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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-04084

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 18 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much Scottish Water has paid in bonuses to its directors since its creation.

Question reference: S3W-04088

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 18 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many medical students have graduated from Scotland’s universities in each year since 1997.

The following tableshows how many students have graduated in clinical medicine from Scotland’s universities each year since 1997. The numbers includethose students undertaking first degrees and post graduate qualifications.

Year	Number of Students
1997-98	890
1998-99	945
1999-2000	910
2000-01	865
2001-02	995
2002-03	1,010
2003-04	1,005
2004-05	1,105
2005-06	960

Note: Students fromSt. Andrews University are not included as they typically complete their training at Manchester University. The figures include graduates who studiedclinical medicine in conjunction with other subjects.

Question reference: S3W-04086

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 18 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive, in relation to the Water Supply (Water Quality) (Scotland) Regulations 2001, how many authorised departures have been (a) applied for by Scottish Water and (b) permitted by the Scottish Ministers in each year, broken down by local authority area.

Since the Regulationscame into force Scottish Water has applied for 42 authorised departures. Scottishministers have granted 37 of these and the breakdown by local authority is detailedin the following table.

Year	Local Authority	Applications	Granted
2004	Argyll and Bute Comhairle nan Eilean Siar Dumfries and Galloway Highland Orkney Shetland	1 7 2 17 1 1	1 7 2 13 1 0
2005	Highland	2	2
2006	Comhairle nan Eilean Siar Dumfries and Galloway Highland	1 2 8	1 2 8

Question reference: S3W-04085

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 18 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what Scottish Water’s net debt has been in each year since its creation.

Figures for ScottishWater’s net debt for each year may be found in its Annual Accounts. These are availablein the Scottish Parliament Information Centre under the following reference numbers:

Year	Bib. number
2002-03	28754
2003-04	33541
2004-05	36848
2005-06	39906
2006-07	43566

Question reference: S3W-04089

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 13 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many junior doctors have been employed by the NHS in Scotland in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S3W-03511

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 13 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many assaults on teachers in the workplace were reported in each year since 1990, broken down by local authority area.

Information on thenumber of reported incidents of violence or antisocial behaviour were collectedcentrally between 1998-99 and 2002-03 only. The following table showing the breakdownby local authority was provided to the Education Committee in 2004.

Figures include verbaland physical abuse, as well as incidents against personal property, against bothteaching and non-teaching staff and cover pre-school as well as school.

It is not necessarilyvalid to draw the inference that the actual number of incidents had increased bythe amount shown between the years. Figures from different local authorities arealso not generally comparable. These differences may be due to different reportingprocedures.

	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03
Aberdeen City	321	709	669	675	566
Aberdeenshire	48	8	143	134	154
Angus	48	39	81	129	109
Argyll and Bute	40	95	83	105	126
Clackmannanshire	13	24	22	18	55
Dumfries and Galloway	29	44	40	29	37
Dundee City	207	201	412	521	458
East Ayrshire	28	28	23	31	47
East Dunbartonshire	32	58	88	76	79
East Lothian	12	47	48	36	52
East Renfrewshire	15	29	16	41	68
Edinburgh, City of	181	289	381	427	484
Eilean Siar	0	2	19	1	230
Falkirk	3	30	168	397	756
Fife	64	259	414	650	588
Glasgow City	123	139	258	357	616
Highland	17	24	166	164	282
Inverclyde	15	39	50	94	182
Midlothian	59	69	96	144	169
Moray	52	34	32	91	44
North Ayrshire	12	70	110	102	264
North Lanarkshire	158	178	178	270	386
Orkney Islands	3	5	3	6	1
Perth and Kinross	46	122	311	245	267
Renfrewshire	47	52	78	91	370
Scottish Borders	7	5	24	51	35
Shetland Islands	1	3	20	17	17
South Ayrshire	153	145	111	101	34
South Lanarkshire	48	87	129	124	118
Stirling	4	73	75	105	95
West Dunbartonshire	50	110	117	87	61
West Lothian	62	66	136	93	149
Scotland	1,898	3,083	4,501	5,412	6,899

Question reference: S3W-02987

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 13 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many floods there have been that required a response from at least one of the emergency services each year since 1980.

Question reference: S3W-03652

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prescriptions for Ritalin have been issued in each year since 1990.

The following tableshows the number of prescribed items for Ritalin^® prescribed in the community in Scotland. Data are presented for the financial years ending 31 March 1996 to 2007, inclusive. Data in the table refer to prescriptionsdispensed by community pharmacists and dispensing doctors, but do not take intoaccount medicines dispensed by hospitals or hospital based clinics.

Number of PrescribedItems – Year Ending 31 March

Year Ending 31 March	Number of Prescription Items
1990	0
1991	0
1992	0
1993	0
1994	0
1995	0
1996	1,579
1997	4,911
1998	9,392
1999	14,302
2000	19,198
2001	20,433
2002	20,753
2003	16,624
2004	12,652
2005	7,753
2006	6,060
2007	4,201

Source: ISD Scotland.

Question reference: S3W-03651

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 24 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prescriptions for treatments involving methylphenidate have been issued in each year since 1990.

The following tableshows the number of prescribed items for treatments involving methylphenidate hydrochloride(both standard and modified release preparations) prescribed in the community inScotland. Data are presented for the financial yearsending 31 March 1990 to 2007, inclusive. Data in the table refer to prescriptionsdispensed by community pharmacists and dispensing doctors, but do not take intoaccount medicines dispensed by hospitals or hospital based clinics.

Number of PrescribedItems – Year Ending 31 March

Year Ending 31 March	No of Prescription Items
1990	0
1991	0
1992	0
1993	0
1994	0
1995	0
1996	1,579
1997	4,911
1998	9,392
1999	14,302
2000	19,198
2001	22,384
2002	24,886
2003	30,276
2004	34,710
2005	37,888
2006	41,810
2007	48,739

Source: ISD Scotland.

Question reference: S3W-04082

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 13 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many evictions due to non-payment of rent have occurred in each year since 1990, broken down by local authority area.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

Figures on evictionsby local authorities due to rent arrears are not held centrally. The informationon evictions for registered social landlords is not available at local authoritylevel prior to 2003-04. Data on evictions due to rent arrears in the private sectorare not collected centrally.

The following tablelists data for registered social landlords:

Local Authority	2006-07	2005-06	2004-05	2003-04
Scotland	719	516	631	563
Aberdeen City	50	6	17	34
Aberdeenshire	21	6	10	12
Angus	7	9	1	13
Argyll and Bute	5	0	6	2
City of Edinburgh	41	31	49	51
City of Glasgow	319	201	263	156
Clackmannanshire	12	18	9	4
Dumfries and Galloway	34	31	44	51
Dundee City	26	23	9	38
East Ayrshire	7	4	6	9
East Dunbartonshire	4	10	0	3
East Lothian	6	5	5	2
East Renfrewshire	3	0	5	3
Falkirk	4	21	12	11
Fife	13	19	26	33
Highland	8	11	20	8
Inverclyde	7	4	6	4
Midlothian	4	6	4	6
Moray	4	2	3	3
North Ayrshire	16	8	8	9
North Lanarkshire	14	13	15	29
Orkney Islands	0	0	1	3
Perth and Kinross	1	3	2	8
Renfrewshire	52	16	24	11
Scottish Borders	29	42	39	13
Shetland Islands	0	0	0	0
South Ayrshire	1	0	2	8
South Lanarkshire	8	9	12	5
Stirling	5	3	5	2
West Dunbartonshire	14	7	15	18
Western Isles	0	2	0	1
West Lothian	4	6	13	13

Source: Annual Performanceand Statistical Return by registered social landlords to Communities Scotland Regulationand Inspection Division.