Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-02016

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 23 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of households were living in property that was below tolerable standard in each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.

The Scottish House ConditionSurvey, which is the only consistent national source of information on housesbelow tolerable standard, estimates that there were 20,000 households living inhouses below the standard in 2002. This is 0.9% of all households in Scotland. Becauseof the small number of houses identified in the survey as below the tolerablestandard the survey cannot provide estimates for individual councils.Councils provide the Executive with annual estimates of the number of below tolerable standarddwellings in the council area. Research conducted on behalf of the Executiveinto the basis for local and national estimates – Research into the basis forlocal and national estimates of the number of BTS houses in Scotland by DTZPieda Consulting in association with Dr J I Ansell - concluded that there weresignificant variations between councils in the way in which they interpret thestandard when compiling their estimates, and that there are also weaknesses inthe estimates stemming from the use ofunsatisfactory baseline data and imperfect methods used to update estimates.This report has been published by Scottish Executive Central Research Unit in2000 and is available on the Scottish Executive website http://www.scotland.gov.uk/cru/resfinds/drf90-00.asp.

The following table is basedon councils’ estimates of the total number of occupied dwellings belowtolerable standard for each of the past 5 years.

Table 1 - Occupied BTSproperties as a percentage of households

	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Scotland	2%	2%	2%	2%	2%
Aberdeen City	1%	1%	1%	0%	0%
Aberdeenshire	Not Known		1%	2%	2%
Angus	1%	1%	1%	1%	0%
Argyll and Bute	15%	15%	15%	7%	7%
Clackmannanshire	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%
Dumfries and Galloway	1%	1%	0%	0%	0%
Dundee City	1%	0%	0%	0%	0%
East Ayrshire	1%	1%	1%	1%	0%
East Dunbartonshire	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%
East Lothian	3%	2%	2%	2%	2%
East Renfrewshire	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Edinburgh	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Eilean Siar¹	25%	18%
Falkirk¹	0%	0%
Fife	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Glasgow¹	8%
Highland	4%	4%	4%	4%	4%
Inverclyde	4%	3%	3%	2%	2%
Midlothian	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Moray	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%
North Ayrshire	4%	4%	4%	4%	4%
North Lanarkshire	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Orkney	11%	9%	5%	5%	3%
Perth and Kinross	3%	3%	3%	2%	2%
Renfrewshire	1%	1%	1%	1%	0%
Scottish Borders	7%	6%	6%	6%	5%
Shetland	4%	4%	4%	4%	4%
South Ayrshire	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%
South Lanarkshire	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%
Stirling	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%
West Dunbartonshire	1%	1%	0%	0%	0%
West Lothian	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%

Source: Scottish ExecutiveHousing Statistics Imp2 returns, GROS mid-year Household Estimates.

Note:

1. Data not provided.

Question reference: S3W-02020

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 23 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many of its staff have been (a) seconded from, (b) transferred from, (c) seconded to and (d) transferred to other UK departments in each year since 1999.

Temporary movement betweenUK Government departments is defined as a loan rather than a secondment. Thenumbers loaned from and to and transferred from and to the Scottish Executiveto other UK Government Departments are contained in the following table.Additionally, under an arrangement with the Home Office the Scottish Executivehave, as at 1 July 2007, 381 staff on loan to the Criminal InjuriesCompensation Authority in Glasgow.

Year	Seconded (loan) from UK Government Departments	Transferred from UK Government Departments	Seconded(loan) to UK Government Departments	Transferred to UK Government Departments
1999		59	1	14
2000		22		14
2001	1	45		11
2002		43	1	24
2003	1	34	2	23
2004	11	25	13	13
2005	6	30	12	13
2006	11	30	17	18
2007	11	28	17	11

Question reference: S3W-01921

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases of tuberculosis there were in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.

The information requested isshown in the following table:

NHS Board	2002	2003	2004	2005*	2006*
Argyll and Clyde	30	34	17	30	9
Ayrshire and Arran	11	10	6	6	12
Fife	10	17	14	14	13
Forth Valley	4	12	5	4	4
Grampian	33	18	22	23	37
Greater Glasgow	195	168	174	162	37
Greater Glasgow and Clyde**	0	0	0	0	134
Highland	5	7	8	11	9
Lanarkshire	35	29	35	24	52
Lothian	53	53	84	75	56
Orkney	0	0	0	0	0
Tayside	11	11	16	7	11
All other NHS boards†	6	9	11	8	11
Total	393	368	392	364	385

Notes:

*Data for2005 and 2006 are provisional.

**GreaterGlasgow and Argyll and Clyde NHS Boards merged to become Greater Glasgow andClyde on 1 April 2006.

†To avoiddeductive disclosure of cases from small numbers, data from NHS Boards with fewor no cases were aggregated.

Question reference: S3W-01513

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 June 2007
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 20 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the number of people (a) entitled to and (b) who claimed council tax benefit and what amount was paid in each year since 1999, also broken down by local authority area.

(a) This information is not heldcentrally.

(b) This information is in thefollowing table:

Council Tax Benefit Expenditureand Recipients by Local Authority

	1999-2000		2000-01		2001-02		2002-03
	Expenditure (£ Million)¹	Recipients²	Expenditure (£ Million)¹	Recipients²	Expenditure (£ Million) ¹	Recipients²	Expenditure (£ Million)¹	Recipients²
Aberdeen	8.5	16,390	8.8	16,890	9.1	16,630	9.7	16,580
Aberdeenshire	4.8	10,600	5.3	9,960	6.1	11,260	6.6	11,600
Angus	3.7	8,450	3.9	8,730	4.2	8,470	4.4	7,540
Argyll-Bute	4.6	7,800	5.0	8,020	5.3	7,960	5.2	7,780
Clackmannanshire	3.0	6,000	3.1	5,570	3.2	5,480	3.2	5,310
Eilean Siar	1.1	3,270	1.4	3,170	1.6	2,890	1.5	2,970
Dumfries and Galloway	6.4	11,840	6.8	12,580	7.0	12,570	7.1	12,400
Dundee	13.1	23,780	12.8	22,620	12.7	21,610	12.9	21,090
East Ayrshire	7.2	14,050	7.8	13,370	8.1	13,780	8.1	13,640
East Dunbartonshire	3.7	6,380	3.5	6,250	3.7	6,040	3.8	5,720
East Lothian	4.2	7,770	4.5	7,610	4.4	6,750	4.6	7,190
East Renfrewshire	2.6	5,330	2.7	4,990	3.0	5,010	3.0	4,790
Edinburgh	23.3	42,820	22.8	40,390	23.5	39,420	23.9	38,510
Falkirk	6.2	16,090	6.3	15,040	6.7	14,460	7.1	14,290
Fife	15.9	35,980	16.1	33,790	17.1	33,310	17.8	32,670
Glasgow	79.7	118,170	79.1	111,720	76.6	106,650	75.5	108,370
Highland	9.2	17,870	9.5	18,060	9.8	17,610	10.1	16,950
Inverclyde	5.9	11,250	6.0	10,020	6.8	10,800	7.0	10,900
Midlothian	4.3	7,100	4.2	6,980	4.2	6,630	4.2	6,440
Moray	2.8	6,890	2.9	6,690	2.9	5,630	3.0	5,500
North Ayrshire	8.0	15,100	8.3	15,490	8.9	16,170	9.0	15,090
North Lanarkshire	22.9	44,620	23.4	42,760	22.6	40,220	22.9	39,940
Orkney	0.4	1,270	0.5	1,230	0.5	1,250	0.6	1,240
Perth and Kinross	4.3	8,320	4.4	8,880	4.8	8,530	5.1	8,490
Renfrewshire	10.1	19,920	10.6	20,380	11.4	20,060	12.4	19,410
Scottish Borders	3.2	8,410	3.4	8,220	3.7	8,110	4.1	8,240
Shetland	0.4	1,140	0.5	1,200	0.5	1,110	0.5	1,120
South Ayrshire	5.7	10,700	5.9	10,960	6.1	10,650	6.5	10,500
South Lanarkshire	19.7	38,070	19.5	36,550	19.7	36,350	20.0	36,040
Stirling	3.4	7,210	3.6	6,840	3.8	6,600	3.9	6,490
West Dunbartonshire	10.2	14,670	9.5	14,670	9.7	14,520	9.8	14,150
West Lothian	8.0	16,440	7.8	15,520	8.0	14,410	8.2	14,730
Total Scotland	306.6	563,700	310.0	545,150	315.8	530,910	321.6	525,660

	2003-04		2004-05		2005-06
	Expenditure (£ Million)¹	Recipients²	Expenditure (£ Million)¹	Recipients²	Expenditure (£ Million)¹	Recipients²
Aberdeen	10.5	16,960	11.8	17,530	12.0	16,900
Aberdeenshire	7.2	11,720	8.3	12,740	8.9	12,940
Angus	4.9	8,510	5.6	9,260	5.9	9,480
Argyll-Bute	5.3	7,390	5.5	7,830	5.7	7,600
Clackmannanshire	3.2	5,230	3.4	5,470	3.5	5,250
Eilean Siar	1.6	2,740	1.7	3,110	1.8	3,100
Dumfries and Galloway	7.5	12,650	8.2	13,240	8.6	13,450
Dundee	12.9	20,470	13.7	20,930	13.8	20,310
East Ayrshire	8.6	14,600	9.1	15,090	9.6	15,220
East Dunbartonshire	3.9	5,650	4.6	5,980	4.7	6,000
East Lothian	4.8	7,060	5.1	7,370	5.3	7,380
East Renfrewshire	3.3	4,660	3.6	4,910	3.7	4,900
Edinburgh	25.5	37,690	28.0	40,030	29.5	41,010
Falkirk	7.4	14,280	8.0	14,610	8.4	14,490
Fife	18.7	33,620	19.7	32,720	20.5	32,190
Glasgow	78.8	109,130	78.4	109,640	78.4	102,620
Highland	10.7	16,690	11.8	17,810	12.4	17,760
Inverclyde	7.4	11,100	8.0	11,580	8.1	11,800
Midlothian	4.4	6,420	4.9	6,590	5.0	6,410
Moray	3.1	5,610	3.5	5,990	3.8	6,050
North Ayrshire	10.1	15,460	10.8	16,860	11.4	17,210
North Lanarkshire	22.9	36,270	24.1	40,890	24.8	41,040
Orkney	0.7	1,230	0.8	1,320	0.8	1,320
Perth and Kinross	5.5	8,840	6.3	9,390	6.8	9,470
Renfrewshire	12.6	17,970	13.8	20,230	14.3	20,260
Scottish Borders	4.6	8,200	5.2	8,870	5.5	9,010
Shetland	0.6	1,140	0.7	1,280	0.8	1,370
South Ayrshire	7.0	10,670	7.5	11,040	7.9	11,330
South Lanarkshire	20.6	35,870	21.5	35,280	21.6	34,150
Stirling	4.2	6,470	4.5	6,450	4.7	6,510
West Dunbartonshire	9.9	14,210	10.0	14,390	10.1	14,100
West Lothian	8.6	14,780	9.2	15,420	9.5	15,330
Total Scotland	337.2	523,280	357.5	543,850	367.8	535,920

Notes:

1:Source - Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) Council Tax Benefit Expenditure1999-2006.

2: Source - DWP Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit ManagementInformation System Quarterly 100% caseload stock-count taken in November 1999to 2006.

(a)The data refers to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple.

(b)The caseloads have been rounded to the nearest 10.

(c)Figures for any non-responding authorities have been estimated.

(d) Council Tax Benefittotals exclude any Second Adult Rebate cases.

Question reference: S3W-01911

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average body mass index was in each NHS board area in each year since 2004.

The information requested isnot available for each year since 2004.

The Scottish Health Survey gives average Body MassIndex (BMI) for children and adults. The most recent data available is for the year2003. NHS board level results are only available for adult BMI data.

NHS Board Level: Mean BMI byGender and NHS Board (ADULTS Aged 16+ Years)

	Mean BMI			Sample Base (Unweighted)
	Males	Females	All Adults	All Adults
Argyll and Clyde	27.4	27.2	27.3	379
Ayrshire and Arran	27.4	27.2	27.3	484
Borders	27.2	26.9	27.1	285
Dumfries and Galloway	27.7	27.6	27.6	464
Fife	26.9	27.3	27.1	452
Forth Valley	26.4	27.3	26.8	330
Grampian	26.7	27.2	26.9	615
Greater Glasgow	26.8	26.6	26.7	1027
Highland	27.2	27.6	27.4	610
Lanarkshire	27.5	27.4	27.5	593
Lothian	27.2	26.8	27.0	860
Orkney, Shetland, Western Isles	[27.8]	[27.6]	27.7	195
Tayside	26.4	27.8	27.2	406
Scotland	27.0	27.2	27.1	6700

Source: Scottish Health Survey2003.

Notes:

1. Orkney, Shetland and the WesternIsles have been combined due to the small sample sizes within each of these threeNHS boards.

2. Estimates based on an effectivesample size below 100 have been presented in square brackets to draw users’ attentionto the small sample size.

3. A separate set of tables presentsthe standard errors, design factors and 95% confidence intervals for a selectionof these health board estimates in order to help users assess the precision of theestimates:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/11/25145024/50264.

Scotland level: Mean BMI by age and sex (children aged 2-15 years):

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/11/25145024/50271.

(See table 5.4 on page 123.)

Scotland level: Mean BMI by age and sex (adults aged 16+ years):

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/11/25145024/50261.

(See table 5.5 on page 175.)

Note: The relationship betweenBMI and definition of overweight and obesity is straightforward for adults, butmore complex for children. See background notes for further information.

Question reference: S3W-01920

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 19 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting times have been for cancer patients from (a) diagnosis and (b) urgent GP referral to start of treatment in each of the last 12 quarters.

(a) Information on waiting timesfrom diagnosis to treatment is only collected centrally for patients with breastcancer. The data presented in the following table therefore refer to breast cancerpatients only.

Number of Breast Cancer Patients with the Median Waitbetween Diagnosis and First Treatment by Period of Diagnosis

Period of Diagnosis	Number of Patients with Recorded Treatment Date	Median wait Between Diagnosis and First Treatment
1 January to 31 March 2004	866	18
1 April to 30 June 2004	868	20
1 July to 30 September 2004	808	20
1 October to 31 December 2004	938	21
1 January to 31 March 2005	871	20
1 April to 30 June 2005	959	20
1 July to 30 September 2005	899	20
1 October to 31 December 2005	934	21
1 January to 31 March 2006	966	20
1 April to 30 June 2006	925	20
1 July to 30 September 2006	937	21
1 October to 31 December 2006	954	20

Source: Information ServicesDivision, NHS National Services Scotland.

Exclusion categories are: diedprior to receiving treatment, refused treatment, patient induced non-clinical delay,co-morbidities, clinical reasons and initially referred to another non-cancer speciality.

(b) Information on the waitingtimes of cancer patients between referral and first treatment are collected centrally.These are collated to report performance against the target that “the maximum waitfrom urgent referral to treatment for all cancers will be two months”. Quarterlyperformance information against that target, broken down by NHS board and cancertype is available from the Scottish Executive website at www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/health/cancer/waiting-times.

It should be noted that cancerwaiting times data are subject to continuous development and quality improvement.

These improvements need to betaken in to account when making comparisons on quarter on quarter performance.

Question reference: S3W-01487

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 25 June 2007
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 19 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to consult the families of disabled children and other representative groups on the use of any funding for disabled children allocated under the Barnett formula.

All funding eligiblefor allocation to Scottish budgets by way of budget consequentials is held centrally.It is then allocated by the Scottish Government in light of all competing pressuresand the Government’s priorities.

The Scottish Governmentis fully committed to consulting families with disabled children, as well as representativeorganisations, before taking decisions on issues which affect them.

Question reference: S3W-01913

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 19 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) average and (b) longest wait for urgent breast cancer referrals were in each year since 2003, broken down by NHS hospital.

Information on median and longestwaits for urgent breast cancer referrals for the years and in the format requested,is available from in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre under:

Table a: Number of urgently referred breast cancer patients withthe median and maximum wait between referral and diagnosis by year and hospital/institutionof diagnosis (2004)

Source: Information ServicesDivision, NHS National Services Scotland, Bib. number 43179.

Table b: Number of urgently referredbreast cancer patients with the median and maximum wait between referral and diagnosisby year and hospital/institution of diagnosis (2005), Bib. number: 43180.

Table c: Number of urgently referredbreast cancer patients with the median and maximum wait between referral and diagnosisby year and hospital/institution of diagnosis (2006), Bib. number: 43181.

Question reference: S3W-01912

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the rates of (a) overweight and (b) obesity have been among (i) children under 11 years, (ii) children aged from 11 to 18 and (iii) adults in each year since 2003.

The information requested isavailable from several sources, but not necessarily for all of the specific agegroups or years requested.

The Scottish Health Survey gives estimates of theprevalence of obesity and overweight in children and adults. The most recent data available is for the year 2003.

Prevalence of obesity and overweightby age and sex (children aged 2 to 15 years):

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/11/25145024/50271(See table 5.5 on page 123.)

Prevalence of obesity and overweightby age and sex (adults aged 16+ years):

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/11/25145024/50261(See table 5.5 on page 175.)In addition, all NHS boards in Scotland provide a Child HealthSurveillance Programme where children are offered routine reviews at various stagesof their life. The majority of Boards record these reviews using the electronicchild health systems, CHSP-Pre-School and CHSP-School. The latest available informationfrom these systems on levels of obesity and overweight derived from height and weightmeasurements collected at routine health reviews is published for NHS boards participatingin CHSP-School and CHSP-Pre-School at http://www.isdscotland.org/child_obesity.(Click on “obesity statistics” to access a list of available tables and charts.)

Question reference: S3W-01919

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 19 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many isolation beds there have been in each NHS board area in each year since 1999.

Information on isolation facilities in NHS boards in Scotland was collated by Health Protection Scotland during February 2004 as part of a one off exercise to support Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) preparedness planning. Since that time no further national census or audit has been undertaken.

The information obtained during the February 2004 audit is shown in the following table.

Availability of Isolation Facilities Within Acute Hospitals in NHSScotland (2004)

Total Number of Isolation Rooms

NHS Board/Area
Argyll and Clyde	237
Ayrshire and Arran	204
Borders	65
Dumfries and Galloway	142
Fife	187
Forth Valley	150
Grampian	282
Greater Glasgow	586
Highland	137
Lanarkshire	323
Lothian	508
Orkney	13
Shetland	22
Tayside	245
Western Isles	66
Special Board (Golden Jubilee National Hospital)	175
Total	3,342

Note: Figures for Argyll and Clyde are shown in the table as the audit took place prior to the dissolution of NHS Argyll and Clyde.

The following is the original answer (published on 19 July 2007); see below:

The specific information requested is not available centrally.

Chamber and committees