Questions and answers

Question reference: S2O-05082

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 27 January 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether an announcement will be made in February 2005 on the funding of the Borders Railway.

Question reference: S2W-13018

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 December 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 26 January 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many will be retained as volunteers following implementation of the Protection of Children (Scotland) Act 2003, in light of possible delays in processing Disclosure Scotland forms.

Over the past five months, all correctly completed applications have been issued in under 14 working days from the time of receipt at Disclosure Scotland.

At 11 January 2005, the Central Registered Body Scotland (CRBS) (which handles applications from the voluntary sector in Scotland) was dealing with applications received on 5 January 2005.

Disclosure Scotland, CRBS and the Scottish Executive will closely monitor the impact of the Protection of Children (Scotland) Act 2003 on application volume to ensure that applications continue to be processed timeously.

Question reference: S2W-13019

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 December 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 26 January 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding was allocated to Disclosure Scotland in each year since its establishment and what targets Disclosure Scotland has in respect of staff recruitment in 2005.

Disclosure Scotland is financed by the share of income Scottish ministers receive from the sale of certificates and through additional support from ministers as necessary. Disclosure Scotland began operations in April 2002, and the income from the sale of certificates and support from ministers is set out below. The support from ministers includes expenditure to cover the cost of free checks for volunteers in Scotland.

Year	Gross Support from Ministers	Income from Certificates	Net Support from Ministers
2002‑03	£3,554,080	£802,000	£2,752,080
2003‑04	£3,647,918	£1,779,662	£1,868,256
2004‑05 (projected)	£3,615,000	£2,106,000	£1,509,000

The staffing complement at Disclosure Scotland is kept under review to ensure that there are sufficient resources to respond to demand. This is informed by daily measurement of processing capacity and applications received. In the event that the volume of applications shows signs of outstripping processing capacity, immediate action will be taken to address this including recruiting additional staff if necessary.

Question reference: S2W-13324

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 25 January 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive which divisions within Lothian and Borders Police have implemented an overtime ban in the last 12 months and what plans there are for extending, or implementing, a ban on overtime for the next 12 months.

Question reference: S2W-13410

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 24 January 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-12428 by Rhona Brankin on 24 December 2004 and given that the Scottish Borders accounts for 2% of the Scottish population, why 22% of all NHS dental patients deregistered in 2002-03 and 37% deregistered in 2003-04 were from the Scottish Borders; what inquiries it has made to determine the reasons for these percentages and what additional information it has gathered as a result; what measures it has taken to address this situation; what interim guidance it has issued to deregistered patients in respect of obtaining NHS dental treatment; whether travel costs will be available for patients who are required to seek treatment furth of the Scottish Borders, and what its statutory duties are in respect of the accessible provision of NHS dental services.

Responsibility for the overall provision of NHS dental services in the area rests with NHS Borders. NHS Borders has advised that the increase in the number of de-registrations in 2002-03 and 2003-04 was due to dental practices in Duns, Eyemouth, Peebles and Hawick reducing their commitment to NHS general dental services.

NHS Borders has established an advice line, staffed by a dental nurse who is able to offer advice on pain relief, advice on access issues and make arrangements for unregistered patients who require urgent treatment.

The Executive continues to support NHS Borders by approving salaried general dental practitioner posts where required. Approval was given to NHS Borders in August 2004 to appoint a further two whole-time equivalent salaried dentists for Hawick and in January 2005 for a senior salaried dentist with a special interest in oral surgery. I understand these posts are currently vacant but that one of the Hawick posts will be filled in March 2005.

NHS Borders has not issued any formal interim guidance to deregistered patients in respect of obtaining NHS dental treatment. However, general dental practitioners, GP out-of-hours, NHS24 and hospitals are aware of the Borders advice line and are able to direct patients to this.

NHS board can apply to Scottish ministers for approval of schemes to assist eligible patients with travel expenses to access primary care NHS dental treatment. The funding for such schemes comes from within the board’s unified budget.

It is a duty of Scottish ministers to secure the provision of general dental services in accordance with Part II of the NHS (Scotland) act 1978. It is a duty, under section 25 of Part II of the NHS (Scotland) Act 1978, of every health board, in accordance with regulations, to make as respect their area arrangements with dental practitioners under which any person for whom a dental practitioner undertakes in accordance with the arrangements to provide dental treatment and appliances shall receive such treatment and appliances.

Question reference: S2W-13409

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Rhona Brankin on 24 January 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-12428 by Rhona Brankin on 24 December 2004, how many dental practices in the Scottish Borders provided NHS treatment in (a) 1999-2000, (b) 2000-01, (c) 2001-02, (d) 2002-03 and (e) 2003-04, expressed also as a percentage of all practices for each year.

The number of dental practices in the Scottish Borders providing NHS treatment at 31 March in the relevant years is shown in the table.

It is not possible to express this number as a percentage of all practices in the Scottish Borders, as information on non-NHS dental practices is not held centrally.

Number of General Dental Practices in NHS Borders Providing NHS Treatment¹; at 31 March

2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
17	17	19	19	20

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

Note: 1. Dental practices with at least one dentist within the practice providing NHS general dental services.

Question reference: S2W-13464

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 21 January 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to its news release of 8 September 2004 on the Scottish Adult Literacy and Numeracy Strategy, what the breakdown of the £51 million invested over a five-year period is by (a) local authority and (b) year.

Of the £51 million allocated, £41.7 million is being routed through local authorities to Community Learning and Development Partnerships. The attached table shows the allocation of funding to local authorities for 2001-06. The balance of funding was allocated to learning connections within Communities Scotland to support the partnerships.

Allocation of Resources to Local Authorities for Adult Literacy and Numeracy (2001-06)

	2001-02 (£)	2002-03 (£)	2003-04 (£)	2004-05	2005-06	Total
Aberdeen City	78,305	156,611	301,621	316,122	357,000	1,209,659
Aberdeenshire	80,237	160,474	309,062	323,920	366,000	1,239,693
Angus	44,585	89,171	171,736	179,993	203,000	688,485
Argyll and Bute	39,482	78,964	152,078	159,390	180,000	609,914
Clackmannanshire	28,178	56,355	108,536	113,754	129,000	435,823
Dumfries and Galloway	74,235	148,470	285,943	299,690	339,000	1,147,338
Dundee City	95,732	191,465	368,747	386,475	437,000	1,479,419
East Ayrshire	95,530	191,059	367,966	385,657	436,000	1,476,212
East Dunbartonshire	28,447	56,894	109,574	114,842	130,000	439,757
East Lothian	29,122	58,244	112,173	117,566	133,000	450,105
East Renfrewshire	27,356	54,713	105,372	110,438	125,000	422,879
Edinburgh	255,368	510,735	983,638	1,030,928	1,166,000	3,946,669
Falkirk	61,672	123,344	237,551	248,971	281,000	952,538
Fife	148,822	297,644	573,240	600,799	679,000	2,299,505
Glasgow City	546,117	1,092,234	2,103,561	2,204,694	2,493,000	8,439,606
Highland	85,557	171,115	329,555	345,399	390,000	1,321,626
Inverclyde	65,822	131,645	253,538	265,727	300,000	1,016,732
Midlothian	34,566	69,132	133,142	139,543	158,000	534,383
Moray	35,239	70,479	135,737	142,263	161,000	544,718
North Ayrshire	84,625	169,250	325,963	341,634	386,000	1,307,472
North Lanarkshire	148,187	296,375	570,796	598,238	676,000	2,289,596
Perth and Kinross	46,485	92,969	179,052	187,660	212,000	718,166
Renfrewshire	99,797	199,593	384,402	402,883	455,000	1,541,675
Scottish Borders	41,615	83,230	160,294	168,001	190,000	643,140
South Ayrshire	57,280	114,560	220,635	231,242	261,000	884,717
South Lanarkshire	133,142	266,284	512,844	537,500	608,000	2,057,770
Stirling	40,305	80,610	155,248	162,712	184,000	622,875
West Dunbartonshire	68,838	137,676	265,154	277,902	314,000	1,063,570
West Lothian	51,640	103,280	198,909	208,472	236,000	798,301
Western Isles	27,973	55,947	107,749	112,929	128,000	432,598
Orkney Islands	20,746	41,492	79,910	83,752	95,000	320,900
Shetland Islands	24,994	49,989	96,275	100,904	114,000	386,162
Totals*	2,700,000	5,400,000	10,400,000	10,900,000	12,322,000	41,722,000

Note: *Rounded to nearest £1,000.

Question reference: S2W-13460

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 21 January 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what resources (a) were allocated to improve adult literacy and numeracy in 2004 and (b) have been allocated to improve adult literacy and numeracy in (i) 2005 and (ii) 2006.

Question reference: S2W-13461

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 21 January 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S1W-20130, S1W-25599 and S2O-493 by Ms Wendy Alexander, Iain Gray and Mr Jim Wallace on 4 December 2001, 17 May 2002 and 25 September 2003 respectively, what the reasons were for it not meeting its national adult literacy and numeracy target of enabling 80,000 people to be helped in 2004.

The main reasons for not achieving the 80,000 new adult literacy and numeracy learners during the period 2001 to 2004 are as follows:

Community Learning and Development partnerships found it difficult to engage new learners.

Delay in establishing the “development engine” within Communities Scotland.

A shortage of suitably trained ALN tutors.

Campaign to engage employers not yet in place.

The above issues are all currently being addressed.

Question reference: S2W-13462

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2005
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 21 January 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what targets it set in respect of raising levels of adult literacy and numeracy for (a) 2000, (b) 2001, (c) 2002, (d) 2003 and (e) 2004, broken down by local authority area and what the actual performance was.

A target of helping 80,000 new adult literacy and numeracy learners in Scotland for the period 2001-04 was recommended in the Adult Literacy and Numeracy in Scotland report, published in July 2001. The target number was not broken down by local authorities.

The following table gives a breakdown of new learners helped in each local authority area during the period 2001- 2004 as shown in their end year reports.

Local Authority	Actual	Actual	Actual	New Deal/ Job Centre+	Total
	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2001-04	2001-04
Aberdeen City	1,737	2,526	551	0	4,814
Aberdeenshire	984	168	595	11	1,758
Angus	1,173	618	821	0	2,612
Argyll and Bute	484	312	208	23	1,027
Borders	98	117	356	0	571
Clackmannanshire	118	174	268	120	680
Dumfries and Galloway	357	360	623	59	1,399
Dundee	621	795	913	77	2,406
East Ayrshire	85	462	262	7	816
East Dunbartonshire	193	209	247	0	649
East Lothian	136	529	780	0	1,445
East Renfrewshire	87	14	49	0	150
Edinburgh	2,762	2,189	4,815	0	9,766
Falkirk	331	820	470	0	1,621
Fife	1,624	2,344	2,988	0	6,956
Glasgow	3,125	4,486	5,752	30	13,393
Highland	466	395	691	0	1,552
Inverclyde	438	383	422	0	1,243
Midlothian	0	407	491	0	898
Moray	180	383	136	0	699
North Ayrshire	431	647	933	0	2,011
North Lanarkshire	366	1,125	872	5	2,368
Orkney	71	53	58	90	272
Perth and Kinross	572	163	293	0	1,028
Renfrewshire	422	584	839	365	2,210
Shetland	82	148	166	14	410
South Ayrshire	318	947	1,219	0	2,484
South Lanarkshire	387	746	628	0	1,761
Stirling	398	420	256	286	1,360
West Dunbartonshire	240	359	575	0	1,174
West Lothian	328	388	400	0	1,116
Western Isles	79	141	181	1	402
Totals	18,693	23,412	27,858	1,088	71,051

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