- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 14 June 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 24 June 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what concerns it has that the only NHS dental practice in Eyemouth has intimated that it will be withdrawing from the NHS at the end of May 2004 and simultaneously reducing its patient list from 2,000 to 1,000 and whether any funding will be made available to those people, for example on benefits or low wages who may be required to travel considerable distances to access dental treatment.
Answer
I regret the effect of the actions of this practice on availability of NHS dental services
NHS boards can apply to the Scottish ministers for approval of schemes to assist eligible patients with travel expenses to access primary care NHS dental treatment. The funding for such schemes comes from within the board’s unified budget.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 June 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 24 June 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review the NHS continuing care criteria introduced in 1996 and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.
Answer
The current guidance, Management Executive Letter (1996) 22, which was issued in March 1996, is currently under review. The revised guidance will clarify the existing guidance as necessary and incorporate any other revisions required.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 June 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 24 June 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the NHS continuing care criteria are standardised across Scotland.
Answer
NHS bodies are expected to ensure that their policies, eligibility criteria and protocols for decisions on the provision of health services to meet continuing care health needs are consistent with Management Executive Letter (1996) 22.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 June 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Euan Robson on 24 June 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what consideration has been given during the review of the children's hearings system to how the provisions within the Additional Support for Learning (Scotland) Act 2004 relate to children's panels.
Answer
Phase 1 of the review is considering the broad principles and objectives for the children’s hearings system. The consultation pack raises issues about the relationship between the children’s hearings system and other agencies and services supporting vulnerable children.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 June 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 24 June 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive when the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) will consider its position on Zevalin; how long thereafter guidance will be issued on its use, and whether Zevalin, which has a UK and European Commission licence, can be prescribed by NHS Lothian or NHS Borders without first being assessed by the SMC.
Answer
The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has advised that the manufacturer of this product has not yet submitted a new product submission form to allow them to consider it and make a recommendation.
Any new medicine can legally be prescribed once it has a licence if it is thought to be the most suitable treatment for an individual patient, unless it is the subject of a direction given by Scottish ministers under Section 17N(6) of the Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act 2004. However, NHSScotland is expected to await the advice from the SMC before making a new medicine routinely available.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 June 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 24 June 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people are currently (a) on waiting lists for housing and (b) homeless, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The latest available data on waiting lists for each local authority are published in Table 13 in the Scottish Executive Statistical Bulletin (Housing Series)
Housing Trends in Scotland: Quarter ending 31 March 2003. This table shows snapshot figures for applicants on housing lists as at 31 March 2003, as well as changes to the lists during 2002-03. The publication can be accessed online through the Scottish Executive housing statistics branch website. Data for 2003-04 will be published in the next quarterly trends bulletin: this is due to be published on 10 August 2004 and will be available via the housing statistics branch website at
www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/housing/hsbref.
The latest data on numbers of applicants assessed as homeless under the homelessness legislation by local authority are published in Table 11 in the Scottish Executive Statistical Bulletin Operation of the Homeless Persons Legislation in Scotland National and Local Authority Analyses 2002-03. This table shows the number assessed as homeless during 2002-03 (the data are not collected in a format which provides a snapshot figure of the number of homeless applicants at any one point in time). The publication is also available on the Scottish Executive housing statistics branch website. Data for 2003-04 are due to be published in August 2004.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 June 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 June 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average time period was between plea and summary trial date in each sheriff court district in (a) 1999-2000, (b) 2000-01, (c) 2001-02, (d) 2002-03 and (e) 2003-04.
Answer
The available information is given in the following table:
Court | 1999-2000 Average | 2000-01 Average | 2001-02 Average | 2002-03 Average | 2003-04 Average |
| Aberdeen | 10 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 14 |
| Airdrie | 11 | 15 | 15 | 10 | 13 |
| Alloa | 13 | 15 | 11 | 18 | 16 |
| Arbroath | 12 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| Ayr | 10 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 12 |
| Banff | 10 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 12 |
| Campbeltown | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 11 |
| Cupar | 12 | 14 | 12 | 10 | 10 |
| Dingwall | 10 | 11 | 9 | 11 | 13 |
| Dornoch | 12 | 12 | 10 | 11 | 11 |
| Dumbarton | 12 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 9 |
| Dumfries | 12 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 11 |
| Dundee | 16 | 16 | 13 | 12 | 13 |
| Dunfermline | 13 | 14 | 13 | 10 | 10 |
| Dunoon | 12 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 11 |
| Duns | 9 | n/a | 10 | *** | *** |
| Edinburgh | 13 | 15 | 16 | 16 | 16 |
| Elgin | 12 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 16 |
| Falkirk | 14 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 10 |
| Forfar | 10 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 11 |
| Fort William | 11 | 11 | 10 | 8 | 9 |
| Glasgow | 10 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 11 |
| Greenock | 8 | 11 | 13 | 12 | 10 |
| Haddington | 10 | 11 | 13 | 12 | 10 |
| Hamilton | 10 | 16 | 15 | 11 | 16 |
| Inverness | 10 | 12 | 14 | 13 | 16 |
| Jedburgh | 11 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 10 |
| Kilmarnock | 8 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 11 |
| Kirkcaldy | 15 | 16 | 14 | 14 | 14 |
| Kirkcudbright | 9 | 9 | 8 | 10 | 7 |
| Kirkwall | 7 | 9 | 8 | 10 | 9 |
| Lanark | 9 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 12 |
| Lerwick | 9 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 9 |
| Linlithgow | 17 | 14 | 13 | 9 | 9 |
| Lochmaddy | 8 | 9 | 8 | *** | *** |
| Oban | 10 | 11 | 9 | 11 | 10 |
| Paisley | 8 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 14 |
| Peebles | 9 | 10 | 12 | 9 | 15 |
| Perth | 19 | 21 | 14 | 13 | 16 |
| Peterhead | 12 | 13 | 13 | 11 | 10 |
| Portree | 8 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 9 |
| Rothesay | 7 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 7 |
| Selkirk | 10 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 11 |
| Stirling | 15 | 13 | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| Stonehaven | 10 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 10 |
| Stornoway | 10 | 9 | 11 | 10 | 10 |
| Stranraer | 8 | 9 | 9 | 11 | 10 |
| Tain | 10 | 10 | 11 | 10 | 10 |
| Wick | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 10 |
| National Average | 11 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 11 |
Note:
***Combined figures for Jedburgh/Duns and Portree Lochmaddy for 2002-03 and 2003-04.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 June 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 23 June 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many hospital-acquired infections there were in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 June 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 June 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many police on average are on patrol at any one time.
Answer
The deployment of police officers in any force area is a matter for the Chief Constable of the force concerned and information of this nature is not held centrally. However, the number of officers available for deployment has been increasing. As at March 2003, the overall number was at a record level, and our Partnership Agreement contains a commitment not only to increase the numbers on operational duty in every Scottish force but to also to improve on the level of overall police numbers.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 June 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 June 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a breakdown of drug offences by category for (a) 1999-2000, (b) 2000-01, (c) 2001-02, (d) 2002-03, (e) 2003-04 and (f) 2004-05 to date.
Answer
The available information on drug offences which were recorded by the police is given in the following table.
Breakdown of Recorded Drugs Offences, 1999-2000 to 2003-2004P
| | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04P |
| Illegal importation of drugs | 7 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| Production, manufacture or cultivation of drugs | 106 | 131 | 144 | 205 | 249 |
| Supply, possession with intent to supply etc. of drugs | 8,032 | 9,024 | 10,130 | 9,940 | 9,284 |
| Possession of drugs | 21,776 | 22,470 | 26,188 | 30,510 | 32,463 |
| Drugs, money laundering related offences | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Drugs, other offences | 452 | 455 | 284 | 280 | 275 |
| Total | 30,374 | 32,081 | 36,750 | 40,938 | 42,275 |
(P) Please note that data for 2003-04 is provisional.
