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-23182

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 10 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many drug addicts have re-entered drug treatment in each year since 1999.

The Scottish Drug Misuse Database(SDMD) records new clients coming into treatment for drug misuse. The followingtable shows the total number of new clients treated each year and the percentagewho had at least one previous entry in the SDMD in the previous five years.

Clients may occur more than oncein the database if

(a) they enter treatment at anagency, leave, and re-enter treatment at least six months later, or

(b) they are referred from oneagency to another.

Consequently, the estimate of“clients previously treated” presented in the following table includes both clientswho move within the system and those who re-enter it.

Year	Total Clients	First Ever Attendance of Clients^1,2		Clients Previously Treated in Last 5 Years
Year	Total Clients	Number	% of All Clients	Number	% of All Clients
1999	10,426	6,998	67.1	N/A³	-
2000	10,581	6,367	60.2	4,100	38.7
2001	11,685	6,864	58.7	4,505	38.6
2002	11,718	6,169	52.6	5,008	42.7
2003	13,086	6,664	50.9	5,646	43.1
2004	14,332	7,215	50.3	6,097	42.5

Notes:

1 New clients: The informationheld on the Scottish Drug Misuse Database relates to new patients/clients.The definition of “new”’ is (a) the person is attending the particular service forthe first time ever, or (b) the person has attended before but not within the previoussix months. Thus, the statistics do not reflect the total number of drug misusersseen by services during any period.

2 The first time ever that theseclients have been reported to the database

3 The database was establishedin 1995, so it was not possible to look at “the last five years” before 2000.

The Scottish Drug Misuse Databaseis currently being enhanced to collect information on people at key points in theircare. The new data collection system is due to be launched in the summer of 2006and once full compliance is achieved information will become available on the numbersof people re-entering treatment each year.

Question reference: S2W-23181

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 10 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what different drug treatment programmes there are; what alternative treatments it considered, and who provided the information upon which any choices were based.

During the stakeholder consultationto develop the National Waiting Times Information Framework, a series of definitionswas agreed for different treatment types, shown below. Clients may experience morethan one type of intervention at a time and combinations of interventions more thanonce during the recovery process.

Code	Treatment Type	Definition
1.	Structured preparatory and motivational intervention.	Planned intervention that stabilises the client or prepares them for further interventions. It must be structured and have agreed goal(s).
2.	Prescribed drug treatment (including detoxification, maintenance or reduction programme).	The prescribing of a substitute drug, (e.g. methadone, lofexidine, subutex) for facilitating the complete cessation of the use of illicit drugs, controlling withdrawal symptoms or reducing illicit drug use.
3.	Community based support and/or rehabilitation.	Interventions that have the purpose of tackling the social and psychological problems faced by the client (such as debt /relationship and family problems, relapse prevention or employability and training issues) e.g. structured day programmes, counselling, group work. Clients may be in receipt of other treatment interventions in parallel with community based support and rehabilitation (e.g. substitute prescribing).
4.	Residential detoxification and rehabilitation.	Detoxification and/or rehabilitation that involves the client being admitted to a residential facility or hospital.

Decisions on treatment interventionsand options are for individual patients and their medical and social care professionals.

Question reference: S2W-23186

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 10 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people referred to drug treatment programmes in each of the last five years actually entered such a programme.

Question reference: S2W-22972

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 8 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has allocated to the special constable initiative.

Question reference: S2W-23184

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 8 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what trials it has undertaken in the last five years in respect of different drug treatment programmes; what the findings of such trials were, and what action was taken as a result of these findings.

The Scottish Executive has funded the following clinical trial of a drug treatment programme: Randomised Controlled Trial of Dihydrocodeine and Methadone in the Treatment of Opiate Dependence Syndrome (2005). The trial was funded from 2000 to 2004 by the Chief Scientist Office. It found that dihydrocodeine was as good as methadone in terms of outcomes such as survival, retention in treatment and continued drug use. An executive summary of the final report is available on the Chief Scientist Office website www.show.scot.nhs.uk/cso.

Question reference: S2W-23192

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 8 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the conviction rate has been for those accused of (a) drug dealing, (b) being in possession of drugs, (c) drug trafficking, (iv) employing others to deal in drugs and (v) living off immoral earnings in each of the last five years.

The available information is given in the table. The court proceedings statistics for 2004-05 are planned for publication in spring 2006.

Persons with a Charge Proved in Scottish Courts for Selected Offences¹as a Percentage of Total Persons Proceeded Against, 1999-2003.

Offence	1999	2000	2001	2002⁴	2003^4,5
Supply, possession with intent to supply drugs	71	73	73	73	73
Possession of drugs	88	87	89	89	89
Drug trafficking²	71	74	73	73	73
Living off immoral earnings³	100	-	100	100	100

Notes:

1. Where main offence. “Employing others to deal in drugs” is not an identifiable offence category within the Justice Department classification of crimes and offences.

2. Includes illegal importation, production and supply of drugs, money laundering and other related offences.

3. Includes brothel keeping and immoral traffic offences.

4. There is an undercount of acquittals in the 2002 and 2003 data for persons proceeded against. As a result the percentage conviction rate figures for these years have been estimated.

5. Includes estimated data.

Question reference: S2W-23180

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 8 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessments it has made of current drug treatment programmes.

The Scottish Executive has commissioned a range of research to assess current drug treatment programmes. All relevant research reports published over the last five years are listed. Copies of these reports can be found on the Drug Misuse Information Scotland Website www.drugmisuse.isdscotland.org/publications or the Chief Scientist Office website,

www.show.scot.nhs.uk/cso/publications:

Evaluation of the Scottish Prison Service Transitional Care Initiative (2006)

Evaluation of the Lord Advocates Guidance on Needle Exchange (2005)

Rural and remote areas: Effective approaches to delivering integrated care for drug users (2005)

Service Provision for Drug Users in Rural and Remote Areas of Scotland: a Qualitative Study (2005)

Impact of Methadone Maintenance Therapy, Five Years after Initial Entry into Treatment (2004)

Reconviction Following Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (2004)

Examining the Injecting Practices of Injecting Drug Users in Scotland (2004)

Residential detoxification and rehabilitation services for drug users: A review (2004)

An exploration of the role of substance misuse nurses in Scotland (2004)

Evaluation of The Provision of Single Use Citric Acid Sachets (2003)

‘Moving On’: Update - Employability & Employment (2003)

The Life Skills Training Drug Education Programme: Review of Research (2003)

Hepatitis C: Risks and Prevention Strategies in Injecting Drug Users (2002)

Supporting Families and Carers of Drug Users: A Review (2002)

Support for the Families of Drug Users - A Review of the Literature (2002)

Drug Treatment Services for Young People: A Systematic Review (2002)

Drug Treatment Services for Young People - A Research Review (2002)

Evaluation of the Greater Glasgow Pharmacy Needle Exchange Scheme (2002)

‘Moving On’: Education, Training and Employment (2001).

Question reference: S2W-23191

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 8 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how much money it has ring fenced to tackle drug-related issues in each year since 1999, broken down by (a) department and (b) budget heading.

The following table details ring-fenced funding for drug-related activities broken down by department and budget heading since 2003.

Department	Budget Heading	2003-04 (£000)	2004-05 (£000)	2005-06 (£000)
Justice	Arrest Referral	720	590	500
	Drugs Courts	1,200	1,900	1,900
	Drug Treatment and Testing Orders	4,200	5,300	7,200
	Time Out Centre	150	1,700	1,700
	Drug Association Team Support*	1,600	1,600	1,600
	Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency	19,470	16,690	25,540
	Scottish Drug Forum*	90	190	210
	Scotland Against Drugs*	1,500	1,500	1,500
	Treatment Programmes*	16,900	19,750	23,700
	GP Training*	nil	nil	350
	Drug Misuse Research Programme*	540	540	446
	ISD – Drug Information Strategy*	551.5	944.5	703.5
Health	Scottish Drug Forum	205	212	219
Health	Crew 2000	25	25	nil
Education	Scottish Network for Families Against Drug	180	10	23
	Scottish Drug Forum	49	51	53
	Crew 2000	26.9	26.9	26.9
	Re-solve	nil	nil	29.2
	Choices for Life	nil	300	nil

Note: *Transferred from the Health Department to the Justice Department in 2005.

Question reference: S2W-23183

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 8 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how much money it has allocated to drug treatment programmes in each year since 1999.

The following table shows funding allocations to NHS boards for drug treatment and care services since 1999.

Year	Total (£000)
1999-2000	11,352
2000-01	12,352
2001-02	14,973
2002-03	16,951
2003-04	16,951
2004-05	19,750
2005-06	23,700

In addition, local authorities received the following GAE allocations which were ring-fenced for drug services.

Year	Total
1999-2000	0
2000-01	6,800,000
2001-02	6,800,000
2002-03	6,800,000

Question reference: S2W-23193

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 February 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 8 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) longest and (b) shortest sentence has been for anyone convicted of (i) drug dealing, (ii) being in possession of drugs, (iii) drug trafficking, (iv) employing others to deal in drugs and (v) living off immoral earnings in each of the last five years.

The available information is given in the table. The court proceedings statistics for 2004-05 are planned for publication in spring 2006.

Persons Given a Custodial Sentence in Scottish Courts for Selected Offences¹:

Minimum and Maximum Sentence Imposed (Days), 1999-2003

Offence	1999		2000		2001		2002		2003
Offence	Min.	Max.	Min.	Max.	Min.	Max.	Min.	Max.	Min.	Max.
Supply, possession with intent to supply drugs	30	6,209	30	4,182	40	4,383	14	3,653	14	5,114
Possession of drugs	7	2,557	5	1,461	7	2,192	7	1,096	7	3,196
Drug trafficking²	30	6,209	30	4,383	40	4,383	14	3,653	14	6,575
Living off immoral earnings³	-	-	-	-	-	-	91	91	-	-

Notes:

1. Where main offence. “Employing others to deal in drugs” is not an identifiable offence category within the Justice Department classification of crimes and offences.

2. Includes illegal importation, production and supply of drugs, money laundering and other related offences.

3. Includes brothel keeping and immoral traffic offences.