- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 5 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many firearms offences there have been in the Strathclyde police force area in each year since 1997, also broken down by (a) division and (b) sub-division.
Answer
Firearm statisticsbroken down by division and sub-division are not held centrally. The figures requestedfor Strathclyde police force area are provided in the following table:
Number of RecordedCrimes and Offences Involving Firearms in Strathclyde
Police Force Area,1997-98 to 2006-07
| Year | Number of Recorded Crimes and Offences |
| 1997-98 | 637 |
| 1998-99 | 552 |
| 1999-2000 | 536 |
| 2000-01 | 522 |
| 2001-02 | 531 |
| 2002-03 | 520 |
| 2003-04 | 452 |
| 2004-051 | 531 |
| 2005-062 | 474 |
| 2006-072 | 691 |
Notes:
1.The Scottish Crime Recording Standard was introduced on 1 April 2004. Figures for some crime categoriesmay have been inflated by this.
2.From 2005-06, and particularly 2006-07, the figures are expected to provide a fullercoverage of crimes and offences following clarification of the counting rules andthe scope of the statistical return. For further details see statistical bulletinCrJ/2007/10, Notes 5.15-5.17.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 5 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many injuries and fatalities resulting from firearms offences there have been in the Strathclyde police force area in each year since 1997, also broken down by (a) division and (b) sub-division.
Answer
Firearm statisticsbroken down by division and sub-division are not held centrally. The figures requestedfor Strathclyde police force area are provided in the following table:
Number of RecordedCrimes and Offences Involving Firearms in Strathclyde, where a Firearm was Firedand Caused Injury, 1997-98 to 2006-07
| Year | Fired Resulting in Fatal Injury | Fired Resulting in Other Injury | Total Number where Firearm Fired and Caused Injury |
| 1997-98 | 5 | 155 | 160 |
| 1998-99 | 5 | 131 | 136 |
| 1999-2000 | 2 | 155 | 157 |
| 2000-01 | 3 | 203 | 206 |
| 2001-02 | 5 | 197 | 202 |
| 2002-03 | 3 | 204 | 207 |
| 2003-04 | 2 | 146 | 148 |
| 2004-051 | 7 | 207 | 214 |
| 2005-062 | 7 | 102 | 109 |
| 2006-072 | 6 | 151 | 157 |
Notes:
1. The ScottishCrime Recording Standard was introduced on 1 April 2004. Figures for some crime categories may have beeninflated by this.
2. From 2005-06,and particularly 2006-07, the figures are expected to provide a fuller coverageof crimes and offences following clarification in the counting rules and thescope of the statistical return. For further details see statistical bulletinCrJ/2007/10, Notes 5.15-5.17.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 5 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to ensure that all patients who are suspected of suffering from cancer are subject to the maximum waiting time guarantee.
Answer
All patients who areurgently referred by a GP are subject to the 62 day national target waiting time.
The Cancer Performance Support Team has been working directlywith NHS boards to ensure critical timed pathways are in place backed up by robustinter-hospital transfer agreements to support delivery of the target. Boards alsotrack all urgent referrals and weekly monitoring is routine to support local operationaldelivery teams.
I have made it clearto all NHS boards that I expect this 62 day urgent referral to treatment targetto be achieved from the end of this year.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 31 October 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has a maximum waiting time guarantee for applicants under the central heating programme and, if so, what that guarantee is.
Answer
I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:
There is no maximumwaiting time guarantee for applicants to the central heating programme.
The programme is demand-led.As such, waiting times are dependent on the number of householders applying, theavailable resources, installer capacity and technical variations around type ofsystem, planning considerations etc.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 31 October 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications have been made under the central heating programme and what the average wait between application and installation has been since its inception, also broken down by parliamentary constituency.
Answer
I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:
Information in theformat requested is not held centrally.
The average waitingtime on the central heating programme reported by the managing agent since2002-03 is shown in the following table:
| Year | Average Waiting Time (Months) |
| 2002-03 | 8 |
| 2003-04 | 8 |
| 2004-05 | 5-6 |
| 2005-06 | 5-6 |
| 2006-07 | 5 |
| 2007-08 (current) | 5-6 |
In 2006-07, 25,133householders applied to the programme and in 2007-08, 15,197 have applied, to theend of September.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 31 October 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to end the practice of children and adolescents being admitted to adult psychiatric wards as a result of a lack of suitable in-patient facilities for children and adolescents.
Answer
We continue our workwith NHS boards and other partners to deliver the objectives from the Mental Healthof Children and Young People’s Framework (Bib. number 38415) and Delivering a HealthyFuture (Bib. number 42137) designed to achieve early and sustained change and improvementon all aspects of child and adolescent mental health care.
We are seeing progressin delivering the key timetabled milestones including attention on training andworkforce planning; increasing bed numbers; better early intervention; supportedtransitions; improved primary care, and improved planning and delivery of specialistcare for children and young people with mental health problems.
Work to reduce inappropriateadmissions to adult beds is showing real progress. There were 186 such admissionslast year, a significant reduction from the 290 recorded for 2002. This progressreflects our drive to increase the number of dedicated beds for this important caregroup from 44 beds to 56 by 2010 and our attention on improving provision to supportchildren and young people in the community, to prevent inappropriate admissionsand to facilitate earlier and safe discharge from hospital care.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 31 October 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many beds there have been for children and adolescents in child and adolescent psychiatric wards in each year since 1999.
Answer
Information by hospitalward is not collected centrally. However, figures for the specialties Child Psychiatryand Adolescent Psychiatry and are given in the following table.
Average AvailableStaffed Hospital Beds for Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Specialties in Scotland
| | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 |
| Child Psychiatry | 30 | 23 | 15 | 16 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 9 |
| Adolescent Psychiatry | 39 | 40 | 48 | 43 | 38 | 32 | 35 | 35 | 35 |
Source:ISD(S)1.
Work to reduce inappropriateadmissions to adult beds is showing real progress. There were 186 such admissionslast year, a significant reduction from the 290 recorded for 2002. This progressreflects our drive to increase the number of dedicated beds for this important caregroup from 44 beds to 56 by 2010 and our attention on improving provision to supportchildren and young people in the community, to prevent inappropriate admissionsand to facilitate earlier and safe discharge from hospital care.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 31 October 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many babies have been born to drug-dependent mothers in each year since 1999, also broken down by maternity unit.
Answer
The information requestedis supplied for the years 1998-99 to 2004-05 (the latest year available) in Table1: Number of Babies Born in Maternities Recording Drug Misuse by Hospital, YearEnding 31 March, a copy of which is available in the Scottish ParliamentInformation Centre (Bib. number 43944).
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 30 October 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that the building being constructed as a replacement for the Victoria Infirmary in Glasgow contains the requisite features of a hospital.
Answer
NHS Glasgow and Clydehave, following extensive consultation, developed a strategy for the future deliveryof health care services for the area covered by that board. This service strategyinvolves the replacement of a number of existing facilities which are not consideredappropriate for the delivery of health care services in the 21st Century and theVictoria Hospital falls into that category.
Not only are modelsof care vastly different to those practised when the Victoria Hospital was built but the use of modern materialsand methods of construction result in buildings which frequently differ in appearanceto those being replaced. Indeed we should expect and welcome change to the physicalappearance of healthcare buildings as we place increasing emphasis on environmentswhich are supportive of the recovery process and of the staff who work in our hospitals.
The building currentlyunder construction to replace the Victoria Hospital will be very different in appearance but what is criticalis that it delivers the appropriate range of healthcare facilities in an appropriateenvironment. I am confident that the new building will deliver these clinical servicesfrom a building which has been designed to the highest standards.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 30 October 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a comprehensive list of all its waiting time guarantees for the health service and the latest figures for the number of patients who have been treated (a) within and (b) outwith guaranteed waiting times.
Answer
The NHS in Scotland is working to ensure delivery of a number of nationalwaiting times targets for the benefit of patients. These national targets are publishedon the
Acute Hospital Care website, which is operated by NHS National ServicesScotland’s Information Services Division. The website can be accessed at:
www.isdscotland.org/waiting_times.The website is updatedregularly and statistics on performance against all the national waiting times targetsare shown on the website, with the exception of the target that every patient shouldhave access to a GP, nurse or other health care professional within 48 hours. Forthe years 2005-06 and 2006-07, NHS boards reported that some 99% of practices demonstratedcompliance with requirements for this target, compared with 97% in 2004-05.
We are supportingNHS boards as they work towards abolishing availability status codes and introducingnew arrangements for measuring waiting times, so that all patients waiting for afirst out-patient appointment with a consultant or for hospital inpatient or daycase treatment come within the scope of national targets from the beginning of nextyear.
Consideration is currentlybeing given to ways in which waiting times targets can be turned into legally bindingwaiting times guarantees and so make them more meaningful to patients. We will consultwidely on this in due course.
