Questions and answers

Question reference: S2W-09493

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 19 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many drivers were (a) charged, (b) proceeded against and (c) had a charge proved for driving while disqualified in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.

Information on persons charged by the police is not held centrally. The information available on offences proceeded against in court is given in the tables. There is no simple relationship between sheriff court and local authority areas as some sheriff courts deal with offenders from more than one local authority area.

Offences of Driving while Disqualified Proceeded Against in Scottish Courts, by Court, 1998-2002

	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002³
Sheriff courts:
Aberdeen	231	259	273	283	278
Airdrie	84	97	88	93	105
Alloa	17	17	27	25	34
Arbroath	77	34	23	37	50
Ayr	84	68	94	87	102
Banff	4	19	15	13	21
Campbeltown	6	3	3	2	1
Cupar	21	22	24	28	22
Dingwall	13	19	12	2	18
Dornoch	4	6	4	7	2
Dumbarton	74	76	70	95	54
Dumfries	72	66	101	100	86
Dundee	186	174	176	200	262
Dunfermline	95	90	106	122	147
Dunoon	14	6	5	6	7
Duns	3	8	4	1	5
Edinburgh	436	427	461	428	566
Elgin	44	62	75	62	71
Falkirk	97	83	86	101	131
Forfar	21	23	20	30	36
Fort William	5	10	4	11	11
Glasgow	771	712	699	648	613
Greenock	62	49	31	39	39
Haddington	26	28	37	41	46
Hamilton	216	208	282	214	275
Inverness	30	29	50	56	64
Jedburgh	16	21	23	18	21
Kilmarnock	150	143	142	145	156
Kirkcaldy	116	94	137	152	154
Kirkcudbright	10	11	6	6	6
Kirkwall	3	13	3	2	2
Lanark	29	31	34	45	43
Lerwick	4	5	7	3	0
Linlithgow	85	93	90	149	144
Lochmaddy	2	2	3	4	1
Oban	8	13	11	5	7
Paisley	198	191	146	138	176
Peebles	5	6	4	8	5
Perth	58	67	63	87	101
Peterhead	27	32	49	36	39
Portree	1	0	1	4	2
Rothesay	0	1	0	3	3
Selkirk	14	18	15	12	11
Stirling	48	59	48	59	84
Stonehaven	15	30	19	24	31
Stornoway	8	9	4	7	5
Stranraer	31	21	22	29	30
Tain	17	4	9	14	26
Wick	5	2	6	5	6
Sub-total	3,543	3,461	3,619²	3,686	4,099
District and stipendiary magistrates courts:
Dundee City	0	0	1	0	0
Fife	0	1	0	0	0
Glasgow City	6	0	1	1	33
South Lanarkshire	0	0	0	0	1
West Lothian	1	1	0	0	0
Sub-total	7	2	2	1	34
All courts¹	3,554	3,464	3,624	3,691	4,136

Notes:

1. Includes offences proceeded against in the High Court and where court type not known.

2. Includes seven offences where court location not known.

3. Recording delays mean that offences which were not proved may be under-stated in the totals for offences proceeded against.

Offences of Driving while Disqualified with a Charge Proved in Scottish Courts, by Court, 1998-2002

	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
Sheriff courts:
Aberdeen	218	232	247	264	259
Airdrie	76	89	74	79	91
Alloa	17	17	26	25	33
Arbroath	62	32	21	35	42
Ayr	80	65	89	78	98
Banff	3	18	15	12	21
Campbeltown	6	3	3	2	1
Cupar	20	19	21	28	20
Dingwall	13	17	10	2	17
Dornoch	3	6	4	6	2
Dumbarton	67	69	66	84	48
Dumfries	67	61	93	90	79
Dundee	166	149	149	180	227
Dunfermline	89	85	103	115	131
Dunoon	14	6	5	6	7
Duns	3	8	4	1	4
Edinburgh	416	412	450	408	499
Elgin	42	49	45	53	66
Falkirk	84	79	79	95	118
Forfar	21	23	19	30	34
Fort William	5	10	4	11	11
Glasgow	719	659	629	595	581
Greenock	59	47	29	34	38
Haddington	25	28	34	41	46
Hamilton	197	189	257	197	263
Inverness	27	26	40	51	53
Jedburgh	16	20	23	18	20
Kilmarnock	142	139	137	138	139
Kirkcaldy	103	89	120	141	144
Kirkcudbright	9	10	5	6	6
Kirkwall	3	11	2	2	2
Lanark	26	29	32	40	41
Lerwick	4	4	6	3	0
Linlithgow	84	93	87	139	136
Lochmaddy	2	2	3	4	1
Oban	7	11	11	5	7
Paisley	186	167	129	128	170
Peebles	5	5	4	8	5
Perth	47	60	55	76	85
Peterhead	23	30	42	33	33
Portree	1	0	1	4	2
Rothesay	0	1	0	3	3
Selkirk	14	18	15	12	11
Stirling	43	57	46	56	80
Stonehaven	15	26	18	23	29
Stornoway	7	9	4	6	4
Stranraer	30	18	21	29	28
Tain	17	4	8	13	25
Wick	4	2	6	5	5
Sub-total	3,287	3,203	3,298²	3,414	3,765
District and stipendiary magistrates courts:
Dundee City	0	0	1	0	0
Fife	0	1	0	0	0
Glasgow City	6	0	1	1	33
South Lanarkshire	0	0	0	0	1
West Lothian	1	1	0	0	0
Sub-total	7	2	2	1	34
All courts¹	3,297	3,205	3,303	3,419	3,802

Notes:

1. Includes offences proceeded against in the High Court and where court type not known.

2. Includes seven offences where court location not known.

Question reference: S2W-09384

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 19 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-8940 by Cathy Jamieson on 23 June 2004, whether it will provide a breakdown of drug offences that were (a) solved by the police, (b) prosecuted and (c) convicted in (i) 1999-00, (ii) 2000-01, (iii) 2001-02, (iv) 2002-03 and (v) 2003-04.

The available information on drug offences which were recorded by the police and on persons proceeded against for drug offences is given in the following tables. Statistics dealing with recorded crime and court proceedings are not directly comparable as a person may be proceeded against for more than one crime involving more than one victim, and a crime may be recorded in one year and proceedings taken in a subsequent year. Charges recorded by the police may also be altered as a result of the judicial process.

Drugs Offences Cleared up by the Police, 1999-2000 to 2003-04^P

Type of Offence	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04^P
Illegal importation of drugs	7	1	4	3	2
Production, manufacture or cultivation of drugs	106	131	139	196	251
Supply, possession with intent to supply etc. of drugs	7,977	8,999	10,080	9,772	9,178
Possession of drugs	21,693	22,525	26,125	30,319	32,259
Drugs, money laundering related offences	1	0	0	0	0
Drugs, other offences	450	457	282	272	274
Total	30,234	32,113	36,630	40,562	41,964

Note:

Data for 2003-2004 are provisional.

Persons Proceeded Against for Drug Offences¹, 1999-2000 to 2002-03

Type of Offence	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02²	2002-03^2,3
Total proceeded against:
Illegal importation of drugs	0	5	6	5
Production, manufacture or cultivation of drugs	93	59	55	59
Supply, possession with intent to supply etc. of drugs	2,003	1,730	1,768	1,559
Possession of drugs	5,259	4,549	5,091	4,548
Drugs, money laundering related offences	0	0	0	0
Drugs, other offences	11	6	7	16
Total	7,366	6,349	6,927	6,187
Charge proved:
Illegal importation of drugs	0	5	6	5
Production, manufacture or cultivation of drugs	77	49	45	52
Supply, possession with intent to supply etc. of drugs	1,433	1,268	1,292	1,334
Possession of drugs	4,636	3,946	4,540	4,308
Drugs, money laundering related offences	0	0	0	0
Drugs, other offences	8	5	5	15
Total	6,154	5,273	5,888	5,714

Notes:

1. Where main offence

2. Recording delays mean that cases where the charge was not proved may be under-stated in the totals for persons proceeded against.

3. Provisional data.

Question reference: S2W-09386

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 19 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-8361 by Cathy Jamieson on 18 June 2004, how many of the recorded rape cases were prosecuted in each police force area and, of these, in how many cases the outcome was (a) a successful prosecution, (b) not proven and (c) not guilty, in (i) 1999-00, (ii) 2000-01, (iii) 2001-02, (iv) 2002-03 and when similar figures for 2003-04 will be available.

The available information is given in the table. It is planned to publish summary statistics for calendar year 2003 in November 2004. Statistics dealing with recorded crime and court proceedings are not directly comparable as a person may be proceeded against for more than one crime involving more than one victim, and a crime may be recorded in one year and proceedings taken in a subsequent year. Charges recorded by the police may also be altered as a result of the judicial process.

Persons with a Charge of Rape¹ Proved in Scottish Courts, by the Police Force Area, 1999-2000 to 2002-03

	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02³	2002-03^3,4
Charge proved:
Central	2	1	0	2
Dumfries and Galloway	1	2	1	1
Fife	1	1	5	5
Grampian	5	1	2	1
Lothian and Borders	7	9	11	6
Northern	3	0	3	4
Strathclyde	8	11	18	13
Tayside	0	3	3	2
Scotland	27	28	43	34
Charge found not proven:
Central	2	1	0	2
Dumfries and Galloway	1	0	0	0
Fife	2	0	1	0
Grampian	0	0	0	1
Lothian and Borders	2	2	4	3
Northern	0	0	0	0
Strathclyde	3	3	1	1
Tayside	1	1	1	0
Scotland	11	7	7	7
Other charge found not guilty²:
Central	6	1	1	0
Dumfries and Galloway	0	0	1	0
Fife	2	1	2	2
Grampian	1	1	2	1
Lothian and Borders	4	3	3	4
Northern	0	0	0	1
Strathclyde	2	10	3	4
Tayside	1	1	3	2
Scotland	16	17	15	14

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Includes acquittal not guilty, plea not guilty accepted and case deserted simpliciter.

3. Figures may be underestimates due to recording delays.

4. Provisional data.

Question reference: S2W-09381

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 19 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children under 16 were held in adult prisons in each of the last three years and for how long they were held.

The figures for sentenced young people under 16 are as follows:

2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
1	1	5

In each case, the individuals were held in Scottish Prison Service premises for only a few days while awaiting a place in secure accommodation.

Over the same time period, the number of under 16-year-olds remanded on Unruly certificates and the time spent in custody is in the following table:

Time in Custody	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04 (Prov)
7 days and under	11	8	8
14 days and under	2	8	5
30 days and under	1	0	4
60 days and under	1	2	1
Total	15	18	18

In most cases those detained were held in Young Offenders Institutions, all of those who were placed in adult prisons remained there for a few days only.

Question reference: S2W-09294

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 19 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting period was for summary cases in each sheriff court district in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S2W-09307

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 19 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many crimes of indecency were reported in each of the last five years, broken down by police force area and, of these, how many were successfully prosecuted in each year.

Information on crimes reported to (as opposed to recorded by) the police is not available centrally. Information on crimes of indecency recorded by the police broken down by police force area is published for each year in table 4A of the relevant statistical bulletins Recorded Crime in Scotland, copies of which are available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. numbers 7079, 13119, 20798, 27678 and 33018).

The available information on persons with a charge proved in court where a crime of indecency was the main offence is given in the following table. Statistics dealing with recorded crime and court proceedings are not directly comparable as a person may be proceeded against for more than one crime involving more than one victim, while a crime may be recorded in one year and proceedings taken in a subsequent year. Charges recorded by the police may also be altered as a result of the judicial process.

Persons with a Charge Proved in Scottish Courts for a Crime of Indecency¹, 1998-2002

Police Force Area	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002³
Central	24	16	26	25	18
Dumfries and Galloway	11	8	18	19	5
Fife	37	57	32	41	44
Grampian	99	66	38	41	42
Lothian and Borders	99	129	85	94	80
Northern	21	31	28	37	33
Strathclyde	637	548	385	306	289
Tayside	47	55	46	52	49
Scotland²	975	910	658	617	560

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Includes a small number of cases where force area is not known.

3. Figures may be underestimates due to recording delays.

Question reference: S2W-09494

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Frank McAveety on 15 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how much each local authority contributed to its local area tourist board in each of the last five years.

The amount of direct funding that each local authority has provided to its local area tourist board in each of the last five years is shown in the following table:

Area Tourist Board	Local Authority	1999-00 (£)	2000-01 (£)	2001-02 (£)	2002-03 (£)	2003-04 (£)
Aberdeen and Grampian	Aberdeen City Council	150,000	150,000	150,000	205,000	200,000
	Aberdeenshire Council	300,000	300,000	300,000	314,500	306,000
	Moray Council	163,371	163,478	163,550	169,985	151,500
		613,371	613,478	613,550	689,485	657,500
Angus and Dundee	Dundee City Council	246,000	246,000	246,000	246,000	246,000
	Angus Council	158,000	158,000	158,000	158,000	158,000
		404,000	404,000	404,000	404,000	404,000
AILLST*	Argyle and Bute Council	188,000	171,750	192,000	190,000	170,000
	Clackmannanshire Council	28,807	28,807	29,530	30,270	30,880
	Falkirk Council	60,272	67,190	58,980	63,080	57,080
	Stirling Council	279,466	268,985	274,281	260,591	243,850
	West Dunbartonshire Council	54,955	57,001	60,103	71,657	66,150
		611,500	593,733	614,894	615,598	567,960
Ayrshire and Arran	East Ayrshire Council	79,150	79,150	79,150	79,150	79,150
	North Ayrshire Council	163,200	158,300	158,300	158,300	158,300
	South Ayrshire Council	145,500	141,150	142,500	192,500	142,500
		387,850	378,600	379,950	429,950	379,950
Dumfries and Galloway	Dumfries and Galloway Council	350,000	350,000	390,500	458,308	382,460
Edinburgh and Lothians	East Lothian Council	194,250	200,000	206,000	212,000	212,000
	City of Edinburgh Council	989,616	989,612	989,617	1,090,000	1,094,947
	West Lothian Council	66,400	67,887	62,900	63,000	63,000
	Midlothian Council	35,000	35,000	41,500	41,000	41,000
		1,285,266	1,292,499	1,300,017	1,406,000	1,410,947
GGCV**	Glasgow City Council	1,738,194	2,090,399	1,989,013	1,982,850	2,028,200
	East Dunbartonshire Council	0	0	40,000	40,000	40,000
	Inverclyde Council	107,816	4,334	0	0	0
	East Renfrewshire Council	0	0	0	0	0
	Renfrewshire Council	72,877	84,652	89,275	94,231	91,700
	South Lanarkshire Council	97,000	97,000	97,000	97,000	97,000
	North Lanarkshire Council	60,000	0	35,000	50,000	50,000
		2,075,887	2,276,385	2,250,288	2,264,081	2,306,900
Highlands of Scotland	Highland Council	507,375	487,523	497,723	507,218	555,675
Kingdom of Fife	Fife Council	450,000	450,000	483,777	462,836	450,000
Orkney	Orkney Islands Council	194,800	198,700	189,000	193,000	225,400
Perthshire	Perth and Kinross Council	489,248	498,070	507,465	506,100	468,500
Scottiah Borders	Scottish Borders Council	269,045	271,170	277,327	283,558	296.692
Shetland	Shetland Islands Council	175,714	155,227	196,880	150,000	201,800
Western Isles	Western Isles Council	84,050	84,050	104,050	104,000	104,000
	Total LA funding	7,898,106	8,053,435	8,208,971	8,474,134	8,411,784

Notes:

* Argyll, the Isles, Loch Lomond, Stirling and theTrossachs.

** Greater Glasgow and ClydeValley.

The figures for 2003-04 are stillsubject to external audit.

Question reference: S2W-09309

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 15 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many nursing vacancies there have been in each of the last five years and, of these, how many were vacant for more than three months, broken down by NHS board and expressed as a percentage of the nursing staff complement of each board.

Information on vacancies in NHSScotlandis published on the Scottish Health Statistics website under Workforce Statistics,at www.isdscotland.org/workforce.Information on vacancies for nursing staff is published in table 10 in Section ENursing and Midwifery Staff for each year since 2001. Figures are presentedas vacancy rates and whole time equivalent (WTE) number of vacancies. Whole timeequivalent adjusts headcount staff figures to take account of part-time staff. Latestavailable figures are at 31 March 2003. Figures at 31 March 2004are due to be published on 12 August 2004.

Information on vacancies for1999 and 2000 is unavailable by health board due to the data being incomplete. Howeveran estimated trend for Scotland can be found for these years within table 7 in SectionE (Nursing and Midwifery Staff) on the Workforce Statistics website.

Question reference: S2W-09299

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 15 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many criminal cases were called for trial in each of the last three years and how many cases were adjourned, broken down by sheriff court district.

The available information isgiven in the following tables:

Sheriff Court - Solemn Criminal Cases

Called for Trial	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Grampian Highland and Islands	204	210	263
Tayside, Central and Fife	400	470	467
Lothian and Borders	389	367	306
Glasgow and Strathkelvin	570	545	868
North Strathclyde	340	408	367
South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway	377	456	479
Totals	2,280	2,456	2,750

Adjourned	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Grampian Highland and Islands	67	53	100
Tayside, Central and Fife	80	115	123
Lothian and Borders	93	77	52
Glasgow and Strathkelvin	84	84	157
North Strathclyde	80	119	118
South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway	94	73	75
Totals	498	521	625

Sheriff Court - Summary Criminal Cases

Called for Trial	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Grampian Highland and Islands	4,539	5,073	5,332
Tayside, Central and Fife	9,036	10,234	9,838
Lothian and Borders	7,616	8,174	6,685
Glasgow and Strathkelvin	11,366	12,319	10,325
North Strathclyde	6,746	6,988	7,745
South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway	7,768	9,352	9,086
Totals	47,071	52,140	49,011

Adjourned	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Grampian Highland and Islands	744	809	883
Tayside, Central and Fife	1,794	1,993	1,874
Lothian and Borders	1,288	1,224	1,035
Glasgow and Strathkelvin	2,339	2,714	2,127
North Strathclyde	1,077	1,210	1,276
South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway	1,398	1,603	1,561
Totals	8,640	9,553	8,756

Question reference: S2W-09293

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 15 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many consultant posts are currently vacant and, of these, how many have been vacant for more than six months, broken down by NHS board and expressed as a percentage of the complement of each hospital.

Information on the number of consultant vacancies is collected via an annual medical and dental census. This is currently accurate to 30 September 2003.

Number of Consultant Vacancies (Total and those Over Six Months) by NHS Board (at 30 September 2003)

	Whole-Time Equivalent		Whole-Time Equivalent Vacancies as a Percentage of Establishment
Health Board	Total Vacancies	Over 6 Month Vacancies	Total Vacancy Rate	Over 6 Month Vacancy Rate
Scotland	235.4	122.0	6.7%	3.5%
Argyll and Clyde	14.9	9.3	à 6.5%	4.0%
Ayrshire and Arran	11.0	6.0	6.1%	3.3%
Borders	6.0	5.0	9.9%	8.3%
Dumfries and Galloway	9.5	8.5	10.9%	9.7%
Fife	20.4	10.5	12.6%	6.5%
Forth Valley	7.0	2.0	5.1%	1.4%
Grampian	8.5	2.5	2.4%	0.7%
Greater Glasgow	57.3	9.0	6.4%	1.0%
Highland	15.0	7.0	10.4%	4.8%
Lanarkshire	39.8	35.8	13.7%	12.3%
Lothian	26.0	16.0	4.5%	2.7%
Orkney	1.0	1.0	20.0%	20.0%
Shetland	1.9	0.9	21.0%	10.0%
Tayside	8.9	5.0	2.9%	1.6%
Western Isles	?4.0	?3.0	?25.0%	?18.8%
Common Service Agency	?2.5	?0.5	?7.7%	?1.5%
Golden Jubilee	?1.0	-	?25.0%	-
State Hospital	?0.7	-	?8.6%	-

Source: ISD Scotland

Note: Establishment is calculatedby adding the number of staff in post to the number of vacant posts

Further information on vacancyrates within specific organisations is available via the ISD website at www.isdscotland.org/workforce.

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