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: S3W-01635

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 June 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether additional funding will be made available to local authorities for enforcement purposes when the legal age for purchase of cigarettes is raised from 16 to 18 and, if so, how much will be made available.

Question reference: S3W-01634

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 June 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what additional funding will be put in place for smoking cessation services when the legal age for purchase of cigarettes is raised from 16 to 18 and whether this funding will be ring-fenced for underage smokers.

Question reference: S3W-01633

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 June 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether funding allocated for smoking cessation services is ring-fenced for underage smokers.

Question reference: S3W-01632

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 June 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding has been allocated for smoking cessation services in the current financial year, broken down by NHS board area.

The allocation or smoking cessationservices in 2007-08 were as follows:

	£000
Ayrshire and Arran	542
Borders	170
Dumfries and Galloway	231
Fife	462
Forth Valley	373
Grampian	597
Greater Glasgow	2,569
Highland	455
Lanarkshire	1,147
Lothian	1,311
Orkney	53
Shetland	59
Tayside	949
Western Isles	82
Total	9,000

In addition £2 million has beenallocated in 2007-08 to the keep well projects in Greater Glasgow, Lanarkshire,Lothian and Tayside health boards bringing the total available for smoking cessationsupport to £11 million in 2007-08.

Question reference: S3W-01550

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 June 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children under the age of 16 were recorded by the relevant health and social service authorities as having (a) attempted and (b) committed suicide in each year since 1999 and what proportion of those lived in the top 10 most deprived areas, as defined by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, in each year since 1999.

(a) The information requestedin part (a) is not held centrally. In children it is difficult to establish trueintent. Therefore it may be incorrect to attempt to derive numbers of “attemptedsuicide”.

We have however provided datafor hospital discharges for children under 16, which have been coded as either deliberateself-harm or undetermined intent. These are shown in the following tables.

In-Patient and Day Case HospitalDischarges with a Diagnosis of Deliberate Self-Harm - Children Aged Under 16

	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
No. of patients¹	538	612	631	661	637	529	480
Number in most deprived decile in Scotland²	116	108	114	97	98	75	65
Proportion in most deprived decile	21.6	17.6	18.1	14.7	15.4	14.2	13.5

In-Patient andDay Case Hospital Discharges with a Diagnosis of UndeterminedIntent - Children Aged Under 16

	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
No. of patients¹	48	29	19	18	16	20	14
Number in most deprived decile in Scotland²	12	7	9	10	3	2	0
Proportion in most deprived decile	25.0	24.1	47.4	55.6	18.8	10.0	0.0

Source: SMR01.

Notes:

1. Hospital discharges -children aged 0 to 15.

2. Based on the ScottishIndex of Multiple Deprivation.

Up to six diagnosis (1 main,5 secondary) are recorded on SMR01 returns. All six diagnoses have been used toselect discharges for deliberate self harm and undetermined intent.

The following codes wereused from the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and OtherHealth Related Problems, tenth revision (ICD10):

Self Harm: X60-X84

Undetermined Intent: Y10-Y34

(b) In presenting statisticson suicides it is conventional to combine deaths classified as intentional self-harm(suicides) with those classified as events of undetermined intent. This is becausethe majority of the latter are likely to have been suicides. However, this assumptionis known to be less valid for children, particularly those aged under 10. For thisreason the following table shows the two categories separately and restricts theinformation on events of undetermined intent to deaths aged 10-15.

	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Deaths aged under 16 from intentional self harm	4	8	6	3	4	3	4
Deaths aged 10-15 classified as events of undetermined intent	3	4	0	2	1	0	2

Note: 1. 1999: ICD9codes E950, E980. 2000-2005: ICD10 codes X60-X84, Y10-Y34, Y87.0, Y87.2

Deaths Caused by IntentionalSelf-Harm and Events of Undetermined Intent¹Persons Resident inDatazones in the most Deprived Decile According to SIMD 2006, Selected Ages,Scotland, 1999-2005

	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Deaths aged under 16 from intentional self-harm	3	2	0	1	1	1	1
Deaths aged 10-15 classified as events of undetermined intent	0	0	0	0	0	0	1

Note: 1. 1999: ICD9codes E950, E980. 2000-2005: ICD10 codes X60-X84, Y10-Y34, Y87.0, Y87.2

Question reference: S3W-01549

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 June 2007
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 19 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of people who have committed suicide or died as a result of self-inflicted wounds or injuries were recorded by their GP as having a known mental health issue prior to their death, in each year since 1999 broken down by NHS board area.

Question reference: S3W-01546

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 June 2007
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 19 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people over the age of 60 have died as a result of suicide or by self-inflicted wounds in each year since 1999, also expressed as a percentage of the total number of suicides and broken down by (a) gender and (b) geographical area.

In presenting statistics on suicidesit is conventional to combine deaths classified as intentional self-harm (suicides)with those classified as events of undetermined intent. This is because the majorityof the latter are likely to have been suicides. The following tables provide informationon this basis.

Deaths Caused by IntentionalSelf Harm and Events of Undetermined Intent¹Persons Aged 60 yearsand Over Scotland 1999-2005

(a) by Gender	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Persons
Number of deaths	162	146	148	157	138	138	140
Percentage of all ages	18.5%	16.6%	16.7%	17.5%	17.4%	16.5%	18.3%
Males
Number of deaths	114	107	94	101	96	90	96
Percentage of all ages	17.2%	15.9%	14.6%	14.9%	16.6%	14.8%	17.5%
Females
Number of deaths	48	39	54	56	42	48	44
Percentage of all ages	22.7%	19.1%	22.4%	25.1%	19.4%	21.2%	20.6%

Note: 1. 1999: ICD9codes E950, E980. 2000-2005: ICD10 codes X60-X84, Y10-Y34, Y87.0, Y87.2.

Deaths Caused by IntentionalSelf Harm and Events of Undetermined Intent¹Persons Aged 60 Yearsand Over Scotland 1999-2005

(b) by NHS Board area	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Number of deaths
Scotland	162	146	148	157	138	138	140
Ayrshire and Arran	16	7	11	9	8	11	12
Borders	2	4	1	5	7	3	3
Dumfries and Galloway	8	6	5	9	4	2	8
Fife	9	6	11	15	8	6	11
Forth Valley	8	4	8	2	5	2	4
Grampian	19	19	10	20	17	16	18
Greater Glasgow and Clyde²	43	42	37	46	33	36	28
Highland²	14	10	17	12	12	11	13
Lanarkshire	13	14	15	12	14	11	17
Lothian	14	15	21	23	15	24	15
Orkney	1	3	1	1	1	0	2
Shetland	0	1	0	1	1	1	0
Tayside	14	14	9	2	13	14	8
Western Isles	1	1	2	0	0	1	1
Percentage of All Ages
Scotland	18.5%	16.6%	16.7%	17.5%	17.4%	16.5%	18.3%
Ayrshire and Arran	21.3%	12.3%	12.6%	14.3%	18.2%	22.0%	22.2%
Borders	10.5%	23.5%	6.3%	23.8%	35.0%	18.8%	37.5%
Dumfries and Galloway	22.2%	22.2%	26.3%	32.1%	19.0%	9.1%	28.6%
Fife	20.9%	10.9%	22.0%	22.1%	20.0%	12.0%	20.0%
Forth Valley	15.4%	14.3%	16.3%	4.3%	13.9%	4.8%	15.4%
Grampian	21.1%	22.6%	12.8%	23.8%	21.0%	15.8%	24.0%
Greater Glasgow and Clyde²	18.9%	16.5%	16.4%	19.4%	15.5%	17.1%	14.0%
Highland²	22.6%	14.9%	25.8%	20.7%	20.3%	13.4%	26.5%
Lanarkshire	16.5%	17.7%	18.8%	12.0%	16.5%	13.4%	20.7%
Lothian	12.4%	12.3%	15.7%	17.8%	14.6%	21.8%	12.9%
Orkney	33.3%	75.0%	100.0%	33.3%	16.7%	0.0%	50.0%
Shetland	0.0%	20.0%	0.0%	16.7%	14.3%	25.0%	0.0%
Tayside	20.9%	20.3%	13.0%	3.7%	17.8%	23.0%	14.0%
Western Isles	20.0%	11.1%	25.0%	0.0%	0.0%	33.3%	14.3%

Notes:

1.1999: ICD9 codes E950, E980.2000-2005: ICD10 codes X60-X84, Y10-Y34, Y87.0, Y87.2.

2. Incorporating part of theformer NHS Argyll and Clyde area.

Question reference: S3W-01548

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 June 2007
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 19 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average suicide rate was per capita in the top 10 council wards with the lowest levels of deprivation, as defined by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S3W-01486

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, in light of the announcement by HM Treasury of £340 million support for disabled children in England from 2008 to 2011, whether disabled children in Scotland will benefit from an equivalent sum allocated under the Barnett formula.

Consequential fundingis agreed biannually and is dependent on confirmation from HM Treasury that anyadditional funding announced by departments is new money and has not been reallocatedfrom existing resources. Where consequential funding is received, it is held centrally.Funding is then allocated by the Scottish Government in light of all competing pressuresand the Government’s priorities.

At the present timethere has been no indication of the status of this announcement on support for disabledchildren.

Question reference: S3W-01908

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 18 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients had their operations cancelled (a) twice, (b) three times, (c) four times and (d) more than four times in each year since 1997, broken down by NHS board.

The specific information requestedis not available centrally.

Limited information is availablecentrally on the number of in-patient/day case episodes where operations/procedureswere not carried out following admission.

A table of information, and appropriatenotes on interpretation, are given in a document Table 1: Cancelled operationsby Health Board of treatment a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 43167).