3 October 2008

Marlyn Glen : To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3O-4300 by Fiona Hyslop on 25 September 2008, what the estimated cost is to each local authority of extending entitlement to free school meals to all primary and secondary pupils whose parents or carers are in receipt of maximum child and working tax credit

19 September 2008

Marlyn Glen : To ask the Scottish Executive why Health Protection Scotland’s Report on Review of Clostridium difficile Associated Disease Cases and Mortality in all acute hospitals in Scotland from December 2007- May 2008 has recommended an age of 15 for the minimum limit for the extension of the national surveillance programme for Clostridium difficile-associated disease.

Nicola Sturgeon : I am advised by Health Protection Scotland (HPS) that existing testing methods for Clostridium difficile are not recommended for children under the age of 15. Younger children are carriers of Clostridium difficile without any symptoms and the disease does not appear to occur in childhood. Given the lack of appropriate tests and the probability that this group of individuals is at very low risk it does not seem appropriate to recommend testing which is unproven and could lead to unnecessary treatment. HPS will, however, keep the situation under review.

Marlyn Glen : To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to study the effect of the introduction of a minimum age limit of two years on the mandatory surveillance of Clostridium difficile-associated disease in (a) England from April 2007, (b) Wales from September 2008 and (c) Northern Ireland from April 2008.

Nicola Sturgeon : Yes. As with all areas of healthcare associated infection, Health Protection Scotland (HPS) regularly monitors developments around the UK and in other countries. It will continue to study all the research evidence to determine whether testing in this age group should be introduced here.

4 September 2008

Marlyn Glen : What resources are being put in place to roll out the ASSIST victim support services needed to match the extended responsibilities of the Domestic Abuse Court in Glasgow and how similar support services across Scotland will be funded.

Kenny MacAskill : In June 2008, I announced that, alongside the roll-out of the Domestic Abuse Court in Glasgow, the Scottish Government will be extending provision for the ASSIST service to support victims and their children in the 3 police divisions of the city of Glasgow.

Ministers are currently considering a proposal from ASSIST and I expect a decision to be made shortly.

The Scottish Government accepted the conclusion of the feasibility study group that to assist the support to victims and their children across Scotland, development work is required to:

Develop occupational standards for working with victims of domestic abuse;

Increase the collaboration and opportunity for joint activity between key agencies working with victims of domestic abuse and other forms of violence against women;

Work with local partners providing services to victims to develop enhanced support provision, and

Develop an operational manual that could be used to improve support for victims of domestic abuse and enable organisations to develop co-ordination and advocacy work.

Further details can be found in section 5 of the feasibility study group report.

This work will be taken forward over the next three years.

2 September 2008

Marlyn Glen To ask the Scottish Executive what effect the classification of students as economically inactive has had on the reported figure for the rate of economic activity in Dundee City in each of the last three years.

Jim Mather: The number of students classified as economically inactive in Dundee City during the last three calendar years is shown in the following table. This also shows the level of economically inactive students as a percentage of the working-age population in Dundee City.

It should be noted that not all students are classified as economically inactive. A student who does at least one hour paid work or has stated that they are actively seeking and available for work is classified as economically active. The effect on Dundee City''s economic activity rate of some students being classified as economically inactive is not quantified as the Scottish Government does not hold information on whether those individuals would be economically active or inactive if they were not students.

4 September 2008

Marlyn Glen : To ask the Scottish Executive whether nursing staff other than school nurses will participate in the implementation of the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination programme from September 2008 as part of the community health nurse pilot scheme in NHS Tayside.

Shona Robison : Within NHS Tayside, school nurses will lead the implementation of the HPV vaccination programme supported by the other nursing staff. The other nursing staff will consist of both community staff nurses and public health staff nurses. All nurses will undergo a training programme if required.

3 September 2008

Marlyn Glen : To ask the Scottish Executive how many school nurses there were in the NHS Tayside area in each of the last three years for which figures are available, expressed in (a) full-time equivalent and (b) headcount terms.

Nicola Sturgeon: The following table provides the number of whole-time equivalent (WTE) and head count school nurses in Tayside in 2003, 2004, 2005. These figures are collected by Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland.

Data for 2006 is unavailable due to the non-direct match between Whitley Council grades and new Agenda for Change grades. Data for 2007 has not been included as accuracy cannot yet be guaranteed. This reflects the fact that the assimilation of NHS staff to Agenda for Change bandings by NHS boards is on-going. There may also be anomalies with the coding which may affect correct numbers of staff being identified.

NHS boards are currently working through a process of cleaning up the data to ensure future high quality data standards. Once full assimilation to Agenda for Change has been achieved, the publication of workforce statistics will be updated to reflect this.

28 August 2008

Marlyn Glen : To ask the Scottish Executive whether the target set for NHS boards, in Better Health, Better Care: Action Plan, that 80% of all three to five-year-olds should be registered with a NHS dentist by 2010-11 also means that a target of 80% registration has been set for the same age group in each Community Health Partnership in each NHS board.

Shona Robison : It is for NHS boards to manage the delivery of the target through their local delivery plans and there is therefore no explicit national target set at the level of Community Health Partnership areas.

1 September 2008

Marlyn Glen MSP : To ask the Scottish Executive what the percentage acute bed occupancy has been in each hospital in NHS Tayside in each year since 2003.

Nicola Sturgeon : The percentage acute bed occupancy for hospitals in NHS Tayside is shown in the following table.

Table 1: Percentage Occupancy in Acute Specialites in NHS Tayside by Hospital¹

Source: ISD(S)1.

22 August 2008

Marlyn Glen : To ask the Scottish Executive how many recorded cases of Clostridium difficile there have been in (a) NHS Tayside and (b) Scotland in the latest available 12 month period, broken down into people aged (a) two to 44, (b) 45 to 64, (c) 65 to 74 and (d) 75 and over.

Nicola Sturgeon : Mandatory surveillance on the total number of cases of Clostridium difficile reported by NHS board was introduced in September 2006. This information is collected by Health Protection Scotland (HPS) and is published in quarterly reports on their website. HPS does not hold processed (i.e. de-duplicated) and reviewed data for patients below 65 years old. Data are not held by the requested age groups.

Information for NHS boards since September 2006, for patients over 65, is in the following table:

Source: Health Protection Scotland.

7 August 2008

Marlyn Glen : To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) employment, (b) unemployment and (c) further study or training rates were six months after graduation for graduates in (i) English, (ii) mathematics, (iii) science and (iv) psychology from Scottish institutions in the latest year for which information is available.

Fiona Hyslop : The statistics the member requested are shown in the following table.

Destination of Full-Time Higher Education Graduates from Scottish Institutions Six Months after Graduating by Subject Area: 2005-06

Source: Higher education Statistics Agency (HESA) and Scottish Funding Council (SFC).

Note: The overall response rate, including both HESA and SFC data, for the subject groups in the above table was 78%.

8 August 2008

Marlyn Glen : To ask the Scottish Executive how many new applications have been received for a free central heating system in the DD postcode area in each of the last 12 months for which information is available and how many were considered to be eligible.

Stewart Maxwell: The number of applications received in the DD postcode area during each of the last twelve months, as notified by the Managing Agent, is shown in the following table.