Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-35204

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 July 2010
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 29 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many members of each emergency service have been breathalysed and, of those, how many were found to be over the legal drink-drive limit in each year since 1997, also expressed as a proportion of total tests undertaken.

Data on the number of members of emergency services who have been breathalysed, and the number of those who were found to be over the legal drink-drive limit is not available centrally.

The information provided by the police refers to the number of cases recorded where an individual is in charge of a motor vehicle while unfit through drink or drugs, or has failed to provide a specimen for testing. Because there are several different preliminary tests (preliminary breath test, preliminary impairment test, and preliminary drug test), and the police officer involved may administer any one or more of these, the number of such incidents does not relate directly to the number of times that a breathalyser test has been carried out. Furthermore, the data is collected at an aggregate level, so details of individual crimes, such as the occupation of the individual, are not available.

I also refer the member to the answer to question S3W-35201 on 29 July 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Question reference: S3W-35201

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 July 2010
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 29 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many drivers have been breathalysed and, of those, how many were found to be over the legal drink-drive limit in each year since 1997, also expressed as a proportion of total tests undertaken and broken down by local authority area.

Data on the number of drivers who have been breathalysed, and the number of those who were found to be over the legal drink-drive limit is not available centrally.

The information provided by the police refers to the number of cases recorded where an individual is in charge of a motor vehicle while unfit through drink or drugs, or has failed to provide a specimen for testing. Because there are several different preliminary tests (preliminary breath test, preliminary impairment test, and preliminary drug test), and the police officer involved may administer any one or more of these, the number of such incidents does not relate directly to the number of times that a breathalyser test has been carried out. Furthermore, the data is collected at an aggregate level, so details of individual crimes, such as the occupation of the individual, are not available.

The following tables provide the number of crimes and offences, relating to motor vehicles, involving driving, and drink or drugs¹, by local authority area for 1997-98 to 2008-09

(i) 1997-98 to 2002-03

	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03
Aberdeen City	485	472	395	390	431	474
Aberdeenshire	373	372	374	352	334	400
Angus	194	173	165	134	234	193
Argyll and Bute	217	158	171	193	212	233
Clackmannanshire	71	70	63	70	52	80
Dumfries and Galloway	238	251	184	207	227	204
Dundee City	305	281	306	295	367	364
East Ayrshire	150	143	166	154	164	175
East Dunbartonshire	102	123	107	104	98	124
East Lothian	107	104	100	82	95	98
East Renfrewshire	66	96	92	66	83	76
Edinburgh, City of	833	822	813	756	768	712
Eilean Siar	113	56	65	57	74	57
Falkirk	236	198	237	217	270	252
Fife	510	450	488	520	613	717
Glasgow City	1,283	1,229	1,215	1,216	1,274	1,283
Highland	489	537	518	460	593	539
Inverclyde	111	111	113	116	150	127
Midlothian	168	151	127	121	137	163
Moray	165	184	149	158	216	204
North Ayrshire	219	211	193	181	191	219
North Lanarkshire	558	517	506	564	568	554
Orkney Islands	42	32	31	31	28	35
Perth and Kinross	266	225	249	241	237	273
Renfrewshire	302	292	278	281	303	309
Scottish Borders	144	134	143	152	176	183
Shetland Islands	67	45	44	52	38	64
South Ayrshire	150	168	209	206	174	212
South Lanarkshire	428	352	442	401	453	435
Stirling	180	191	157	180	200	229
West Dunbartonshire	181	185	178	152	157	162
West Lothian	279	324	308	327	367	314
Scotland	9,032	8,657	8,586	8,436	9,284	9,464

(ii) 2003-04 to 2008-09

	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
Aberdeen City	503	494	443	427	409	407
Aberdeenshire	410	403	424	417	421	407
Angus	233	224	250	229	200	197
Argyll and Bute	233	231	222	229	180	192
Clackmannanshire	64	78	76	98	76	69
Dumfries and Galloway	222	172	224	262	246	223
Dundee City	391	330	321	305	247	233
East Ayrshire	191	182	195	181	192	159
East Dunbartonshire	123	95	105	125	111	107
East Lothian	118	106	135	137	156	133
East Renfrewshire	91	92	85	64	75	75
Edinburgh, City of	604	681	735	676	597	552
Eilean Siar	77	77	100	81	82	54
Falkirk	244	262	211	239	236	224
Fife	675	545	639	692	633	570
Glasgow City	1,302	1,146	1,214	1,195	1,107	983
Highland	607	535	556	555	538	515
Inverclyde	139	117	93	111	96	110
Midlothian	157	127	110	149	131	125
Moray	202	203	171	156	140	136
North Ayrshire	212	233	217	198	207	213
North Lanarkshire	542	486	480	529	486	476
Orkney Islands	35	40	32	49	36	28
Perth and Kinross	263	250	253	262	251	226
Renfrewshire	252	222	230	298	291	261
Scottish Borders	185	173	179	174	154	151
Shetland Islands	62	62	45	59	39	45
South Ayrshire	176	206	179	222	187	148
South Lanarkshire	438	465	423	480	424	404
Stirling	168	147	150	188	149	141
West Dunbartonshire	133	157	158	197	201	137
West Lothian	276	260	287	295	278	275
Scotland	9,328	8,801	8,942	9,279	8,576	7,976

Note:

1. Comprises the following crimes/ offences:

- Death by careless driving when under influence of drink/drugs.

- Driving a motor vehicle while unfit through drink or drugs.

- In charge of a motor vehicle while unfit through drink/drugs.

- Driving a motor vehicle with blood alcohol content above the prescribed limit.

- In charge of a motor vehicle while blood alcohol content is above the limit.

An additional table which includes the number of offences of failing to provide a breath specimen has also been prepared and a copy of this table will be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 51378).

Question reference: S3W-35202

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 July 2010
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 29 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many bus or coach drivers have been breathalysed and, of those, how many were found to be over the legal drink-drive limit in each year since 1997, also expressed as a proportion of total tests undertaken and broken down by local authority area.

Data on the number of bus or coach drivers who have been breathalysed, and the number of those who were found to be over the legal drink-drive limit is not available centrally.

The information provided by the police refers to the number of cases recorded where an individual is in charge of a motor vehicle while unfit through drink or drugs, or has failed to provide a specimen for testing. Because there are several different preliminary tests (preliminary breath test, preliminary impairment test, and preliminary drug test), and the police officer involved may administer any one or more of these, the number of such incidents does not relate directly to the number of times that a breathalyser test has been carried out. Furthermore, the data is collected at an aggregate level, so details of individual crimes, such as the occupation of the individual, are not available.

I also refer the member to the answer to question S3W-35201 on 29 July 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Question reference: S3W-34985

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 26 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost-benefit ratio is for the Borders railway project.

Question reference: S3W-35199

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 July 2010
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 22 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many transport-related fines it has settled on behalf of its staff and at what cost in (a) cash and (b) real terms in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S3W-35005

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 19 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the publication of the Road Safety Foundation’s report, Saving Lives for Less, which shows that Scotland has the highest average risk rating of all regions in Britain, whether it will establish a dedicated accident black spot fund.

Question reference: S3W-35006

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 19 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will respond to the findings of the Road Safety Foundation’s report, Saving Lives for Less, which shows that Scotland has the highest average risk rating of all regions in Britain.

Question reference: S3W-34931

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 19 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive hhow many (a) accidents, (b) injuries and (c) fatalities there have been at Scottish airports or on flights scheduled to arrive at or depart from them in each year since 1997, also broken down by airport.

Question reference: S3W-34692

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 8 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how much was awarded to each local authority under the Smarter Choices, Smarter Places scheme; how many households have been visited to advocate the merits of public transport in each case, and how many additional public transport journeys have resulted from these visits.

Activities in the seven communities in Smarter Choices Smarter Places include: better public transport services; residential improvements; upgrades in walking and cycling infrastructure; and travel information. The following table outlines funding awarded to each local authority under the Smarter Choices, Smarter Places programme between 2008 and 2011.

Local Authority (SCSP Community)	Scottish Government Funding (£)	Match Funding from LA/RTP (£)	Project Totals (£)
Dundee City (Dundee - part of)	1,424,000	740,000	2,164,000
Dumfries and Galloway (Dumfries)	2,703,000	2,665,319	5,368,319
East Dunbartonshire (Kirkintilloch and Lenzie)	610,000	440,000	1,050,000
East Renfrewshire (Barrhead)	813,200	545,000	1,358,200
Falkirk (Larbert and Stenhousemuir)	926,362	453,362	1,379,724
Glasgow City (East End)	1,342,500	1,157,500	2,500,000
Orkney Islands (Kirkwall)	762,000	517,000	1,279,000
Funding totals	8,581,062	6,518,181	15,099,243

As an element of the projects being undertaken in Barrhead, Dumfries, Dundee, Larbert and Stenhousemuir, 22,640 households have been visited to date (see the following table for details). There are a further 13,854 household to be visited during the remainder of 2010. The purpose of these visits has been to deliver travel planning guidance and information, in all cases this includes the public transport options available to that community and how an individual or household can use these as an alternative to a journey undertaken by private car.

Household Visits to Date
Local Authority (SCSP Community)	2009	2010
Dundee City (Dundee - part of)	4704	On going
Dumfries & Galloway (Dumfries)	-	2,646
East Dunbartonshire (Kirkintilloch and Lenzie)
East Renfrewshire (Barrhead)	2,500	2,500
Falkirk (Larbert and Stenhousemuir)	5,843	4,447
Glasgow City (East End)
Orkney Islands (Kirkwall)	-	-
Total	13,047	9,593

Monitoring and evaluating the impacts of the SCSP Programme is important. To date a baseline report has been published against which changes in travel attitudes and behaviour are being measured.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Transport/sustainable-transport/Baseline

Interim monitoring results will be available by Autumn 2010.

Question reference: S3W-34693

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 21 June 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 7 July 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the standard of maintenance of motorways and trunk roads since the responsibility was contracted out to private companies and on what basis it has made its analysis.

The standard of maintenance of motorways and trunk roads by the Trunk Road Operating Companies is independently monitored and audited by the Performance Audit Group (PAG) on behalf of Transport Scotland. PAG''s assessment of the performance of the operating companies is published in its annual report, which is available online at:

http://www.performanceauditgroup.co.uk/publicat.htm.

The most recent PAG annual report (2008-09) notes that overall, the operating companies carried out maintenance of the network well and that the standard of workmanship by the Operating Companies, their sub-contractors and works contractors was generally good.

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