Questions and answers

Question reference: S2W-22094

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 23 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-10217 by Malcolm Chisholm on 29 September 2004, how the £20 million was allocated to each NHS board; how the allocations were applied, and what impact these had on waiting times for audiology appointments.

The following table details the breakdown of the funds allocated to modernise and improve audiology services:

	2003–04	2004–05	2005-06	Totals
Argyll and Clyde	226,000	587,000	633,000	1,446,000
Ayrshire and Arran	201,000	357,000	324,000	882,000
Borders	39,000	115,000	146,000	300,000
Dumfries and Galloway	80,000	265,000	125,000	470,000
Fife	39,000	147,000	309,000	495,000
Forth Valley	111,000	125,000	234,000	470,000
Grampian	181,000	771,000	458,000	1,410,000
Greater Glasgow	699,000	1,177,000	1,064,000	2,940,000
Highland	108,000	264,000	311,000	683,000
Lanarkshire	336,000	395,000	478,000	1,209,000
Lothian	451,000	329,000	378,000	1,158,000
Orkney	7,000	0	97,000	104,000
Shetland	5,000	0	75,000	80,000
Tayside	246,000	623,000	344,000	1,213,000
Western Isles	38,000	81,000	65,000	184,000
NHS Education for Scotland	100,000	463,000	0	563,000
Totals	2,867,000	5,699,000	5,041,000	13,607,000

The direct allocations to each NHS board area for 2003-06 cover expenditure on accommodation, information technology, digital hearing aids and training of staff to use the modernised patient journey.

In addition there has been expenditure of £1,264,000 on national staff training events and other central staff costs.

Final allocations to boards for 2006-07 have yet to be decided.

Waiting times have been reduced in most NHS boards. An important part of the modernisation agenda is focussed on monitoring and encouraging the reduction in waiting times and providing support to boards where required.

Question reference: S2W-22073

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 23 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of the extent of the litter on the roadside verges of the A1 between Haddington and Newcraighall and, if so, what communications it has had with Amey Highways Ltd in this regard.

Amey Infrastructure Services is required to clear litter from the A1 special road between Old Craighall Roundabout and Haddington in accordance with the standards laid down in the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the associated Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse. Transport Scotland and the independent Performance Audit Group are not aware of any significant issues regarding litter on this section of the A1 trunk road and no specific communications have been made with Amey on this matter. The Performance Audit Group’s recent inspection on 12 January 2006 did not highlight any accumulations of litter on the section of the A1 under Amey’s control.

The A1 between Old Craighall Roundabout and Newcraighall is not a trunk road and litter clearance is therefore a matter for the local roads authority.

Transport Scotland has the operational responsibility for this area, and can be contacted for more information if required.

Question reference: S2W-22140

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 23 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many gifts ministers have received from private sector firms or businesses (a) within and (b) outwith Scotland in each year since 2000, broken down by firm or business.

Question reference: S2W-22097

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 23 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many additional audiologists it estimates will be required to meet any increasing demand following the introduction of a telephone hearing test by the RNID, which has been based on a Dutch model and as a consequence of which it is estimated that two or three out of 10 people taking the test will thereafter contact their GP with regard to their hearing.

The Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID) has indicated to the Executive, based on the experience in the Netherlands, that they expect one in 10 people who take the telephone hearing test may then contact their general practitioner to be referred to an audiologist. There may, therefore, be an increase in referrals across NHSScotland. NHS boards currently have the option of using a private sector national contract to meet audiology needs, and this could be used to meet any increase in demand.

Question reference: S2W-22126

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 19 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-12029 by Mr Andy Kerr on 19 November 2004, whether it will provide a breakdown of the number of people waiting to see a psychologist in each NHS board area on 31 December or another fixed date in each year since 1999.

The information requested isnot available centrally. Waiting lists data is collected centrally only for firstout-patient appointments at a consultant-led out-patient clinic, following referralby a General Medical or Dental Practitioner, and for hospital in-patient and daycase treatment. Psychology services are provided by a range of health care professionals,and are carried out in a variety of settings.

Question reference: S2W-22139

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 19 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total revenue generated from speed cameras has been and how many deaths on roads have been caused as a direct result of speeding in each year since 1999, broken down by police force area.

The revenue generated from speedcameras within the Scottish Safety Camera Programme in each year since 1999 is providedin the following table.

Information on the number ofdeaths on roads caused as a direct result of speeding is not available. However,since January 2005, the Executive has been collecting additional information onroad accidents to include the factors thought to have contributed to the occurrenceof the accident, for example, driver impairment by drugs or alcohol, fatigue and/orspeed. However, it will not generally be possible from the statistical data to attributeany individual factor as being the single cause of the accident. It is expectedthat this additional information will be included in Road Accidents Scotland 2005at the end of this year.

Partnership	2000-01 (£000)	2001-02 (£000)	2002-03 (£000)	2003-04 (£000)	2004-05 (£000)	Total (£000)
Strathclyde	450	861	1,670	3,454	3,040	9,475
Fife	-	-	422	619	468*	1,508
North East	-	-	278	1,013	728*	2,019
Lothian and Borders	-	-	-	1,617	2,483	4,100
Dumfries and Galloway	-	-	-	545	989*	1,534
Tayside	-	-	-	388	621*	1,010
Northern	-	-	-	-	203	203
Total (£000)	450	861	2,370	7,635	8,532	19,848

*Un-audited figures (Totals maynot equal the sum of their parts due to rounding).

Notes:

1. Figures given are for partnershipsfrom the date they joined the Safety Camera Programme. Central Scotland is not currently part of the programme. The partnerships in the table expandedor joined the programme as indicated below:

2. In 2001-02, Strathclyde includedonly Glasgow City Council area.

3. In 2002-03, Strathclyde expandedto cover four local authority areas; Fife joined the programme in April 2002 and the North EastPartnership joined in October 2002.

4. In 2003-04, Strathclyde expandedto 12 local authority areas; Dumfries and Galloway, Lothian and Borders and Tayside joined in July 2003.

5. In 2004-05, Lothian and Bordersexpanded to three local authority areas; Northern joined in July 2004.

Question reference: S2W-22125

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 19 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-12029 by Mr Andy Kerr on 19 November 2004, how many psychologists have been employed by each NHS board in each year since 1999, broken down by category and expressed also on a per capita basis.

The following tables show thewhole-time equivalent (WTE) of NHS employed psychologists by NHS board 2001-04.WTE adjusts headcount to allow for part-time working. Information for the years1999 and 2000 is not available centrally.

Table 1: Applied PsychologistsWTE by NHS Board at 30 September 2001

	Clinical Psychologists Grade B	Clinical Psychologists Grade A	Other Applied Psychologists*	Total WTE of all Applied Psychologists	Ratio of per Capita Population to 1 WTE of all Applied Psychologists
Argyll and Clyde	10.60	9.30	3.00	22.90	18,371
Ayrshire and Arran	9.10	12.30	1.80	23.20	15,875
Borders	4.50	3.60	0.00	8.10	13,204
Dumfries and Galloway	6.90	2.20	0.00	9.10	16,240
Fife	9.90	18.30	1.00	29.20	11,976
Forth Valley	7.80	10.60	0.00	18.40	15,176
Grampian	10.30	21.20	1.50	33.00	15,935
Greater Glasgow	33.00	35.50	1.10	69.60	12,474
Highland	4.80	6.00	0.00	10.80	19,344
Lanarkshire	7.50	11.60	4.00	23.10	23,949
Lothian	20.10	26.80	1.80	48.70	15,996
Orkney	-	-	-	-	-
Shetland	-	-	-	-	-
State Hospital⁺	-	-	-	-	-
Tayside	11.30	17.80	0.00	29.00	13,405
Western Isles	-	-	-	-	-
Scotland	135.80	175.20	14.10	325.10	15,577

Source: ISD Scotland.

Table 2: Applied PsychologistsWTE by NHS Board at 30 September 2002

	Clinical Psychologists Grade B	Clinical Psychologists Grade A	Other Applied Psychologists*	Total WTE of all Applied Psychologists	Ratio of Per Capita Population to 1 WTE of all Applied Psychologists
Argyll and Clyde	11.60	7.20	3.00	21.80	19,298
Ayrshire and Arran	8.00	12.20	1.80	22.00	16,740
Borders	3.50	3.60	0.00	7.10	15,063
Dumfries and Galloway	8.60	3.20	0.00	11.80	12,524
Fife	11.40	20.10	2.00	33.50	10,439
Forth Valley	7.80	9.00	0.00	16.80	16,621
Grampian	9.30	19.40	3.50	32.20	16,331
Greater Glasgow	35.50	49.40	4.00	88.90	9,766
Highland	4.80	6.70	0.00	11.50	18,167
Lanarkshire	7.10	15.10	4.10	26.30	21,035
Lothian	22.20	34.40	2.30	58.90	13,226
Orkney	-	-	-	-	-
Shetland	-	-	-	-	-
State Hospital⁺	-	-	-	-	-
Tayside	11.10	17.20	0.00	28.50	13,640
Western Isles	-	-	-	-	-
Scotland	141.10	197.50	20.70	359.30	14,095

Source: ISDScotland.

Note:⁺Please note The State Hospital did not participate inthe data collection exercise in 2001 and 2002.

Table 3: Applied PsychologistsWTE by NHS Board at 30 September 2003

	Clinical Psychologists Grade B	Clinical Psychologists Grade A	Other Applied Psychologists*	Total WTE of all Applied Psychologists	Ratio of Per Capita Population to 1 WTE of all Applied Psychologists
Argyll and Clyde	9.70	11.80	2.50	25.00	16,919
Ayrshire and Arran	10.60	7.30	1.80	19.70	18,789
Borders	4.10	4.10	1.00	9.20	11,875
Dumfries and Galloway	7.20	3.60	1.00	11.80	12,719
Fife	16.10	18.50	4.00	38.60	9,205
Forth Valley	11.20	9.80	0.0	21.00	13,429
Grampian	8.80	21.90	4.40	35.00	15,091
Greater Glasgow	33.40	39.80	2.10	75.30	11,627
Highland	4.80	7.30	1.00	13.10	16,075
Lanarkshire	10.10	15.70	3.70	29.50	18,949
Lothian	24.40	30.20	5.20	59.90	13,145
Orkney	-	-	-	-	-
Shetland	-	-	-	-	-
State Hospital	1.20	4.00	1.00	6.20	-
Tayside	11.00	16.00	0.0	27.00	14,507
Western Isles	-	-	-	-	-
Scotland	152.50	191.00	27.70	371.00	13,633

Source: ISD Scotland.

Table 4: Applied PsychologistsWTE by NHS Board at 30 September 2004

	Clinical Psychologists Grade B	Clinical Psychologists Grade A	Other Applied Psychologists*	Total WTE of all Applied Psychologists	Ratio of Per Capita Population to 1 WTE of all Applied Psychologists
Argyll and Clyde	10.70	12.20	2.00	24.90	16,693
Ayrshire and Arran	11.00	10.30	1.86	23.16	15,872
Borders	3.90	5.10	1.00	10.00	10,927
Dumfries and Galloway	8.20	4.65	1.00	13.85	10,681
Fife	14.00	24.10	3.00	41.10	8,626
Forth Valley	8.50	7.10	0.80	16.40	17,181
Grampian	9.85	27.30	6.01	43.16	12,141
Greater Glasgow	45.45	50.63	4.90	100.98	8,587
Highland	4.80	8.30	-	13.10	16,133
Lanarkshire	9.70	20.60	3.50	33.80	16,453
Lothian	25.04	31.46	4.40	60.90	12,931
Orkney	0	0	0	0	-
Shetland	0	0	0	0	-
State Hospital	2.70	5.45	1.00	9.15	-
Tayside	11.50	16.60	-	28.10	13,805
Western Isles	-	-	-	-	-
Scotland	165.34	223.79	29.47	418.60	12,132

Source: ISDScotland.

Note: *OtherApplied Psychologists includes counselling psychologists, health psychologists,forensic psychologists and neuropsychologists.

Question reference: S2W-22141

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 19 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many individuals have been on the sex offenders’ register in each year since 2000.

The number of sex offenders recordedby the Scottish Criminal Record Office as being registered with Scottish PoliceForces since 2000 is shown in the following table.

As at:	Number of Registrations
March 2000	1,174
March 2001	1,480
March 2002	1,724
March 2003	1,926
March 2004	2,244
March 2005	2,677
January 2006	3,044

Question reference: S2W-21611

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2005
Current Status: Answered by George Lyon on 18 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how much capital debt was owed (a) by each local authority and (b) per capita in each local authority area on the most recent date for which figures are available.

The following table shows the total capital debt and per capita debt (for all services) owed by each local authority as at 31 March 2005.

	Total Debt (£ Million)	Total Debt Per Head (£)
Aberdeen City	389.8	1,916
Aberdeenshire	365.9	1,571
Angus	118.7	1,094
Argyll and Bute	223.3	2,449
Clackmannanshire	81.9	1,698
Dumfries and Galloway	188.1	1,272
Dundee City	303.7	2,141
East Ayrshire	188.9	1,578
East Dunbartonshire	118.4	1,111
East Lothian	112.8	1,232
East Renfrewshire	104.4	1,165
Edinburgh, City of	816.1	1,799
Eilean Siar	181.3	6,905
Falkirk	194.0	1,316
Fife	487.5	1,375
Glasgow City	1,281.1	2,218
Highland	551.5	2,609
Inverclyde	224.2	2,720
Midlothian	84.4	1,061
Moray	160.1	1,825
North Ayrshire	192.4	1,415
North Lanarkshire	387.3	1,200
Orkney Islands	33.8	1,735
Perth and Kinross	159.3	1,158
Renfrewshire	274.7	1,610
Scottish Borders	161.0	1,474
Shetland Islands	51.7	2,358
South Ayrshire	172.2	1,540
South Lanarkshire	399.4	1,308
Stirling	150.5	1,743
West Dunbartonshire	188.9	2,054
West Lothian	188.2	1,156
Total all-Scotland	8,535.8	1,681

Notes:

(i) Individual local authority figures may not sum to the all-Scotland total, due to rounding.

(ii) The figures given exclude the police and fire boards/authorities, Forth Estuary Transport Authority, Tay Bridge and Strathclyde Passenger Transport.

Question reference: S2W-21610

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2005
Current Status: Answered by Johann Lamont on 18 January 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many hectares of (a) contaminated, (b) derelict and (c) vacant land were reclaimed in each of the last three years and how many hectares of such land remain.

Estimates reported by local authorities in the voluntary Scottish Vacant and Derelict Land Survey (SVDLS) are set out in the tables.

Area of Vacant and Derelict Land Brought Back Into Use Since the Previous Survey (Hectares), Scotland, 2002-04^1-5

Area	2002	2003	2004
Reclaimed derelict	293	308	181
- of which formerly contaminated	25	59	37
Reclaimed vacant	391	271	286
Total	684	579	466

Area of Vacant and Derelict Land (Hectares), Scotland, 2002-04^1-5

Area	2002	2003	2004
Derelict	7,767	7,741	7,638
- of which tested and found to be contaminated	2,541	2,489	2,352
Vacant	3,282	3,107	3,023
Total	11,049	10,847	10,661

Notes:

1. Figures may not sum due to rounding.

2. Sites covering less than 0.1 hectares are excluded.

3. The SVDLS includes only that vacant land which is either located within an urban settlement (with a population of 2,000 or more) or which is located within 1km of such settlements, and which would commonly be considered as having the characteristics of urban vacant land.

4. The SVDLS is not a statutory survey. For those councils that did not provide data for a particular year, data from the previous SVDLS has been used.

5. The SVDLS classifies sites as either being vacant or derelict. Any site that has been tested and found to be contaminated is automatically classified as derelict. The term “contamination” used in the survey is anecdotal and refers simply to the presence of a number of potential contaminants. This differs from the statutory definition in the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

Information from the 2005 survey will be published on the 31January 2006. Results of the 2004 survey can be viewed on the Scottish Executive website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00381-00.asp.

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