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Information held by ISD Scotland shows that 96 public health consultants were in post at September 2003 from a total establishment of 104, a vacancy rate of 7.7%.

The route to consultant posts is through specialist registrar training. We have increased the total number of specialist registrar training posts in publichealth medicine from 31 to 34 over the last two years. It is projected that eight training posts will complete specialist registrar training in 2004 and a furthereight in 2005. This will help to ensure an adequate supply of public health practitioners at consultant level.

The National Workforce Committee is leading on the work force development agenda and will be assisted in this by the new Workforce Numbers Group (WoNuG). This group will for the first time look comprehensively at the health care work force, including the public health work force. It will advise the committee on work force numbers and modelling across all staff groups and make recommendations on work force size and shape in a sensible and pragmatic way.

The latest information currently available relates to calendar year 2002. In that year a total of 9,978 drink-driving offences resulted in a charge proved in court. It is planned to publish information for 2003 in November.

The personal bankruptcy information requested is contained in the following table.

 

Sheriffdom	Sheriff Court	Financial Year (1st April to 31st March)
		2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Glasgow and Strathkelvin	Glasgow	324	306	340	322
Lothians and Borders	Edinburgh	234	197	234	262
	Duns	6	8	6	5
	Haddington	33	64	86	105
	Jedburgh	31	18	28	28
	Linlithgow	98	118	87	124
	Peebles	10	6	8	6
	Selkirk	14	20	14	17
		426	431	463	547
Grampian, Highland and Islands	Aberdeen	188	211	187	202
	Banff	12	16	19	19
	Dingwall	21	17	10	25
	Dornoch	4	11	11	5
	Elgin	47	46	42	60
	Fort William	21	18	31	13
	Inverness	41	46	59	38
	Kirkwall	10	6	8	10
	Lerwick	15	10	5	12
	Lochmaddy	0	1	2	2
	Peterhead	28	45	29	68
	Portree	5	2	12	4
	Stonehaven	25	24	34	29
	Stornoway	4	2	5	10
	Tain	7	12	11	6
	Wick	14	8	9	17
		442	475	474	520
North Strathclyde	Campbeltown	13	23	15	7
	Dumbarton	83	69	99	95
	Dunoon	18	13	26	13
	Greenock	34	35	49	49
	Kilmarnock	162	160	136	158
	Oban	23	25	42	22
	Paisley	171	212	127	120
	Rothesay	4	4	3	5
		508	541	497	469
South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway	Airdrie	162	173	166	103
	Ayr	83	98	113	89
	Dumfries	44	55	43	51
	Hamilton	159	212	214	232
	Kirkcudbright	24	20	23	19
	Lanark	30	35	36	39
	Stranraer	15	12	12	15
		517	605	607	548
Tayside, Central and Fife	Alloa	24	31	40	35
	Arbroath	35	29	29	43
	Cupar	41	51	50	58
	Dundee	105	139	135	162
	Dunfermline	102	119	91	128
	Falkirk	110	126	108	125
	Forfar	31	27	30	31
	Kirkcaldy	151	149	171	164
	Perth	71	116	149	107
	Stirling	51	48	44	50
		721	835	847	903
Totals		2,938	3,193	3,228	3,309

Note:

Theabove figures include awards made in the Court of Session and remitted to theappropriate sheriff court.

Statistics on company insolvenciesare not available by sheriff court district. The total numbers for the years requestedare:

	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Receiverships	111	68	114	99
Liquidations	753	568	853	794

 

The available information, which relates to Scottish applications for an award, for the period 1 April 2003 to 31 March 2004, is given in the following table. The information requested is not available by sheriff court district.

Date of Application to Date of Decision

Period	Number	% Within Period
Less than 1 year	6,249	70.24
1 year to less than 2 years	2,109	23.70
2 years to less than 3 years	421	4.73
Over 3 years	118	1.33
Total	8,897	100

Source: Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority.

The most up to date information on the number of long leases for the counties of Ayr, Clackmannan, Lanark and Renfrew is given in Appendix A of the Scottish Law Commission’s Discussion Paper on the Conversion of Long Leases (No. 112) at page 79, published by The Stationery Office in 2001, a copy of which is available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 12799). The total number of long leases examined for these four counties was 2,679. These counties were selected due to their having a high incidence of long leases.

In respect of the remaining counties of Scotland, the most recent information may be obtained from Appendix II of the Scottish Home Department publication, Report of the Scottish Leases Committee (chaired by Lord Guthrie) (1952, Cmd 8656) published by HMSO in 1952, a copy of which is available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 32933).

More up to date information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Details of the number of interception warrants issued by the Scottish ministers are contained in the annual reports of the Interception of Communication Commissioner, which are laid before this Parliament. The most recent annual report, for 2002, was laid before Parliament on 9 September 2003, and copies were placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 29093).

The available information on crimes of rape which were recorded by the police, and on persons with a charge proved in court where rape was the main offence, is given in the following tables.

Crimes of Rape Recorded by the Police by Police Force Area, Scotland,1999-2000 to 2002-2003¹

	1999-2000	2000-2001	2001-2002	2002-2003
Central	4	17	37	50
Dumfries and Galloway	39	16	20	16
Fife	43	46	52	73
Grampian	86	55	52	74
Lothian and Borders	91	130	138	173
Northern	38	14	29	30
Strathclyde	222	213	243	244
Tayside	63	58	60	83
Scotland	586	549	631	743

 

Persons with a Charge Of Rape² Proved in Scottish Courts, byPolice Force Area, 1999-2000 to 2002-2003

	1999-2000	2000-2001	2001-2002	2002-2003(3)
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	4
Northern	3	0	3	4
Strathclyde	8	10	18	12
Tayside	0	3	3	2
Scotland	27	27	43	31

Notes:

1. Please note that the 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.

2. Where main offence.

3. Provisional data – figures will be underestimates due to late recording of court outcomes on SCRO.

We expect to receive a report by the end of 2004, as explained at page 15 of the Scottish Law Commission’s Annual Report for 2003 (Scot Law Com No 194) published by The Stationery Office in 2004, a copy of which is available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 32268).

Education authorities have a legal duty to take reasonable care of the safety of pupils when under their charge. Scottish Executive guidance to authorities on school transport matters includes a focus on the safety of pupils.

There are no statutory limits on the time that children can be away from home in order to attend school.