Chamber and committees

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: S2W-09242

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 15 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-12626 by Susan Deacon on 2 February 2001, which NHS boards have followed the family friendly policy guidance launched on 26 January 2001 and how often that guidance is reviewed in response to changes in national trends.

The Family Friendly PartnershipInformation Network guideline includes around 24 individual policies which NHSboards are expected to meet or exceed over time. While all NHS boards are followingthe guidance, they have different perceived needs and are at different stages inpolicy development. The family friendly guidance is currently being reviewed totake account of good practice and legislation developed since the document was publishedand is expected to be consulted on next spring.

Question reference: S2W-09309

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 15 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many nursing vacancies there have been in each of the last five years and, of these, how many were vacant for more than three months, broken down by NHS board and expressed as a percentage of the nursing staff complement of each board.

Information on vacancies in NHSScotlandis published on the Scottish Health Statistics website under Workforce Statistics,at www.isdscotland.org/workforce.Information on vacancies for nursing staff is published in table 10 in Section ENursing and Midwifery Staff for each year since 2001. Figures are presentedas vacancy rates and whole time equivalent (WTE) number of vacancies. Whole timeequivalent adjusts headcount staff figures to take account of part-time staff. Latestavailable figures are at 31 March 2003. Figures at 31 March 2004are due to be published on 12 August 2004.

Information on vacancies for1999 and 2000 is unavailable by health board due to the data being incomplete. Howeveran estimated trend for Scotland can be found for these years within table 7 in SectionE (Nursing and Midwifery Staff) on the Workforce Statistics website.

Question reference: S2W-09299

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 15 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many criminal cases were called for trial in each of the last three years and how many cases were adjourned, broken down by sheriff court district.

The available information isgiven in the following tables:

Sheriff Court - Solemn Criminal Cases

Called for Trial	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Grampian Highland and Islands	204	210	263
Tayside, Central and Fife	400	470	467
Lothian and Borders	389	367	306
Glasgow and Strathkelvin	570	545	868
North Strathclyde	340	408	367
South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway	377	456	479
Totals	2,280	2,456	2,750

Adjourned	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Grampian Highland and Islands	67	53	100
Tayside, Central and Fife	80	115	123
Lothian and Borders	93	77	52
Glasgow and Strathkelvin	84	84	157
North Strathclyde	80	119	118
South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway	94	73	75
Totals	498	521	625

Sheriff Court - Summary Criminal Cases

Called for Trial	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Grampian Highland and Islands	4,539	5,073	5,332
Tayside, Central and Fife	9,036	10,234	9,838
Lothian and Borders	7,616	8,174	6,685
Glasgow and Strathkelvin	11,366	12,319	10,325
North Strathclyde	6,746	6,988	7,745
South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway	7,768	9,352	9,086
Totals	47,071	52,140	49,011

Adjourned	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Grampian Highland and Islands	744	809	883
Tayside, Central and Fife	1,794	1,993	1,874
Lothian and Borders	1,288	1,224	1,035
Glasgow and Strathkelvin	2,339	2,714	2,127
North Strathclyde	1,077	1,210	1,276
South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway	1,398	1,603	1,561
Totals	8,640	9,553	8,756

Question reference: S2W-09293

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 15 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many consultant posts are currently vacant and, of these, how many have been vacant for more than six months, broken down by NHS board and expressed as a percentage of the complement of each hospital.

Information on the number of consultant vacancies is collected via an annual medical and dental census. This is currently accurate to 30 September 2003.

Number of Consultant Vacancies (Total and those Over Six Months) by NHS Board (at 30 September 2003)

	Whole-Time Equivalent		Whole-Time Equivalent Vacancies as a Percentage of Establishment
Health Board	Total Vacancies	Over 6 Month Vacancies	Total Vacancy Rate	Over 6 Month Vacancy Rate
Scotland	235.4	122.0	6.7%	3.5%
Argyll and Clyde	14.9	9.3	à 6.5%	4.0%
Ayrshire and Arran	11.0	6.0	6.1%	3.3%
Borders	6.0	5.0	9.9%	8.3%
Dumfries and Galloway	9.5	8.5	10.9%	9.7%
Fife	20.4	10.5	12.6%	6.5%
Forth Valley	7.0	2.0	5.1%	1.4%
Grampian	8.5	2.5	2.4%	0.7%
Greater Glasgow	57.3	9.0	6.4%	1.0%
Highland	15.0	7.0	10.4%	4.8%
Lanarkshire	39.8	35.8	13.7%	12.3%
Lothian	26.0	16.0	4.5%	2.7%
Orkney	1.0	1.0	20.0%	20.0%
Shetland	1.9	0.9	21.0%	10.0%
Tayside	8.9	5.0	2.9%	1.6%
Western Isles	?4.0	?3.0	?25.0%	?18.8%
Common Service Agency	?2.5	?0.5	?7.7%	?1.5%
Golden Jubilee	?1.0	-	?25.0%	-
State Hospital	?0.7	-	?8.6%	-

Source: ISD Scotland

Note: Establishment is calculatedby adding the number of staff in post to the number of vacant posts

Further information on vacancyrates within specific organisations is available via the ISD website at www.isdscotland.org/workforce.

Question reference: S2W-09494

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Frank McAveety on 15 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how much each local authority contributed to its local area tourist board in each of the last five years.

The amount of direct funding that each local authority has provided to its local area tourist board in each of the last five years is shown in the following table:

Area Tourist Board	Local Authority	1999-00 (£)	2000-01 (£)	2001-02 (£)	2002-03 (£)	2003-04 (£)
Aberdeen and Grampian	Aberdeen City Council	150,000	150,000	150,000	205,000	200,000
	Aberdeenshire Council	300,000	300,000	300,000	314,500	306,000
	Moray Council	163,371	163,478	163,550	169,985	151,500
		613,371	613,478	613,550	689,485	657,500
Angus and Dundee	Dundee City Council	246,000	246,000	246,000	246,000	246,000
	Angus Council	158,000	158,000	158,000	158,000	158,000
		404,000	404,000	404,000	404,000	404,000
AILLST*	Argyle and Bute Council	188,000	171,750	192,000	190,000	170,000
	Clackmannanshire Council	28,807	28,807	29,530	30,270	30,880
	Falkirk Council	60,272	67,190	58,980	63,080	57,080
	Stirling Council	279,466	268,985	274,281	260,591	243,850
	West Dunbartonshire Council	54,955	57,001	60,103	71,657	66,150
		611,500	593,733	614,894	615,598	567,960
Ayrshire and Arran	East Ayrshire Council	79,150	79,150	79,150	79,150	79,150
	North Ayrshire Council	163,200	158,300	158,300	158,300	158,300
	South Ayrshire Council	145,500	141,150	142,500	192,500	142,500
		387,850	378,600	379,950	429,950	379,950
Dumfries and Galloway	Dumfries and Galloway Council	350,000	350,000	390,500	458,308	382,460
Edinburgh and Lothians	East Lothian Council	194,250	200,000	206,000	212,000	212,000
	City of Edinburgh Council	989,616	989,612	989,617	1,090,000	1,094,947
	West Lothian Council	66,400	67,887	62,900	63,000	63,000
	Midlothian Council	35,000	35,000	41,500	41,000	41,000
		1,285,266	1,292,499	1,300,017	1,406,000	1,410,947
GGCV**	Glasgow City Council	1,738,194	2,090,399	1,989,013	1,982,850	2,028,200
	East Dunbartonshire Council	0	0	40,000	40,000	40,000
	Inverclyde Council	107,816	4,334	0	0	0
	East Renfrewshire Council	0	0	0	0	0
	Renfrewshire Council	72,877	84,652	89,275	94,231	91,700
	South Lanarkshire Council	97,000	97,000	97,000	97,000	97,000
	North Lanarkshire Council	60,000	0	35,000	50,000	50,000
		2,075,887	2,276,385	2,250,288	2,264,081	2,306,900
Highlands of Scotland	Highland Council	507,375	487,523	497,723	507,218	555,675
Kingdom of Fife	Fife Council	450,000	450,000	483,777	462,836	450,000
Orkney	Orkney Islands Council	194,800	198,700	189,000	193,000	225,400
Perthshire	Perth and Kinross Council	489,248	498,070	507,465	506,100	468,500
Scottiah Borders	Scottish Borders Council	269,045	271,170	277,327	283,558	296.692
Shetland	Shetland Islands Council	175,714	155,227	196,880	150,000	201,800
Western Isles	Western Isles Council	84,050	84,050	104,050	104,000	104,000
	Total LA funding	7,898,106	8,053,435	8,208,971	8,474,134	8,411,784

Notes:

* Argyll, the Isles, Loch Lomond, Stirling and theTrossachs.

** Greater Glasgow and ClydeValley.

The figures for 2003-04 are stillsubject to external audit.

Question reference: S2W-09305

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 13 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many settlements in, or out of, court have been made, subsequent to legal action being taken against a hospital, in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S2W-09302

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 13 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many police officers are expected to retire in the next (a) three and (b) five years.

Question reference: S2W-09301

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 13 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many police officers there were per 1000 of the population in each of the last five years, broken down by police force area.

The information requested is shown in the following table.

Number of Police Officers Per 1,000 Population

Force	As at 31 March
Force	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Central Scotland Police	2.59	2.64	2.57	2.64	2.71
Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary	3.07	3.27	3.26	3.27	3.32
Fife Constabulary	2.40	2.43	2.61	2.66	2.78
Grampian Police	2.31	2.43	2.39	2.46	2.56
Lothian & Borders Police	2.02	3.00	3.05	3.06	3.09
Northern Constabulary	2.34	2.40	2.47	2.51	2.47
Strathclyde Police	3.13	3.23	3.32	3.39	3.40
Tayside Police	2.93	3.00	3.01	3.02	2.99
Scotland	2.87	2.96	3.01	3.01	3.09

Source: The figures were calculatedusing (i) police officer numbers from Quarterly Strength Returns made to the JusticeDepartment by each police force and (ii) population estimates as published by theGeneral Register Office for Scotland in June each year.

Question reference: S2W-09297

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 12 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many drug offences were committed in each of the last five years, broken down by sheriff court district.

The information available centrally on drug offences recorded by the police relates to unitary authorities. Information for each of the last five years is given in the following table:

Drug Crimes Recorded by the Police by Council Area, Scotland, 1999 to 2003

	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Aberdeen City	1,617	1,334	1,550	2,071	1,689
Aberdeenshire	717	724	787	757	741
Angus	458	306	401	489	520
Argyll and Bute	372	450	389	512	584
Clackmannanshire	232	234	295	351	336
Dumfries and Galloway	700	448	649	775	919
Dundee City	738	707	904	1,167	1,307
East Ayrshire	773	787	785	950	910
East Dunbartonshire	284	318	465	460	479
East Lothian	208	340	217	507	371
East Renfrewshire	312	428	342	296	316
Edinburgh, City of	2,927	2,858	3,118	3,863	3,008
Eilean Siar (W.Isles)	83	47	112	94	93
Falkirk	680	624	844	831	882
Fife	1,508	1,248	1,645	1,944	1,804
Glasgow City	7,791	8,845	9,388	9,330	10,100
Highland	1,296	926	1,370	1,434	1,605
Inverclyde	769	901	995	1,145	1,040
Midlothian	326	402	404	444	378
Moray	288	261	261	324	355
North Ayrshire	721	845	872	1,054	1,041
North Lanarkshire	2,175	1,817	2,197	3,105	2,960
Orkney Islands	58	29	27	41	64
Perth and Kinross	784	611	745	959	1,071
Renfrewshire	1,198	1,073	1,224	1,212	1,205
Scottish Borders	719	733	661	647	618
Shetland Islands	95	82	98	87	80
South Ayrshire	752	537	896	992	722
South Lanarkshire	1,482	1,512	1,864	1,733	2,397
Stirling	385	427	838	735	727
West Dunbartonshire	515	712	666	941	1,114
West Lothian	907	865	1,166	1,129	1,029
All Scotland	31,870	31,431	36,175	40,379	40,465

Question reference: S2W-09491

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 12 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-16169 by Mr Jim Wallace on 14 June 2002, how many crimes and offences involving firearms were recorded in each of the last five years.

	Financial Year
1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03^P
Crimes and offences involving firearms	1,066	982	970	1,000	979