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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-09482

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 27 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of the population has access to the internet from home, broken down by local authority area.

The following table shows the percentage of the adultpopulation with home access to the internet broken down by local authorityarea. This is taken from the Scottish Household Survey and shows data for 2001-02. We expect the 2002-03 figures to be published on 5 August 2004.

Adult Population	%
Aberdeen City	35
Aberdeenshire	35
Angus	31
Argyll and Bute	30
Clackmannanshire	26
Dumfries and Galloway	21
Dundee City	24
East Ayrshire	25
East Dumbartonshire	43
East Lothian	35
East Renfrewshire	42
Edinburgh City	36
Eilean Siar	24
Falkirk	28
Fife	29
Glasgow City	22
Highland	34
Inverclyde	27
Midlothian	30
Moray	29
North Ayrshire	21
North Lanarkshire	25
Orkney	29
Perth and Kinross	32
Renfrewshire	28
Scottish Borders	31
Shetland	40
South Ayrshire	30
South Lanarkshire	30
Stirling	37
West Dunbartonshire	25
West Lothian	32
Scotland	29

Question reference: S2W-09483

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 27 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the ratio of cleaners to beds was in the NHS in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S2W-09382

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 26 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any external finance limits were overshot by public bodies within its responsibility in the last financial year and, if so, by which bodies and what action was taken in response.

External Finance Limits (EFL) apply to cash accounting and as the Scottish Executive has operated on a resource accounting system since 2002-03 they no longer apply.

I am pleased to report that all of the non-departmental public bodies spent within their agreed final budgets. There are however, four health boards who are expected¹ to exceed their Revenue Resource Limit:

NHS Argyll and Clyde

NHS Grampian

NHS Lanarkshire

NHS Western Isles

NHS boards are clear that any such overspends are carried forward to the next year, and that we expect plans to eliminate them to be in place.

The audited annual accounts for NHS boards are not yet available and the number of boards with deficits may change.

Question reference: S2W-08360

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 May 2004
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 21 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has received the revised business case for the Borders railway and when it will be published.

Question reference: S2W-09380

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 21 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-8994 by Mr Tom McCabe on 24 June 2004, which NHS boards applied for approval for schemes to assist eligible patients with travel expenses in order to access primary NHS dental treatment and, of these, how many applications were successful in (a) 1999-00, (b) 2000-01, (c) 2001-02, (d) 2002-03 and (e) 2003-04 and how the availability of these schemes was publicised.

Question reference: S2W-09383

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 21 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how many hospital beds there are in each health board area per 1,000 head of population.

Information on average available staffed beds, rate per 1,000 population in each NHS board area for the year ending 31 March 2004 is shown in the table below.

NHSScotland - Average Available Staffed Beds, Rate Per 1,000 Population^1,2; by Health Board Area: Year Ending 31 March 2004^P

Scotland	5.9
Argyll and Clyde	6.5
Ayrshire and Arran	5.6
Borders	6.1
Dumfries and Galloway³	5.6
Fife	5.0
Forth Valley	4.9
Grampian³	6.0
Greater Glasgow	7.1
Highland	6.1
Lanarkshire	5.4
Lothian	5.4
Orkney	4.9
Shetland	4.6
Tayside	6.4
Western Isles	8.7

Source: ISD Scotland [FormISD(S)1].

^PProvisional.

Notes:

1. Includes joint-user and contractual hospitals.

2. Crude rates per 1,000 mid-year population forecast at 30 June 2003. These figures should be considered with caution as they take no account of cross boundary flow, ie, beds will not necessarily serve only the local population.

3. Some information is estimated.

Question reference: S2W-09385

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 21 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-8971 by Mr Tom McCabe on 24 June 2004, when the review of the current guidance for continuing care criteria in Management Executive Letter (1996) 22 will be concluded, when the results will be published and which personnel are conducting the review.

Question reference: S2W-09304

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 20 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the expenditure per mile was on roads maintenance in each of the last three years, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S2W-09386

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 19 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-8361 by Cathy Jamieson on 18 June 2004, how many of the recorded rape cases were prosecuted in each police force area and, of these, in how many cases the outcome was (a) a successful prosecution, (b) not proven and (c) not guilty, in (i) 1999-00, (ii) 2000-01, (iii) 2001-02, (iv) 2002-03 and when similar figures for 2003-04 will be available.

The available information is given in the table. It is planned to publish summary statistics for calendar year 2003 in November 2004. Statistics dealing with recorded crime and court proceedings are not directly comparable as a person may be proceeded against for more than one crime involving more than one victim, and a crime may be recorded in one year and proceedings taken in a subsequent year. Charges recorded by the police may also be altered as a result of the judicial process.

Persons with a Charge of Rape¹ Proved in Scottish Courts, by the Police Force Area, 1999-2000 to 2002-03

	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02³	2002-03^3,4
Charge proved:
Central	2	1	0	2
Dumfries and Galloway	1	2	1	1
Fife	1	1	5	5
Grampian	5	1	2	1
Lothian and Borders	7	9	11	6
Northern	3	0	3	4
Strathclyde	8	11	18	13
Tayside	0	3	3	2
Scotland	27	28	43	34
Charge found not proven:
Central	2	1	0	2
Dumfries and Galloway	1	0	0	0
Fife	2	0	1	0
Grampian	0	0	0	1
Lothian and Borders	2	2	4	3
Northern	0	0	0	0
Strathclyde	3	3	1	1
Tayside	1	1	1	0
Scotland	11	7	7	7
Other charge found not guilty²:
Central	6	1	1	0
Dumfries and Galloway	0	0	1	0
Fife	2	1	2	2
Grampian	1	1	2	1
Lothian and Borders	4	3	3	4
Northern	0	0	0	1
Strathclyde	2	10	3	4
Tayside	1	1	3	2
Scotland	16	17	15	14

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Includes acquittal not guilty, plea not guilty accepted and case deserted simpliciter.

3. Figures may be underestimates due to recording delays.

4. Provisional data.

Question reference: S2W-09384

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 25 June 2004
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 19 July 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-8940 by Cathy Jamieson on 23 June 2004, whether it will provide a breakdown of drug offences that were (a) solved by the police, (b) prosecuted and (c) convicted in (i) 1999-00, (ii) 2000-01, (iii) 2001-02, (iv) 2002-03 and (v) 2003-04.

The available information on drug offences which were recorded by the police and on persons proceeded against for drug offences is given in the following tables. Statistics dealing with recorded crime and court proceedings are not directly comparable as a person may be proceeded against for more than one crime involving more than one victim, and a crime may be recorded in one year and proceedings taken in a subsequent year. Charges recorded by the police may also be altered as a result of the judicial process.

Drugs Offences Cleared up by the Police, 1999-2000 to 2003-04^P

Type of Offence	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04^P
Illegal importation of drugs	7	1	4	3	2
Production, manufacture or cultivation of drugs	106	131	139	196	251
Supply, possession with intent to supply etc. of drugs	7,977	8,999	10,080	9,772	9,178
Possession of drugs	21,693	22,525	26,125	30,319	32,259
Drugs, money laundering related offences	1	0	0	0	0
Drugs, other offences	450	457	282	272	274
Total	30,234	32,113	36,630	40,562	41,964

Note:

Data for 2003-2004 are provisional.

Persons Proceeded Against for Drug Offences¹, 1999-2000 to 2002-03

Type of Offence	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02²	2002-03^2,3
Total proceeded against:
Illegal importation of drugs	0	5	6	5
Production, manufacture or cultivation of drugs	93	59	55	59
Supply, possession with intent to supply etc. of drugs	2,003	1,730	1,768	1,559
Possession of drugs	5,259	4,549	5,091	4,548
Drugs, money laundering related offences	0	0	0	0
Drugs, other offences	11	6	7	16
Total	7,366	6,349	6,927	6,187
Charge proved:
Illegal importation of drugs	0	5	6	5
Production, manufacture or cultivation of drugs	77	49	45	52
Supply, possession with intent to supply etc. of drugs	1,433	1,268	1,292	1,334
Possession of drugs	4,636	3,946	4,540	4,308
Drugs, money laundering related offences	0	0	0	0
Drugs, other offences	8	5	5	15
Total	6,154	5,273	5,888	5,714

Notes:

1. Where main offence

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

3. Provisional data.