Questions and answers

Question reference: S2W-18033

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 17 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-9962 by Mr Tom McCabe on 6 September 2004, how many people are now registered with a dentist, broken down by NHS board.

The information requested is provided in the table.

Number of People Registered with an NHS General Dental Practitioner, 31 March 2005

Health Board Area	Children	Adults	Total
Argyll and Clyde	58,210	163 393	221,603
Ayrshire and Arran	54,951	150,501	205,452
Borders	13,421	35,131	48,552
Dumfries and Galloway	18,931	42,831	61,762
Fife	46,805	131,531	178,336
Forth Valley	42,078	108,157	150,235
Grampian	66,150	154,673	220,823
Greater Glasgow	129,880	367,721	497,601
Highland	27,246	45,067	72,313
Lanarkshire	76,735	212,947	289,682
Lothian	112,973	316,645	429,618
Orkney	1,490	4,689	6,179
Shetland	3,204	7,533	10,737
Tayside	58,850	168,233	227,083
Western Isles	923	6,440	7,363
Scotland	711,847	1,915,492	2,627,339

Source: MIDAS (Management Information and Dental Accounting System).

Question reference: S2W-18049

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 16 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children have received free school meals in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

Table 1 shows how many children have received free school meals in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area. This table shows a steady decline in the number of pupils taking free school meals. However, this decline in absolute numbers must be considered in the context of an overall decrease in the school roll, a decrease in the overall numbers of pupils taking school lunches and increasing overall levels of prosperity in Scotland’s communities.

Table 2 and Graph 1 show free school meals as a percentage of total school meals, which gives a more realistic picture of the change in uptake of free meals. In particular, the table shows that the percentage of pupils taking free school meals has been stable since 2003.

Number of Pupils Taking Free School Meals on the School Meals Survey date in January 1999-2005

	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Scotland	108,409	109,953	103,289	100,203	96,742	95,279	89,189
Aberdeen City	2,801	3,001	2,699	2,594	2,416	2,447	2,453
Aberdeenshire	1,987	2,133	2,071	1,850	1,785	1,940	2,007
Angus	1,172	1,313	1,337	1,226	1,337	1,351	1,391
Argyll and Bute	1,454	1,441	1,241	1,226	1,214	1,139	1,043
Clackmannanshire	1,370	1,314	1,217	1,170	1,077	1,063	1,080
Dumfries and Galloway	2,145	2,201	1,993	1,856	1,759	1,677	1,687
Dundee City	3,324	3,279	2,966	3,015	2,861	2,648	2,303
East Ayrshire	3,181	3,249	2,987	2,970	2,901	2,769	2,541
East Dunbartonshire	1,401	1,385	1,324	1,278	1,202	1,102	997
East Lothian	1,144	1,235	1,086	996	1,046	1,127	1,047
East Renfrewshire	1,200	1,138	1,122	1,093	1,058	978	1,033
Edinburgh, City of	7,815	7,977	7,370	7,088	6,936	7,093	6,275
Eilean Siar	436	396	377	328	276	347	333
Falkirk	3,268	3,362	3,218	3,288	3,300	3,245	3,135
Fife	7,365	7,294	6,713	6,446	6,179	6,318	6,642
Glasgow City	23,562	23,892	22,927	22,654	21,083	20,726	19,833
Highland	3,337	3,135	3,113	2,948	2,791	2,888	2,742
Inverclyde	2,304	2,461	2,200	2,200	2,036	2,055	1,903
Midlothian	1,540	1,536	1,502	1,402	1,434	1,383	1,050
Moray	1,087	1,141	982	968	944	904	915
North Ayrshire	4,635	4,513	4,248	4,073	3,889	3,734	3,622
North Lanarkshire	8,583	8,739	8,251	8,056	7,769	7,695	7,004
Orkney Islands	217	216	365	420	472	510	461
Perth and Kinross	1,285	1,204	1,132	1,131	1,059	1,101	969
Renfrewshire	3,723	4,240	4,006	3,797	3,806	3,653	2,880
Scottish Borders	904	1,060	981	898	890	862	776
Shetland Islands	237	246	233	188	193	187	204
South Ayrshire	2,014	2,094	1,999	1,949	1,919	1,842	1,729
South Lanarkshire	6,763	6,601	5,991	5,882	5,691	5,476	4,820
Stirling	1,457	1,491	1,420	1,329	1,252	1,211	1,083
West Dunbartonshire	3,598	3,562	3,193	2,924	3,073	2,732	2,366
West Lothian	3,100	3,104	3,025	2,960	3,094	3,073	2,859
Grant aided¹	-	-	-	-	-	3	6

Note: 1. Mainstream grant aided only. Included in Glasgow until 2004.

Percentage of Free Meals Taken as a Percentage of All Meals Taken, Primary and Secondary Sectors 1999–2005

	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Scotland	34.2%	33.0%	31.1%	29.1%	28.3%	28.4%	28.3%
Aberdeen City	23.8%	25.2%	22.5%	22.4%	21.8%	19.8%	20.5%
Aberdeenshire	13.2%	12.4%	12.6%	10.9%	10.8%	11.6%	11.8%
Angus	26.9%	24.4%	18.9%	18.2%	19.6%	21.4%	21.4%
Argyll and Bute	21.7%	19.1%	17.5%	17.7%	16.6%	16.8%	16.6%
Clackmannanshire	40.6%	42.0%	39.4%	36.2%	34.4%	38.1%	42.6%
Dumfries and Galloway	17.1%	17.1%	15.8%	14.4%	15.3%	16.6%	19.0%
Dundee City	41.6%	44.1%	40.3%	38.0%	35.8%	40.5%	32.9%
East Ayrshire	44.7%	43.1%	41.5%	38.7%	37.5%	34.9%	33.5%
East Dunbartonshire	17.8%	15.6%	16.4%	14.7%	15.3%	14.7%	14.1%
East Lothian	28.3%	26.2%	22.5%	20.0%	21.8%	22.1%	23.3%
East Renfrewshire	19.5%	20.4%	18.0%	16.1%	14.0%	13.3%	16.4%
Edinburgh, City of	49.6%	48.7%	46.6%	45.4%	43.9%	41.3%	39.4%
Eilean Siar	18.8%	18.6%	17.8%	14.9%	13.1%	16.7%	16.3%
Falkirk	30.0%	29.8%	27.7%	27.6%	27.5%	27.0%	25.7%
Fife	28.9%	29.7%	28.4%	23.3%	25.0%	26.1%	27.5%
Glasgow City	62.0%	58.6%	58.0%	57.5%	52.8%	54.4%	55.1%
Highland	25.2%	22.8%	23.5%	22.1%	17.2%	16.9%	17.5%
Inverclyde	33.0%	32.6%	32.4%	31.2%	31.1%	33.9%	33.6%
Midlothian	29.8%	23.9%	23.7%	18.3%	18.7%	16.4%	14.6%
Moray	22.9%	23.5%	22.3%	19.5%	18.8%	17.2%	17.1%
North Ayrshire	41.4%	41.6%	41.2%	40.1%	38.0%	38.6%	40.7%
North Lanarkshire	50.2%	49.4%	40.0%	34.2%	33.2%	34.0%	33.8%
Orkney Islands	9.8%	9.5%	16.9%	18.0%	21.1%	23.3%	21.5%
Perth and Kinross	20.4%	18.2%	15.8%	14.6%	15.0%	15.1%	13.6%
Renfrewshire	41.5%	32.7%	32.2%	30.6%	29.9%	30.6%	34.0%
Scottish Borders	17.3%	18.4%	15.8%	16.6%	16.5%	14.3%	16.5%
Shetland Islands	7.6%	7.8%	7.6%	5.9%	6.0%	6.0%	6.7%
South Ayrshire	25.3%	26.7%	26.8%	24.6%	22.9%	28.0%	27.5%
South Lanarkshire	32.1%	31.7%	29.2%	28.8%	29.0%	26.3%	27.2%
Stirling	28.1%	22.2%	21.1%	19.1%	18.1%	18.2%	16.3%
West Dunbartonshire	41.7%	50.4%	39.5%	36.9%	37.5%	38.4%	38.5%
West Lothian	31.4%	30.0%	28.6%	26.9%	27.1%	26.0%	24.6%

Graph 1

Question reference: S2W-17926

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Colin Boyd on 15 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-16432 by Colin Boyd QC on 8 July 2005, how many of the individual charges with a guilty verdict resulted from a guilty plea and in how many cases the convictions were after trial, and how many “not proven” verdicts there were, in each year from 2002-03 to 2004-05.

Further to the answer to questionS2W-16432, between April 2002 and March 2005 there were 168 charges involving eithera statutory racial offence or a racial aggravation which resulted in a verdict of“not proven”. A breakdown of this figure into financial years, statutory chargesand racial aggravations is provided in the following table:

Number of individual chargesreported (as a statutory racial charge or racial aggravation) which resulted ina verdict of “not proven” by financial year.

	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	Total
Statutory Charge	20	16	18	54
Aggravation	46	45	23	114
Total	66	61	41	168

The Crown Office and ProcuratorFiscal Service’s national database does not record for the financial years 2002-03to 2004-05 whether a guilty verdict was as a result of a trial or a plea of guilty.A change has been made to the database to allow this information to be collectedand the first full financial year for which it will be available is 2005-06.

Question reference: S2W-17922

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by George Lyon on 15 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether, since the enactment of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, there have been any changes in its practices in respect of recording meetings, telephone calls and e-mail exchanges and, if so, what these changes were and whether there has been guidance issued to ministers and officials regarding these matters and, if so, whether that guidance will made public.

Guidance on recordkeeping isconstantly under review. Much of the Executive’s internal guidance has been updatedand adapted this year to reflect the transition from paper to electronic recordkeepingthat is currently underway. An updated Records Management Manual reflecting thesechanges should be issued around the end of 2005. The Records Management Manual ispublished on the Executive's website.

Training is available to ScottishExecutive staff covering a range of good practice issues, including on the styleand content of records of meetings. The Executive’s recommended best practice isthat minutes of meetings should record key discussion points and key decisions,and that they should be published where possible in line with the Executive’s generalcommitment to transparency and openness.

Question reference: S2W-17958

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 15 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive when the additional £4 million for drug action teams was allocated and how much each drug action team (a) bid for and (b) was allocated.

On 1 July 2005, the ScottishExecutive announced the following allocation by drug action team (DAT) area. Thesum of proposals received from each DAT is also detailed.

Drug Action Team	Sum of Proposals	Allocation
Aberdeen City	£844,532	£102,000
Aberdeenshire	£816,000	£68,000
Angus	£601,773	£77,584
Argyll and Clyde	£1,542,759	£238,000
Ayrshire and Arran	£966,123	£117,781
Borders	£315,702	£18,877
Dumfries and Galloway	£574,000	£210,800
Dundee City	£530,458	£251,038
East Lothian	£450,322	£105,654
Edinburgh City	£1,062,435	£470,564
Fife	£1,264,682	£549,212
Forth Valley	£1,616,160	£242,680
Greater Glasgow	£1,840,350	£904,200
Highland	£1,603,000	£54,400
Lanarkshire	£682,878	£68,000
Midlothian	£354,029	£20,225
Moray	£256,634	£68,000
Orkney	£124,754	£19,720
Perth and Kinross	£547,000	£77,584
Shetland	£60,000	£13,600
Western Isles	£71,600	£9,560
West Lothian	£596,740	£329,058

Following reassurances fromdrug action teams of expected impact, it is anticipated that the funding will beallocated to the relevant NHS board in August.

Question reference: S2W-17959

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 15 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the criteria were for allocation to the drug action teams of their share of the additional £4 million.

The additional drug treatmentand rehabilitation money was allocated to drug action teams (DAT) on the basis of the quantified impact of DAT proposals on the three identified national prioritiesnamely: increasing the number of clients entering treatment; reducing waiting timesand increasing the range of interventions, and on evidence of deliverability withinagreed timescales.

In terms of “evidence of deliverabilitywithin agreed timescales” we considered DAT performance to date and looked for clearlyplanned, well thought out proposals which included some indication of how the aimof the proposal would be achieved with timescales and a brief breakdown of cost.In particular we looked for proposals which complemented existing provision (i.e.filled a clearly identified and evidenced gap in existing services or provided additionalityto existing provision), proposals which demonstrated a strategic approach to developmentand proposals which had secured part-funding from elsewhere. The underlying principlesof Best Value and Integrated Care were also considered.

Question reference: S2W-18044

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 12 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-9961 by Malcolm Chisholm on 7 September 2004, how many patients had to travel outwith their own NHS board area for dialysis in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board area.

The information requested isnot collected centrally by the Scottish Renal Registry (SRR), which is thesource for national data on renal dialysis. The figures provided in the answerto S2W-9961 were collected specifically for that question. Iunderstand that the SRR Steering Group is now considering whether these datashould be collected routinely on a routine basis in future.

The SRR data suggest thatthe majority of patients who dialyse outwith their own NHS board area do sofrom choice.

Question reference: S2W-18043

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 12 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-15784 by Mr Andy Kerr on 3 May 2005, how many (a) adults and (b) children have been receiving home dialysis in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board area.

The number of patients in Scotland usinghome dialysis as treatment for established renal failure on 31 December foreach year since 1999 is set out in the table. Due to the small numbersinvolved, the figures have not been presented by age or NHS board area.

Year	No. of Patients
1999	54
2000	51
2001	46
2002	41
2003	43
2004	43*

Source:Scottish Renal Registry.

Note: * the Scottish Renal Registry continually refines the data it holds, and the figureof 44 given in the Answer to the previous Question reflected the data as theystood at the time it was answered.

Question reference: S2W-18047

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 12 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how may renal transplants there have been in each year since 1999.

The number of renaltransplants carried out in Scotland in each year since 1999 is set out in the table. Thefigures include patients who received a kidney only transplant, as well askidney/liver, kidney/pancreas and kidney/heart transplants.

Year	Cadaveric Donor	Living Donor	Total
1999	138	27	165
2000	138	41	179
2001	121	35	156
2002	114	31	145
2003	105	40	145
2004	94	30	124

Source; UKTransplant.

Question reference: S2W-18048

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 12 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients have been awaiting renal transplants in each year since 1999.

The number of patients in Scotland onthe active waiting list for a kidney transplant in each year since 1999 is setout in the table.

Year	No. of Patients
1999	491
2000	466
2001	455
2002	481
2003	433
2004	471

Source: UKTransplant.

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