- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 7 December 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what funding it has provided for the rehabilitation of offenders addicted to (a) alcohol and (b) drugs in each year since 1999.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has providedfunding to local authorities for the rehabilitation of offenders with substancemisuse problems in two main ways:
The following figures are forsection 27(1) of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 which provides funding both for those offenderssubject to community disposals and those discharged from custody, excluding thecosts of specific court orders such as Drug Treatment and Testing Orders or drugcourts. Information for years 1999-2000 and 200-01 is not available.
In addition, £6.8 million perannum was provided to local authorities in financial years 2001-02 to 2003-04 specificallyto support drug rehabilitation services, to which offenders in the community willhave had access. Thereafter this funding was incorporated into Grant Aided Expenditure(GAE).
| | 2001-02 (£) | 2002-03 (£) | 2003-04 (£) | 2004-05 (£) | 2005-06 (£) | 2006-07 (£) |
| Alcohol | 201,742 | 238,694 | 247,291 | 253,291 | 259,623 | 259,623 |
| Drugs | 313,067 | 469,482 | 482,189 | 614,597 | 654,373 | 654,373 |
| Total (alcohol and drug addiction) | 514,089 | 708,176 | 729,480 | 867,888 | 1,813,996 | 1,813,996 |
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 7 December 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware that NHS Lothian has no funding available at the Department of Sleep Medicine at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh to provide a gum shield device for my constituent, Mr Neil Waugh, to prevent extreme snoring and that he is therefore unable to undertake his employment on train maintenance which is safety-critical, and what concerns the Executive has about this lack of funding.
Answer
the Scottish Executive is investing record resources in the NHS in Scotland. Healthboards have received uplifts in resources with an average 7.25% increase in fundingin 2006-07, well above the rate of inflation. It is for each NHS board to plan anddeliver services within these resources to meet the needs of its resident population.
At present there is no provisionby NHS Lothian for the fitting and supply of mandibular repositioning splints. However,NHS Lothian and the Department of Sleep Medicine are currently exploring ways ofproviding this service.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 6 December 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what data it holds on the number of young people aged 16 and under who receive rehabilitation treatment as a result of alcohol misuse.
Answer
Information on the number ofyoung people undergoing rehabilitation as a result of alcohol misuse is not heldcentrally.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 6 December 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-26185 by Hugh Henry on 16 June 2006, whether it intends that information on the number of young people undergoing rehabilitation as a result of alcohol misuse will be held centrally and, if so, when this will be achieved.
Answer
We are currently in discussionwith the National Alcohol Information Resource (NAIR) about the information thatis collected about people in contact with alcohol services.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 6 December 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to introduce seasonal cash grants to help low-income families.
Answer
We currently have no plans tointroduce seasonal cash grants. However, we will discuss the proposal with our colleaguesin the UK Government as part of our on-going dialogue with them about how to tacklechild poverty across the UK.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 5 December 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many drivers directly responsible for causing death or injury whilst under the influence of alcohol had a previous conviction for drink driving, broken down by (a) year since 1996 and (b) police force area.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-30027 on 5 December 2006. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website the search facilityfor which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 5 December 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were (a) killed and (b) injured by a driver who was under the influence of alcohol and who also had a previous conviction for drink driving, broken down by (a) year since 1996 and (b) police force area.
Answer
The available information onthe numbers of drink-drive accidents and casualties in Scotland is derivedfrom the GB-wide estimates compiled by the Department for Transport. The latestestimates are included at table 22 of Road Accidents Scotland 2005which was published by the Scottish Executive in November 2006, a copy of whichis available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 41118).These and other statistics collected centrally do not include information aboutany previous convictions that drivers involved in drink-drive accidents may have.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 4 December 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what research it has undertaken into the effectiveness of ignition interlock systems for convicted drink drivers as a way to reduce this type of repeat offending, lower the rate of death and injury on Scotland’s roads and reduce pressure on the resources on police and emergency health professionals.
Answer
Road traffic legislation is reserved and as such is the responsibility of the Department for Transport.
The Department for Transport will shortly be completing a two and a half year research project (in Manchester and West Midlands) on the operation of alcohol ignition interlocks, in which drivers who had, in the past, been convicted of drink driving were invited to use an interlock for six months. The project has collected a large amount of data about their driving behaviour and attitudes and how they may have changed. A final report is expected in the spring of 2007.
Enabling powers have been created in the Road Safety Act 2006 to allow for a regime of alcohol ignition interlock programmes as a court disposal in Great Britain. This regime is modelled on the Drink-Drive Rehabilitation Courses that have been available throughout Great Britain since 2000.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 4 December 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what the estimated or actual cost has been to the public purse of dealing with individuals who commit drink-driving offences in terms of (a) costs to the courts, (b) associated health resources for dealing with the victims of such offences and (c) police and other emergency services' clean-up and operational time and resources, broken down by year since 1996.
Answer
(a) The following table showsestimated court running costs for hearing cases involving drink driving relatedoffences, the majority of which are prosecuted through the courts by way of summarycriminal procedure.
The costs used in the table havebeen estimated by extrapolation from average court running and shrieval costs aspublished by the Scottish Executive in the annual Costs, Sentencing Profiles andthe Scottish Criminal Justice System report published by the Scottish Executivein terms of section 306 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act1995. Costs for 2004-05 have not yet been published.
Prosecution and witness costsare not included in the figures below.
Number of Convictions for Drink-DrivingRelated Offences and Associated Average Court Time Costs
| 1996-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 |
| 9,843 | 9,452 | 8,345 | 8,527 | 7,238 | 7,477 | 10,688 | 9,192 |
| £1.1 million | £990,000 | £880,000 | £810,000 | £690,000 | £830,000 | £1.3 million | £1.2 million |
Conviction figures extractedfrom Statistical Bulletin Criminal Justice Series: CrJ/2006/3 published by the ScottishExecutive http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/04/25104019/31.
(b) This information is not held centrally as regards health resources.
(c) This information is not held centrally as regards police and other emergency service resources.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 November 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 4 December 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many young people have been charged with committing offences while under the influence of alcohol or drugs in each year since 1999, broken down by police authority area.
Answer
Information on the drink or drugsstatus of accused persons is not generally available from the statistics collectedcentrally on court proceedings. The exceptions to this are offences where by definitionthe accused was drunk or under the influence of drink or drugs. The available informationin relation to these offences is given in the following table.
Persons Aged Under 21Proceeded Against in Scottish Courts for Selected Offences1, byPolice Force Area, 1999-2000 to 2004-05
| Police Force Area | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 |
| Central | 39 | 52 | 34 | 86 | 68 | 56 |
| Dumfries and Galloway | 19 | 22 | 22 | 31 | 34 | 35 |
| Fife | 56 | 55 | 49 | 135 | 77 | 65 |
| Grampian | 173 | 79 | 134 | 129 | 149 | 118 |
| Lothian and Borders | 91 | 116 | 134 | 174 | 129 | 151 |
| Northern | 115 | 40 | 71 | 100 | 101 | 81 |
| Strathclyde | 373 | 316 | 310 | 417 | 335 | 366 |
| Tayside | 81 | 57 | 91 | 119 | 115 | 89 |
| Scotland | 947 | 737 | 845 | 1,191 | 1,008 | 961 |
Note: 1. Where main offence includescausing death by careless driving when under influence of drink or drugs, drunkennessor drink driving.
