Chamber and committees

The total value of prescription charges collected in the years 1999-2000 to 2003-04 is set out in the following table.

Year	Total Value of Charges Collected* (£ Million)
1999–2000	42.9
2000–01	43.1
2001–02	45.8
2002–03	46.3
2003–04	45.4

Note: *Includes income from prescription pre-payment certificates.

The NHS prescription charge does not relate directly to the cost of the item prescribed or the cost of supplying it. It is a contribution towards the cost of the service as a whole.

The following table details prescription charges collected in each of the last five years as a percentage of the Family Health Service drugs bill for each year. Details of collection costs in respect of individual charges paid when a prescription is presented for dispensing are not held centrally. Net percentages cannot therefore be given.

Year	Percentage of Drugs Bill Disregarding Cost of Collection of Charges (%)
1999–2000	6.5
2000–01	6.2
2001–02	6.0
2002–03	5.4
2003–04	4.9

The Scottish Executive does not hold information related to the number of employment tribunal cases, or the level of any awards, on a central database and it could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. However, the Central Office of the Employment Tribunals in Scotland, The Eagle Building, 215 Bothwell Street, Glasgow, holds a public record of all Employment Tribunal cases brought in Scotland. Nor is it not possible to advise how much has been spent contesting claims to employment tribunals, as these costs are not accounted for separately.

The following table sets out the spend on recruitment advertising for Scottish based newspapers and those based outside Scotland, including London, for the period 1 January 2000 to 31 July 2004.

Year	Spending on Scottish Based Papers (£)	Spending on Non-Scottish Based Papers (£)
2000	370,958.96	146,411.15
2001	490,155.52	134,248.01
2002	448,852.11	131,682.84
2003	582,066.83	120,804.50
2004 (to 31 July)	303,797.24	138,162.65

Log books are kept by trainee anaesthetists as a record of the type of cases they are dealing with and the specialities in which they have had experience. It enables the junior and his/her trainer to identify any gaps in their training and are used at the annual review of the trainee’s progress. Consultant anaesthetists don’t keep log books. Trainee log books are not used in NHS workload planning.

Through the job plan, agreed between the local employer and the consultant, within the new Consultant Contract, it is now possible to identify how many programmed activities per week each consultant is devoting to direct clinical care and supporting professional activities.

Based on service need, it is a local decision between the employer and the individual consultant as to how the available direct clinical time is used.

It is the responsibility of all NHSScotland employers to ensure that they comply with the requirements of the Working Time Regulations. Detailed information on the hours of work of anaesthetists is not held by the Scottish Executive.

The information requested is not held centrally.

Information contained in the answer to question S2W-9544 on 22 July 2004 was supplied by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). The DTI are not able to breakdown the Scottish figures by local authority or parliamentary constituency area.

Levels of rent arrears for local authority tenants are shown in the following table

Local Authority Rent Arrears (£ m) as at December of Each Year

Authority	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003*
Aberdeen City	2.144	2.368	2.219	2.388	2.476
Aberdeenshire	0.514	0.819	0.734	1.432	0.710
Angus	0.518	0.468	0.547	0.672	0.672
Argyll and Bute	0.380	0.474	0.463	0.446	0.350
Clackmannanshire	0.567	0.724	0.408	0.979	0.842
Dumfries and Galloway	0.852	0.474	0.954	1.183	n/a*
Dundee	1.525	1.459	1.397	1.392	2.002
East Ayrshire	1.948	2.667	1.548	1.028	0.693
East Dunbartonshire	1.293	0.907	0.778	0.834	0.749
East Lothian	1.120	1.378	1.032	0.957	0.757
East Renfrewshire	0.300	0.421	0.476	0.505	0.633
Edinburgh, City of	2.212	2.369	2.235	2.562	2.893
Eilean Siar, Comhairie nan	0.138	0.199	0.119	0.156	0.150
Falkirk	1.474	2.067	1.955	2.030	2.030
Fife	3.429	3.710	3.908	2.708	2.584
Glasgow, City of	16.875	18.731	18.335	18.974	n/a*
Highland	1.355	1.759	1.724	1.898	1.148
Inverclyde	2.096	2.195	2.003	1.904	2.258
Midlothian	0.958	1.053	0.854	1.034	0.531
Moray	0.366	0.323	0.355	0.377	0.359
North Ayrshire	2.166	2.057	1.086	1.528	1.274
North Lanarkshire	2.115	2.035	1.728	1.833	4.948
Orkney Islands	0.041	0.027	0.023	0.027	0.299
Perth and Kinross	0.294	0.281	0.295	0.257	0.453
Renfrewshire	1.918	2.065	1.656	1.289	2.499
Scottish Borders	0.295	0.217	0.211	0.216	n/a*
Shetland Islands	0.182	0.148	0.148	0.144	0.138
South Ayrshire	1.740	0.768	0.798	0.863	0.693
South Lanarkshire	1.472	2.479	2.142	2.114	1.924
Stirling	1.310	1.340	1.275	1.158	1.153
West Dunbartonshire	2.449	3.651	2.929	2.702	2.628
West Lothian	0.799	0.727	0.859	1.104	0.743
Scotland Total	54.845	60.359	55.191	56.691	38.590*

Note:

*Following housing stock transfer Dumfries and Galloway, Glasgow and Scottish Borders excluded from 2003 data.

The information on number of jobs lost is not held centrally.

However Table 1 shows net change in number of jobs in engineering and allied industries in local authority areas and Scotland in each year from 1999 till 2002.

Table 2 shows number of jobs in engineering and allied industries in local authority areas and Scotland in each year from 1999 till 2002.

Table 1 Net change in number of employee jobs 1999-2002 in Scotland and local authorities.

	Net Change 1999-2000 (000's)	Net Change 2000-2001 (000's)	Net Change 2001-2002 (000's)
Scotland	0.7	-12.5	-13.2
Aberdeen City	0.4	0.6	-0.6
Aberdeenshire	0.2	-0.4	0.8
Angus	0.2	-0.9	-0.4
Argyll and Bute	0	0	-0.1
Clackmannanshire	..	..	..
Dumfries and Galloway	0.3	0	-0.3
Dundee City	-0.8	-0.1	-0.5
East Ayrshire	-0.1	-0.1	-0.1
East Dunbartonshire	0	0	0
East Lothian	..	..	..
East Renfrewshire	..	0.2	-0.2
Edinburgh, City of	-0.8	-1.3	0.5
Eilean Siar	..	..	..
Falkirk	0.1	0.1	-0.8
Fife	-2.1	0.6	-1.2
Glasgow City	0	0.6	-1.7
Highland	-0.1	-0.1	-0.1
Inverclyde	-0.8	-1.2	-1.3
Midlothian	0.3	-0.1	0
Moray	0	0.1	-0.1
North Ayrshire	-0.6	0.2	-1.1
North Lanarkshire	-0.7	-1.1	-0.8
Orkney Islands	..	..	..
Perthshire and Kinross	0	-0.1	0
Renfrewshire	0.2	-2.8	1.3
Scottish Borders	-0.1	-0.3	-0.1
Shetland Islands	..	..	..
South Ayrshire	-0.8	-1	-0.2
South Lanarkshire	3.3	-4.4	-1
Stirling	0.2	0	-0.4
West Dunbartonshire	-0.7	0	-0.5
West Lothian	2.8	-0.7	-3.9

Note: “..” indicates where it has not been possible to calculate net change in number of jobs as the required values for number of jobs (shown in Table 2) are confidential. Confidential values are data which are not published in compliance with the 1974 Statistics of Trade Act. These values are decided on the basis of criteria set by the Office for National Statistics to avoid disclosure of individual companies and are highlighted on the data when it is published.

Table 2 Number of employee jobs 1999-2002 in Scotland and local authorities.

	1999 (000s)	2000 (000s)	2001 (000s)	2002 (000s)
Scotland	106.9	107.6	95.1	81.9
Aberdeen City	5.3	5.7	6.3	5.7
Aberdeenshire	3.1	3.3	2.9	3.7
Angus	2.3	2.5	1.6	1.2
Argyll and Bute	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.2
Clackmannanshire	..	..	..	..
Dumfries and Galloway	0.7	1	1	0.7
Dundee City	4.7	3.9	3.8	3.3
East Ayrshire	1.6	1.5	1.4	1.3
East Dunbartonshire	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3
East Lothian	0.5	..	..	0.3
East Renfrewshire	..	0.5	0.7	0.5
Edinburgh, City of	7.4	6.6	5.3	5.8
Eilean Siar	..	..	..	..
Falkirk	2.4	2.5	2.6	1.8
Fife	14.1	12	12.6	11.4
Glasgow City	9.5	9.5	10.1	8.4
Highland	0.8	0.7	0.6	0.5
Inverclyde	7.2	6.4	5.2	3.9
Midlothian	0.5	0.8	0.7	0.7
Moray	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.3
North Ayrshire	4	3.4	3.6	2.5
North Lanarkshire	7.7	7	5.9	5.1
Orkney Islands	..	..	..	..
Perthshire and Kinross	0.5	0.5	0.4	0.4
Renfrewshire	6.6	6.8	4	5.3
Scottish Borders	1	0.9	0.6	0.5
Shetland Islands	..	..	..	..
South Ayrshire	4.5	3.7	2.7	2.5
South Lanarkshire	10.5	13.8	9.4	8.4
Stirling	0.5	0.7	0.7	0.3
West Dunbartonshire	2.2	1.5	1.5	1
West Lothian	7.7	10.5	9.8	5.9

Note: “..” indicates where values are confidential. Confidential values are data which are not published in compliance with the 1974 Statistics of Trade Act. These values are decided on the basis of criteria set by the Office for National Statistics to avoid disclosure of individual companies and are highlighted on the data when it is published.

The Executive is committed toencouraging enterprise in disadvantaged communities, and groups currently under-representedin business. Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise offer a wide range of businesssupport through the business gateway in the Scottish Enterprise area and via thelocal enterprise companies in the Highlands and Islands area aimed at individuals in disadvantaged communitiesincluding women, young people and people with disability. Three recent examplesare the Women into Business conference in February 2004, my recent launch of thenew Business Start-up Grant aimed at encouragingmore young people to set up a business and the enterprise show held in Glasgow lastyear to highlight the benefits of entrepreneurship and enterprise for disabled people.

In addition, the Executive isworking with partnerships across Scotland to develop new skills and unlock opportunities throughprogrammes such as the new Scottish Urban Regeneration Companies and the CommunityRegeneration Fund.

The Executive is also supportingand developing social enterprises in Scotland, many of which operate in the most disadvantaged anddeprived communities. We have established Social Investment Scotland, which hasthe purpose of providing loan finance to the social economy to stimulate enterpriseand wealth creation in under-invested communities. We are also about to announcea strategy aimed at supporting the growth of the social economy and social enterprisesin Scotland.