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-08971

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 24 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review the NHS continuing care criteria introduced in 1996 and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Question reference: S2W-08970

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Euan Robson on 24 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what consideration has been given during the review of the children's hearings system to how the provisions within the Additional Support for Learning (Scotland) Act 2004 relate to children's panels.

Question reference: S2W-08972

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 11 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 24 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the NHS continuing care criteria are standardised across Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-08835

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 23 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many civil servants there are, broken down by local authority area in which they are located.

The full-time equivalent number of permanent staff employed in the core departments of the Scottish Executive, executive agencies and associated departments, broken down by local authority area in which they are located, is provided in the following table. Information on the location of staff employed by other government departments is not held centrally.

Number¹ of Civil Servants (Full-Time Equivalents) in the Scottish Executive Core Departments, Agencies and Associated Departments, Figures as at 1 June 2004²

Scotland Total	15,289
Aberdeen City	588
Aberdeenshire	339
Angus	99
Argyll and Bute	72
City of Edinburgh	7,497
Clackmannanshire	412
Dumfries and Galloway	252
Dundee City	154
East Ayrshire	69
East Dunbartonshire	175
East Lothian	34
Eilean Siar	30
Falkirk	584
Fife	121
Glasgow City	1,821
Highland	353
Inverclyde	310
Moray	38
North Lanarkshire	458
Orkney	35
Perth and Kinross	625
Renfrewshire	131
Scottish Borders	291
Shetland Islands	30
South Ayrshire	114
South Lanarkshire	191
Stirling	361
West Dunbartonshire	45
West Lothian	62

Notes:

1. Full-time equivalents, rounded to the nearest whole number.

2. Figures for Historic Scotland, Registers of Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service are at April 2004.

Question reference: S2W-08940

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 June 2004

The available information on drug offences which were recorded by the police is given in the following table.

Breakdown of Recorded Drugs Offences, 1999-2000 to 2003-2004^P

	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04^P
Illegal importation of drugs	7	1	4	3	4
Production, manufacture or cultivation of drugs	106	131	144	205	249
Supply, possession with intent to supply etc. of drugs	8,032	9,024	10,130	9,940	9,284
Possession of drugs	21,776	22,470	26,188	30,510	32,463
Drugs, money laundering related offences	1	0	0	0	0
Drugs, other offences	452	455	284	280	275
Total	30,374	32,081	36,750	40,938	42,275

(P) Please note that data for 2003-04 is provisional.

Question reference: S2W-08941

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average time period was between plea and summary trial date in each sheriff court district in (a) 1999-2000, (b) 2000-01, (c) 2001-02, (d) 2002-03 and (e) 2003-04.

The available information is given in the following table:

Court	1999-2000 Average	2000-01 Average	2001-02 Average	2002-03 Average	2003-04 Average
Aberdeen	10	12	13	14	14
Airdrie	11	15	15	10	13
Alloa	13	15	11	18	16
Arbroath	12	11	12	12	12
Ayr	10	14	13	13	12
Banff	10	13	13	14	12
Campbeltown	10	10	10	10	11
Cupar	12	14	12	10	10
Dingwall	10	11	9	11	13
Dornoch	12	12	10	11	11
Dumbarton	12	12	11	11	9
Dumfries	12	12	11	10	11
Dundee	16	16	13	12	13
Dunfermline	13	14	13	10	10
Dunoon	12	12	12	11	11
Duns	9	n/a	10	***	***
Edinburgh	13	15	16	16	16
Elgin	12	12	13	14	16
Falkirk	14	14	13	12	10
Forfar	10	10	10	11	11
Fort William	11	11	10	8	9
Glasgow	10	12	12	12	11
Greenock	8	11	13	12	10
Haddington	10	11	13	12	10
Hamilton	10	16	15	11	16
Inverness	10	12	14	13	16
Jedburgh	11	12	12	10	10
Kilmarnock	8	11	11	12	11
Kirkcaldy	15	16	14	14	14
Kirkcudbright	9	9	8	10	7
Kirkwall	7	9	8	10	9
Lanark	9	10	10	10	12
Lerwick	9	8	9	10	9
Linlithgow	17	14	13	9	9
Lochmaddy	8	9	8	***	***
Oban	10	11	9	11	10
Paisley	8	13	11	10	14
Peebles	9	10	12	9	15
Perth	19	21	14	13	16
Peterhead	12	13	13	11	10
Portree	8	9	11	11	9
Rothesay	7	9	8	7	7
Selkirk	10	12	11	10	11
Stirling	15	13	12	12	12
Stonehaven	10	10	9	10	10
Stornoway	10	9	11	10	10
Stranraer	8	9	9	11	10
Tain	10	10	11	10	10
Wick	9	9	9	10	10
National Average	11	12	11	11	11

Note:

***Combined figures for Jedburgh/Duns and Portree Lochmaddy for 2002-03 and 2003-04.

Question reference: S2W-08946

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 23 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many GPs there were per head of population in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.

The table provides the data, based upon the number of GP principal equivalents(in post) in GMS and PMS practices.

General Medical Practitioners1 per 10,000 Head of Population (at 1 October)

Health Board	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Scotland	7.3	7.3	7.4	7.5	7.5
Argyll and Clyde	7.4	7.6	7.7	7.6	7.6
Ayrshire and Arran	7.1	7.1	7.1	7.1	7.3
Borders	8.2	8.1	8.0	8.1	8.3
Dumfries and Galloway	8.7	8.9	9.0	8.8	8.8
Fife	7.0	7.1	7.0	7.1	7.1
Forth Valley	7.5	7.5	7.3	7.4	7.5
Grampian	6.8	6.9	7.2	7.3	7.3
Greater Glasgow	7.2	7.2	7.3	7.3	7.2
Highland	9.8	9.8	10.2	10.3	10.9
Lanarkshire	6.3	6.2	6.3	6.3	6.4
Lothian	7.2	7.1	7.3	7.4	7.4
Orkney	12.9	13.0	14.0	14.1	14.5
Shetland	8.0	8.6	9.1	8.7	8.7
Tayside	7.2	7.3	7.4	7.5	7.7
Western Isles	10.7	10.5	10.2	10.3	10.3

Sources: General Medical Practitioner Database, ISD Scotland.

General Register Office for Scotland.

Note:

1. Comprises unrestricted principals and restricted principals in post, in general medical services practices and their equivalents in personal medical services practices.

Question reference: S2W-08944

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 23 June 2004

Question reference: S2W-08943

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 June 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many police on average are on patrol at any one time.

The deployment of police officers in any force area is a matter for the Chief Constable of the force concerned and information of this nature is not held centrally. However, the number of officers available for deployment has been increasing. As at March 2003, the overall number was at a record level, and our Partnership Agreement contains a commitment not only to increase the numbers on operational duty in every Scottish force but to also to improve on the level of overall police numbers.

Question reference: S2W-08945

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 23 June 2004

Information on leavers is not collected centrally. However, annual censuses of the nursing and midwifery workforce at 30 September can be used to establish annual flows of staff out of NHSScotland.

The table shows the number of qualified nurses and midwives who left between the September 2001 and September 2002 censuses and the September 2002 and September 2003 censuses. Information on the September 2004 census will not be available until 2005. Figures are also shown relative to the staff in post at the start of the period.

Number of Qualified Nurse and Midwife Leavers Between Each Census

	Leavers	Leavers as % of Staff in Post at Start of Period
Leavers between September 2001 and September 2002	2,853	6.7
Leavers between September 2002 and September 2003	2,863	6.6

Source: National Manpower Statistics from Payroll.