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I have asked Mr Bob Millar, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:Communities Scotland is guided by the rural policies and priorities of Scottish ministers, with a view to improving the quality of life for those resident in rural Scotland by fostering sustainable and healthy communities that are attractive, vibrant and safe.

There is no increased risk, as there is never any question of Regional Selective Assistance being used simply to relocate a business.

This is a matter for NHS Grampian. However, I understand that the recommendations in the report are intended to provide non-clinical support services more effectively and to increase spending on direct patient care.

There is no longer an index of registered drug addicts. However, the following table shows the number of new individual patients/clients by NHS board of residence, reported to the Scottish Drug Misuse Database during the five years ending 31 March 2001. This information has already been published in the ISD Scotland publication Drug Misuse in Scotland 2001 and is available on the national drug misuse website at: http://www.drugmisuse.isdscotland.org Information on the estimated number of problem drug users at both national and local level is contained in Estimating the National and Local Prevalence of Problem Drug Misuse in Scotland, published in November 2001, also available on the national drug misuse website.Information on the number of drug users being prescribed methadone or other drug substitutes is not held centrally.New¹ individual patients/clients^2,3 reported to the Scottish Drug Misuse Database by NHS Board of residence:Years ending 31 March

	Numbers
	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01
Scotland	8,652	8,846	9,280	10,608	10,591
By NHS Board
Argyll and Clyde	957	1,365	1,459	1,228	1,330
Ayrshire and Arran4	303	356	141	1,182	1,239
Borders	59	21	79	80	102
Dumfries and Galloway	149	153	231	200	207
Fife	384	362	396	433	598
Forth Valley	172	160	334	281	247
Grampian	947	1,056	835	712	631
Greater Glasgow	3,224	2,833	2,871	3,306	3,290
Highland	58	60	74	124	124
Lanarkshire	353	320	427	551	513
Lothian	1,886	1,789	1,876	2,000	1,947
Tayside	169	357	577	551	405
Island Boards5	28	46	29	31	24
Outside Scotland	3	3	2	7	7

Notes:1. It is emphasised the information held on the Scottish Drug Misuse Database relates to new patients/clients. The definition of "new" is (a) the person is attending the particular service for the first time ever, or (b) the person has attended before but not within the previous six months.2. All figures in this table exclude penal establishment inmates and information received from needle exchanges.3. The database collects anonymous information about new problem drug users presenting at a broad range of drug services across, Scotland, including general practices.4. In 1999-2000 information was received for the first time from nine agencies in the Ayrshire and Arran NHS Board area.5. Shetland and Western Isles NHS Boards.

In the following tables, the number of prescriptions issued for methadone in each of the last five years in each health board area is shown in table 1, and table 2 sets out the number of dispensings carried out in accordance with prescriber's instructions. Current year data are not available.It is not possible to determine the volume of prescribing of drug substitutes, other than methadone because such drugs can also be appropriately prescribed for the treatment of certain medical conditions. These data refer to prescriptions dispensed in the community and do not take into account medicines dispensed by hospitals or hospital based clinics.Table 1: Methadone - Number of Prescribed Items:

Health Board	Number of Prescribed Items
	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01
Argyll and Clyde	8,167	13,780	18,451	21,749	24,319
Ayrshire and Arran	12,789	21,649	23,751	25,209	26,576
Borders	427	477	473	425	521
Dumfries and Galloway	6,548	6,259	7,139	6,531	7,238
Fife	5,017	6,677	7,599	9,449	11,398
Forth Valley	2,758	2,744	2,362	2,561	3,094
Grampian	13,396	15,006	17,924	22,863	26,931
Greater Glasgow	69,023	75,689	80,342	87,152	98,897
Highland	1,068	1,082	1,626	2,461	2,388
Lanarkshire	11,034	12,552	17,847	24,929	28,940
Lothian	18,549	18,877	19,567	23,139	26,312
Orkney	17	15	17	16	9
Shetland	153	245	372	353	652
Tayside	13,919	14,533	15,155	15,709	17,172
Western Isles	3	7	10	11	3
Total	162,868	189,592	212,635	242,557	274,450

Table 2: Methadone - Number of Dispensings:

Health Board	Number of Dispensed Items
	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01
Argyll and Clyde	72,238	133,726	201,803	243,356	314,851
Ayrshire and Arran	58,797	103,716	113,963	125,240	155,010
Borders	2,314	2,927	2,244	2,102	3,010
Dumfries and Galloway	14,877	15,897	28,873	35,832	40,333
Fife	29,979	42,623	64,715	85,624	117,528
Forth Valley	23,428	31,427	32,332	39,700	52,534
Grampian	73,782	101,494	152,075	215,705	283,015
Greater Glasgow	619,964	740,037	830,292	914,886	1,178,988
Highland	4,334	4,271	7,089	13,769	14,422
Lanarkshire	30,885	43,960	80,578	141,789	205,731
Lothian	145,827	161,738	197,206	245,302	297,526
Orkney	17	15	17	16	9
Shetland	395	493	754	626	2,206
Tayside	101,094	119,445	141,752	163,207	189,665
Western Isles	9	34	55	57	6
Total	1,177,940	1,501,803	1,853,748	2,227,211	2,854,834

Detailed information about sample numbers and distribution can be found in the report Groundwater nitrate vulnerable zones for Scotland (Parliament's Reference Centre, Bib. number 18567), as detailed in the answer to question S1W-23978 today.

The information requested is not held centrally.Waiting time information for drug misuse treatment is not held consistently by drug services across Scotland. We are, however, currently seeking from Drug Action Teams some local information on waiting times for some drug services as part of the annual corporate planning arrangements.

Recidivism figures were published by the Scottish Executive in February 2001. The study, which looked at a cohort of offenders released in 1995, recorded that 45% were reconvicted within two years.The Scottish Prison Service publishes return to custody figures. These are not recidivism figures but the number of people released from prison, who are returned to custody within a two-year period. The most recent Research Bulletin setting out the figures for those released in 1997 was published in December 2001 (Parliament's Reference Centre, Bib. number 10938).The data is not broken down by establishment, as many offenders do not spend their complete sentence in any one prison.

The locations of Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) monitoring sites in the north-east Scotland parliamentary region, can be found from the SEPA maps entitled SEPA Groundwater Monitoring (Parliament's Reference Centre, Bib. number 20139) and SEPA Surface Water Monitoring (Bib. number 20140). Further locational details of the monitoring sites can be obtained from the local SEPA office in Aberdeen, or from the SEPA Corporate Office in Stirling.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:It is not possible to measure rehabilitation directly and future behaviour is affected by many factors, many of which occur outwith the prison, but two of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of the SPS relate to the work we do to assist prisoner rehabilitation:Programmes to address offending behaviour; the number of programmes delivered and percentage of those which are fully accredited.Education; the number of learning hours delivered.In addition, the work of SPS in the fields of health, medical, nursing, drugs, work, employability and throughcare, will contribute to rehabilitation by encouraging and helping the prisoner to be more responsible.