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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S2W-09973

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 August 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 9 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many police stations were closed in each of the last five years, broken down by police force area.

Information on the number of police stations closed in each of the last five years is not held centrally. The total number of stations closed in seven out of the eight police force areas over the past five years are shown in the following table. The figure for Strathclyde is the total over the past seven years.

Force	No. of Stations Closed
Central Scotland Police	0
Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary	1
Fife Constabulary	1
Grampian Police	11
Lothian and Borders Police	0
Northern Constabulary	7
Strathclyde Police	38
Tayside Police	4

Source: Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-09975

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 August 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 9 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a breakdown of the ages of people appointed to public bodies in each of the last five years.

The information requested is as follows:

Age Range	Number
	April 1999 – March 2000	April 2000 – March 2001	April 2001 – March 2002	April 2002 – March 2003	April 2003 – March 2004
66+	11	26	20	16	16
56-65	72	102	92	87	87
46-55	105	95	110	93	80
36-45	24	29	60	44	31
35 and under	4	1	8	10	6

Question reference: S2W-09976

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 August 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 9 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many staff work for ministers in their private offices and what the annual cost is of employing these staff.

Sixty-four staff currently work in ministerial private offices at an estimated annual staff cost of £1,990,000. This figure includes ERNIC and overtime.

There are a further three Scottish Executive staff who are assigned to the Crown Office and one Crown Office employee who provide support to the Law Officers at an approximate annual cost of £98,638. This figure also includes ERNIC and overtime and is based on average staff costs.

Question reference: S2W-09941

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 August 2004
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 7 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what national guidelines have been issued regarding the restraint of children when a party is acting in loco parentis; what duty there is on local authorities or other agencies to issue such guidelines; which local authorities and agencies have done so, and what monitoring is done in relation to the implementation of such guidelines.

The Executive has commissioned guidance on restraint from the Scottish Institute for Residential Child Care, which is due to be published before the end of the year. Currently all residential care services children are required to have a written restraint policy according to the National Care Standards, and the Care Commission inspect twice yearly inspection against those standards. Monitoring is through that regular inspection process.

Question reference: S2W-09961

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 August 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 7 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients have to travel outwith their own NHS board area for renal dialysis, broken down by NHS board.

The information is set out in the following table.

NHS Board Area	Total no. of Patients on Hospital Haemodialysis	Patients Treated Outwith own NHS Board Area
Argyll and Clyde	105	42
Ayrshire and Arran	95	12
Borders	18	8
Dumfries and Galloway	47	*
Fife	87	11
Forth Valley	69	13
Glasgow	280	*
Grampian	141	*
Highland	70	*
Lanarkshire	166	28
Lothian	202	*
Tayside	108	*
No NHS Board reported **	37	-
Scotland	1,425	114

Source: Scottish Renal Registry.

Notes:

*Indicates figure of five or fewer. Also on grounds of patient confidentiality, the Island NHS Boards have not been included because of the very small patient numbers.

**NHS board of residence is derived from the patient’s postcode. The postcodes of 37 patients were missing. It is not possible to determine if these patients are receiving haemodialysis in their own NHS board area.

Patients may dialyse in a unit outwith their board of residence either for reasons of capacity or because they have chosen, for work or personal reasons, to attend such a unit.

Question reference: S2W-09966

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 August 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 7 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the latest response figures are for ambulances responding to emergencies (a) in total and (b) broken down by NHS board area.

The figures requested, which represent the performance of the Scottish Ambulance Service in July 2004, are listed in the following tables:

Boards where Priority Based Dispatch is in operation (the Ambulance Service is working towards reaching the Category A target by March 2008):

NHS Boards	Category A	Category B	Doctor’s Urgent
Achievement against 75% in 8 mins	Achievement against 95% in either 14/19/21 mins (dependant on population density)	Achievement against 95% within 15 mins of agreed time
Argyll and Clyde	49.1%	93.9%	92.0%
Ayrshire and Arran	55.0%	95.6%	88.5%
Borders	60.5%	93.7%	94.8%
Dumfries and Galloway	48.5%	89.5%	89.1%
Fife	62.4%	95.6%	97.9%
Forth Valley	54.0%	95.2%	98.7%
Grampian	70.5%	96.6%	99.7%
Greater Glasgow	51.7%	87.3%	79.8%
Highland	61.7%	91.8%	99.9%
Lanarkshire	41.8%	95.7%	90.3%
Lothian	60.6%	98.0%	95.9%
Tayside	65.6%	95.3%	95.4%
Scotland (PBD)	56.3%	93.8%	92.5%

Non-Priority Based Dispatch Boards:

Health Board	Emergency	Emergency	Doctor’s Urgent
Achievement against 50% in 8 mins	Achievement against 95% in 21 mins	Achievement against 95% within 15 mins of agreed time
Orkney	40.9%	86.4%	100.0%
Shetland	50.0%	81.8%	100.0%
Western Isles	54.8%	91.7%	100.0%
Scotland (non PBD)	51.7%	89.1%	100.0%

Question reference: S2W-09957

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 August 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 6 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost of medical negligence claims against the NHS was in each of the last five years, in total and broken down by NHS board.

The cost of medical negligence claims paid by NHSScotland in the last five financial years is:

NHS Board	1999-2000
NHS Board	Awards (£)	Expenses (£)	Total Cost (£)
Argyll and Clyde	92,628	47,611	140,239
Ayrshire and Arran	40,000	5,721	45,721
Borders	69,500	7,751	77,251
Dumfries and Galloway	133,614	19,887	153,501
Fife	45,900	13,075	58,975
Forth Valley	27,865	5,964	33,829
Grampian	405,383	8,957	414,340
Greater Glasgow	498,733	166,494	665,227
Highland	269,745	25,198	294,943
Lanarkshire	99,698	20,610	120,308
Lothian	906,627	204,452	1,111,079
Shetland	2,664	893	3,557
Tayside	251,000	29,165	280,165
Western Isles	30,000	-	30,000
CSA	82,000	-	82,000
Total	2,955,357	555,778	3,511,135

NHS Board	2000-01
NHS Board	Awards (£)	Expenses (£)	Total Cost (£)
Argyll and Clyde	91,550	52,144	143,694
Ayrshire and Arran	158,263	74,944	233,207
Borders	12,500	2,651	15,151
Dumfries and Galloway	407,500	3,000	410,500
Fife	280,647	77,114	357,761
Forth Valley	434,007	52,259	486,266
Grampian	186,061	59,074	245,135
Greater Glasgow	981,944	173,941	1,155,885
Highland	40,600	45,328	85,928
Lanarkshire	746,336	75,765	822,101
Lothian	252,962	139,109	392,071
Shetland	2,550	827	3,377
Tayside	225,552	94,358	319,910
Western Isles	104,990	28,106	133,096
CSA	-	12,250	12,250
Total	3,925,462	890,870	4,816,332

NHS Board	2001-02
NHS Board	Awards	Expenses	Total Cost (£)
Argyll and Clyde	265,519	36,817	302,336
Ayrshire and Arran	828,865	118,149	947,014
Borders	5,000	1,675	6,675
Dumfries and Galloway	701,116	51,501	752,617
Fife	51,693	32,230	83,923
Forth Valley	292,525	35,264	327,789
Grampian	175,375	16,581	191,956
Greater Glasgow	2,894,856	201,307	3,096,163
Highland	220,276	40,414	260,690
Lanarkshire	51,480	109,479	160,959
Lothian	815,557	85,534	901,091
Orkney	5,500	638	6,138
Shetland	7,700	2,279	9,979
Tayside	138,353	74,854	213,207
Western Isles	5,500	7,730	13,230
CSA	3,000	1,082	4,082
Total	6,462,315	815,534	7,277,849

NHS Board	2002-03
NHS Board	Awards	Expenses	Total Cost (£)
Argyll and Clyde	2,558,831	76,727	2,635,558
Ayrshire and Arran	671,398	34,802	706,200
Borders	20,111	2,385	22,496
Dumfries and Galloway	362,018	75,778	437,796
Fife	125,346	21,227	146,573
Forth Valley	112,954	23,025	135,979
Grampian	77,250	34,834	112,084
Greater Glasgow	2,078,799	229,689	2,308,488
Highland	197,581	26,619	224,200
Lanarkshire	406,282	81,261	487,543
Lothian	1,933,644	147,637	2,081,281
Shetland	78,345	21,583	99,928
Tayside	98,150	32,620	130,770
Total	8,720,709	808,187	9,528,896

NHS Board	2003-04
NHS Board	Awards	Expenses	Total Cost (£)
Argyll and Clyde	270,041	167,395	437,436
Ayrshire and Arran	230,560	81,754	312,314
Borders	13,650	-	13,650
Dumfries and Galloway	219,096	106,999	326,095
Fife	492,449	182,985	675,434
Forth Valley	2,518,400	108,403	2,626,803
Grampian	199,313	45,473	244,786
Greater Glasgow	1,419,508	239,478	1,658,986
Highland	1,324,739	82,338	1,407,077
Lanarkshire	569,846	222,446	792,292
Lothian	879,506	300,602	1,180,108
Shetland	10,200	3,347	13,547
Tayside	105,163	22,849	128,012
Western Isles	-	7,830	7,830
CSA	55,000	3,084	58,084
Total	8,307,471	1,574,983	9,882,454

Question reference: S2W-09965

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 August 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 6 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people under 21 received a custodial sentence in each of the last five years (a) in total and (b) broken down by sheriff court district.

The available information is given in the table.

Persons Aged Under 21 Given a Custodial Sentence in Scottish Courts, by Court, 1998-2002

	Year of Sentence
	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002¹
High Court	149	155	159	134	110
Sheriff Courts:
Aberdeen	321	299	313	236	172
Airdrie	93	100	80	79	79
Alloa	56	29	35	37	30
Arbroath	93	54	39	78	46
Ayr	142	137	207	164	143
Banff	12	21	7	34	9
Campbeltown	7	3	-	7	-
Cupar	20	19	25	34	18
Dingwall	11	12	12	5	2
Dornoch	2	2	7	2	2
Dumbarton	128	142	122	125	51
Dumfries	65	49	53	87	92
Dundee	390	265	310	306	246
Dunfermline	105	75	95	121	59
Dunoon	12	4	4	-	6
Duns	7	1	5	6	7
Edinburgh	293	374	373	407	397
Elgin	18	33	44	58	71
Falkirk	84	92	97	81	128
Forfar	21	17	12	36	38
Fort William	6	4	22	10	10
Glasgow	560	671	644	508	549
Greenock	190	206	149	134	107
Haddington	36	20	25	21	23
Hamilton	145	124	147	146	150
Inverness	42	68	69	47	30
Jedburgh	34	18	32	41	26
Kilmarnock	305	367	296	332	212
Kirkcaldy	186	251	160	147	78
Kirkcudbright	13	12	19	20	15
Kirkwall	1	3	1	3	1
Lanark	31	31	34	27	21
Lerwick	18	12	9	10	-
Linlithgow	54	119	72	52	116
Lochmaddy	1	-	3	1	-
Not Known	-	-	4	-	-
Oban	7	7	7	11	13
Paisley	262	210	193	236	201
Peebles	7	21	5	-	1
Perth	39	33	47	81	67
Peterhead	60	36	38	15	27
Rothesay	3	-	2	2	13
Selkirk	22	6	6	26	37
Stirling	40	38	40	38	47
Stonehaven	11	5	7	7	3
Stornoway	17	11	5	4	6
Stranraer	67	49	53	83	37
Tain	5	4	16	20	40
Wick	14	6	2	9	1
Sub-total	4,056	4,060	3,947	3,934	3,427
District and stipendiary magistrates courts:
Aberdeen City	38	15	4	2	1
Aberdeenshire	5	3	4	-	3
Angus	8	1	3	4	2
Clackmannanshire	-	-	-	-	1
Dumfries and Galloway	2	2	-	-	-
Dundee City	41	20	38	15	27
East Ayrshire	10	8	2	6	3
East Dunbartonshire	-	1	-	-	1
East Renfrewshire	1	-	-	1	-
Edinburgh, City of	1	1	2	4	8
Eilian Siar	-	-	5	-	-
Fife	6	10	4	7	-
Glasgow City	161	212	139	102	75
Highland	2	9	15	1	2
Inverclyde	-	1	7	2	1
Moray	-	-	-	3	1
North Ayrshire	1	-	1	2	1
North Lanarkshire	1	3	3	5	2
Perth and Kinross	2	3	5	7	2
Renfrewshire	-	-	-	2	4
Scottish Borders	1	-	-	-	-
South Ayrshire	-	9	3	20	10
South Lanarkshire	-	1	3	-	3
Stirling	1	-	-	-	-
West Dunbartonshire	-	2	1	8	-
West Lothian	-	-	-	1	2
Sub-total	281	301	239	192	149
All courts	4,486	4,516	4,345	4,260	3,686

Note: 1. Figures may be underestimates due to time taken to record court disposals on SCRO system.

Question reference: S2W-09962

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 August 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 6 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people are registered with a dentist, broken down by NHS board.

The information requested is provided in the following table.

Number of People Registered with an NHS General Dental Practitioner; 30 June 2004

Health Board Area	Children	Adults	Total
Argyll and Clyde	58,298	162,278	220,576
Ayrshire and Arran	54,476	147,077	201,553
Borders	13,579	37,617	51,196
Dumfries and Galloway	19,248	45,136	64,384
Fife	47,146	137,840	184,986
Forth Valley	41,707	105,993	147,700
Grampian	66,014	159,886	225,900
Greater Glasgow	128,782	356,699	485,481
Highland	27,813	47,705	75,518
Lanarkshire	75,828	204,568	280,396
Lothian	112,422	310,444	422,866
Orkney	1,298	3,700	4,998
Shetland	3,074	7,248	10,322
Tayside	59,324	171,470	230,794
Western Isles	1,638	9,058	10,696
Scotland	710,647	1,906,719	2,617,366

Source: MIDAS (Management Information and Dental Accounting System).

Question reference: S2W-09960

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 August 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 6 September 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many hospitals have closed their lists (a) permanently or (b) temporarily to new patients over the last year, broken down by NHS board and speciality.