Chamber and committees

Evaluation has shown that in Greater Glasgow the introduction of NHS 24 has been associated with a reduction in GP home visits from 15.5% to 12.3% of calls to out-of-hours services, and in Aberdeen has been associated with a reduction in GP home visits from 21.8% to 14.5% of calls to out-of-hours services.

NHS Borders did not apply for capital funding to support the development of premises for the provision of NHS dental facilities.

The Executive is currently running an awareness campaign on Drug Assisted Sexual Assault through its Know the Score communications strategy. The campaign is supported by the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland.

This campaign – Who’s Keeping An Eye On Your Drink? – was prompted by increased police and public concern about the problem of drug assisted sexual assault. The first phase of the campaign ran over Christmas and New Year. Posters were displayed in licensed premises across Scotland and leaflets were distributed in town and city centre pubs and clubs.

An educational cd:rom, video and drink cover/straw holder have now been developed to take forward the campaign and these will be made available shortly through the Know the Score information line 0800 587 5879 and website (www.knowthescore.info). Posters and leaflets also remain available.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-8036 answered on 18 May 2004.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

The available information is given in the table. The data for 2003 and 2004 have not yet been published; 2003 data are expected to be published towards the end of 2004.

Persons Proceeded Against in Scottish Courts where the Main Offence was a Litter Offence^1,2, by Local Authority, 2002

Local Authority	2002
City of Edinburgh	1
Dundee City	8
East Ayrshire	1
East Dunbartonshire	2
Glasgow City	2
Highland	1
Inverclyde	3
North Ayrshire	1
North Lanarkshire	1
Renfrewshire	1
Scottish Borders	1
South Ayrshire	1
South Lanarkshire	7
Stirling	2
Total	31

Notes:

1. Offences categorised as litter offences under the Scottish Executive Justice Department’s classification of crimes and offences.

2. Figures may be underestimates due to time taken to record details of some court proceedings in SCRO system.

The following table shows the ratio of whole-time equivalent (WTE) administrative staff to qualified WTE Nursing and Midwifery staff at 30 September 1994-2003 and at 31 March 2004.

The ratio is based on a comparison over the period from September 1994 to March 2004, between the number of WTE administration staff, which increased from 17,758 to 21,541, to the number of qualified WTE nursing and midwifery staff, which increased from 35,270 to 39,037.

 New figures published by Information Services Division on 12 August show that numbers of nursing and midwifery staff are at their highest level since reporting began ten years ago. The number of people training as nurses and midwives has also increased to an all time high of 8,986, an increase of three per cent over the last year and more than 35 per cent more than in 1997. Incentives such as more flexible working and the Return to Practice initiative, which has already attracted over 400 nurses to the profession, have combined to make these professions even more attractive and this is reflected in these new figures.

Administrative staff are defined as comprising all administrative clerical staff in Whitley Grades 1-10 (for example ward receptionists, ambulancecontrol staff, medical secretaries, clinical support staff, payroll staff and medical records staff). These staff are vital to the successful delivery of modern healthcare in a range of settings by multidisciplinary teams. They ensure that clinical and nursing staff alike are free to spend as much time as possible on what they are trained to deliver - direct patient care.

Ratio of Administrative staff ¹ to Qualified Nurses²

	Whole Time Equivalent at 30 September	At 31 March
1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Scotland3	0.50	0.50	0.47	0.47	0.47	0.47	0.48	0.50	0.53	0.55	0.55
Argyll and Clyde	0.54	0.50	0.48	0.46	0.47	0.46	0.48	0.50	0.52	0.52	0.51
Ayrshire and Arran	0.42	0.43	0.40	0.39	0.40	0.40	0.42	0.43	0.46	0.49	0.51
Borders	0.43	0.44	0.41	0.39	0.38	0.42	0.41	0.42	0.46	0.45	0.44
Dumfries and Galloway	0.42	0.44	0.40	0.41	0.40	0.40	0.42	0.44	0.45	0.45	0.47
Fife	0.43	0.41	0.40	0.41	0.41	0.39	0.39	0.41	0.43	0.45	0.45
Forth Valley	0.38	0.40	0.38	0.37	0.37	0.36	0.39	0.41	0.46	0.47	0.47
Grampian	0.47	0.45	0.41	0.40	0.39	0.38	0.40	0.40	0.41	0.41	0.41
Greater Glasgow	0.52	0.52	0.51	0.49	0.49	0.48	0.47	0.50	0.52	0.53	0.53
Highland	0.40	0.41	0.39	0.39	0.40	0.42	0.42	0.42	0.44	0.47	0.48
Lanarkshire	0.39	0.40	0.40	0.41	0.41	0.40	0.41	0.43	0.46	0.48	0.48
Lothian	0.49	0.49	0.47	0.46	0.46	0.44	0.44	0.44	0.44	0.47	0.47
Orkney	0.19	0.20	0.22	0.24	0.26	0.29	0.30	0.38	0.42	0.44	0.45
Shetland	0.32	0.35	0.39	0.41	0.41	0.43	0.42	0.44	0.52	0.50	0.54
Tayside	0.40	0.41	0.38	0.39	0.40	0.42	0.43	0.45	0.46	0.48	0.49
Western Isles	0.30	0.28	0.31	0.35	0.34	0.36	0.38	0.38	0.40	0.41	0.42

Notes:

1 All staff in Administration and Clerical (A and C) grades at 30 September each year except for 2004 which is at 31 March.

2 Excludes agency, bank and unqualified nursing and midwifery staff.

3 Includes Special Health Boards.

Part of the increase since 1997 can be attributed to a reclassification of some staff on “senior managers” grades to “administrative and clerical” grades.

Trends in “senior managers” and “administrative and clerical” grades are shown on table G1 on the Scottish Health Statistics web page at http://www.isdscotland.org/.

The following table shows the ratio of whole-time equivalent (WTE) administrative staff to WTE NHS Hospital and Community (HCHS) doctors at 30 September 1994-2003.

The ratio is based on a comparison over the period from September 1994 to September 2003 between the number of WTE administration staff (which increased from 17,758 to 20,960), to the number of WTE doctors (which increased from 7,105 in 1994 to 9,268 in 2003).

Administrative staff are defined as comprising all administrative clerical staff in Whitley Grades 1-10 (for example ward receptionists, ambulancecontrol staff, medical secretaries, clinical support staff, payroll staff and medical records staff). These staff are vital to the successful delivery of modern healthcare in a range of settings by multidisciplinary teams. They ensure that clinical and nursing staff alike are free to spend as much time as possible on what they are trained to deliver - direct patient care.

Ratio of Administrative Staff¹ to Doctors²

Whole-Time Equivalent at 30 September

	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Scotland 3	2.50	2.41	2.21	2.08	2.08	2.07	2.11	2.16	2.17	2.26
Argyll and Clyde	3.26	2.91	2.70	2.46	2.51	2.45	2.48	2.67	2.67	2.61
Ayrshire and Arran	2.40	2.48	2.16	2.11	2.14	2.17	2.23	2.38	2.41	2.62
Borders	3.03	3.16	2.97	2.51	2.55	2.64	2.56	2.47	2.47	2.40
Dumfries and Galloway	2.78	2.87	2.69	2.51	2.51	2.37	2.50	2.68	2.49	2.57
Fife	3.08	2.90	2.63	2.43	2.38	2.39	2.34	2.38	2.51	2.55
Forth Valley	2.64	2.57	2.36	2.08	2.03	2.03	2.18	2.22	2.21	2.24
Grampian	2.30	2.17	1.90	1.66	1.57	1.59	1.62	1.52	1.43	1.49
Greater Glasgow	1.92	1.89	1.74	1.67	1.64	1.58	1.60	1.65	1.65	1.69
Highland	2.49	2.52	2.23	2.09	2.13	2.13	2.20	2.26	2.10	2.54
Lanarkshire	2.25	2.37	2.33	2.24	2.13	2.04	2.01	2.12	2.10	2.16
Lothian	2.01	1.90	1.74	1.65	1.67	1.65	1.66	1.65	1.63	1.67
Orkney	3.46	3.99	3.34	3.47	3.52	2.52	3.06	4.09	3.36	3.37
Shetland	3.72	3.29	4.96	5.40	3.76	4.83	3.76	3.94	4.38	3.94
Tayside	2.09	2.10	1.91	1.92	1.95	1.83	1.91	1.93	1.84	1.92
Western Isles	3.03	2.78	2.73	3.12	2.91	3.08	3.23	3.01	3.37	3.49

Source: ISD Scotland

Notes:

1 At 30 September each year - all staff in administration and clerical (A and C) grades.

2 Doctors includes all hospital and community medical and dental staff (including consultants, doctors in training etc)

3 Includes Special Health Boards.

Part of the increase since 1997 can be attributed to a reclassification of some staff on “senior managers” grades to “administrative and clerical” grades.

Trends in “senior managers” and “administrative and clerical” grades are show on table G1 on the Scottish Health Statistics web page at http://www.isdscotland.org/.

The following table shows the number of whole-time equivalent (WTE) administrative and clerical staff, expressed as a ratio of the average number of NHS hospital staffed beds. The figures for each NHS board area include staff employed in community health settings. The Scotland figures also include staff employed by Special Health Boards.

The ratio is based on a comparison over the period from September 1994 to March 2004, between the number of whole time equivalent administrative and clerical staff, which increased from 17,758 to 21,541 to the average number of available staffed beds in Scotland, which decreased from 42,340 to 28,879.

The decrease in the number of beds over this period reflects the shift towards providing patient care within the community. New treatments and procedures are allowing patients, who may have previously been treated in the acute sector, to be treated as day cases, outpatients or within primary care settings.

Administrative staff are defined as comprising all administrative clerical staff in Whitley Grades 1-10 (for example ward receptionists, ambulancecontrol staff, medical secretaries, clinical support staff, payroll staff and medical records staff). These staff are vital to the successful delivery of modern healthcare in a range of settings by multidisciplinary teams. They ensure that clinical and nursing staff alike are free to spend as much time as possible on what they are trained to deliver - direct patient care.

Ratio of WTE Administrative Staff¹ per Average Staffed Bed²

	At 30th September	At 31 March
	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Scotland3	0.42	0.43	0.43	0.45	0.47	0.50	0.54	0.59	0.66	0.72	0.75
Argyll and Clyde	0.39	0.36	0.35	0.34	0.37	0.38	0.40	0.44	0.49	0.53	0.58
Ayrshire and Arran	0.33	0.37	0.37	0.38	0.41	0.41	0.44	0.48	0.53	0.59	0.63
Borders	0.38	0.40	0.39	0.38	0.39	0.47	0.48	0.48	0.56	0.55	0.55
Dumfries and Galloway	0.37	0.42	0.42	0.42	0.40	0.45	0.56	0.62	0.67	0.65	0.71
Fife	0.38	0.38	0.38	0.39	0.41	0.44	0.45	0.51	0.56	0.60	0.60
Forth Valley	0.28	0.30	0.30	0.31	0.33	0.34	0.40	0.44	0.51	0.59	0.60
Grampian	0.36	0.36	0.34	0.35	0.35	0.38	0.41	0.45	0.46	0.49	0.49
Greater Glasgow	0.44	0.46	0.48	0.49	0.51	0.53	0.55	0.62	0.70	0.73	0.76
Highland	0.36	0.39	0.40	0.40	0.43	0.45	0.49	0.51	0.58	0.64	0.67
Lanarkshire	0.31	0.34	0.35	0.37	0.38	0.39	0.41	0.48	0.54	0.57	0.58
Lothian	0.41	0.43	0.44	0.47	0.50	0.52	0.55	0.55	0.56	0.63	0.65
Orkney	0.21	0.23	0.24	0.25	0.30	0.39	0.46	0.59	0.66	0.70	0.72
Shetland	0.41	0.44	0.46	0.56	0.65	0.65	0.66	0.73	0.84	0.85	0.89
Tayside	0.37	0.39	0.38	0.42	0.45	0.47	0.51	0.59	0.61	0.69	0.71
Western Isles	0.29	0.27	0.31	0.31	0.32	0.36	0.38	0.44	0.48	0.49	0.50

Notes:

1 At 30 September each year except 2004 which is at 31 March – all staff in Administration and Clerical (A and C) grades.

2 Average staffed beds during year 30 Sept 1994-2003 and ending 31 March 2004.

3 Includes Special Health Boards.

Part of the increase since 1997 can be attributed to a reclassification of some staff on “senior managers” grades to “administrative and clerical” grades.

Trends in “senior managers” and “administrative and clerical” grades are show on table G1 on the Scottish Health Statistics web page at http://www.isdscotland.org/.

The Commission proposal to amend the welfare conditions of animals during transport did not receive sufficient EU-wide support and was not adopted, therefore the proposal to ban the commercial transportation of puppies and kittens under eight weeks of age unless accompanied by their mother has not been implemented. The current legislation remains The Welfare of Animals Transport Order 1997 which prohibits the commercial transportation of new-born animalswhose navel has not completely healed.

2003-04 reports have been collated by Keep Scotland Beautiful and have been issued to local authorities following completion of the first year operation of LEAMS. However, it has been decided by Audit Scotland that as the first year was run essentially as a pilot, the final overall marking for each local authority taken from their first year reports will not be formally published as Performance Indicators. It will be up to each individual authority to decide if they make their own report public.

The first performance indicators to be published by Audit Scotland will be the  2004-05 figures and these should be available in autumn 2005.