Questions and answers

Question reference: S2W-18134

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 29 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients have waited more than (a) three, (b) six, (c) nine, (d) 12, (e) 15, (f) 18 and (g) 24 months for (i) heart operations, (ii) cancer treatment and (iii) hip replacements in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board.

The majority of patients who require in-patient and day case treatment, are treated quickly. Nearly 55% of patients treated in NHSScotland hospitals receive immediate treatment and never join a waiting list. Of those who do wait 41% are admitted within one month and almost 70% within three months.

For those who wait longer, the current national maximum waiting time is nine months. This guaranteed waiting time will be reduced to six months from the end of 2005 and to 18 weeks from the end of 2007. On 30 June 2005, no NHSScotland patient with a guarantee had waited more than nine months for in-patient and day case treatment.

Retrospective analyses of the time between the decision to treat and receipt of treatment are derived from information on patients treated during the previous year. This includes cases where patients will have had an Availability Status Code (ASC) applied, for example because they were medically unfit or asked for their admission to be deferred for personal reasons. So the analyses include patients who did not have a guarantee of treatment within nine months. The information requested on heart operations and hip replacements is given, on this basis, in the table entitled Number of Patients by Length of Wait, a copy of which is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 37249).

Fair To All, Personal To Each, set out our commitment to abolish Availability Status Codes and introduce a new system of defining and measuring waiting times, which will be clearer, more consistent and help to put patients at the centre of their care, by the end of 2007.

Waiting times for cancer treatments equivalent to the waiting times for the other specified procedures are not available from routinely collected hospital data as complete information is not captured on all treatment types, such as hormonal therapy and chemotherapy and not all cancer treatments require a hospital admission.

Information on cancer waiting times is currently gathered through cancer audit systems in order to measure the target that “by December 2005 the maximum wait from urgent referral to treatment for all cancers will be two months” from Cancer in Scotland: Action for Change, published in 2001. Information showing performance against the target by NHS board of diagnosis is currently available for lung, breast, colorectal and ovarian cancers and is available from the following Scottish Executive website http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/health/cancer/cancerwaits.

Performance for other tumour types and updates to the information will be published by the Scottish Executive as they become available.

Question reference: S2W-18261

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 August 2005
Current Status: Answered by George Lyon on 29 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total population was in each local authority area in each year since 1980.

Local authority areas were established on 1 April 1996. Figures for 1981-2004 are available from the General Register Office for Scotland’s website for these administrative areas. These are consistent with revisions made following the 2001 Census. Estimates for 1980 are only available for the old district areas.

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/library/poptest/revised-mid-year-est.html;

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/library/poptest/01-populations/index.html;

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/library/poptest/02-mid-year-tables/index.html;

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/library/poptest/03mid-year-estimates-tables/index.html, and

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/library/recently-published-population-estimates/index.html.

Question reference: S2W-18239

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 26 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-13347 by Mr Tom McCabe on 13 June 2005, on how many occasions in 2004-05 departmental special advisers have travelled (a) in the United Kingdom and (b) abroad in an official capacity; what places were visited, and how much each visit cost.

Irefer the member to my corrected reply to question S2W-13347 published on 13 June 2005 whichincluded the information requested in the period between 1 April 2004 and 31 December 2004. Between1 January 2005 and 31 March 2005 Scottish Executive specialadvisers made 28 journeys within the UK and 3 journeys abroad in an official capacity. Thisis shown in the following table.

Period	Place Visited In Uk	Cost (£)	Place Visited Abroad	Cost (£)
10.10.2004	East Kilbride	£44.80
10.10.04 – 16.10.04			Beijing	£244.65
12.10.2004	Hamilton	£43.60
15.10.2004	Motherwell and Glasgow	£91.30
22.11.2004	London	£44.50
06.12.2004	London	£70.30
10.12.2004			Brussels	£22.20
12.12.04 – 13.12.04	Aberdeen	£52.20
13.12.2004	London	£39.10
20.12.2004	Inverness	£23.50
20.12.2004	Inverness	£74.51
21.12.04 – 22.12.04	Kyle of Lochalsh	£53.50
05.01.05 – 06.01.05	London	£443.20
13.01.05 – 14.01.05	Inverness	£180.00
23.01.05 – 28.01.05			Beijing	£5,077.28
31.01.2005	Perth	£24.60
31.01.2005	Inverness	£112.30
01.02.2005	London	£333.00
01.02.05 – 02.02.05	London	£485.20
14.02.2005	Glasgow	£6.00
16.02.2005	Dundee	£54.80
22.02.2005	London	£307.30
28.02.05 – 01.03.05	London	£318.80
03.03.05 – 05.03.05	St Andrews	£203.80
11.03.2005	London	£283.00
14.03.2005	Galashiels	£32.40
20.03.05 – 21.03.05	Lerwick	£423.30
20.03.05 – 21.03.05	Shetland	£375.00
21.03.2005	London	£285.70
21.03.2005	London	£383.00
25.03.05 – 30.03.05	London	£533.87

The information aboveincludes details of air, rail, hired cars, miscellaneous travel, subsistenceand motor mileage costs claimed by special advisers in the period 1 January 2005 to 31 March 2005. Furtherinformation about additional costs attributable to some visits at the latterend of 2004 have been included in the table above as these costs were not knownat the time of the reply to question S2W-13347. The table above excludes specialadvisers travel related costs incurred within Edinburgh or Glasgow if they werepermanently based there.

Question reference: S2W-18277

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 August 2005
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 26 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what level of European structural funds has been allocated to each (a) local enterprise company, (b) local authority and (c) area tourist board in each year since 1999, expressed also as a percentage of the economic development budget of each body.

Current programmes for Europeanstructural funds in Scotland run from 2000-06.

The information available belowis the amount in pound sterling allocated under European structural funds toprojects where (a) the local enterprise company (b) local authority or (c) areatourist board was the lead sponsor for the project.

This does not reflect thetotal amount actually spent on projects by these bodies. Structural Fundsrequire projects to be match funded by other eligible expenditure. As such,these organisations may also be providing a contribution to other projects, asmatch funders, and figures cannot completely reflect the total spend by eachbody on projects part supported by structural funds. The figures also do nottake into account projects where more than one local authority was the leadsponsor.

The information is onlyavailable for structural funds by calendar year, whereas the economic budgets,where there is an available budget identified as such, are only available by financialyear. As a result it is not possible to provide direct comparisons to relevanteconomic development budgets as requested.

The following tables, however,outline the level of directly allocated funding made available yearly through structuralfunds and, where available, the economic budgets of the bodies asked for, byfinancial year.

European Social Fund (ESF)and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the URBAN II CommunityInitiative

(a) Local EnterpriseCompanies (Scottish Enterprise)

(£)	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005 (to date)
Scottish Enterprise (main)	110,420	1,255,860	27,510, 839	14,202,349	1,760,130
Ayrshire	3,804,968	607,447	598,239	878,900	999,852
Borders	4,278,546	801,096	725,506	1,633,689	12,690
Dumfries and Galloway	2,245,776	0	970,055	640,000	0
Dunbartonshire	221,118	78,097	258,038	118,586	582,880
Edinburgh and Lothians	1,326,533	1,138,296	1,007,673	482,669	0
Fife	3,236,679	2,534,615	8,490,673	3,267,575	2,088,126
Forth Valley	2,354,804	387,762	92,922	111,337	0
Glasgow	7,719,243	6,474,247	4,727,777	6,695,641	557,089
Grampian	0	0	581,546	22,225	0
Lanarkshire	6,498,811	3,212,553	7,231,316	1,881,111	1,525,000
Renfrewshire	211,159	1,067,143	1,713,702	942,719	0
Tayside	1,314,997	1,904,922	411,482	1,781,300	0

(a) Local EnterpriseCompanies (Highlands and Islands Enterprise)

(£)	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005 (to date)
Highlands & Islands (main)	19,458,233	7,465,260	2,773,303	10,328,638	12,961,462	357,775
Argyll & the Islands	157,415	2,033,784	312,255	0	0	0
Caithness and Sutherland	119,319	137,138	1,880	635,045	0	0
Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey	205,803	65,000	0	0	0	0
Lochaber	0	33,575	61,500	26,500	419,079	33,500
Moray	1,159,504	0	0	895,200	0	0
Orkney	90,507	0	0	0	0	0
Ross and Cromarty	266,675	267,300	210,000	0	0	0
Shetland	86,424	79,215	0	654,564	15,000
Skye and Lochalsh	110,551	87,332	29,354	482,674	0	0
Western Isles	106,990	217,231	30,000	30,000	42,000	40,000

(b) Local Authority

(£)	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005 (to date)
Aberdeen City	0	312,035	360,294	334,887	1,166,281	844,507
Aberdeenshire	0	913,730	1,512,550	1,209,641	1,825,692	825,480
Angus	0	528,768	1,523,642	1,618,939	850,294	749,972
Argyll and Bute	2,751,571	5,977,070	3,391,299	4,058,803	3,416,759	581,356
City of Edinburgh	0	2,026,113	2,405,710	2,804,023	5,315,405	3,365,179
Clackmannanshire	0	5,096,194	726,157	615,227	537,075	348,923
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	5,301,857	545,000	1,479,601	1,384,229	4,527,914	1,495,963
Dumfries and Galloway	0	1,866,561	1,057,522	1,562,835	1,432,630	748,442
Dundee City Council	0	5,406,102	1,977,618	4,255,679	5,953,448	2,530,304
East Ayrshire	0	2,073,333	1,175,374	2,426,528	2,745,497	1,856,610
East Dunbartonshire	0	129,502	127,030	493,339	3,995,479	537,315
East Lothian	0	66,209	296,479	201,793	1,394,927	665,750
East Renfrewshire	0	1,598,608	378,111	2,282,399	841,317	468,313
Falkirk	0	846,392	1,109,636	553,881	1,885,378	971,375
Fife	0	6,948,819	4,842,887	4,205,114	7,120,746	6,082,257
Glasgow City	0	29,223,399	22,397,560	15,597,263	16,030,946	15,560,193
Highland	1,807,711	1,455,503	7,742,872	373,673	6,007,086	1,373,736
Inverclyde	0	957,288	143,164	1,146,916	2,084,613	967,532
Midlothian	0	1,078,150	613,447	455,962	1,322,309	985,814
Moray	56,660	513,067	935,176	446,301	847,988	657,312
North Ayrshire	0	893,982	620,460	696,104	2,355,886	1,617,004
North Lanarkshire	0	933,453	963,793	925,687	6,130,917	3,022,605
Orkney Islands	274,758	5,745,543	594,828	495,921	525,027	27,156
Perth and Kinross	0	371,455	247,825	0	601,379	677,179
Renfrewshire	0	1,425,696	687,185	776,665	3,814,145	4,030,154
Scottish Borders	0	2,353,349	2,951,315	3,548,630	2,389,069	464,576
Shetland Islands	1,151,356	515,180	2,156,240	837,297	839,506	526,045
South Ayrshire	0	1,348,726	792,844	3,014,492	1,114,262	1,298,414
South Lanarkshire	0	1,029,849	4,341,904	15,975,728	3,018,960	2,179,111
Stirling	0	3,644,074	2,930,497	191,779	2,771,491	1,348,430
West Dunbartonshire	0	506,854	296,430	898,668	1,167,210	825,987
West Lothian	0	2,049,146	1,328,835	1,530,045	4,732,816	1,591,794

(c) Tourist Board

(£)	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Aberdeen and Grampian	0	0	0	306,897	0
Angus & Dundee	0	0	599,325	146,121	0
Argyll, the Isles, Loch Lomond, Stirling and the Trossachs	672,327	1,168,634	200,000	0	0
Ayrshire and Arran	0	1,289,022	295,272	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway	1,268,555	0	1,338,725	0	0
Edinburgh and Lothians	0	0	0	0	0
Glasgow City Marketing Bureau	0	0	0	687,509	0
Greater Glasgow and Clyde Valley	0	742,335	122,986	0	0
Highlands of Scotland	297,494	221,454	202,500	0	0
Kingdom of Fife	2,894,559	5,070,154	0	0	0
Orkney	143,400	0	0	0	0
Perthshire	471,551	0	0	0	0
Scottish Borders	2,092,193	223,445	1,391,892	0	0
Shetland	0	0	0	0	0
The Western Isles	0	0	0	0	0

The Highlands andIslands Special Transitional Programme also has allocations for the EuropeanAgricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) and the Fisheries Instrumentfor Fisheries Guidance (FIFG). These funds mainly support private investmentsin agricultural diversification, food processing and the fisheries sector.

2. Community Initiatives Underthe Structural Funds

In addition to mainstream fundingProgrammes, Scotland participates in four Community Initiatives, LEADER+,INTERREG IIIB, URBAN II & EQUAL.

LEADER+ is largelyadministered by local authorities or LECs, however these bodies are not thefinal recipients of the funding. Leader+ grants are distributed by Local ActionGroups to support projects run by smaller local organisations.

UnderINTERREG IIIB, local authorities and LECs also participate, but do so as partof an international partnership, so identifying precise figures is not possible.

URBANII funding has been included as part of table 1 and is provided as part of theERDF.

EQUAL is run via a series ofRounds and Actions, which can be related in yearly terms to 2003-05 (Round 1)and 2004-06 (Round 2). Some EQUAL spending has been allocated to localauthorities and this is set out below.

(£)

R1

Action 1

R1

Action 2

R1

Action 3

R2

Action 1

R2

Action 2

R2

Action 3

North Lanarkshire

31,016

2,423,986

195,035

65,624

1,709,930

125,000

Glasgow City Council

0

75,000

1,084,930

200,000

3. Local Enterprise Companyeconomic budgets

Scottish EnterpriseNetwork - Paid to LECs (£000) (Gross)

	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Ayrshire	27,118	21,917	24,386	19,601	19,601	16,505
Borders	9,324	8,638	12,343	7,997	7,077	8,780
Dumfries and Galloway	10,245	9,981	15,324	9,385	10,035	10,840
Dunbartonshire	22,186	19,198	15,876	17,462	13,579	16,548
Edinburgh and Lothian	53,311	44,945	43,944	38,748	43,760	40,277
Fife	24,238	21,986	21,106	19,186	20,088	22,179
Forth Valley	21,369	20,136	17,319	14,161	12,917	13,155
Glasgow	55,346	55,850	45,771	54,342	49,592	51,733
Grampian	20,558	19,642	18,840	19,683	18,414	18,819
Lanarkshire	43,874	45,434	40,276	31,660	35,148	34,201
Moray Badenoch and Strathspey	2,736	2,031	0	0	0	0
Renfrewshire	22,951	19,503	19,685	18,020	18,779	18,896
Tayside	22,175	23,029	22,326	21,813	20,830	20,165

Highlands and Islands Network - Paid to LECs £000 (Gross)

	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Argyll and the Islands	7,374	7,073	7,416	8,571	10,299	10,293
Caithness and Sutherland	6,635	3,933	4,115	5,147	4,947	7,860
Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey	5,808	4,607	4,630	5,271	6,138	6,075
Lochaber	3,527	3,145	2,987	4,365	2,923	3,955
Moray	4,463	4,604	5,803	5,901	5,339	11,876
Orkney	2,783	2,790	2,514	2,751	2,858	2,993
Ross and Cromarty	6,096	5,435	6,262	5,948	7,332	6,791
Shetland	3,462	4,718	2,945	4,125	3,964	3,424
Skye and Lochalsh	6,640	2,656	2,408	2,282	2,526	3,455
Western Isles	7,366	7,290	3,169	5,904	8,444	7,566

4. Local Authority (LA) economicdevelopment budgets

Economic Development - NetRevenue Expenditure 1999-2000 to 2005-06

(£000)	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05¹	2005-06¹
Scotland	57,057	54,632	59,350	65,600	78,150	113,782	90,833
Aberdeen City	2,600	2,395	2,462	2,169	3,896	1,869	1,964
Aberdeenshire	1,385	1,107	1,002	1,283	1,402	1,609	1,762
Angus	614	591	517	1,151	663	972	1,007
Argyll and Bute	454	436	352	342	475	748	806
Clackmannanshire	219	-84	558	504	620	668	593
Dumfries and Galloway	493	616	683	960	1,932	2,031	1,663
Dundee City	4,387	4,548	2,207	3,283	5,750	3,982	4,724
East Ayrshire	323	434	3,027	3,325	5,499	2,274	2,300
East Dunbartonshire	917	642	767	1,750	1,639	1,447	1,416
East Lothian	-212	-236	-127	-68	94	43	-22
East Renfrewshire	165	133	207	298	465	295	336
Edinburgh, City of	1,986	534	4,613	5,280	5,553	5,641	5,161
Eilean Siar	946	514	1,551	1,972	2,194	1,905	1,621
Falkirk	-853	-884	-106	-528	962	768	1,000
Fife	5,275	5,417	5,753	5,875	5,654	5,009	5,045
Glasgow City	17,054	18,703	19,665	18,815	18,288	22,714	28,421
Highland	488	100	280	875	875	1,342	1,167
Inverclyde	427	559	1,099	1,137	1,465	2,430	1,100
Midlothian	431	749	942	1,172	1,347	1,895	1,608
Moray	846	75	-1,358	-200	-136	590	798
North Ayrshire	747	571	876	498	1,126	821	1,003
North Lanarkshire	666	1,158	393	308	1,306	2,445	3,105
Orkney Islands	-338	227	204	213	339	1,657	1,624
Perth and Kinross	581	622	698	532	691	714	922
Renfrewshire	893	899	909	1,092	1,221	1,199	1,163
Scottish Borders	-71	-145	-297	-390	-346	267	120
Shetland Islands ²	4,435	2,494	3,275	3,222	3,981	35,598	6,627
South Ayrshire	590	786	520	622	694	1,376	1,201
South Lanarkshire	10,095	10,000	8,276	7,326	4,650	7,258	8,330
Stirling	-922	-938	180	135	2,182	66	-40
West Dunbartonshire	412	588	431	871	910	1,199	1,176
West Lothian	2,024	2,021	-209	1,776	2,759	2,950	3,132

Source: 1999-00 to 2003-04 - LFR 7 return 2004-05 and 2005-06 - POBE return.

Notes:

1. Figures for 2004-05 are Provisional Outturn and 2005-06 are Budget Estimates.

2. Shetland - high figure for 2004-05 due to a one-off payment to a development company.

5. Area Tourist Boards (ATBs) Economic Budgets

There were no specific economic development budgets for ATBs. The following provides thetotal budgets for each ATB since 1999-2000 until 2003-04.

Area Tourist Board	Total Net Income (£)
Area Tourist Board	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Ayrshire and Arran	1,326,300	2,293,000	1,334,600	1,882,845	1,958,548
Angus and Dundee	932,600	919,700	1,259,700	863,960	1,021,517
Aberdeen and Grampian	2,046,700	3,188,000	2,188,700	1,990,911	2,721,868
Argyll, the Isles, Loch Lomond, Stirling and The Trossachs	3,269,100	1,188,800	3,661,500	3,680,762	5,838,087
Dumfries and Galloway	918,000	932,500	2,439,850	2,273,911	2,613,549
Edinburgh and Lothians	3,955,100	3,722,500	3,749,200	5,010,500	5,253,829
Greater Glasgow and Clyde Valley	3,073,800	3,474,000	3,484,900	4,255,548	3,972,800
Highlands of Scotland	2,911,100	3,231,800	3,552,800	3,604,159	3,528,114
Kingdom of Fife	987,400	1,013,600	1,199,750	1,015,213	1,685,438
Orkney	554,700	571,100	620,950	580,120	528,550
Perthshire	1,314,400	1,280,500	1,776,350	1,276,507	1,863,019
Scottish Borders	1,351,000	1,510,000	1,866,000	1,694,895	1,967,204
Shetland	486,400	442,500	580,600	430,686	526,400
Western Isles	435,200	436,400	715,750	842,908	557,869

Question reference: S2W-18168

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 25 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what computerisation or IT failures have occurred in public sector projects of a value greater than £50,000 which have resulted in a failure in the project in each year since 1999; what the contracted cost of each project was, and what estimate it has made of the direct and indirect costs of failure or breakdown in each case.

The information requested on computerisation or IT failures would be held by individual authorities and public sector bodies and there is no central record of computerisation or IT projects across the public sector.

Within the Scottish Executive in 2000-01, one project which was not meeting user requirements was subject to an independent review which is part of normal project control procedures. Following that review, it was decided that further development could not be cost justified and the project was stopped at a cost of £200,000. However, some elements of that system were reused in project developments elsewhere in the Executive.

Question reference: S2W-18123

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 24 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive when it intends to reply to my letter of 19 June 2005 regarding staff shortages in Aberdeenshire.

Question reference: S2W-18201

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Johann Lamont on 24 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what estimate it has made of the (a) number and (b) physical area of sites designated as derelict land in 2004, broken down by local authority area.

The Scottish Executive has since 1993 published an annual statistical bulletin estimating the amount of vacant and derelict land in Scotland by local authority area.

The information requested can be found in the Scottish Vacant and Derelict Land Survey 2004 which was published on 16 December 2004. The Survey can be viewed on the Scottish Executive website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00381-00.asp.

Question reference: S2W-17947

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 22 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive when it last discussed at (a) ministerial level and (b) official level the import of illegal drugs into Scotland with representatives of (i) the Dutch Government, (ii) the UK Government, (iii) the Irish Government, (iv) the United States Government, (v) the European Union, (vi) the United Nations and (vii) NATO.

The Scottish Executive engages in a number of ways with the UK Government to tackle the traffickingof illegal drugs including representation on the Home Office led Drug Strategy DeliveryGroup which last met on 5 July 2005. Its remit involves working with foreign governmentsand other organisations to identify ways to reduce illegal drug supply activity.

At an operational level, the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency works closelywith a large number of partners, including Scottish police forces and law enforcementagencies across the UK and abroad,to combat the threat from all forms of serious crime, including the importationof illegal drugs to Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-18265

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 August 2005
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 22 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many instances of fraud within the NHS have been detected in each of the last eight years, broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) type of fraud.

The main aim of the Executive’sNHS counter fraud policy is to seek to minimise losses to the NHS in the first instanceby deterring potential fraudsters, rather than attempt to recoup losses by detection/investigationafter fraud against the NHS has taken place.

The information requested isdetailed in the tables: Summary of Instances of Theft, Fraud, Arson and WilfulDamage Reported to the Scottish Executive by NHS Boards for Financial Years 1999-2000 to 2004-2005 and Summary of Numbers of Cases Concerning Fraud andOther Irregularities Where Investigations Have been Carried Out by NHSScotland CounterFraud Services from 1 August 2000-31 March 2001 to 1 April 2004-31 March 2005,copies of which have been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib.numbers 37252 and 37253).

Question reference: S2W-18274

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 August 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 22 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting times have been from GP referral to first appointment with a consultant psychiatrist in each NHS board area in each quarter since 1999.

The median waiting times for a first out-patient appointment with a consultant in the speciality of psychiatry, following referral by a general medical practitioner, in each quarter since 31 March 1999, by NHS board area of residence, are given in the table. The figures for the quarters ended 31 March 2005 and 30 June 2005 are provisional.

The traditional model of general practitioner referral to a consultant is changing as community mental health services move to operate on a team basis where intake meetings assess referrals from general practitioners and others and allocate care responses from the team member with the skills to meet the assessed needs. This combines with a move for consultants to spend more time supporting other team members while also responding to emergencies and urgent referrals.

NHSScotland: Median Waiting Times For A First Out-Patient Appointment With a Consultant in the Specialty of Psychiatry, Following Referral by a General Medical Practitioner, by NHS Board of Residence. By Quarter, From 31 March 1999 to 30 June 2005.

NHS Board	Median Wait (days)
NHS Board	Quarter Ended 31 Mar 1999	Quarter Ended 30 June 1999	Quarter Ended 30 Sep 1999	Quarter Ended 31 Dec 1999
Argyll and Clyde	32	36	40	35
Ayrshire and Arran	17	18	14	18
Borders	14	14	14	14
Dumfries and Galloway	21	20	18	17
Fife	25	22	21	18
Forth Valley	19	20	21	19
Grampian	22	24	21	21
Greater Glasgow	29	28	28	26
Highland	25	23	18	19
Lanarkshire	44	42	41	42
Lothian	16	21	20	22
Orkney	5*	15*	8*	11*
Shetland	23*	44*	19*	19*
Tayside	16	15	16	14
Western Isles	50*	30*	37*	35*
NHSScotland	24	23	23	22

NHS Board	Median Wait (Days)
NHS Board	Quarter Ended 31 Mar 2000	Quarter Ended 30 June 2000	Quarter Ended 30 Sep 2000	Quarter Ended 31 Dec 2000
Argyll and Clyde	32	32	36	33
Ayrshire and Arran	18	22	23	23
Borders	16	14	15	15
Dumfries and Galloway	21	19	20	14
Fife	21	21	24	20
Forth Valley	19	21	21	20
Grampian	19	21	18	22
Greater Glasgow	28	29	30	33
Highland	14	23	17	19
Lanarkshire	43	53	52	41
Lothian	24	22	22	26
Orkney	6*	16*	34*	8*
Shetland	13*	27*	38*	30*
Tayside	19	22	20	17
Western Isles	23*	48*	39*	32*
NHSScotland	25	27	26	26

NHS Board	Median Wait (Days)
NHS Board	Quarter Ended 31 Mar 2001	Quarter Ended 30 June 2001	Quarter Ended 30 Sep 2001	Quarter Ended 31 Dec 2001
Argyll and Clyde	36	35	34	35
Ayrshire and Arran	21	26	28	25
Borders	19	18	19	14
Dumfries and Galloway	25	26	25	22
Fife	21	23	21	20
Forth Valley	22	22	19	21
Grampian	25	23	26	26
Greater Glasgow	30	31	29	27
Highland	22	22	20	18
Lanarkshire	43	46	46	43
Lothian	28	27	22	27
Orkney	27*	x	19*	18*
Shetland	37*	45*	44*	28*
Tayside	24	25	24	22
Western Isles	36*	29*	37*	35*
NHSScotland	28	28	27	26

NHS Board	Median Wait (Days)
NHS Board	Quarter Ended 31 Mar 2002	Quarter Ended 30 June 2002	Quarter Ended 30 Sep 2002	Quarter Ended 31 Dec 2002
Argyll and Clyde	35	34	35	36
Ayrshire and Arran	22	22	26	26
Borders	20	24	18	21
Dumfries and Galloway	32	28	26	x
Fife	26	27	31	27
Forth Valley	28	33	35	30
Grampian	31	27	67	64
Greater Glasgow	35	33	32	30
Highland	15	21	20	20
Lanarkshire	47	49	83	56
Lothian	28	18	16	19
Orkney	8*	19*	x	x
Shetland	33*	42*	34*	35*
Tayside	24	29	27	26
Western Isles	33*	35*	60*	39*
NHSScotland	29	29	29	28

NHS Board	Median Wait (Days)
NHS Board	Quarter Ended 31 Mar 2003	Quarter Ended 30 June 2003	Quarter Ended 30 Sep 2003	Quarter Ended 31 Dec 2003
Argyll and Clyde	36	35	38	36
Ayrshire and Arran	25	28	33	27
Borders	21	22	22	21
Dumfries and Galloway	x	x	x	x
Fife	28	24	24	25
Forth Valley	39	39	32	28
Grampian	67	74	62	40
Greater Glasgow	35	35	37	34
Highland	16	13	21	23
Lanarkshire	60	57	54	45
Lothian	21	18	18	20
Orkney	x	11*	38*	x
Shetland	36*	34*	40*	31*
Tayside	30	28	27	28
Western Isles	30*	43*	45*	52*
NHSScotland	31	30	30	29

NHS Board	Median Wait (days)
NHS Board	Quarter Ended 31 Mar 2004	Quarter Ended 30 June 2004	Quarter Ended 30 Sep 2004	Quarter Ended 31 Dec 2004
Argyll and Clyde	35	34	35	31
Ayrshire and Arran	26	22	30	31
Borders	26	21	22	21
Dumfries and Galloway	x	x	x	x
Fife	22	24	22	21
Forth Valley	29*	x	x	x
Grampian	29*	26*	17*	33*
Greater Glasgow	35	38	37	29
Highland	24	27	24	30
Lanarkshire	40	64	43	52*
Lothian	19	18	19	21
Orkney	x	x	x	x
Shetland	35*	31*	38*	40*
Tayside	27	29	29	30
Western Isles	67*	55*	63*	45*
NHSScotland	29	29	30	28

NHS Board	Median Wait (days)
NHS Board	Quarter Ended 31 Mar 2005^P	Quarter Ended 30 June 2005^P
Argyll and Clyde	34	33
Ayrshire and Arran	39	40
Borders	25	26
Dumfries and Galloway	x	x
Fife	23	21
Forth Valley	x	x
Grampian	36*	x
Greater Glasgow	35	43
Highland	39	40
Lanarkshire	56*	x
Lothian	20	22
Orkney	x	x
Shetland	29*	27*
Tayside	37	30
Western Isles	54*	37*
NHSScotland	33	31

Source: ISD Scotland,SMR00.

^PProvisional.

Notes:

1. Figures denoted by an“x” are not shown as the number of appointment records is very small (or nil) andthe presentation of the median is potentially misleading.

2. Figures appended with an “*”should be treated with caution as they are derived from a possible unrepresentativelysmall number of appointments (less than 50).

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