Chamber and committees

This information isnot currently held centrally.

However, from 2006, the Scottish Executive annual pupilcensus started to change how it records additional support needs and included aspecific category to record pupils for whom dyslexia is reported as a reason foradditional support being required. Previously such pupils were included in a widercategory.

Further informationis available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/02/27083941/12and http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/02/27083941/14.

Under theEducation (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004, educationauthorities must keep under consideration the additional support needs of, andthe adequacy of additional support provided to, each child and young personwith additional support needs for whose school education they are responsible.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorof Education (HMIE) as part of their general inspection programme, review andpublish reports on the effectiveness of support and educational provision forchildren with additional support needs.

Additionally,HMIE is undertaking a specific evaluation of dyslexia over the period 2007-08,which will provide a clear picture of support, provision and practice across Scotland.Their final report is due to be published in late 2008.

As this is anoperational matter for the Scottish Water, I have askedthe chief executive to reply to your enquiry directly.

Suicide preventionis a key aim of the Scottish Government’s action to improve mental health and wellbeing.The main delivery vehicle for this is Choose Life, the National Strategy and ActionPlan to Prevent Suicide. One of the priority groups for action is young people,especially young men. Through Choose Life there is now an identified suicide preventioncoordinator in every local authority area in Scotland, targeting suicide preventionaction in ways tailored to local needs and circumstances.

Nationally, throughChoose Life we have introduced suicide prevention training, which is being rolledout across Scotland. Over 11,500 people in community and publicservice settings have been trained in suicide intervention and risk management skillsin the last three years. We are also developing suicide prevention training andrisk assessment training for frontline staff in mental health services, in primarycare and in accident and emergency services.

On 10 September 2007 I launched Choose Life’s latest phase of campaign activity,“Talk. Listen. Save a Life.” This awareness-raising action highlights the importanceof encouraging people to be more open about their and other people’s feelings andworries.

The Breathing Spacetelephone advice line helps to underpin related action on suicide prevention. Openfrom 6pm to 2am nightly, Breathing Space provides free and confidential advice andsignposting to people experiencing low mood, depression and anxiety. It is availableto all but is particularly targeted at young men because of the increases in suicidenumbers in this group in recent decades. Breathing Space currently handles around3,000 calls per month and is currently undergoing a pilot extension of its openinghours to 6am at weekends.

Annualfluctuations occur in suicide rates. When assessing trends, three year rolling averagesare used because they smooth out some of the fluctuations. It is encouraging tonote that from 2000-02 to 2004-06 there was a downward trend of 13% for populationsuicides. Within this, there was a 14% reduction in male suicides and a 9% reductionin female suicides.

(1) Scottish Statistics (including comparisonswith English data):

The most recent obesitystatistics for adults in Scotland are available from the Scottish Health Survey 2003.Comparisons with English figures are also available.

Prevalence of obesityand overweight by age and sex (adults aged 16+ years):

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/11/25145024/50261.(See Table 5.5 on page 175.) (See Table 5.17 on page 189 for comparison of Scotland and England.).

Obesity statisticsfor children are also available from the Scottish Health Survey 2003

Prevalence of obesityand overweight by age and sex (children aged 2 to 15 years):

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/11/25145024/50271.

(See Table 5.5 onpage 123 for Scottish figures.) (See Table 5.11 on page 127 for comparison of Scotland and England).

In addition, morerecent statistics on obesity in children are available from the Child Health Surveillance Programme.All NHS boards in Scotland are required to provide data for this programme.Data from those boards that record findings using electronic child health systemsare available at the following link.

http://www.isdscotland.org/child_obesity.

(Click on “obesitystatistics” to access a list of available tables and charts.)

(2) Internationalcomparisons:

Care should be takenin interpreting international comparisons because of differences in definitionsof obesity and in survey methodologies. Some international comparisons subsume Scottishdata as part of United Kingdom figures.

For adults, the OECDhealth data 2007, reports obesity levels for those aged 15+ years up to 2005:

http://www.oecd.org/document/16/0,3343,en_2649_37407_2085200_1_1_1_37407,00.html.

For children, theWorld Health Organization Health Behaviour of School-aged Children (2001/02), WHOHBSC, report presents obesity levels for young people aged 13 and 15 years:

http://www.euro.who.int/eprise/main/who/informationsources/publications/catalogue/20040518_1.

(See Chapter 3, Page125, Figure 3.3.).

The 1998 and 2003Scottish health surveys provide data on the amount of physical activity taken bychildren aged two to 15 in these years. These findings are summarised (page 99,table 4.1) in the survey report at the link below.http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/11/25145024/50271.

No comparable figuresare held centrally for earlier years.

The information requestedis given in the following table.

Death Rate Per1,000 Population, Scotland, 1950-2006

1950	12.5	1960	11.9	1970	12.2	1980	12.2	1990	12.1	2000	11.4
1951	12.9	1961	12.3	1971	11.8	1981	12.3	1991	12.0	2001	11.3
1952	12.1	1962	12.2	1972	12.4	1982	12.6	1992	12.0	2002	11.5
1953	11.5	1963	12.6	1973	12.3	1983	12.3	1993	12.6	2003	11.6
1954	12.0	1964	11.7	1974	12.4	1984	12.1	1994	11.6	2004	11.1
1955	12.1	1965	12.1	1975	12.1	1985	12.5	1995	11.9	2005	10.9
1956	12.1	1966	12.2	1976	12.5	1986	12.4	1996	11.9	2006	10.8
1957	11.9	1967	11.5	1977	11.9	1987	12.2	1997	11.7
1958	12.1	1968	12.2	1978	12.5	1988	12.2	1998	11.7
1959	12.2	1969	12.3	1979	12.6	1989	12.8	1999	11.9

 

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-3145 on 6 September 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Information aboutmigration to and from Scotland between 1975 and 2005, collated by the Officefor National Statistics, has been placed in the Scottish Parliament InformationCentre (Bib. number 43467). It shows the number of migrants moving between Scotlandand the rest of the UK (table 1) and overseas (table 2). The requested split betweenmigrants originating from the European Union, the Commonwealth and elsewhere isnot available.Net migration informationunderlying the General Register Office for Scotland’s mid-year population estimatesback to 1951-52 are published on its website but the associated in- andout-flows are not available. http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/publications-and-data/annual-report-publications/rgs-annual-review-2006/list-of-figures-chapter-1.html.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-3145 on 6 September 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.