Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-09255

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 31 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 February 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken to ensure that diabetic patients on rosiglitazone who suffer from ischemic heart disease or peripheral arterial disease are no longer prescribed this medicine in line with the advice of the European Medicines Agency.

The safety of medicines is reserved and is the responsibility of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The MHRA has advised that the European Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has recommended new restrictions and warnings for rosiglitazone, including advice that it is not recommended for use in patients with ischaemic heart disease or peripheral arterial disease, because of concerns about an increased risk of myocardial infarction in these patients.

Health care professionals were informed about this new advice in the February 2008 edition of the MHRA Drug Safety Update bulletin. The product information for all rosiglitazone containing products is also being updated to incorporate the new advice.

Question reference: S3O-01980

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 January 2008
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 24 January 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made to implement its strategy to augment police numbers by the deferred retirement of existing police officers.

The Scottish Government’s priorityis to recruit, retain and redeploy police officers to build police capacity andstrengthen operational policing in our communities. Thus delivering an additional1,000 officers into our communities.

Retaining valuable officers isimportant to the government and communities. The 30 + scheme is not working as wellas we would wish.

We are therefore looking to developmore opportunities which will enable chief constables to retain the skills of someof the 2,300 experienced officers who will be eligible to retire over the lifetimeof this Parliament and who wish to continue serving their communities.

Question reference: S3W-08072

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 December 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 21 January 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prescriptions have been dispensed in each year since 1999, showing how many were (a) dispensed free of charge and (b) subject to a prescription charge.

The total number of prescriptionsdispensed in Scotland by community pharmacists, dispensing doctors and appliancesuppliers is shown in the table.

Financial Year Ending 31 March	Dispensed Without Charge or by Prepayment Certificate¹	Dispensed with Charge	Total Dispensed
2000	54,569,254	6,298,914	60,868,168
2001	56,871,396	6,169,236	63,040,632
2002	59,762,675	6,461,267	66,223,942
2003	63,158,412	6,322,180	69,480,592
2004	66,169,189	5,996,779	72,165,968
2005	68,980,965	5,646,360	74,627,325
2006	71,477,618	5,790,334	77,267,952
2007	73,790,083	5,675,627	79,465,710

Source: ISD Scotland.

Note: 1. The number of prepayment certificates issued in theyear ending 31 March 2007 by NHS boards was 182,874. A prepayment certificate canbe used to obtain an unspecified number of prescriptions during the period. Forthe year ending 2007 the number of prescriptions dispensed using a prepayment certificatewas 3,774,467 - data is not available for earlier years.

Question reference: S3W-08165

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 21 December 2007
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 17 January 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to protect sensitive data, following the loss of the personal details of 25 million people by HM Revenue and Customs.

Our data protection and ITsecurity policies are corporate within the Scottish Government and there arespecific data transfer protocols for transferring particular types of informationbetween specific bodies or systems. This is in line with the overall frameworkon information security laid down by Cabinet Office for the UK civilservice.

Following the HMRC incident,and along with other UK public bodies, we are currently conducting a reviewof data handling across the Scottish Government, its associated bodies and thewider public sector in Scotland. The review is considering the procedures currentlyin place for the protection of data, their consistency with government-widestandards and policies, and arrangements for ensuring that policies andprocedures are being fully and correctly implemented. It will enable us toconsider the need for any further measures and will allow us to consistentlyshare best practice throughout the wider public sector.

Question reference: S3W-07246

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 13 December 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to pilot driving on hard shoulders during rush hour on congested stretches of roads, in light of the results of the UK Government’s pilot scheme allowing drivers to use the hard shoulder on the M42 outside Birmingham during rush hour.

Question reference: S3O-01614

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 December 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 13 December 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to increase the protection of the public as a result of the terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport on 30 June 2007.

Public safety remainsthe Scottish Government’s top priority, and security arrangements are kept underconstant review. The lessons learned from the Glasgow Airport incident have informed our resilience planningacross a range of sectors. The government and all public bodies remain ever vigilantagainst the terrorist threat in our determination to ensure we are playing our partin protecting the Scottish public.

Question reference: S3W-07291

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 11 December 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-4760 by Stewart Stevenson on 25 October 2007, what contingency arrangements have been made to ensure that the Isle of Arran has sufficient fuels in the event of adverse weather conditions making roads impassable or leading to the cancellation of ferry services to the island.

Localauthorities, as Category 1 responders under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004,have a responsibility to assess the risk of emergencies occurring, and to usethis to inform contingency planning. North Ayrshire Council believe their plansin this regard are robust and sufficient.

For example, Iunderstand that should severe weather, or any other reason, stop fuel gettingto Arran, there is normally sufficient stock held at the Scottish Fuels depotin Brodick to last up to eight weeks. North Ayrshire Council also hassubstantial fuel storage facilities on the island.

Question reference: S3W-06597

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 29 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-4661 by Jim Mather on 15 October 2007, how many children aged under six months were registered for adoption in each year from 1967 to 1987, also showing the total number of births in each year.

The informationrequested is given in the following table.

Adoptions ofChildren Aged Under Six Months, 1967-87

Year of Adoption	Number	Total Number of Births
1967	277	96,221
1968	308	94,786
1969	315	90,290
1970	244	87,335
1971	185	86,728
1972	195	78,550
1973	215	74,392
1974	165	70,093
1975	135	67,943
1976	102	64,895
1977	93	62,342
1978	85	64,294
1979	36	68,366
1980	72	68,890
1981	70	69,054
1982	85	66,196
1983	85	65,078
1984	70	65,106
1985	51	66,676
1986	56	65,812
1987	33	66,241

Question reference: S3W-06165

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tricia Marwick on 19 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many (a) times each MSP has applied for public gallery tickets, (b) public gallery tickets each MSP has applied for, (c) times each MSP has been provided with public gallery tickets and (d) public gallery tickets each MSP has received for First Minister’s Question Time since May 2007.

The system usedfor ticket bookings does not record enquiries which do not result in asuccessful booking. The following table shows the number of times when eachMSP has been able to book tickets for Debating Chamber public gallery ticketsin the period from 23 May 2007 to 8 November 2007, and the total number oftickets that each MSP has received for FMQT during that period. The numbers inthe FMQT column may be lower than the column showing the number of bookings, asthe latter includes bookings for business other than FMQT.

	Number of Bookings	Number of Tickets for FMQT
Brian Adam	16	31
Bashir Ahmad	1	2
Bill Aitken	2	4
Wendy Alexander	3	1
Alasdair Allan	5	16
Jackie Baillie	13	38
Claire Baker	3	14
Richard Baker	1	0
Sarah Boyack	7	2
Rhona Brankin	1	0
Gavin Brown	2	5
Keith Brown	5	12
Robert Brown	1	2
Derek Brownlee	4	5
Bill Butler	4	13
Aileen Campbell	4	4
Jackson Carlaw	4	3
Malcolm Chisholm	10	6
Angela Constance	2	2
Cathie Craigie	3	9
Bruce Crawford	6	8
Roseanna Cunningham	8	34
Margaret Curran	1	0
Bob Doris	12	16
Helen Eadie	5	2
Fergus Ewing	8	8
Patricia Ferguson	1	0
Alex Fergusson	12	149
Joe FitzPatrick	2	0
George Foulkes	1	0
Murdo Fraser	4	4
Karen Gillon	14	180
Marlyn Glen	4	2
Trish Godman	7	32
Charlie Gordon	4	30
Christine Grahame	3	15
Rhoda Grant	3	5
Robin Harper	9	2
Christopher Harvie	3	0
Patrick Harvie	1	0
Hugh Henry	2	0
Jamie Hepburn	6	5
Jim Hume	8	0
Fiona Hyslop	1	1
Adam Ingram	7	4
Cathy Jamieson	1	0
Alex Johnstone	4	0
James Kelly	2	0
Andy Kerr	5	11
Johann Lamont	3	5
John Lamont	9	70
Marilyn Livingstone	10	11
Richard Lochhead	9	51
Kenny MacAskill	12	38
Lewis Macdonald	12	37
Margo MacDonald	4	1
Ken Macintosh	11	90
Paul Martin	1	10
Tricia Marwick	9	23
Jim Mather	1	0
Michael Matheson	2	10
Stewart Maxwell	2	4
Frank McAveety	1	0
Tom McCabe	1	25
Jack McConnell	1	5
Jamie McGrigor	4	0
Alison McInnes	2	0
Ian McKee	1	4
David McLetchie	18	10
Michael McMahon	2	25
Stuart McMillan	1	2
Duncan McNeil	1	2
Pauline McNeill	4	0
Des McNulty	9	7
Nanette Milne	2	30
Margaret Mitchell	3	2
Alasdair Morgan	3	14
Mary Mulligan	3	0
Alex Neil	1	2
Hugh O'Donnell	2	0
Irene Oldfather	3	5
John Park	3	0
Gil Paterson	3	5
Peter Peacock	5	9
Cathy Peattie	6	56
Mike Pringle	20	23
Jeremy Purvis	10	6
Shona Robison	2	21
Mike Rumbles	2	28
Michael Russell	5	0
Alex Salmond	22	57
John Scott	10	10
Tavish Scott	1	0
Richard Simpson	6	14
Elaine Smith	2	0
Elizabeth Smith	4	26
Iain Smith	1	0
Margaret Smith	3	0
Nicol Stephen	10	0
Stewart Stevenson	2	25
David Stewart	1	0
Jamie Stone	3	2
Nicola Sturgeon	5	4
John Swinney	22	192
Dave Thompson	1	0
Jim Tolson	2	1
Stefan Tymkewycz	3	1
Maureen Watt	4	30
Andrew Welsh	1	0
Sandra White	9	6
Karen Whitefield	2	2
David Whitton	2	0
Bill Wilson	1	2
John Wilson	4	4

Question reference: S3W-05640

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 October 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 5 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of total firearms offences recorded each year since 1997 were committed with (a) legally and (b) illegally held firearms.

It is not known whatpercentage of total firearms offences are committed with legally or illegally heldfirearms. This is because, although the firearm certificate status of the accusedis collected as part of the statistical return, in a large proportion of cases theperpetrator or weapons alleged to have been used in the commission of a crime arenot identified by the police. In a number of cases the firearm itself is not actuallyseen but identified based on the type of damage caused. Furthermore, it should benoted that a large proportion of offences are committed using air weapons, whichcan be legally held without a licence.

The firearm certificatestatus of the accused in firearms offences are shown in the following table:

Crimes and OffencesInvolving Firearms, 1997-98 to 2006-07: by Certificate Status of Accused,Firearms Certificate Status of Accused

Year	All	Holds Valid Certificate	Certificate Not Required (e.g. air weapon)	Certificate Not Held - Stolen weapon	Certificate Not Held - Other	Weapon Unidentified and not Recovered	No Accused Details
1997-98	1,054	12	330	5	97	22	588
1998-99	1,051	13	320	-	115	28	575
1999-2000	975	5	301	-	117	5	547
2000-01	960	6	298	1	125	30	500
2001-02	1,003	4	276	3	105	58	557
2002-03	1,034	8	339	-	52	76	559
2003-04	958	10	231	-	35	110	572
2004-05	1,136	5	323	-	51	49	708
2005-06	1,068	12	336	2	49	57	612
2006-07	1,245	14	575	11	64	50	531

Note:Figures relate to the number of crimes and offences and not the number ofaccused. An accused may be recorded against a number of crimes.

Chamber and committees