- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 24 January 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 7 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of its Fresh Talent initiative, how many expatriate Scots returned to Scotland in (a) 1999, (b) 2000, (c) 2001, (d) 2002, (e) 2003 and (f) 2004.
Answer
This information is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 24 January 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 7 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of its Fresh Talent initiative, how many expatriate Scots successfully started their own business in (a) 1999, (b) 2000, (c) 2001, (d) 2002, (e) 2003 and (f) 2004.
Answer
This information is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 January 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tavish Scott on 4 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what the suicide rate in Glasgow was, broken down by council ward area, in (a) 1999-2000, (b) 2000-01, (c) 2001-02, (d) 2002-03 and (e) 2003-04.
Answer
The following table presents the latest available information. It combines deaths from intentional self-harm with deaths from events of undetermined intent, as the majority of the latter are likely to have been suicides. Because of the small numbers involved, rates have not been calculated for the ward data.
Deaths from Intentional Self-Harm and Events of Undetermined Intent
| | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 |
| Glasgow City | | | | | |
| Intentional self-harm | 94 | 117 | 92 | 81 | 91 |
| Undetermined intent | 40 | 43 | 49 | 41 | 26 |
| Total | 134 | 160 | 141 | 122 | 117 |
| Rate per 100,000 pop. | 23.0 | 27.7 | 24.4 | 21.1 | 20.3 |
| Ward | | | | | |
| Anderston | 3 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Anniesland | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| Ashfield | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Baillieston | - | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Barlanark | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Battlefield | 2 | 3 | - | - | 1 |
| Blairdardie | 3 | 2 | - | 3 | 1 |
| Braidfauld | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Bridgeton/Dalmarnock | 3 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 1 |
| Calton | 1 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 2 |
| Cardonald | - | 2 | 1 | 1 | - |
| Carmunnock | - | - | 2 | 1 | - |
| Carntyne | 7 | - | 1 | - | 2 |
| Carnwadric | 3 | 1 | 2 | - | 1 |
| Castlemilk | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Cathcart | 1 | 2 | 1 | - | 2 |
| Cowlairs | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | - |
| Crookston | 1 | 1 | 5 | - | - |
| Darnley | 1 | 1 | 2 | - | 4 |
| Dennistoun | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Drumoyne | - | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Drumry | 1 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 2 |
| Easterhouse | - | 2 | 5 | 2 | 1 |
| Firhill | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Garrowhill | 1 | - | 1 | - | 2 |
| Gartcraig | - | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Garthamlock | 2 | - | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Glenwood | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Govan | 1 | 3 | 1 | - | 3 |
| Govanhill | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Greenfield | 1 | - | 2 | - | - |
| Hayburn | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Hillhead | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Hutchesontown | 1 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 3 |
| Hyndland | 1 | 1 | - | - | 2 |
| Ibrox | 2 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Jordanhill | 1 | 1 | - | - | - |
| Kelvindale | - | - | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Kelvingrove | 2 | 5 | 3 | - | 1 |
| Keppochhill | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | 3 |
| King's Park | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| Kingston | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
| Knightswood Park | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| Knightswood South | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| Langside | 1 | - | - | 2 | - |
| Maryhill | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Maxwell Park | - | 3 | 1 | 1 | - |
| Merchant City | 1 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 6 |
| Milnbank | 2 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| Milton | 1 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| Mosspark | - | 2 | 1 | - | - |
| Mount Florida | - | 3 | - | - | 1 |
| Mount Vernon | 3 | 1 | - | - | - |
| Newlands | - | 5 | 2 | - | - |
| Nitshill | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | 1 |
| North Cardonald | 2 | 1 | - | 1 | 2 |
| North Kelvin | 3 | 1 | 1 | - | 1 |
| Parkhead | 3 | 1 | - | 2 | 2 |
| Partick | 2 | 1 | 1 | - | 1 |
| Penilee | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | - |
| Pollok | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Pollokshaws | 1 | - | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Pollokshields East | 2 | 1 | 3 | - | - |
| Queenslie | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Robroyston | 1 | - | 1 | 2 | - |
| Royston | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2 |
| Scotstoun | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Shettleston | 1 | - | 2 | 4 | - |
| Springburn | 2 | - | 2 | 2 | - |
| Strathbungo | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Summerhill | 4 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| Summerston | 2 | - | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Tollcross Park | - | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| Toryglen | 4 | 1 | 1 | - | 1 |
| Victoria Park | - | - | 3 | 1 | 3 |
| Wallacewell | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| Woodlands | - | - | 1 | 2 | - |
| Wyndford | 7 | 6 | 2 | 4 | - |
| Yoker | - | 1 | 1 | 2 | - |
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 24 January 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what additional resources it plans to allocate to local authorities and public bodies to allow them to conform to requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, broken down by local authority and organisation.
Answer
We take our responsibilities under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) as an employer and service provider very seriously. We expect all employers and service providers in Scotland, including local authorities and public bodies, to do the same.
The main provisions and timetable of the DDA have been in place for a number of years. It is for employers and service providers to decide what they need to do to comply with the legislation and allocate the necessary resources.
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 24 January 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 2 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of blind women is over the age of 70 and what percentage of these received contact from social work services at least once a week, broken down by local authority area in (a) 1999, (b) 2000, (c) 2001, (d) 2002, (e) 2003 and (f) 2004.
Answer
Information is not collected on the number of blind women aged over 70. The table shows the proportion of registered blind women who are over the age of 65 for each local authority.
No information is held centrally on what percentage of these women receive contact from social work services at least once a week.
Table 1: Registered Blind Women, Aged 65 and Over, as a Percentage of All Registered Blind Women
| Local Authority | 1999 (%) | 2000 (%) | 2001 (%) | 2002 (%) | 2003 (%) | 2004 (%) |
| Aberdeen City | 83.4 | 83.5 | 84.1 | 84.3 | 82.6 | 81.2 |
| Aberdeenshire | 85.9 | 85.0 | 85.1 | 82.2 | 83.8 | 82.2 |
| Angus | 82.9 | 82.6 | 81.4 | 83.4 | 83.6 | 83.5 |
| Argyll and Bute | 91.9 | 89.1 | 81.8 | 89.9 | 88.4 | 89.1 |
| Clackmannanshire | 67.3 | 70.9 | 82.7 | 86.4 | 87.7 | 88.6 |
| Dumfries and Galloway | 80.4 | 82.1 | 85.5 | 84.8 | 85.0 | 84.2 |
| Dundee City | 79.9 | 79.7 | 80.6 | 82.5 | 81.8 | 81.9 |
| East Ayrshire | 88.5 | 84.7 | 89.0 | 84.9 | 79.3 | 85.9 |
| East Dunbartonshire | 86.3 | 85.7 | 86.8 | 82.7 | 82.0 | 81.7 |
| East Lothian | 81.7 | 78.9 | 79.6 | 79.4 | 81.3 | 79.9 |
| East Renfrewshire | 89.0 | 86.9 | 88.7 | 88.2 | 88.2 | 89.0 |
| Edinburgh city | 84.9 | 83.7 | 83.5 | 82.9 | 83.8 | 81.4 |
| Eilean Siar | 83.7 | 83.0 | 81.8 | 85.7 | 85.9 | 81.0 |
| Falkirk | 88.3 | 91.6 | 86.0 | 85.7 | 83.0 | 81.5 |
| Fife | 84.0 | 81.9 | 82.3 | 81.9 | 83.1 | 81.2 |
| Glasgow City | 90.5 | 90.3 | 90.5 | 90.0 | 90.1 | 89.8 |
| Highland | 84.0 | 84.6 | 85.1 | 84.5 | 84.1 | 81.8 |
| Inverclyde | 89.4 | 85.7 | 86.2 | 88.1 | 88.8 | 88.6 |
| Midlothian | 82.0 | 82.2 | 84.6 | 82.9 | 83.9 | 83.6 |
| Moray | 87.2 | 87.5 | 88.8 | 89.8 | 89.0 | 88.9 |
| North Ayrshire | 85.7 | 85.5 | 85.6 | 86.4 | 86.3 | 87.1 |
| North Lanarkshire | 86.1 | 81.6 | 85.8 | 85.0 | 84.6 | 84.8 |
| Orkney Islands | 85.7 | 73.9 | 75.9 | 80.6 | 81.3 | 87.2 |
| Perth and Kinross | 87.2 | 88.1 | 86.1 | 83.9 | 82.5 | 84.0 |
| Renfrewshire | 82.1 | 82.6 | 80.0 | 82.7 | 74.5 | 77.4 |
| Scottish Borders | 88.9 | 89.4 | 88.9 | 88.1 | 86.6 | 87.0 |
| Shetland Islands | 85.0 | 85.7 | 86.4 | 86.4 | 85.7 | 85.0 |
| South Ayrshire | 87.9 | 89.0 | 89.3 | 88.4 | 89.7 | 89.1 |
| South Lanarkshire | 84.0 | 84.2 | 82.4 | 79.0 | 78.8 | 76.5 |
| Stirling | 86.0 | 87.6 | 81.0 | 81.2 | 81.4 | 82.3 |
| West Dunbartonshire | 89.6 | 90.0 | 82.1 | 80.5 | 81.1 | 77.5 |
| West Lothian | 81.4 | 81.4 | 79.3 | 76.3 | 76.8 | 73.2 |
| Scotland | 86.7 | 85.8 | 85.9 | 85.5 | 85.2 | 84.8 |
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 24 January 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 2 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people with severe and enduring mental health problems remained out of sustained employment in (a) 1999, (b) 2000, (c) 2001, (d) 2002, (e) 2003 and (f) 2004.
Answer
The Department for Work and Pensions provide statistics on claimants of Incapacity Benefit (IB) and Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA). These show that the number of such claimants (for a period of over 13 weeks) as a result of a “mental or behavioural disorder” were:
| 1999 | 98,000 |
| 2000 | 105,000 |
| 2001 | 110,600 |
| 2002 | 117,900 |
| 2003 | 121,000 |
| 2004 | 124,500 |
It should be noted that policy on employment and job search is a matter reserved to the UK government.
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 24 January 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 2 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive its target is for reducing the 83% of blind and partially-sighted people of working age who remain out of work.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has not set such a target. Our Closing the Opportunity Gap targets, announced in December 2004, involve reducing the number of workless people dependent on Department of Work and Pensions benefits, including benefits claimed by people with seeing difficulties.
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 24 January 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has for adapting houses to increase the existing level of barrier-free housing stock from 1%.
Answer
Barrier-free housing and surrounding environment is a key element of the Executive’s social inclusion agenda. We will seek to ensure that the existing level of barrier-free housing is increased by requiring local authorities to take full account of the needs of vulnerable people, including disabled and older people, within their Local Housing Strategies (LHS).
Funding to increase barrier-free housing is available from the Scottish Executive’s Housing Investment Programme, which is administered by Communities Scotland. In 2004-05, this programme amounts to £284 million.
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 December 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 2 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list all board members of non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) and Executive agencies who have registered membership of the Labour or Liberal Democrat party in Scotland, broken down by NDPB and agency in (a) 1999, (b) 2000, (c) 2001, (d) 2002, (e) 2003 and (f) 2004 to date.
Answer
The Executive publishes details of the declared political activity of all current regulated ministerial appointments on its public appointments website at:
www.scotland.gov.uk/government/publicbodies.
This is a “real time” website that is updated by the Executive on an on-going basis. At 31 December 2004, 95 (13.8%) of the 686 current appointees are shown to have declared that they had been politically active on behalf of the Labour party and 24 (3.5%) on behalf of the Liberal Democrat party in the five years preceding their appointments.
The information in relation to regulated NDPBs is not available in the form requested by the member. The political activity information on regulated NDPB board members that is required to be collected and collated by the Executive on behalf of the Commissioner for Public Appointments is broken down by NDPB category only.
Information about the political membership of the board members of Executive Agencies is not held by the Executive as these appointments are not regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland’s Code of Practice.
I refer the member to the answers given to questions S1W-20118, S1W-24411 and S1W-25468 (answered on 26 March 2002, 17 April 2002 and 30 April 2002respectively) which explain why annual data from 1999 to March 2001 is notavailable.
All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament/webapp/wa.search.
The number of regulated NDPB board members who have declared political activity on behalf of the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties from 1 April 2001 is as follows:
| Period | Appointments made in Period (Including Reappointments) | No. of Appointees Declaring Political Activity on Behalf of the Labour party | No. of Appointees Declaring Political Activity on Behalf of the Lib Dem Party |
| 1 April 2001 to 31 March 2002 | 273 | 8 Executive NDPBs 6 Advisory NDPBs 29 NHS Bodies (16% of all new appointments) | 1 Executive NDPB 1 Advisory NDPB 5 NHS Bodies (3% of all new appointments) |
| 1 April 2002 to 31 March 2003 | 253 | 22 Executive NDPBs 8 NHS Bodies (12% of all new appointments) | 10 Executive NDPBs (4% of all new appointments) |
| 1 April 2003 to 31 March 2004 | 220 | 8 Executive NDPBs 6 Advisory NDPBs 5 NHS Bodies 1 Public Corporation (9% of all new appointments) | 1 Advisory NDPB 1 NHS Body (0.9% of all new appointments) |
Details of the political activity of all regulated NDPB appointments made in the period 1 April 2004 to 31 March 2005 will be published in the new Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland’s Annual Report.
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 January 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 2 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what the percentage was of (a) women and (b) men employed at board level in each non-departmental public body in (i) 1999, (ii) 2000, (iii) 2001, (iv) 2002, (v) 2003 and (iv) 2004.
Answer
Information in relation to the gender of public appointees is not available in the form requested. However, a breakdown by gender of people appointed by Ministers to regulated public bodies during each financial year has been published in the UK Commissioner for Public Appointments’ Annual Report since the year 1999-2000. These reports can be accessed at:
www.ocpa.gov.uk
and the relevant Scottish figures are set out in the following table.
| Year | Percentage and Number of Male Appointees | Percentage and Number of Female Appointees |
| 1999-2000 | 64% (147) | 36% (82) |
| 2000-01 | 68% (112) | 32% (52) |
| 2001-02 | 67% (184) | 33% (89) |
| 2002-03 | 65% (165) | 35% (88) |
| 2003-04 | 63% (138) | 37% (82) |
The Executive now also publishes details of the gender breakdown of all current regulated ministerial appointments on its public appointments website
www.scotland.gov.uk/government/publicbodies.This information is updated on a monthly basis. As at 31 December 2004, 65% (513) of all regulated public body board members were men and 35% (276) were women.
