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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

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S2W-09815

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 18 August 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many police officers were on long-term sick leave in each of the last five years, broken down by police force area.

The number of officers on long-termsick leave at any given time is not held centrally. Information on the number oflong-term sick absences, defined as periods of sick leave of more than 28 days duration,for each the last five years available, is shown in the following table.

Number of Long-Term SickAbsences for Police Officers in Scottish Forces

	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Central Scotland Police	51	79	66	75	78
Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary	27	37	34	37	34
Fife Constabulary	54	50	57	53	56
Grampian Police	75	91	55	66	48
Lothian and Borders Police	296	254	338	324	365
Northern Constabulary	39	32	49	50	63
Strathclyde Police	1,015	815	812	740	788
Tayside Police	240	124	140	114	97
All Forces	1,797	1,482	1,551	1,459	1,529

Note: Sourceis Annual Statistical Returns from forces as submitted to HM Inspectorate of Constabulary.

Question reference: S2W-09753

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 17 August 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-21756 by Ross Finnie on 14 January 2002, which areas are designated nitrate vulnerable 'ones (NVZs); what guidance and grant assistance has been issued to farmers on NVZs, and what the results of the monitoring of river water quality have been in each of the last five years, broken down by river.

Four areas were designated as nitrate vulnerable zones (NVZs) on the basis of nitrate concentrations in groundwater: Moray, Aberdeenshire, Banff and Buchan; Strathmore and Fife; Lothian and Borders, and Lower Nithsdale: they comprise 14% of the land area of Scotland. A detailed guidance pack was issued to all farmers in the NVZs in 2003, and the NVZ Grant Scheme provides assistance for installing or improving livestock slurry or manure storage systems or silage effluent tanks. The river water results in the NVZs over the past five years, shown as the number of surface monitoring sites within set ranges of average concentrations, are as follows:

NVZ Area *	mg/l nitrate	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Moray, Aberdeenshire, Banff, Buchan	0-25	13	13	13	13	12
Moray, Aberdeenshire, Banff, Buchan	25-40	4	4	4	4	5
Moray, Aberdeenshire, Banff, Buchan	¡Ý 40	0	0	0	0	0
Strathmore, Fife	0-25	16	15	18	18	18
Strathmore, Fife	25-40	6	6	7	7	9
Strathmore, Fife	40-50	5	5	3	3	1
Strathmore, Fife	¡Ý 50	1	2	0	0	0
Lothian, Borders	0-25	15	15	16	15	16
Lothian, Borders	25-40	4	4	3	4	3
Lothian, Borders	¡Ý 40	0	0	0	0	0
Lower Nithsdale	0-25	1	1	1	1	1

Note: *In some NVZs the data represents more than one site on a single river.

Question reference: S2W-09773

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Frank McAveety on 17 August 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive which sporting bodies received funding from (a) sportscotland and (b) other sources in each of the last five years and how much was allocated in each case

This information is published in sportscotland’s Annual Reports and Annual Lottery Sports Fund reports. Copies of these can be obtained from sportscotland and/or accessed online via the sportscotland website, www.sportscotland.org.uk.

We do not have the information on what awards were made to sporting bodies by sources other than sportscotland over the last five years.

If the member wishes information about a specific body or category of body, sportscotland would be pleased to assist if it can.

Question reference: S2W-09807

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 16 August 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were (a) prosecuted and (b) convicted of fire-raising as the main charge in each of the last five years (i) in total and (ii) broken down by police force area.

The available information is given in the following table.

Persons Proceeded Against in Scottish Courts for Fire-Raising¹, 1998-2002

Police Force Area	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002²
Total number proceeded against:
Central	10	8	6	11	14
Dumfries and Galloway	8	7	3	9	5
Fife	13	10	18	14	18
Grampian	9	13	10	18	16
Lothian and Borders	20	18	19	16	24
Northern	14	8	5	8	11
Strathclyde	56	56	60	63	52
Tayside	20	19	13	13	17
Scotland	150	139	134	152	157
Number with charge proved:
Central	10	5	4	9	12
Dumfries and Galloway	6	7	2	6	4
Fife	10	8	13	14	15
Grampian	6	13	9	12	10
Lothian and Borders	19	15	15	16	22
Northern	14	7	5	8	8
Strathclyde	41	44	44	45	48
Tayside	16	9	11	9	16
Scotland	122	108	103	119	135

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Recording delays mean that persons proceeded against where the charge was not proved may be under-stated in the totals for persons proceeded against.

Question reference: S2W-09744

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 16 August 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many out-patients were waiting for (a) less than 9 weeks, (b) less than 13 weeks, (c) less than 26 weeks, (d) more than 26 weeks and (e) more than 52 weeks for an NHS appointment, broken down by individual speciality and NHS board, in the most recent quarter for which figures are available.

Question reference: S2W-09740

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 16 August 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHS consultant posts are currently vacant, broken down by speciality and NHS board area.

I refer the member to the answer given to S2W-9293, answered on 15 July 2004. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

Information on consultant vacancy rates within each specialty is available within Tables B11 (Whole Time Equivalent) and B12 (Headcount) on the ISD website at www.isdscotland.org/workforce.

Question reference: S2W-09709

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 16 August 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many GP practices have closed their patient lists in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board.

NHS Fife	5
NHS Greater Glasgow	1
Total	6

The National Health Service (General Medical Services Contracts)(Scotland) Regulations 2004 came into effect on 1 April 2004 and introduced a statutory arrangement under which a GP practice can close its patient list. Since 1 April 2004, six lists have been closed to new patients.

It has always been open to a GP practice to refuse an application from a patient to join its patient list but previously there were no provisions for lists to be closed. Any patient whose application is refused becomes eligible to be assigned to a practice by the local health board. A practice may decide to refuse all applications for a particular period for various reasons, such as when a partner was on study leave, but in the past, unless the patient list was at the maximum of 3,500 per doctor, it was open to the health board still to assign patients to such a practice. Only by formal closure under the new procedures will a practice not receive further patients.

Question reference: S2W-09711

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 16 August 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients have been treated for depression in each year since 2000, broken down by age.

Question reference: S2W-09710

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 16 August 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many infection control nurses there are, expressed also per head of population, broken down by NHS board.

The following table shows the number and rate per 100,000 population (headcount and whole time equivalent (WTE) of NHS employed infection control nurses at 21 May 2004. Rates per 100,000 population should be treated with caution as the variability between boards may be explained in part by the relatively small number of infection control nurses in each area.

Number of Infection Control Nurses by NHS Board

NHS Board	Headcount at 21-May-04	WTE at 21-May-04	Headcount per 100,000 Population	WTE per 100,000 Population
Total	128	118.5	2.5	2.3
NHS Argyll and Clyde	14	14	3.4	3.4
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	5	5	1.4	1.4
NHS Borders	3	3	2.8	2.8
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	3	3	2	2
NHS Fife	6	5.8	1.7	1.6
NHS Forth Valley	4	4	1.4	1.4
NHS Grampian	9	8.23	1.7	1.6
NHS Greater Glasgow	23	20.17	2.7	2.3
NHS Highland	8	6.4	3.8	3.1
NHS Lanarkshire	11	10.4	2	1.9
NHS Lothian	19	17.1	2.4	2.2
NHS Orkney	1	1	5.2	5.2
NHS Shetland	1	1	4.6	4.6
NHS Tayside	12	11.6	3.1	3
NHS Western Isles	2	1.2	7.7	4.6
Special NHS Boards^*	7	6.6	-	-

Source Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health.

Source of Population Estimates as at 30 June 2003: General Register Office for Scotland.

Note: *Special NHS boards include NHS National Services Scotland, Golden Jubilee National Hospital and The State Hospital.

Question reference: S2W-09752

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 July 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 13 August 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-25143 by Mr Jim Wallace on 1 May 2002, how many (a) individuals and (b) companies have been convicted of offences relating to the pollution of rivers and other waterways in (i) 2001, (ii) 2002, (iii) 2003 and (iv) 2004, listing the rivers and waterways concerned and the range of penalties imposed upon such offenders.

The available information on numbers convicted and fines imposed in respect of offences under Part II of the Control of Pollution Act 1974 is given in the table. Under the 1974 act, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency regulates discharges to Controlled Waters. In addition to rivers and other watercourses, Controlled Waters include other waters such as groundwater, coastal waters and ponds. Separate records are not kept in respect of rivers and watercourses only.

Persons and Companies Convicted of Pollution of Controlled Waterways¹, 2001-04

	2001	2002	2003	2004²
Persons:
Number convicted	8	3	4	1
Lowest fine (£)	100	500	450	400
Average fine (£)	744	1,500	550	400
Highest fine(£)	1,000	3,500	1,000	400
Companies¹:
Number convicted	17	19	20	10
Lowest fine (£)	500	400	1,000	500
Average fine (£)	2,824	5,455	4,825	5,000
Highest fine(£)	5,000	20,000	15,000	10,000

Source: Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

Notes:

1. Includes limited companies, partnerships and public bodies.

2. To 3 August.

Rivers and other watercourses that were the subject of discharges leading to convictions for pollution offences are listed as follows. The list is not definitive as systematic records of the names of rivers etc involved are not kept.

Rivers and waterways that have been the subject of discharges giving rise to convictions for pollution offences, 2001 to 3 August 2004:

Finglen Burn

Gogar Burn

Peffer Burn West

Downie Burn

Blairvault Burn

Coachford Burn

Burn of Shenwell

Sole Burn

Lettermay Burn

Longniddry Burn

An unnamed tributary of the Garf Water

River Almond

Gadie Burn

River Ugie

The Kittoch Water

Fairlie Burn

Black Lynn Burn, Oban

River Lochy

Burn of Couster, Shetland

Bogend Burn

Barry Burn

Kames Burn

West Carmuirs Burn

Board Burn

Howgill Burn

Tanavie Burn

Ballagan Burn

Achahuish Burn

River Ugie

Gadie Burn

River Ugie

Loch Kinshorn

Ebrie Burn

Clyde Estuary

Park Burn

River Nith

Torry Burn

Crookston Burn

Glen River, Stornoway

Mid Laird Burn, Daviot

Cove Burn, Gourock

Monikie Burn

Bothlin Burn

River Rannoch

Tobermory River

Avon Water

Red Burn

Boyndie Burn

Torry Burn.