Seòmar agus comataidhean

I am informed by the convenerof the Holyrood Progress Group that the estimated cost for architects scale feesfor the dates requested are as follows:

Date	Cost (£ Million)
March 2001	7.54
March 2002	9.80
March 2003	11.45
December 2003	13.33

 

The figure for Decemberrepresents the final capped scale fee negotiated with the architects in August2003. In addition, over the period, reimbursement for site based staff totals £1.7million.

The number of calls to the healthy living advice line between 1 September 2003 and 25 January 2004 are as follows:

Month	Number of Calls
September	1,321
October	930
November	660
December	319
January	279

The median waiting times fora first outpatient appointment with a consultant in the specialty of dermatology,following referral by a general medical practitioner, by NHS board ofresidence, in each of the last 10 years are given in the table.

Information on waiting timesfor diagnostic tests, such as biopsies, is not collected centrally.

The Centre for Change and Innovation will be launching a national redesign of dermatologyservices in February 2004 as part of our commitment to reducing outpatient waitingtimes and ensuring that no patient waits more than 26 weeks for a firstoutpatient appointment, following GP referral, by 31 December 2005. The twinaims of the redesign will be to reduce outpatient waiting times and to improvethe quality of services for patients.

NHSScotland:Median Waiting Times For A First Out-patient Appointment With A Consultant InDermatology, Following A General Medical Practitioner Referral, By NHS Board OfResidence: Years Ended 30September 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003^P.

	Median Wait (days)
NHS Board	30 Sep 1994	30 Sep 1995	30 Sep 1996	30 Sep 1997	30 Sep 1998
Argyll and Clyde	47	55	71	68	53
Ayrshire and Arran	54	40	43	43	43
Borders	48	49	46	54	50
Dumfries and Galloway	41	48	42	37	45
Fife	75	69	73	67	65
Forth Valley	51	62	74	60	82
Grampian	72	77	84	55	70
Greater Glasgow	51	53	56	61	52
Highland	49	56	51	59	70
Lanarkshire	39	42	76	77	56
Lothian	47	39	43	56	47
Orkney	21	19	32	49	39
Shetland	38	44	38	35	24
Tayside	48	45	61	75	77
Western Isles	84	97	105	65	71
Scotland	50	50	56	59	54

 

	Median Wait (days)
NHS Board	30 Sep 1999	30 Sep 2000	30 Sep 2001	30 Sep 2002	30 Sep 2003P
Argyll and Clyde	64	59	64	56	58
Ayrshire and Arran	44	64	103	94	88
Borders	58	63	72	78	82
Dumfries and Galloway	38	18	37	63	38
Fife	67	62	57	74	79
Forth Valley	107	100	118	103	86
Grampian	99	111	121	114	114
Greater Glasgow	54	56	58	63	52
Highland	60	58	37	34	40
Lanarkshire	42	55	65	102	82
Lothian	56	69	68	65	71
Orkney	40	51	39	-1	-1
Shetland	49	49	41	68	-1
Tayside	76	30	29	49	43
Western Isles	113	61	26	27	26
Scotland	56	59	61	68	62

Source: ISD Scotland, SMR00.

¹Information not shown due to small numbers.

^PProvisional.

The capital funding beingmade available by the Executive to local authorities for the introduction of 20mph speed limits around schools can also be used for safer routes to schoolprojects and the development of home zones. A wide range of measures can beimplemented under safer routes to school schemes, including crossings forpedestrians and cyclists, the provision of footways and cycle-ways, and trafficfree entrances to schools. This specific additional funding does not cover thegritting of roads.

Non-trunk roads are theresponsibility of the local authorities concerned, and their funding forms partof the general local government finance settlement. It is entirely a matter forindividual authorities to decide what priority should be given to themaintenance and improvement, including gritting, of each road for which theyare responsible.

Data about injury roadaccidents are collected by the police and reported to the Scottish Executive using the Stats 19 statistical report format. These returns cover onlyaccidents in which one or more people were injured: they do not cover damageonly accidents.

The table gives the numbersof injury road accidents which were identified in the STATS 19 returns asoccurring on the B822 between the point where that road crosses the GonachanBurn and the point where it crosses the East Dunbartonshire Local Authorityboundary, north of Lennoxtown, in the years 1993 to 2002 inclusive.

It should be noted that thestatistics given in the table are based upon the data which are held in thecentral statistical database and which were collected by the police at the timeof the accident and subsequently reported to the Executive. They may differfrom any figures which the local authority would provide now, because they donot take account of any subsequent changes or corrections that the localauthority may have made to the statistical information, for use at a locallevel, about the location of each accident, based upon its knowledge of theroad and area concerned.

Year	Number of injury road accidents that occurred on the B822 between the point where that road crosses the Gonachan Burn and the point where it crosses the East Dunbartonshire Local Authority boundary, north of Lennoxtown.
1993	2
1994	0
1995	3
1996	1
1997	1
1998	0
1999	0
2000	1
2001	1
2002	0
Total	9

 

The information requested isgiven in the following table. This is as reported to the Scottish Executive by local authorities.

Council Tax Benefit - DWP Contribution
2001-02	£000
Scotland	285,131
Aberdeen City	8,262
Aberdeenshire	5,491
Angus	3,864
Argyll and Bute	4,730
Clackmannanshire	2,941
Dumfries and Galloway	6,022
Dundee City	11,456
East Ayrshire	7,376
East Dunbartonshire	3,455
East Lothian	3,922
East Renfrewshire	2,656
Edinburgh City	21,436
Eilean Siar	1,252
Falkirk	6,088
Fife	15,232
Glasgow City	70,147
Highland	8,443
Inverclyde	5,856
Mid Lothian	3,701
Moray	2,592
North Ayrshire	7,787
North Lanarkshire	20,370
Orkney Islands	517
Perth and Kinross	4,390
Renfrewshire	10,427
Scottish Borders	3,405
Shetland Islands	446
South Ayrshire	5,466
South Lanarkshire	18,249
Stirling	3,414
West Dunbartonshire	8,450
West Lothian	7,288

Source: As reported bycouncils on LFR 12 returns to the Executive.

The information required toanswer this question is not held centrally.

No. Funding for local roadsand bridges forms part of the general local government finance settlement. Aspart of this, Stirling Council receives above inflation increases in revenuesupport of 9.1% this year, and of 6.3% and 4.4% over the next two years. It isentirely a matter for the council to decide its own spending priorities.

As detailed inevidence recently submitted to the European and External Relations Committee,the Executive is looking at all aspects of its work to promote Scotland's interests overseas. Part of this work involves ensuringthat the public sector's overseas marketing activities are coherent andeffective. We have therefore commissioned research on overseas views of differentmarketing approaches. The exact level of funding required will not be knownuntil further work has been carried out.

The independent review ofyouth football commissioned by the Scottish Football Association (SFA) has beenconcluded. The Executive is currently in discussion with the SFA and sportscotlandon the report’s recommendations and how best to take these forward. I would hopethat an announcement will be made early in 2004. Whether the report ispublished is a matter for the SFA.