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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

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Question reference: S2W-17928

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 26 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many self harm incidents there were in HM Prison Cornton Vale in each year since 1999.

I have asked Tony Cameron,Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is asfollows:

The information is availablefrom 2002-03 onwards and is as follows:

Year	Number of Self-Harm Incidents
2002-03	115
2003-04	100
2004-05	45

Question reference: S2W-17960

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 24 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive when the £2 million targeted for the treatment and intervention of offenders with drug misuse problems will be allocated; how many offenders will be covered by this programme, and how the effectiveness of the programme will be monitored.

The extra £2 million will begin to forge the closer links between our drugs strategy and our plans for reducing reoffending, signalled in the Criminal Justice Plan, published in December 2004, by creating up to an extra 1000 treatment places. The extra money will extend the range of community interventions targeted at those individuals whose drug misuse brings them into contact with the criminal justice system so that we can offer them access to treatment facilities at each stage in the process. I will announce the details in due course. This is an opportunity to make better use of the combined expertise of the health and justice services in such matters and the arrangements for monitoring effectiveness will build on the best of what already exists.

Question reference: S2W-18050

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by George Lyon on 22 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have received council tax benefit in each year since 1999 to date, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S2W-18053

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by George Lyon on 19 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many alcohol-related deaths there have been in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board area.

The information requested in given in the following table.

Alcohol-Related Deaths in Scotland 1999-2004¹

	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Argyll and Clyde	109	134	144	155	156	126
Ayrshire and Arran	63	77	76	86	94	85
Borders	9	8	13	14	11	17
Dumfries and Galloway	10	17	21	22	25	22
Fife	46	65	50	68	52	56
Forth Valley	39	50	51	53	54	52
Grampian	68	80	88	73	75	77
Greater Glasgow	290	305	347	371	370	356
Highland	39	57	43	57	48	57
Lanarkshire	122	110	118	149	153	153
Lothian	135	156	170	171	172	171
Orkney	2	5	8	4	6	7
Shetland	1	1	5	1	2	6
Tayside	73	61	82	88	111	119
Western Isles	7	3	3	9	13	10
All Scotland	1013	1129	1219	1321	1342	1314

Note: 1. 1999: International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, codes 291, 303, 305.0, 425.5 and 571.0 571.3. 2000 2004: International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision, codes F10.0 F10.9, I42.6 and K70.0 K70.9.

Question reference: S2W-18057

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 18 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) police reports and (b) written warnings concerning children in respect of alcohol-related crime there have been in each year since 1999, broken down by police force area.

Question reference: S2W-17927

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 17 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-14101 by Cathy Jamieson on 28 February 2005, what steps it will take to address any concerns raised by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons’ interim report on HM Prison Cornton Vale and the fatal accident inquiry into the recent suicide of Alice Bone held on remand there.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

In his interim report of March 2005, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons made many positive comments. The Governor of Cornton Vale continues to implement a number of local initiatives which improve access to visits and access to toilets at night. This is greatly assisted by the opening of Wallace Block and the introduction of CCTV coverage in Younger House.

A date has not yet been set for the Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) referred to. Once a determination is made at the FAI, SPS will respond appropriately.

Question reference: S2W-17818

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 17 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-16432 by Colin Boyd QC on 8 July 2005, how many charges for (a) assault, (b) petty assault and (c) breaches of the peace resulted in a guilty verdict in each year since 2002-03, broken down by police force.

The available information relates to calendar years 2002 and 2003 and is given in the following table. Information relating to later years is not yet available.

Selected Offences with a Charge Proved in Scottish Courts, by Police Force Area, 2002-03.

Police Force Area	Serious Assault		Common Assault		Breach of the peace
	2002	2003	2002	2003	2002	2003
Central	84	83	997	979	1,367	1,328
Dumfries and Galloway	41	34	411	531	530	665
Fife	100	60	858	865	1,019	959
Grampian	72	92	1,589	1,713	1,728	1,839
Lothian and Borders	234	231	2,504	2,371	3,006	2,594
Northern	42	64	894	1,032	1,293	1,414
Strathclyde	611	582	6,599	6,768	10,993	11,321
Tayside	114	105	1,566	1,570	2,139	2,357
Scotland	1,298	1,251	15,418	15,829	22,075	22,477

Question reference: S2W-18054

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 17 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-6196 by Mr Tom McCabe on 10 March 2004, how much funding it provided to address alcohol misuse in 2004-05, showing the proportion spent on national advertising.

Core costs are incurred by health, the police and other agencies in tackling alcohol problems. This is also targeted through generic social and in particular joint drugs/alcohol initiatives such as the Lloyds TSB PDI initiative which supports activities to support children at risk from drugs and alcohol (£2 million) and training programmes offered by STRADA for drug and alcohol professionals (£0.8 million).

Specific Health Department funding of £5.5 million in 2004-05 covers core grant funding for Alcohol Focus Scotland, support for local Alcohol Action Teams, the Gender Issues Network on Alcohol (GINA), support for the Serve Wise programme and from 2002, support for the National Alcohol Information Resource at ISD. It also includes £744,000 (14%) for national advertising campaigns to tackle binge drinking.

Question reference: S2W-18033

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 17 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-9962 by Mr Tom McCabe on 6 September 2004, how many people are now registered with a dentist, broken down by NHS board.

The information requested is provided in the table.

Number of People Registered with an NHS General Dental Practitioner, 31 March 2005

Health Board Area	Children	Adults	Total
Argyll and Clyde	58,210	163 393	221,603
Ayrshire and Arran	54,951	150,501	205,452
Borders	13,421	35,131	48,552
Dumfries and Galloway	18,931	42,831	61,762
Fife	46,805	131,531	178,336
Forth Valley	42,078	108,157	150,235
Grampian	66,150	154,673	220,823
Greater Glasgow	129,880	367,721	497,601
Highland	27,246	45,067	72,313
Lanarkshire	76,735	212,947	289,682
Lothian	112,973	316,645	429,618
Orkney	1,490	4,689	6,179
Shetland	3,204	7,533	10,737
Tayside	58,850	168,233	227,083
Western Isles	923	6,440	7,363
Scotland	711,847	1,915,492	2,627,339

Source: MIDAS (Management Information and Dental Accounting System).

Question reference: S2W-18049

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 22 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 16 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children have received free school meals in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area.

Table 1 shows how many children have received free school meals in each year since 1999, broken down by local authority area. This table shows a steady decline in the number of pupils taking free school meals. However, this decline in absolute numbers must be considered in the context of an overall decrease in the school roll, a decrease in the overall numbers of pupils taking school lunches and increasing overall levels of prosperity in Scotland’s communities.

Table 2 and Graph 1 show free school meals as a percentage of total school meals, which gives a more realistic picture of the change in uptake of free meals. In particular, the table shows that the percentage of pupils taking free school meals has been stable since 2003.

Number of Pupils Taking Free School Meals on the School Meals Survey date in January 1999-2005

	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Scotland	108,409	109,953	103,289	100,203	96,742	95,279	89,189
Aberdeen City	2,801	3,001	2,699	2,594	2,416	2,447	2,453
Aberdeenshire	1,987	2,133	2,071	1,850	1,785	1,940	2,007
Angus	1,172	1,313	1,337	1,226	1,337	1,351	1,391
Argyll and Bute	1,454	1,441	1,241	1,226	1,214	1,139	1,043
Clackmannanshire	1,370	1,314	1,217	1,170	1,077	1,063	1,080
Dumfries and Galloway	2,145	2,201	1,993	1,856	1,759	1,677	1,687
Dundee City	3,324	3,279	2,966	3,015	2,861	2,648	2,303
East Ayrshire	3,181	3,249	2,987	2,970	2,901	2,769	2,541
East Dunbartonshire	1,401	1,385	1,324	1,278	1,202	1,102	997
East Lothian	1,144	1,235	1,086	996	1,046	1,127	1,047
East Renfrewshire	1,200	1,138	1,122	1,093	1,058	978	1,033
Edinburgh, City of	7,815	7,977	7,370	7,088	6,936	7,093	6,275
Eilean Siar	436	396	377	328	276	347	333
Falkirk	3,268	3,362	3,218	3,288	3,300	3,245	3,135
Fife	7,365	7,294	6,713	6,446	6,179	6,318	6,642
Glasgow City	23,562	23,892	22,927	22,654	21,083	20,726	19,833
Highland	3,337	3,135	3,113	2,948	2,791	2,888	2,742
Inverclyde	2,304	2,461	2,200	2,200	2,036	2,055	1,903
Midlothian	1,540	1,536	1,502	1,402	1,434	1,383	1,050
Moray	1,087	1,141	982	968	944	904	915
North Ayrshire	4,635	4,513	4,248	4,073	3,889	3,734	3,622
North Lanarkshire	8,583	8,739	8,251	8,056	7,769	7,695	7,004
Orkney Islands	217	216	365	420	472	510	461
Perth and Kinross	1,285	1,204	1,132	1,131	1,059	1,101	969
Renfrewshire	3,723	4,240	4,006	3,797	3,806	3,653	2,880
Scottish Borders	904	1,060	981	898	890	862	776
Shetland Islands	237	246	233	188	193	187	204
South Ayrshire	2,014	2,094	1,999	1,949	1,919	1,842	1,729
South Lanarkshire	6,763	6,601	5,991	5,882	5,691	5,476	4,820
Stirling	1,457	1,491	1,420	1,329	1,252	1,211	1,083
West Dunbartonshire	3,598	3,562	3,193	2,924	3,073	2,732	2,366
West Lothian	3,100	3,104	3,025	2,960	3,094	3,073	2,859
Grant aided¹	-	-	-	-	-	3	6

Note: 1. Mainstream grant aided only. Included in Glasgow until 2004.

Percentage of Free Meals Taken as a Percentage of All Meals Taken, Primary and Secondary Sectors 1999–2005

	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Scotland	34.2%	33.0%	31.1%	29.1%	28.3%	28.4%	28.3%
Aberdeen City	23.8%	25.2%	22.5%	22.4%	21.8%	19.8%	20.5%
Aberdeenshire	13.2%	12.4%	12.6%	10.9%	10.8%	11.6%	11.8%
Angus	26.9%	24.4%	18.9%	18.2%	19.6%	21.4%	21.4%
Argyll and Bute	21.7%	19.1%	17.5%	17.7%	16.6%	16.8%	16.6%
Clackmannanshire	40.6%	42.0%	39.4%	36.2%	34.4%	38.1%	42.6%
Dumfries and Galloway	17.1%	17.1%	15.8%	14.4%	15.3%	16.6%	19.0%
Dundee City	41.6%	44.1%	40.3%	38.0%	35.8%	40.5%	32.9%
East Ayrshire	44.7%	43.1%	41.5%	38.7%	37.5%	34.9%	33.5%
East Dunbartonshire	17.8%	15.6%	16.4%	14.7%	15.3%	14.7%	14.1%
East Lothian	28.3%	26.2%	22.5%	20.0%	21.8%	22.1%	23.3%
East Renfrewshire	19.5%	20.4%	18.0%	16.1%	14.0%	13.3%	16.4%
Edinburgh, City of	49.6%	48.7%	46.6%	45.4%	43.9%	41.3%	39.4%
Eilean Siar	18.8%	18.6%	17.8%	14.9%	13.1%	16.7%	16.3%
Falkirk	30.0%	29.8%	27.7%	27.6%	27.5%	27.0%	25.7%
Fife	28.9%	29.7%	28.4%	23.3%	25.0%	26.1%	27.5%
Glasgow City	62.0%	58.6%	58.0%	57.5%	52.8%	54.4%	55.1%
Highland	25.2%	22.8%	23.5%	22.1%	17.2%	16.9%	17.5%
Inverclyde	33.0%	32.6%	32.4%	31.2%	31.1%	33.9%	33.6%
Midlothian	29.8%	23.9%	23.7%	18.3%	18.7%	16.4%	14.6%
Moray	22.9%	23.5%	22.3%	19.5%	18.8%	17.2%	17.1%
North Ayrshire	41.4%	41.6%	41.2%	40.1%	38.0%	38.6%	40.7%
North Lanarkshire	50.2%	49.4%	40.0%	34.2%	33.2%	34.0%	33.8%
Orkney Islands	9.8%	9.5%	16.9%	18.0%	21.1%	23.3%	21.5%
Perth and Kinross	20.4%	18.2%	15.8%	14.6%	15.0%	15.1%	13.6%
Renfrewshire	41.5%	32.7%	32.2%	30.6%	29.9%	30.6%	34.0%
Scottish Borders	17.3%	18.4%	15.8%	16.6%	16.5%	14.3%	16.5%
Shetland Islands	7.6%	7.8%	7.6%	5.9%	6.0%	6.0%	6.7%
South Ayrshire	25.3%	26.7%	26.8%	24.6%	22.9%	28.0%	27.5%
South Lanarkshire	32.1%	31.7%	29.2%	28.8%	29.0%	26.3%	27.2%
Stirling	28.1%	22.2%	21.1%	19.1%	18.1%	18.2%	16.3%
West Dunbartonshire	41.7%	50.4%	39.5%	36.9%	37.5%	38.4%	38.5%
West Lothian	31.4%	30.0%	28.6%	26.9%	27.1%	26.0%	24.6%

Graph 1