Chamber and committees

Local authorities are under a duty to comply with disability discrimination legislation and should take this into account when promoting traffic regulation orders.

When making traffic regulation orders under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, local authorities are required to follow the provisions of the Local Authorities'' Traffic Orders (Procedures) (Scotland) Regulations 1999, which specifies the requirements for consultation.

The Scottish Ministers are not aware of any body that is entitled to place an obstruction on a public road without prior permission of the relevant local authority.

The making of Traffic Regulation Orders is a matter for the individual local authority and Scottish ministers have no role to play in this process.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information at North Lanarkshire Council''s local area partnership areas. However, through the existing range of Low-cost Initiative for First Time Buyers (LIFT) schemes operated by the government, prospective homeowners across North Lanarkshire have access to the following:

- The New Supply Shared Equity Scheme (NSSE) which allows first time buyers to buy a new build property. A list of shared equity developments receiving government funding is available from the Scottish Government''s website at www.scotland.gov.uk.

- Open Market Shared Equity Pilot (OMSEP) “ a pilot scheme to allow first time buyers to buy a property on the open market.

Regarding further planned schemes, we intend to carry out an independent evaluation of the LIFT shared equity schemes next year, in the meantime, we are reviewing the relative balance of support for the LIFT schemes in the planning of the 2010-11 Affordable Housing Investment Programme.

While we are aware that a number of developers have introduced their own shared equity schemes to assist prospective homeowners, we do not hold information on these initiatives.

In Scotland there is no specific scheme in operation directed solely towards rent to mortgage. Opportunities do however exist through LIFT, the low-cost initiative for first time buyers which aims to help people on low incomes become owners but whose financial resources are insufficient to meet their needs because of local housing market prices.

The Misuse of Drugs (Supply to Addicts) Regulations 1997 require that only medical practitioners who hold a special licence issued by the Home Secretary may prescribe, administer or supply diamorphine (heroin) in the treatment of drug addiction.

General practitioners and other doctors do not require a special licence for prescribing diamorphine for patients for relieving pain form organic disease or injury.

The Dangerous Drugs (Supply to Addicts) Regulations 1968 restricted the prescribing of heroin for addicts to doctors licensed for that purpose.

General practitioners and other doctors do not require a special licence for prescribing diamorphine (heroin) for patients for relieving pain from organic disease or injury.

Data on the precise number of cases where the disclosure process has revealed sexual offences committed by prospective host parents is not available. This is because the variety of ways the position of host parent is described on disclosure applications makes it difficult to draw down aggregated statistics. Of those applications which were specifically identified as relating to host parents in 2008-09, 7% had convictions disclosed. We cannot confirm the detail of those offences, whether those were sexual offences nor any action that organisations may have taken as a result. Disclosure Scotland does not routinely gather information on what recruitment decisions are made following receipt of the disclosure certificate. For this reason, knowledge of the deterrent effect of disclosure in these cases is anecdotal and it is not appropriate to comment on particular cases. profes

I have asked Willie Pretswell, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

This information is not available, however drug dependency performance data from 1970 is presented in the following tables.

Table 1

Year	Average Daily Population	Number known to have Drug Dependency Issues	Additional Information
1970	5,003	35
1971	5,338	42
1972	5,220	87
1973	4,810	40
1974	4,689	6	Figure relates only to hard drugs e.g. Heroin
1975	4,951	17
1976	4,884	32	Figure relates only to hard drugs e.g. Heroin
1977	4,871	15
1978	5,062	42
1979	4,585	35
1980	4,860	69
1981	4,518	121
1982	4,891	Not recorded this year
1983	5,052	490	Recorded as dependent or having recently abused drugs
1984	4,753	1,163
1985	5,273	Report is not available
1986	5,587	Report is not available
1987	5,446	Report is not available
1988	5,229	Report is not available
1989-90	4,920	2,301
1990-91	4,753	2,714

 

Table 2

Year	Methodology	Average Daily Population	Number of Tests Completed	Proportion Estimated to have Drug Dependency Issues
1996-97	MDT*	5,993	Information is not available	36%
1997-98	MDT	6,059	7,070	29%
1998-99	MDT	6,029	7,162	25%
1999-00	MDT	5,975	6,605	22%
2000-01	MDT	5,883	5,647	21%
2001-02	MDT	6,186	6,974	22%
2002-03	MDT	6,475	7,529	23%
2003-04	MDT	6,621	6,456	35%
2004-05	MDT	6,779	7,308	37%

Note: *The phased introduction of MDT from February 1996 meant that not all establishments were carrying out tests for all of 1996-97.

The following data are not comparable with the above due to differing testing methodology
Year	Methodology	Average Daily Population	Number of Tests Completed	Proportion estimated to have drug dependency issues
2005-06	APM	6,857	903	34%
2006-07	APM	7,183	1,784	41%
The following data are not comparable with the above due to differing testing methodology
2007-08	APT	7,376	836	71%
2008-09	APT	7,835	1,112	75%

Notes:

No information is available between 1991 and 1996. However research was carried out during this time and the findings of the report were used to inform future policy. Shewan D, Gemmell M and Davies JB; Drug Use and Scottish Prisons “ Summary Report; 1994.

MDT - Mandatory Drug Testing (1996 to 2005)

A random 10% of the current prisoner population per month were tested. The Key Performance Indicator for this measure was 85% drug free.

ATM - Addiction Testing measure (2005-06 to 2006-07)

A random 5% sample of the prisoner population is tested three times per year. The test was voluntary and the results anonymous and could not be attributed to the individual tested. This measure was designed to better inform the interventions required to meet prisoner needs. The voluntary nature of the test resulted in low participation rates.

APT - Addiction Prevalence Testing (2007-08 to 2008-09)

This test took place in two months of the year and involved testing all admissions and liberations, (equivalent to 5% of total annual admissions and liberations). This allows key measurement of reduction in drug use between admission and liberation. There was a chain of custody and the obtained sample was sent to an independent lab for testing. The test was mandatory but anonymous; therefore a positive test did not result in punishment but there was an incentive to take part resulting in higher numbers being tested.