Chamber and committees

Provided in the following tablesare estimates of children living in absolute and relative low income for Scotland, basedon the Department for Work and Pensions’ Family Resources Survey. 1994-95 is thefirst year that estimates are available. Local authority estimates are not available.All estimates are based on equivalised net disposable household income before andafter housing costs. Identification of trendsmust be based on data for several years.

Part a:

Tables 1 and 2 contain estimatesof children living in absolute and relative low income households.

Table 1: Children in AbsoluteLow Income (Below 60% of GB Median) in Scottish Households

	Children
	Before Housing Costs		After Housing Costs
	%	(000)	%	(000)
1994-95	28	310	31	340
1995-96	29	320	34	370
1996-97	29	320	33	370
1997-98	27	300	30	330
1998-99	25	270	29	310
1999-2000	22	230	26	280
2000-01	18	190	21	220
2001-02	14	150	17	170
2002-03	13	130	16	170
2003-04	11	110	15	160
2004-05	10	100	13	130

Source: Households Below AverageIncome, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Table 2: Children inRelative Low Income (Below 60% of the GB Median) in Scottish Households

	Children
	Before Housing Costs		After Housing Costs
	%	(000)	%	(000)
1994-95	26	280	28	300
1995-96	26	290	32	350
1996-97	29	320	33	370
1997-98	29	310	30	330
1998-99	27	290	30	320
1999-00	26	280	30	330
2000-01	24	250	29	310
2001-02	25	260	30	320
2002-03	23	240	26	280
2003-04	22	220	25	260
2004-05	19	190	23	240

Source: Households Below AverageIncome, DWP.

Part b:

Estimates for disabled childrenliving in low income are not available due to small sample sizes.

Part c:

Tables 3 and 4 contain estimateson the number of children living in lone parent families who are living in absoluteand relative low income households.

Table 3: Children in LoneParent Families Living in Absolute Low Income (Below 60% of the GB median) Households

Year	Children in Lone Parent Families		Children in Lone Parent Families
	Before Housing Costs		After Housing Costs
	%	Number	%	Number
		(000)		(000s
1994-95	53	110	60	130
1995-96	51	130	61	160
1996-97	47	100	60	130
1997-98	52	130	59	150
1998-99	49	120	56	140
1999-00	43	120	50	140
2000-01	28	70	41	100
2001-02	24	70	29	90
2002-03	17	50	28	80
2003-04	16	50	27	80
2004-05	14	40	20	50

Source: Households Below AverageIncome, DWP.

Table 4: Children in LoneParent Families Living in Relative Low Income (Below 60% of the GB Median)Households

Year	Children in Lone Parent Families		Children in Lone Parent Families
	Before Housing Costs		After Housing Costs
	%	Number	%	Number
		(000)		(000)
1994-95	44	90	56	120
1995-96	44	110	58	150
1996-97	47	100	60	130
1997-98	52	130	59	150
1998-99	51	130	58	140
1999-00	48	130	59	160
2000-01	46	120	59	150
2001-02	41	130	51	160
2002-03	38	110	47	130
2003-04	40	120	47	140
2004-05	31	80	40	110

Source: Households Below AverageIncome, DWP.

Notes:

The income used in the low incomeestimates is called equivalised net disposable household income. This equivalisedincome allows the comparison of living standards between households that vary insize and composition.

Net disposable household income:Total income from all sources (including Tax Credits) after deductions for incometax, National Insurance contributions, council tax, pension contributions and maintenancepayments.

Housing costs: Rent/mortgagepayments, water charges, structural insurance premiums, ground rent and servicecharges.

Absolute low income: Individualsliving in households whose equivalised income is below 60% of inflation adjustedGB median income in 1996-97. This is a measure of whether those in the lowest incomehouseholds are seeing their incomes rise in real terms.

Relative low income: Individualsliving in households whose equivalised income is below 60% of the GB median incomein the same year. This is a measure of whether those in the lowest income householdsare keeping pace with the growth of incomes in the economy as a whole.

Binge drinking is defined inthe Executive’s Plan for Action on Alcohol Problems as “drinking an excessive amounton any one occasion”. The Scottish Health Survey defines binge drinking for adultsas drinking more than twice the recommended daily benchmark on a person’s heaviestdrinking day (more than eight units for men and more than six units for women).For young people under 16, consumption of five or more drinks on a single occasionhas been used as a measure of binge drinking.

Adults

Table 1.9 of the ScottishHealth Survey report, volume 2, provides information on units consumed by adultson the heaviest drinking day in the past week, broken down by age and gender for1998 and 2003. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/76169/0019729.pdfAnalysis of the Scottish HealthSurvey by NHS board area is available on the Scottish Executive website via thefollowing link http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/11/25145024/50256.

The table entitled Daily Drinkingprovides similar information for units consumed by men and women on the heaviestdrinking day in the past week. Due to the small sample sizes involved, it is notpossible to break this information down by age.

Young People

Information on the drinking habitsof young people is provided by the Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle andSubstance use Survey (SALSUS). A question on consumption of five or more drinkson a single occasion was first included in 2002.

Table 3.17, provides informationon the frequency of drinking five or more drinks on the same occasion in the last30 days, by age and gender for 2002 and 2004.

http://www.drugmisuse.isdscotland.org/publications/local/SALSUS_2004full.pdf.

The most recent breakdown ofthis information at NHS board level is for 2002:

http://www.drugmisuse.isdscotland.org/publications/abstracts/salsusdocs_hb.htm.

The official source of thenumber of people registered unemployed is the claimant count i.e. people claiming jobseekers allowance.

I have placed tables showingthe percentage of people registered unemployed by age-band and parliamentaryconstituency in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 41039).However please note data forparliamentary constituencies are only available from 1996 onwards. Also data arenot available for the exact age-bands specified but data have been provided forpeople aged (a) 16-24 (b) 25-34 (c)35-44 (d) 45-54 and (e) 55 plus.

This information is not heldcentrally.

The ministerial healthcare associatedinfection task force has commissioned a detailed survey of HAIs (the national pointprevalence survey), which will include information on financial and resourceimplications based on Scottish data for the first time. The report is due forpublication in mid 2007.

The Scottish Executive putin place a contract for Public Relations (PR) on the August 1, 2004. Prior tothis, all PR work was sub contracted by the creative advertising agencies onthe Scottish Executive contract. The following PR companies have been hired bythe Scottish Executive since the August 1, 2004: Barkers, IAS SMARTS (formerlyCitigate SMARTS), Consolidated Communications and The Big Partnership.

The information requestedcould only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Alternative information onhealth and mortality indicators at low level geographies can be found at the Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics website www.sns.gov.ukand via the Community Profiles section of the Scottish Public HealthObservatory (SCOTPHO) website www.scotpho.org.uk.

The information requested isgiven in the following table. Latest available figures are at 30 September 2005.

Age	60-64	65-68	69	70+
NHS Scotland	1,800	97	4	4

 

Further information on the statistics,including information on how the data are collected and notes to aid interpretation,is given in the Background Notes document on the Workforce Statistics homepage atwww.isdscotland.org/workforce.

The following table shows registerednursing and midwifery staff working in NHS Scotland by age. Latest available datais at 30 September 2005. Centrally held information covers registered (qualified)nursing and midwifery staff working in NHS Scotland, however does not include registerednurses working in care homes or those not currently practising.

Headcount as at 30 September 2005

	60-64	65-68	60	70+
NHS Scotland	715	32	2	2

 

Further information on the statistics,including information on how the data are collected and notes to aid interpretation,is given in the Background Notes document on the Workforce Statistics homepage atwww.isdscotland.org/workforce.

Life expectancy figures are notavailable for local authority wards because their population is too small to allowaccurate estimates to be made.

Currently, life expectancy atbirth is calculated at local authority and NHS board area. Information for the period1981-83 to 2003-05 is available from the General Register Office for Scotland websitethrough the following link:

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/library/life-expectancy/le2003-05/index.html.

The Scottish Executive does nothold information on admissions. Information on the number of discharges has beenplaced in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 41030).

Table 1 shows the number of dischargesfrom Scottish general/acute hospitals, of children under the age of 18 with an alcohol-relateddiagnosis, broken down by hospital, for 1997-98 to 2004-05.

Table 2 shows alcohol-related discharges from mental and psychiatrichospitals for children under the age of 18 years, from 1997-98 to 2002-03 (the mostrecent year for which complete data is available).