Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-02007

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 31 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has been notified of any funding surpluses in the operation of the concessionary fares scheme and, if so, what the surpluses have been for each year since the scheme came into operation, broken down by local authority area.

In the first year ofoperation (2006-07) the concessionary fares scheme for older and disabled peopleexperienced a surplus of £6.2 million. The surplus for bus travel was £5 millionand the ferry surplus was £1.2 million.

These surpluses wereactively managed as they came to light and were subsequently reapplied acrossthe transport prtfolio as part of our financial management of the 2006-07budget.

As this ntional sheme is nowadministered centrally by Transport Scotland and because journeys can be takenacross many lcal athority boundaries we are unable to breakdown the figures by localauthority.

Question reference: S3W-02013

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 31 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many staff were employed in the environment sections of its Environment and Rural Affairs Department in each of the last three years, broken down by responsibility.

The following table showsstaff numbers by area of responsibility in Divisions covering Environment whichare parts of the Environmental Quality Directorate and Climate Change and WaterIndustry Directorates, in each of the last three years.

Duties	Number of Staff
Area	2005	2006	2007
Environmental Futures	0	0	5
Noise and Nuisance	8	9	9
Climate Change	14	14	18
Waste and Pollution Reduction	24	25	22
Water	35	32	20
Sustainable Development and Biodiversity	13	13	15
Drinking Water Quality	5	3	6
Group Head and PS	2	2	2
Division Heads	4	5	6
Total	105	103	103

Question reference: S3W-02014

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 31 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many staff were employed in the fisheries sections of its Environment and Rural Affairs Department in each of the last three years, broken down by responsibility.

The following table showsstaff numbers by area of responsibility in Divisions covering Fisheries whichare part of the Marine Directorate, namely Sea Fisheries Conservation, SeaFisheries Management, and Freshwater Fisheries and Aquaculture, in each of thelast three years.

Duties	Number of Staff
Area	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Effort Management	4	4	3
Quota Management	3	3	2
Markets and processing	3	3	3
Data analysis	5	5	5
Licensing	2	2	2
Compliance	4	3	4
Fisheries Strategy	3	3	3
EU Negotiations	3	3	3
Inshore Fisheries	3	3	3
Marine Environment	1	1	1
Admin Support	2	2	2
Fisheries Grants/Science	5.5	7.5	7.5
Aquaculture Policy	7	7	6
Fish Health	5	4	4
Freshwater Fisheries	6.5	6.5	6.5
Aquaculture and Fisheries Bill Team	2	2	0
Group Head Division Heads Private Secretaries	1 3 4	1 3 4	1 3 4
Total	63	63	59

Question reference: S3W-02028

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 31 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many failure to appear warrants have been issued in each of the last five years, broken down by sheriff court district.

The available information isgiven in the following table. The figures exclude fines enquiry and initiatingwarrants.

Failure to AppearWarrants Issued by Sheriff Court, 2001-02 to 2005-06

Court	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Aberdeen	2,685	3,295	3,020	2,527	2,519
Airdrie	1,240	1,512	1,483	1,418	1,442
Alloa	612	775	759	791	665
Arbroath	275	422	320	283	302
Ayr	1,149	1,291	1,453	1,597	1,455
Banff	110	89	99	36	44
Campbeltown	50	58	76	84	63
Cupar	296	274	244	230	242
Dingwall	106	106	130	62	56
Dornoch	31	23	28	20	13
Dumbarton	1,108	1,213	1,363	1,431	1,073
Dumfries	429	950	789	778	678
Dundee	2,499	2,881	3,218	3,177	2,456
Dunfermline	769	983	1,005	1,106	972
Dunoon	168	146	177	216	174
Duns	39	62	63	88	74
Edinburgh	6,038	5,742	5,029	4,856	5,455
Elgin	331	372	401	391	287
Falkirk	1,083	1,056	1,124	1,308	1,119
Forfar	192	256	269	242	160
Fort William	55	77	79	85	63
Glasgow	8,710	10,359	8,205	7,396	7,848
Greenock	945	1,174	1,239	1,014	730
Haddington	470	612	410	327	278
Hamilton	3,956	3,994	3,372	3,251	2,823
Inverness	748	669	675	761	746
Jedburgh	176	216	201	256	217
Kilmarnock	1,155	1,260	1,617	1,873	1,912
Kirkcaldy	1,627	2,154	2,422	2,365	2,047
Kirkcudbright	64	93	89	81	59
Kirkwall	12	10	14	16	21
Lanark	244	253	350	385	267
Lerwick	32	39	33	26	40
Linlithgow	1,931	1,658	1,230	1,007	978
Lochmaddy	9	5	5	14	10
Oban	61	48	90	80	68
Paisley	2,334	2,615	2,796	2,500	1,977
Peebles	48	63	32	52	38
Perth	672	725	1,042	819	778
Peterhead	357	401	229	305	323
Portree	7	16	11	25	13
Rothesay	57	50	101	45	28
Selkirk	171	233	180	154	144
Stirling	758	842	974	1,104	869
Stonehaven	141	143	95	67	67
Stornoway	34	39	27	31	35
Stranraer	215	197	226	215	165
Tain	173	206	96	32	19
Wick	15	17	27	28	11
Total	44,387	49,674	46,917	44,955	41,823

Question reference: S3W-02008

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 30 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has been notified of any funding deficits in the operation of the concessionary fares scheme and, if so, what the deficits have been each year since the scheme came into operation, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S3W-02033

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 30 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many dentists have provided NHS dental services in each year since 1999, expressed also as a percentage of all dentists and broken down by NHS board.

The number of dentists(headcount) who have provided NHS general dental services, broken down by NHSboard, is shown in the following table. It is not possible to express thesenumbers as a percentage of all dentists, as information on dentists who provideonly private treatment is not held centrally.

Number of Dentists^1,2,3 who have Provided NHS General DentalServices in the Years Ending 31 March 1999-2006

NHS Board	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Scotland	1,958	1,982	1,991	2,037	2,078	2,105	2,153	2,301
Argyll and Clyde	183	176	180	183	179	186	182	199
Ayrshire and Arran	141	135	133	131	134	143	147	150
Borders	42	42	43	45	43	39	39	42
Dumfries and Galloway	43	47	43	40	42	44	43	44
Fife	143	142	145	143	147	138	140	171
Forth Valley	96	98	100	105	108	104	112	119
Grampian	173	174	169	171	177	182	191	198
Greater Glasgow	409	416	416	430	438	445	474	489
Highland	82	83	82	87	85	85	92	100
Lanarkshire	202	207	205	209	217	229	234	237
Lothian	356	364	364	372	383	384	384	395
Orkney	4	6	6	7	6	9	9	11
Shetland	7	8	7	11	11	12	12	13
Tayside	172	175	180	179	184	179	183	211
Western Isles	12	12	12	7	10	9	10	14

Source: Management Information and DentalAccounting System.

Notes

1. Includes non-salaried principal dentists, GDSsalaried dentists, assistants and vocational trainees.

2. Data for years prior to the year ending 31 March2006 have been revised. Double/triple counting within the General DentalService (GDS) has been eliminated.

3. Due to improvements in the collection of information onGDS salaried dentists, figures from September 2005 include some GDS salaried dentistsnot previously recorded. There are a number of cases where a salaried post willbe recorded under a generic name and not under the name of a specific dentist.Numerous dentists may work in this post at any given time. For years prior toSeptember 2005 it was assumed that, since there was no named individualrecorded, a permanent dentist was not in post. As a result, all posts recordedwithout a named individual were previously excluded from GDS salaried dentistcounts. However, information is now available on the individuals who fill theseposts. These dentists can now be included in the GDS salaried dentist count,which has resulted in a significant increase in the number of salarieddentists.

Question reference: S3W-02044

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 30 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many detoxification beds for drug misusers have been available in each NHS board area in each year since 1999.

The specific informationrequested is not available routinely.

Some information on thenumber of detoxification beds for drugmisusers may be contained within alcoholand drug action team corporate action plans. These can be accessed on the DrugMisuse Information Scotland website:

http://www.drugmisuse.isdscotland.org/dat/cap/dat.htm.

Specific information on thenumber of detoxification beds for drugs misusers may also be available directlyfrom NHS boards.

Question reference: S3W-02073

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 27 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding is available for commemorative purposes.

Veterans’ issues, includingcommemorative events and paying for memorials, are a reserved matter for theWestminster Government and the responsibility of the Ministry of Defence.Consequently the Scottish Government has no dedicated budget for commemorativeevents or memorials. However, all requests for funding are considered on theirown merits and in recent years the Scottish Government has made significantcontributions to events commemorating Scottish veterans, including NationalVeterans Day and the commemoration of the 60^th anniversary of theend of the Second World War.

Question reference: S3W-02072

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 27 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding has been provided for commemorative purposes, such as medals and plaques, in each year since 1999, giving the reason for each commemoration.

Veteran’s issues such ascommemorative events are a reserved matter for the Westminstergovernment and to the Ministry of Defence, including the striking and awardingof military campaign medals which is in the preserve of Her Majesty The Queen.Scottish Ministers however are open to consider formal applications for fundingfrom groups and organisations on a case-by-case basis.

Between 1999-00 and 2001-02our records show that the Government received no formal applications forfunding for either war memorials or commemorations. In 2002-03 an applicationfor funding for a war memorial from the Normandy Veteran’s Association wasreceived but was declined. In 2003-04 the Executive received no formalapplications for funding.

In 2004-05 the Governmentreceived two applications for funding. The McCrae’s Battalion Trust received acontribution of £5,000 for the Great Hearts War Memorial at Contalmaison inNorthern France, and the 51st Highland Division Veterans Pilgrimage Associationreceived £1,000 towards the erection of their memorial in Normandy.

In 2005-06 the Governmentprovided funding totalling £34,168.10 to Veterans Scotland for a series ofcommemorative celebrations marking the 60^th anniversary of the endof World War II. In 2006-07 the Government contributed £9,910.93 to the DundeeCombined Ex-Services Association for the inaugural National Veterans Daycommemorations and this year has made up to £5,000 available to theAssociation.

In addition, in 2007-08 the Government’sEuropean Office agreed to a contribution of £5,000 towards the commemorativeevents to take place in Zonnebeke, Belgium in August this year to mark the contribution ofScottish soldiers during the First World War.

In addition, as part oftheir regular programme of repair and maintenance of historic monuments,Historic Scotland have carried out works and repairs during this period to the Scottish National War Memorial at Edinburgh Castle and to the Argyll andSutherland Memorial at Stirling Castle totalling approximately £70,000.

Question reference: S3W-02042

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 26 July 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive on what percentage of applications to Disclosure Scotland for disclosure checks no charge was levied in (a) each year since its establishment and (b) each of the last six months.

The cost of disclosurechecks for volunteers working in the voluntary sector with children and adultsat risk is met by Scottish Ministers. The following table sets out the numberand percentage of applications to Disclosure Scotland for which ScottishMinisters met the fee.

Period	Applications from volunteers in the voluntary sector working with children and adults at risk	Percentage
2002-03	9,242	6.53%
2003-04	30,119	9.42%
2004-05	38,351	8.59%
2005-06	56,172	10%
2006-07	54,084	7.74%
January 2007	3,450	8%
February 2007	4,316	8.42%
March 2007	5,191	9%
April 2007	4,771	10%
May 2007	5,178	9%
June 2007	4,745	8%

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