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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

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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-09301

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 13 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many police officers there were per 1000 of the population in each of the last five years, broken down by police force area.

The information requested is shown in the following table.

Number of Police Officers Per 1,000 Population

Force	As at 31 March
Force	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Central Scotland Police	2.59	2.64	2.57	2.64	2.71
Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary	3.07	3.27	3.26	3.27	3.32
Fife Constabulary	2.40	2.43	2.61	2.66	2.78
Grampian Police	2.31	2.43	2.39	2.46	2.56
Lothian & Borders Police	2.02	3.00	3.05	3.06	3.09
Northern Constabulary	2.34	2.40	2.47	2.51	2.47
Strathclyde Police	3.13	3.23	3.32	3.39	3.40
Tayside Police	2.93	3.00	3.01	3.02	2.99
Scotland	2.87	2.96	3.01	3.01	3.09

Source: The figures were calculatedusing (i) police officer numbers from Quarterly Strength Returns made to the JusticeDepartment by each police force and (ii) population estimates as published by theGeneral Register Office for Scotland in June each year.

Question reference: S2W-09305

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 13 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many settlements in, or out of, court have been made, subsequent to legal action being taken against a hospital, in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S2W-09302

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 13 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many police officers are expected to retire in the next (a) three and (b) five years.

Question reference: S2W-09491

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 12 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-16169 by Mr Jim Wallace on 14 June 2002, how many crimes and offences involving firearms were recorded in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S2W-09297

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 12 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many drug offences were committed in each of the last five years, broken down by sheriff court district.

The information available centrally on drug offences recorded by the police relates to unitary authorities. Information for each of the last five years is given in the following table:

Drug Crimes Recorded by the Police by Council Area, Scotland, 1999 to 2003

	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Aberdeen City	1,617	1,334	1,550	2,071	1,689
Aberdeenshire	717	724	787	757	741
Angus	458	306	401	489	520
Argyll and Bute	372	450	389	512	584
Clackmannanshire	232	234	295	351	336
Dumfries and Galloway	700	448	649	775	919
Dundee City	738	707	904	1,167	1,307
East Ayrshire	773	787	785	950	910
East Dunbartonshire	284	318	465	460	479
East Lothian	208	340	217	507	371
East Renfrewshire	312	428	342	296	316
Edinburgh, City of	2,927	2,858	3,118	3,863	3,008
Eilean Siar (W.Isles)	83	47	112	94	93
Falkirk	680	624	844	831	882
Fife	1,508	1,248	1,645	1,944	1,804
Glasgow City	7,791	8,845	9,388	9,330	10,100
Highland	1,296	926	1,370	1,434	1,605
Inverclyde	769	901	995	1,145	1,040
Midlothian	326	402	404	444	378
Moray	288	261	261	324	355
North Ayrshire	721	845	872	1,054	1,041
North Lanarkshire	2,175	1,817	2,197	3,105	2,960
Orkney Islands	58	29	27	41	64
Perth and Kinross	784	611	745	959	1,071
Renfrewshire	1,198	1,073	1,224	1,212	1,205
Scottish Borders	719	733	661	647	618
Shetland Islands	95	82	98	87	80
South Ayrshire	752	537	896	992	722
South Lanarkshire	1,482	1,512	1,864	1,733	2,397
Stirling	385	427	838	735	727
West Dunbartonshire	515	712	666	941	1,114
West Lothian	907	865	1,166	1,129	1,029
All Scotland	31,870	31,431	36,175	40,379	40,465

Question reference: S2W-09026

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 8 July 2004

The cost of bank nurses, broken down by NHS board area, is shown in the table below. Information on agency nurses is published in tables E12 to E15 on the Scottish Health Statistics website at www.isdscotland.org/workforce.Table E14 provides a breakdown of agency nurse costs by NHS board area. Information for the year 2003-04 is not currently available.

Table A: Cost of Bank Nursing and Midwifery staff; trend by NHS Board

	Bank Cost
1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03
Total	21,604,589	24,887,686	31,262,459	38,964,926
Qualified	12,583,106	14,500,531	17,418,060	21,009,771
Argyll and Clyde	1,062,302	916,881	1,433,734	1,439,255
Ayrshire and Arran	597,460	712,906	636,966	670,635
Borders	441,479	388,994	499,133	577,034
Dumfries and Galloway	26,108	52,375	131,702	112,050
Fife	816,222	1,017,115	993,307	1,353,110
Forth Valley	285,853	357,867	490,591	1,223,219
Grampian	1,816,785	2,231,590	2,183,714	2,453,245
Greater Glasgow	2,205,412	2,669,129	3,014,238	3,889,517
Highland	701,147	867,490	1,057,952	1,153,761
Lanarkshire	509,310	853,111	790,805	1,271,099
Lothian	2,892,078	3,169,205	4,827,831	5,399,373
Orkney	72,737	92,516	164,120	182,335
Shetland	79,335	90,038	100,874	141,900
Tayside	887,211	906,948	950,294	871,909
Western Isles	103,215	158,853	128,788	213,512
Special Health Boards	69,780	10,803	8,614	46,711
Unqualified	9,021,483	10,387,155	13,844,399	17,955,155
Argyll and Clyde	610,977	589,300	1,099,805	1,227,354
Ayrshire and Arran	841,888	1,099,425	1,182,610	1,425,957
Borders	351,405	406,807	519,456	538,621
Dumfries and Galloway	5,307	-	15,413	3,261
Fife	572,585	578,472	624,662	747,370
Forth Valley	190,639	304,281	395,774	1,210,864
Grampian	977,906	1,265,578	1,514,693	1,504,279
Greater Glasgow	1,824,883	2,455,682	3,500,659	4,842,372
Highland	371,654	445,277	558,409	687,574
Lanarkshire	413,156	661,852	762,735	1,117,152
Lothian	2,342,527	1,917,739	2,797,841	3,609,200
Orkney	24,598	26,321	51,865	56,755
Shetland	49,532	51,090	52,765	64,455
Tayside	161,643	470,356	653,401	778,223
Western Isles	59,288	118,029	116,884	149,803
Special Health Boards	240,168	1,655	2,824	3,021

Source: Earning Related Base Of Data

Bank nurses are employees of NHSScotland whilst agency nurses are employed by private nursing agencies and both are utilised by individual NHS employers to cover temporary nursing gaps. These gaps will continue to occur but employers have been encouraged to follow the guidance in Temporary Measures the Accounts Commission for Scotland Report 2000 on reducing usage and costs through a hierarchy of options in which preference for bank is higher than more expensive agency nurses.

The Partnership Agreement commits to implementing nationally co-ordinated nursing bank arrangements in Scotland and a project is currently examining a range of options to reduce the reliance on agency nurses, assist nurse placement across Scotland and improve patient services. This will report in the autumn.

The Scottish Health Workforce Plan 2004 Baseline report published inApril 2004, focuses on our drive to increase our capacity, reduce waiting times,improve outcomes and provide care in new and better ways.

Question reference: S2W-09298

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Frank McAveety on 8 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) domestic and (b) overseas tourists have visited Scotland in each of the last three years, broken down by tourist board area.

The number of domestic and overseas visitors to each of the area tourist board (ATB) areas in Scotland in the last three years for which data is available is as follows:

	(millions)
2000	2001	2002
Domestic	Overseas	Total	Domestic	Overseas	Total	Domestic	Overseas	Total
Aberdeen and Grampian	1.91	0.17	2.08	1.54	0.13	1.67	1.83	0.15	1.98
Angus and Dundee	0.80	0.05	0.85	0.58	0.05	0.63	0.56	0.05	0.61
AILLST*	2.54	0.19	2.73	2.24	0.19	2.43	2.42	0.21	2.63
Ayrshire and Arran	0.87	0.09	0.96	1.21	0.08	1.29	0.99	0.07	1.06
Dumfries and Galloway	1.15	0.05	1.20	0.90	0.04	0.94	0.92	0.04	0.96
Edinburgh and Lothians	3.38	0.94	4.32	3.69	0.87	4.56	3.96	0.87	4.83
Gr Glas and Clyde Vall	3.40	0.50	3.90	3.20	0.48	3.68	3.34	0.46	3.80
Highlands of Scotland	2.72	0.41	3.13	2.53	0.36	2.89	2.44	0.36	2.80
Kingdom of Fife	0.82	0.09	0.91	0.75	0.08	0.83	0.73	0.09	0.82
Perthshire	1.22	0.10	1.32	0.94	0.10	1.04	1.06	0.10	1.16
Scottish Borders	0.45	0.03	0.48	0.38	0.04	0.42	0.52	0.04	0.56
Scotland	19.26	2.62	21.88	17.96	2.42	20.38	18.77	2.44	21.21

Notes:

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

1. The total number of visitors to Scotland in 2000, 2001 and 2002 was 20.7 million, 19.1 million and 20.1 million respectively. The table above shows a slightly higher total because a visitor moving between e.g. two ATB areas is counted as making two visits.

2. Due to small sample sizes, there are no area figures for Orkney, Shetland or Western Isles Tourist Boards.

Question reference: S2W-09300

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Frank McAveety on 8 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the net expenditure on public libraries was in each of the last three years, broken down by local authority.

Net expenditure on library service for 2001-02 and 2002-03, and estimated expenditure for 2003-04, is show, by local authority, in the table below:

Council	Actual 2001-02 Net Expenditure (£000)	Actual 2002-03 Net Expenditure (£000)	Budget Estimate 2003-04 Net Expenditure (£000)
Aberdeen	3,002	3,550	3,780
Aberdeenshire	3,184	3,048	3,959
Angus	1,633	1,664	1,835
Argyll and Bute	1,236	1,332	1,160
Clackmannanshire	836	748	862
Dumfries and Galloway	2,340	2,576	2,466
Dundee	3,582	3,812	3,949
East Ayrshire	2,005	1,924	1,987
East Dunbartonshire	2,553	2,398	2,648
East Lothian	1,357	1,377	1,363
East Renfrewshire	1,853	1,972	1,992
Edinburgh	9,163	10,150	10,637
Eilean Siar	698	660	744
Falkirk	2,512	2,586	2,863
Fife	6,011	6,287	6,747
Glasgow	10,947	10,100	13,005
Highland	3,535	3,860	4,301
Inverclyde	1,322	1,345	1,353
Midlothian	1,178	1,181	1,163
Moray	1,501	1,584	1,679
North Ayrshire	2,003	2,407	2,833
North Lanarkshire	5,678	5,546	5,745
Orkney	1,245	2,045	664
Perth and Kinross	2,906	3,061	3,097
Renfrewshire	3,742	3,885	3,847
Scottish Borders	1,459	1,461	1,579
Shetland	781	873	983
South Ayrshire	1,721	1,834	1,873
South Lanarkshire	5,753	5,357	4,944
Stirling	1,665	1,710	1,793
West Dunbartonshire	1,787	2,223	2,327
West Lothian	1,851	1,959	2,005

Question reference: S2W-09292

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 7 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how much capital debt is owed by each local authority, expressed as also per capita.

	Financial Year
1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03^P
Crimes and offences involving firearms	1,066	982	970	1,000	979