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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S3W-04663

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 23 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the level of childhood obesity has been in each year since 1987, broken down by local authority area.

The specific informationrequested is not centrally available.

However, estimatesof childhood obesity derived from a sample of children aged two to 15 years, areavailable at Scotland level for the years 1998 and 2003 from the Scottish Health Survey 2003 (See Table 5.7 on page 125).

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/11/25145024/50271.In addition, statisticson obesity in children are available from the Child Health Surveillance Programme.Data from those boards that record findings using the electronic child health systems,CHSP-Pre School and CHSP-School, are available at the following link http://www.isdscotland.org/child_obesity(Click on “obesity statistics” to access a list of available tables and charts).

Question reference: S3W-04722

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 22 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive when people whose jobs or community services rely on the Community Regeneration Fund will be advised about its future.

Question reference: S3W-04721

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 22 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide an assurance that the Community Regeneration Fund will not be cancelled or have its budget cut.

Question reference: S3W-05445

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 19 October 2007
Current Status: Awaiting answer

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-4664 by Kenny MacAskill on 17 October 2007, how many police officers there have been in each division of Strathclyde Police in each year since 1979, shown on a (a) head count and (b) whole-time equivalent basis over the entire period.

Question reference: S3W-04664

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 17 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many police officers there have been in each year since 1979, broken down by local authority area.

The available informationis given in the following table. The figures show the number of police officerswithin each police force on a headcount basis from 1979 to 1999, and on a wholetime equivalent basis from 2000 onwards.

Number of PoliceOfficers by Force, (Head Count), as at 31 December 1979 to 1999.

Force	1979	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986
Central	509	512	516	529	538	542	550	549
Dumfries and Galloway	311	308	307	310	313	310	330	338
Fife	671	655	645	650	647	654	670	725
Grampian	932	928	941	937	948	962	970	995
Lothian and Borders	2,342	2,398	2,388	2,393	2,396	2,387	2,394	2,442
Northern	603	608	599	596	589	611	606	610
Strathclyde	6,905	6,882	6,845	6,833	6,816	6,792	6,816	6,769
Tayside	941	970	953	964	961	967	968	1,000
Scotland	13,214	13,261	13,194	13,212	13,208	13,225	13,304	13,428

Force	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994
Central	571	599	619	641	636	649	657	654
Dumfries and Galloway	348	347	348	357	370	387	386	390
Fife	741	751	754	753	775	786	786	789
Grampian	1,017	1,028	1,084	1,138	1,150	1,194	1,193	1,191
Lothian and Borders	2,414	2,397	2,486	2,463	2,522	2,561	2,558	2,556
Northern	607	615	625	632	633	636	658	643
Strathclyde	6,773	6,768	6,887	6,804	6,790	6,797	6,823	7,003
Tayside	1,005	1,013	1,011	1,053	1,047	1,084	1,078	1,087
Scotland	13,476	13,518	13,814	13,841	13,923	14,094	14,139	14,313

Force	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
Central	659	666	693	719	710
Dumfries and Galloway	392	402	441	446	453
Fife	791	825	852	841	825
Grampian	1,181	1,155	1,195	1,226	1,230
Lothian and Borders	2,536	2,661	2,699	2,621	2,581
Northern	648	636	645	667	658
Strathclyde	7,156	7,207	7,377	7,186	7,090
Tayside	1,116	1,120	1,148	1,148	1,137
Scotland	14,479	14,672	15,050	14,854	14,684

Number of PoliceOfficers by Force, (Whole-Time Equivalent), as at 31 December 2000 to 2006.

Force	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Central	717	710	728	756	795	827	865
Dumfries and Galloway	463	473	469	486	478	496	496
Fife	845	886	914	956	987	1,022	1,035
Grampian	1,237	1,256	1,248	1,311	1,373	1,368	1,400
Lothian and Borders	2,640	2,618	2,667	2,717	2,785	2,823	2,783
Northern	647	672	691	676	705	704	697
Strathclyde	7,168	7,226	7,294	7,431	7,615	7,769	7,782
Tayside	1,147	1,154	1,161	1,150	1,169	1,155	1,173
Scotland	14,863	14,995	15,170	15,483	15,908	16,164	16,230

Source: QuarterlyStrength Return from Forces.

Question reference: S3W-04661

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 15 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children have been adopted at birth in each year since 1987, expressed also as a percentage of total births for each year.

Adoption “at birth”is impossible, because an adoption order can only be granted by a court after acomplex assessment process, and the mother’s agreement to offer a child for adoptionis not valid if given less than six weeks after the child’s birth. It is rare nowadaysfor an infant to be offered for adoption shortly after birth. The following tableshows, for each year since 1987, the number of children aged under six months registeredfor adoption. The table also gives the total number of births registered each year.Because of the small numbers of adoptions involved, percentages have not been presented.

Adoptions ofChildren Aged Under Six Months, 1987-2006

Year of Adoption	Number	Total Number of Births
1987	33	66,241
1988	35	66,212
1989	16	63,480
1990	21	65,973
1991	9	67,024
1992	4	65,789
1993	10	63,337
1994	3	61,656
1995	1	60,051
1996	2	59,296
1997	0	59,440
1998	1	57,319
1999	4	55,147
2000	1	53,076
2001	1	52,527
2002	1	51,270
2003	3	52,432
2004	4	53,957
2005	1	54,386
2006	3	55,690

Question reference: S3W-04719

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps is it taking to increase the support available to people suffering from dementia.

Improvingservices for those with dementia and their carers is a priority for the Scottish Government and further options for change and improvement are beingexplored through the Better Health, Better Care consultation which runsto 12 November 2007. The outcomes will complement the rangeof initiatives already underway to increase support available to those withdementia.

I have alsoappointed a Dementia Forum to inform and advise current and future attention onthis important agenda. That agenda includes; a forthcoming integrated care pathwaystandard for dementia; the funding for a partnership dementia services redesignproject through NHS Forth Valley and the Dementia Services Development Centre;attention on ensuring all new and refurnished primary care premises aredesigned to be dementia friendly; work with NHS Education for Scotland todevelop a competency based framework for mental health staff working with olderadults and grant funding over the next three years to support both AlzheimerScotland and the Dementia Services Development Centre.

Question reference: S3W-04501

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 5 October 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken, or intends to take, to encourage the greater use of biodiesel.

Biodiesel as a blendedtransport fuel with standard fossil and mineral diesel is already sold in outletsacross the UK without the need for separate labelling orpumps. The biofuel component of blended fuels will increase to 5% as part of theRenewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO) target by 2010. New vehicle engine warrantieswould be invalid if biofuel content greater than 5% were used. To provide furthercertainty to transport fuel suppliers and stimulate production, the Chancellor of the Exchequer extended the period of RTFO fuel duty incentive of 20p per litre onbiodiesel and bioethanol production until 2009-10.

We are developingplans to consult with key stakeholders to consider what reasonable steps can betaken to encourage wider use of higher blends of biofuels for all road vehicles.We continue to monitor UK and European discussions aimed at increasingthe RTFO target beyond 2010.

Question reference: S3W-04466

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it has given to NHS boards on whether it is acceptable to fine outpatients whose hospital car parking tickets have expired as a result of treatment taking longer than anticipated or appointments being delayed.

The ScottishGovernment has issued no guidance to NHS boards on the issuing of fines to out-patientsor any other hospital car park user. The management of hospital car parks is alocal matter for NHS boards, in line with current guidance issued by theprevious administration earlier this year which the Scottish Government is reviewing. Iannounced the review on 14 September 2007 and Ianticipate that the review group will report back to me by the end of November.

Question reference: S3W-04463

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the impact of hospital car parking charges on residents living near hospitals where charges have been introduced.

Noassessment has been made by the Scottish Government on the impact of hospitalcar parking charges on residents living near hospitals. The introduction of car parking charges, orthe revision of existing arrangements, is a matter for NHS boards in light oflocal circumstances and I would expect NHS boards totake account of local residents as part of their planning and consultationprocess before introducing charges.

The management ofhospital car parks is a local matter for NHS boards, in line with currentguidance issued by the previous administration earlier this year which the Scottish Government isreviewing. I announced the review on 14 September 2007 and I anticipate that the review group will reportback to me by the end of November.