1W-7578 Mary Scanlon: To ask the Scottish Executive what measures are in place to ensure minimum disruption in health care of prisoners when they are moved across NHSiS healthcare boundaries for custodial reasons.

S1W-7579 Mary Scanlon: To ask the Scottish Executive what guidelines are in place to ensure that prisoners in Scotland are given professional health care, advice and support.

S1W-7580 Mary Scanlon: To ask the Scottish Executive whether guidelines and resources are in place in prisons in Scotland to screen for mental disorders, monitor psychological adaptation to prison and identify symptoms resulting from use of drugs, medication, alcohol or contagious or chronic conditions.

S1W-7581 Mary Scanlon: To ask the Scottish Executive whether doctors providing general medical services to the Scottish Prison Service will be trained in the advice and treatment of drug misusers.

S1W-7582 Mary Scanlon: To ask the Scottish Executive whether pay rates for doctors providing healthcare in the Scottish Prison Service will accurately reflect equivalent rates in the NHS.

S1W-7583 Mr Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will detail any directions or guidance it has given to the Strategic Rail Authority regarding the Borders rail line; when these were given, and whether it will place copies in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.

S1W-7584 Mr Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Scottish Executive what powers it has to extend fuel duty rebate to commercial vehicles; whether it will detail the basis of these powers or restrictions, and whether it has any plans to extend the fuel duty rebate schemes to encompass an essential user rebate scheme for road haulage vehicles.

S1W-7585 Mr Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Scottish Executive what powers it has in respect of the use of red diesel for agricultural vehicles and what its involvement is in the operation of the scheme of exemption from duty.

S1W-7586 Mr Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Scottish Executive what its policy is in respect of the Road Haulage Association's plans for an essential user rebate.

S1W-7587 Mr Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has obtained or will seek to obtain the Strategic Rail Authority's comments on the Incremental Output Statements relating to Scotland and whether, when and how these comments will be published.

S1W-7588 Mr Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Scottish Executive what the timetable is and criteria are for the renewal of the ScotRail franchise and when it intends to publish these.

S1W-7589 Mr Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Scottish Executive when it intends to respond to Railtrack's Network Management Statement and when it will publish any response.

S1W-7590 Mr Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Scottish Executive what its timetable is for a decision on the Freight Facility Grant Application for the Stirling/Alloa/Dunfermline line and what is the maximum and likely sum to be made available.

S1W-7591 Mr Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Scottish Executive what instruction and guidance was given by it to the Strategic Rail Authority regarding the East Coast main line franchise, whether it will detail any representations made regarding the line north of Edinburgh, and when it will publish these.

S1W-7592 Mr Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Scottish Executive what information was made available to it on 5 May 2000 regarding GM contaminated crops; what was the nature of that information; to whom and by whom it was passed, and what action was then taken prior to the communication being received from the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food on 15 May 2000.

S1W-7593 Mr Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Scottish Executive what powers it has in respect of the rebate scheme relating to heavy oil.

S1W-7594 Alex Neil: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider providing funding for the voluntary sector organisations which it supports and for its Executive agencies on a three yearly rather than annual basis.

S1W-7595 Alex Johnstone: To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish crop sites now growing GM oil seed rape as a result of the contamination of Advanta rapeseed with GM rapeseed will be subject to the same controls as crop sites intentionally sown with GM rapeseed for the purposes of a licensed crop trial.

S1W-7596 Alex Johnstone: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to restrict the import of supposedly GM free crop seeds from countries in which separation distances between GM crops and GM free crops are less than is the case in the United Kingdom.

S1W-7597 Alex Johnstone: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to identify any stores of Advanta rapeseeds that have been contaminated with GM rapeseeds held in this country and what measures it will take to ensure that stored seed is not sown or released into the food chain.

S1W-7598 Alex Johnstone: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to identify the crop sites sown with Advanta rapeseeds contaminated with GM rapeseeds and, if so, whether it will publish the locations of these sites.

S1W-7599 Alex Johnstone: To ask the Scottish Executive what it considers to be an acceptable level of seed purity in the case of conventional crop seeds in relation to contamination with GM seeds.

S1W-7600 Alex Johnstone: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has received any information from parties other than Advanta UK on the contamination of conventional Advanta rapeseed with genetically modifed rapeseed and, if so, when each such party first made such information available.

S1W-7601 Alex Johnstone: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish all of the information which it holds from Advanta UK on the contamination of conventional rapeseed with genetically modified rapeseed.

S1W-7602 Alex Johnstone: To ask the Scottish Executive whether, prior to being made aware of the contamination of conventional Advanta rapeseed with genetically modified seed, it had been aware of similar incidents involving crop seeds imported into other European Union member states and, if so, when it became aware of each such incident.

S1W-7603 Alex Johnstone: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it remains satisfied that a voluntary code of practice is a sufficient means of ensuring minimum separation distances between GM and non-GM crops or whether it has plans to introduce legislation in this regard.

S1W-7604 Alex Johnstone: To ask the Scottish Executive what its understanding is of the actual distances between fields that had been used to produce conventional Advanta rapeseed and the GM crops responsible for the cross-pollination of the conventional crop.

S1W-7605 Alex Johnstone: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to publish advice to consumers wishing to avoid food containing ingredients which may have been produced from crops grown from conventional Advanta rapeseed contaminated with GM rapeseed.

S1W-7606 Alex Johnstone: To ask the Scottish Executive whether current legislation on liability is sufficient in cases where (a) conventional crop seed is contaminated with GM crop seed; (b) conventional crops are cross-pollinated by GM crops and (c) conventional crops are contaminated with genetic material from GM crops as a result of other forms of gene flow.

S1W-7607 Alex Johnstone: To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it had in place before 18 May 2000 to inform farmers of the contamination of conventional Advanta rapeseeds with GM rapeseeds and whether these plans have been modified since this date.

S1W-7608 Alex Johnstone: To ask the Scottish Executive whether a seed purity inspection system will be introduced; if so, when the process of planning this system began; when details of how the system will work will be published; whether the introduction of the system is conditional upon EU or other international agreements; how much the system will cost, and how the system's costs will be funded.

S1W-7609 Alex Johnstone: To ask the Scottish Executive which statutory body or bodies had a legal duty or responsibility prior to 17 April 2000 to ensure the seed purity of imported supplies in Scotland.

S1W-7610 Brian Adam: To ask the Scottish Executive how many long stay patients with mental health problems have been transferred to care in the community in each of the last 10 years, broken down by health board area.

S1W-7611 Brian Adam: To ask the Scottish Executive how many long stay patients with mental health problems are planned to transfer to care in the community, broken down by health board area.

S1W-7612 Brian Adam: To ask the Scottish Executive how many long term beds are intended to be retained in the NHS for the care of patients with mental health problems, broken down by health board area.

S1W-7613 Brian Adam: To ask the Scottish Executive what advice it has made or will be making available to health boards concerning relatives wishes in respect of long term patients with mental health problems being considered for care in the community.

S1W-7614 Brian Adam: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to increase the bridging finance for health boards in managing the change from in-patient to care in the community for long term patients with mental health problems.