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The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has issued comprehensive guidance to staff on the precognition process including guidance for witnesses who are asked to provide a statement or precognition to the defence. The guidance states that witnesses should generally be encouraged to co-operate with requests for precognition. Accordingly, while there may on rare occasions be particular circumstances which mitigate against a witness providing a precognition at specific points in the investigation of a criminal offence, the general approach taken by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is to encourage witnesses to co-operate with such request for precognition.

The movement of abnormal loads is a reserved matter. There are currently no legislative requirements for abnormal loads to be escorted; however, in the interests of public safety the police decide when an escort is required. The Highways Agency on behalf of the Department for Transport has published a Code of Practice and Operating Guidance on Abnormal Load Escorting which gives guidance on when an escort vehicle is required. This may be a police escort or a Self-Escort and is a matter for the police.

Where a haulage company vehicle’s laden dimensions exceed a defined overall width, length or weight the police in the interest of public safety will decide whether an escort vehicle is required and whether the escort is provided by the police or the haulier. There are currently no legal requirements for abnormal loads to be escorted; however there are legal requirements for the haulier to provide an attendant dependent on the dimensions of the load.

The charging of hauliers for police escorts has been agreed between Scottish Police Forces at the special services rates set by Association of Chief Police Offices in Scotland (ACPOS). The special services rate is designed to include an element for both wear and tear to police vehicles and fuel costs, in addition to the cost of the officers; one rate to cover all costs incurred. In addition, the agreement allows charging for the time spent in planning such escorts. It is down to individual police forces whether to implement these charges.

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court Service (SCS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCS who will reply in writing.

The first research and development grants to marine projects were awarded in February 2007, under the Wave and Tidal Energy Scheme (WATES). Payments under the scheme have been as follows (based on financial years):

The Scottish Government has also released over £5.5 million during this period to help develop the infrastructure needed to accommodate WATES projects located at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney. In addition to this, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) have spent just under £20 million to develop the marine energy sector over the equivalent period.

HIE has also contributed £8.8 million towards infrastructure developments closely associated with marine renewables activity.

While we have not forecast specific outcomes for individual technologies in the context of our renewables targets for 2020, we would expect wind energy - on and offshore - to make a major contribution. We are also continuing to support and encourage marine renewables, with new initiatives such as our £18 million Marine Renewables Commercialisation Fund aimed at proving wave and tidal technologies, driving down costs and enabling them to play a significant part in meeting our energy needs in 2020 and beyond.

The information requested on electricity generation from wave and tidal stream generating stations is not held centrally. Scottish renewable electricity statistics for renewable electricity from 2000 onwards are collated by the UK Government Department of Energy and Climate Change. Wind, wave and tidal statistics cannot be published in a disaggregated form because to do so could disclose data that relate to individual companies.

ISD Scotland collects hospital data (SMR01 records) from which hip-replacement operations can be identified, and utilises National Records of Scotland (NRS) data from which causes of death (from the death certificate) can be identified. The Scottish Arthroplasty Project combines these data, but due to quality and completeness of recording it is not possible to definitively identify deaths due to complications from hip-replacement operations.

Table 1 shows the number of patients who have undergone one or more hip-replacement operations from 1999 to 2010 and have a subsequent cause of death, as identified from the death certificate, as a complication due to surgical implant. These figures are likely to slightly underestimate the actual number of deaths, due to the complexities of death in a generally elderly population (those receiving hip implants). It may not always be possible for the certifying doctor to definitively record each and all of the causes of death, and complications due to implants may not always be wholly evident.

Information has been provided for 1999 to 2010 combined instead of by individual year to avoid disclosing small numbers.

Table 1. Number of patients who have undergone one or more hip-replacement operations 1 January 1999 to 31 December 2010 and have a subsequent cause of death as a complication due to surgical implant, with total number of hip operations by NHS board

Source: ISD SMR01 data.

1. Table 1 shows the number of instances where a patient has undergone one or more hip-replacement operation (including total hip replacements, revisions, resurfacings, hybrid and emergency operations) from 1999 to 2010, has subsequently died and where the ICD10 code Y83.1 “Surgical operation with implant of artificial internal device as the cause of abnormal reaction of the patient, or of later complication, without mention of misadventure at the time of the procedure” is recorded as a cause of death on NRS data, derived from the death certificate.

2. OPCS4 codes for hip arthroplasty, hip resurfacing, hybrid hip replacement, hip revision or hybrid hip revision have been selected. For further information please see:

http://www.arthro.scot.nhs.uk/OPCS_codes_summary_150710.pdf. Emergency admissions are included.

3. It is possible that a patient may have had an additional implant other than that fitted in the hip-replacement operation, and that it is this from which the complication (noted as cause of death) arose. Without recourse to the patients medical notes, it is not possible to differentiate between multiple implants and subsequent complications as cause of death.

4. Further information on the quality of NRS death data is available here:

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/theme/vital-events/deaths/bckgr-info/quality-of-nrs-data-on-deaths.html.

5. Further information on the quality of SMR01 data is available here:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Products-and-Services/Data-Quality/.

The information requested is not held centrally.