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: S2W-28881

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 27 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people with morbid obesity have received surgery in order to aid weight reduction in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S2W-28842

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 26 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many vehicle occupants have been fined for non-wearing of seat belts in each of the last 10 years, broken down by police force area.

The available information isgiven in the following table.

Seat Belt Offences with a ChargeProved in Scottish Courts Resulting in a Fine (Main Penalty), 1995-96 to 2004-05

Police Force	1995-96	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Central	118	38	149	138	165	316	349	287	219	185
Dumfries and Galloway	73	27	17	68	39	10	5	18	5	12
Fife	160	66	164	174	161	182	154	120	236	149
Grampian	27	17	50	303	389	129	215	160	124	105
Lothian and Borders	495	158	799	602	394	319	485	295	305	136
Northern	17	6	27	27	147	42	99	75	80	81
Strathclyde	705	440	1,207	1,099	1,183	1,048	1,097	849	614	411
Tayside	184	110	303	301	215	125	120	174	295	79
Scotland	1,779	862	2,716	2,712	2,693	2,171	2,524	1,978	1,878	1,158

Question reference: S2W-28840

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 25 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many hospital meals were left untouched in each year since 2001-02, expressed also as a percentage of the total number of patient main meals in each year.

Question reference: S2W-28841

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 25 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) adult and (b) child cyclists have been (i) injured and (ii) killed in each of the last 10 years.

The information requested canbe obtained from the figures which are given in tables 6 and 7 of Key 2005 RoadAccident Statistics and in the Summary road accident and casualtystatistics table (which covers the years from 1994 to 2004, inclusive) on page17 of Road Accidents Scotland 2004. Both were published by the Scottish Executivein 2006. Copies are available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib.numbers 40637 and 38777, respectively).

Question reference: S2W-28906

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 25 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of people from (a) New Deal for Young People and (b) New Deal 25 plus entered jobs that were not sustained beyond 13 weeks duration in each year since these programmes began.

The UK Government is responsiblefor New Deal programmes. The following data is provided by the Department for Workand Pensions.

Table 1 and table 2 show thenumber of individuals going into jobs and the proportion which were not sustainedfor 13 weeks for the New Deal for Young People and New Deal 25+ respectively inScotland for each year since 1998.

Table 1 Number of individualsentering jobs when leaving New Deal for Young People and proportion not sustained,Scotland

	Jobs Gained	Proportion Not Sustained
1998	7,760	9.9%
1999	13,870	14.3%
2000	11,680	14.4%
2001	9,390	14.7%
2002	9,190	15.6%
2003	8,880	16.8%
2004	9,250	18.7%
2005	7,830	22.9%

Source: Department for Work andPensions, Tabulation tool.

Notes:

1. A sustained job is a job fromwhich a participant does not return to Jobseekers Allowance within 13 weeks.

2. The year used is the yearthe job was gained.

Table 2 Number of individualsentering jobs when leaving New Deal 25+ and proportion not sustained, Scotland

	Jobs Gained	Proportion Not Sustained
1998	620	19.4%
1999	2,340	17.1%
2000	2,660	16.5%
2001	3,750	16.3%
2002	5,410	19.2%
2003	5,350	19.3%
2004	5,030	18.5%
2005	4,560	21.3%

Source: Department for Work andPensions, Tabulation tool.

Notes:

1. A sustained job is a job fromwhich a participant does not return to Jobseekers Allowance within 13 weeks.

2. The year used is the yearthe job was gained.

Question reference: S2W-28897

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 25 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been found guilty of committing an offence specifically involving child victims in each year since 1999.

The available information isgiven in the following table. The statistics relate only to convictions where bydefinition of the offence the victim involved was a child. Convictions for otheroffences which involved a child victim, for example assault, cannot be identifiedseparately within the available statistics

Persons with a Charge Provedfor Offences which by Definition Involve a Child Victim¹, 1999-2000 to2004-05

Year	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Number	368	342	381	398	538	545

Note: 1. Where main offence includescruelty to and unnatural treatment, of children, child stealing (plagium), exposingchild under seven to risk of burning, lewd and libidinous practices, defilementof girl under 13, defilement of girl under 16, person with custody etc of girl orother causing her seduction, grooming of children for purposes of sexual offences,procuration of sexual offences for children under 18, procuration of child under18 for pornography, drunk in charge of a child and handling obscene publications(offences under sections 52 and 52A of the Civic Government(Scotland) Act 1982).

Question reference: S2W-28641

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 September 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 24 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many nurses currently employed by the NHS will have reached the retirement age of 60 in each year from 2005 to 2020, broken down (a) into those with SRN, SEN, RMN or other qualification and (b) by NHS board.

Table 1 shows the number of registeredand enrolled nurses and midwives as at 30 September 2005, aged between 45 and 59, who will reach the age of 60 in each year from2006 to 2020. Table 2 shows the information split by NHS board.

Table 1 Registered and EnrolledNurses and Midwives Reaching the Age of 60¹

	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Scotland	473	642	617	673	756	787	868	1,050
Registered	400	512	489	562	634	686	766	902
Enrolled	73	130	128	111	122	101	102	148

	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Scotland	1,145	1,239	1,337	1,458	1,578	1,823	1,751
Registered	997	1,096	1,174	1,286	1,415	1,658	1,593
Enrolled	148	143	163	172	163	165	158

Source: ISD Scotland.

Note: 1. Includes nurses andmidwives aged 45 to 59, inclusive, as at 30 September. 2005.

Table 2 Registered and EnrolledNurses and Midwives Reaching the Age of 60 by NHS Board¹

	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Scotland	473	642	617	673	756	787	868	1,050
Ayrshire and Arran	17	46	31	56	49	45	54	71
Borders	16	16	14	11	25	22	24	26
Dumfries and Galloway	40	48	49	53	49	64	51	77
Fife	1	1	1	-	1	3	2	2
Forth Valley	35	51	45	54	56	54	58	76
Golden Jubilee	77	92	97	94	116	125	122	187
Grampian	32	39	43	46	59	46	61	59
Greater Glasgow	-	2	2	-	1	-	-	6
Highland	32	48	51	68	62	76	69	92
Lanarkshire	40	83	67	72	79	91	82	87
Lothian	4	3	2	6	5	5	5	13
NHS 24	4	2	3	5	2	3	7	4
NSS	85	95	94	79	91	103	133	136
Orkney	46	58	60	70	83	64	92	104
Shetland	18	24	26	23	35	38	38	54
State Hospital	5	8	8	8	7	7	12	8
Tayside	3	2	-	1	3	2	7	3
Western Isles	18	22	19	25	28	35	46	44

	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Scotland	1,145	1,239	1,337	1,458	1,578	1,823	1,751
Ayrshire and Arran	74	80	66	92	86	116	99
Borders	32	27	31	41	21	46	50
Dumfries and Galloway	90	94	87	106	135	124	144
Fife	2	5	6	15	9	13	18
Forth Valley	92	96	76	96	110	113	112
Golden Jubilee	185	199	242	270	318	358	322
Grampian	55	63	73	67	75	76	87
Greater Glasgow	3	4	5	5	5	5	7
Highland	87	93	111	120	140	173	152
Lanarkshire	115	115	141	146	133	173	155
Lothian	14	15	19	25	15	25	29
NHS 24	4	6	8	6	6	6	11
NSS	163	160	184	207	219	253	256
Orkney	118	131	141	139	164	159	150
Shetland	39	79	63	63	72	85	88
State Hospital	18	16	10	10	15	15	12
Tayside	1	4	6	3	7	6	4
Western Isles	45	45	57	42	45	71	47

Source: ISD Scotland.

Note: 1. Includes nurses andmidwives aged 45 to 59, inclusive, as at 30 September 2005.

We remain on track to achieveand surpass the 2002 Partnership Agreement target of attracting 12,000 nurses andmidwives into NHSScotland by 2007. Between September 2002 and September 2005 werecruited 11,504 nurse and midwives. In total, there are over 65,000 (head count)nursing and midwifery staff numbers in the NHS in Scotland.

Question reference: S2W-28926

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive when the Minister for Justice will reply to my letter dated 31 August 2006 regarding my constituent, Mr H Garner of Banff.

Question reference: S2W-28899

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the ratio is of sex offenders recommended to enter a treatment programme to places available.

The annual rate of completionsfor the prison based Sex Offender Treatment Programme (STOP) programmes is projectedto increase to 85 to 90 in 2006-07 and to 100 completions in 2007-08, compared tothe 60 completions in 2004-05 and the 76 completions in 2005-06. Over the period2000 to 2006, a total of 283 STOP programmes were completed. At present there are approximately 700 prisoners where the offencehas a sexual dimension. The Integrated CaseManagement process determines the best time in a sentence for an individual prisonerto be offered a treatment programme.

Data on the number of sex offendersattending community programmes, either as part of a community sentence or followingdischarge from custody, is at present held at an individual local authority ratherthan national level. However, the Executive will publish data on the number of probationorders with attendance on a sex offender programme as an additional condition, infuture editions of the Statistical Bulletin Series on Criminal Justice Social Work.

Question reference: S2W-28898

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 October 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 20 October 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many sex offenders have received treatment and how much funding has been allocated to programmes for the treatment of such offenders in each year since 1999.

Community Sex Offender Programmes.

The data on numbers on communityprogrammes is at present held at an individual local authority rather than nationallevel. The Executive has developed an accredited Community Sex Offender GroupworkProgramme (CSOGP) which is being delivered in five schemes covering 10 local authorityareas with work underway to extend coverage to a further three schemes covering12 local authority areas.

Ring-fenced funding to localauthorities for delivery of sex offender programmes in the community is providedunder Section 27 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968. Funding allocations for the financial years1999-2000 to date are as follows:

1999-2000	£361,064
2000-01	£891,501
2001-02	£956,410
2002-03	£1,126,857
2003-04	£1,533,831
2004-05	£1,687,243
2005-06	£1,711,877
2006-07	£1,711,877

Scottish Prison Service Programmes.

Over the period 2000 to 2006,a total of 283 STOP programmes were completed. In addition, prison based socialworkers provide focused individual intervention work with certain prisoners, includingthose who refuse to attend STOP programmes.

Information on the costs of programmedelivery specifically for sex offenders held in custody is not available. However,general information contained in the Audit Scotland report Scottish Prison Service:Correctional Opportunities for Prisoners published in January 2005 indicatesthe estimated levels of expenditure by SPS on correctional opportunities in SPSestablishments.