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Transport Scotland officials meet monthly with First ScotRail to review performance on the rail network, including punctuality. This meeting is a franchise commitment and the Scottish Executive play an active role to ensure First ScotRail, in conjunction with other industry partners, are addressing services where there are concerns with performance.

Transport Scotland has the operational responsibility for this area, and can be contacted for more information if required.

Drug rehabilitation services are provided in a variety of settings, including out-patient. clinics, day hospitals, residential facilities and by voluntary organisations within the community. Services are often offered to people with problems with drugs or alcohol or both. It is not always possible to separate drug treatment places from alcohol treatment places. The number of places within Scotland is not held centrally.

The expanded Scottish Drug Misuse Database will, in time, provide information on the total number of people receiving treatment and the type of treatment they are receiving.

This information is not routinely collected.

Sharing good practice is a key element of effecting change in the Scottish education system and the Schools of Ambition (SoA) programme is disseminating information to schools continuously with the SoAs making a major contribution to this.

Schools of Ambition are sharing their learning. A programme of action research is being put in place. Ideas and data will be analysed and synthesised to be fed back to the wider school community and to ensure continuous “streaming” of research findings. Events are being organised nationally and regionally, to which all schools will be invited, and at which good practice will be shared.

All schools have access to the Schools of Ambition website (www.schoolsofambition.co.uk) to share lessons learnt.

In addition, the role of the Local Authorities in spreading the benefits of the SoA programme to other schools in its authority is key. As full partners in the programme, we are working with them on their strategies for this.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-21775 on 20 January 2006. 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/wa.search.

When developing drug treatment and rehabilitation services, drug action teams and their local partners assess the level of need in their areas and have to ensure that the treatment needs of their local drug using population are met.

An additional £4 million was allocated for drug treatment and rehabilitation in 2005-06. Performance contracts have been agreed between the Scottish Executive and 22 local drug action teams. These include specific targets for widening the range of treatments available locally, increasing capacity, and reducing waiting times. This would result in an estimated 2,600 additional treatment places. The performance contracts run from 2005-06 until 2006-07, when it is envisaged the targets will be achieved.

The investment we have made in drug treatment and rehabilitation since 2000 is reflected in new figures released in the publication Drug Misuse Statistics Scotland 2005. These show a 35% increase in the number of new individuals able to access drug treatment and rehabilitation services between 2000-01 and 2004-05.

The figures provided in the answer to S2W-20846 can be broken down further from 2002-03 to 2004-05 as shown. Definitions of each element of these payments have also been provided.

Due to a change in ledger systems in 2001, this information can not be easily obtained for the earlier years. However, my officials are currently looking into this and I will write to the member once this information becomes available.

Year	1 Subsidy (£000)	2 Write Offs (£000)	3 Loans Repurchased (£000)	4 First Loss Claims (£000)	5 First Loss Repayments (£000)	6 Adjustment (£000)	Total (£000)
2002-03	8,610	95	25	2,349	-108	-326	10,645
2003-04	5,611	162	95	1,495	-221	-90	7,052
2004-05	5,075	193	41	1,134	-217	999	7,225

Notes:

Column 1 – The subsidy isthe payment made to the purchasing banks to cover the difference between thecommercial rate of interest the banks would normally charge and the rate ofinflation they are required to charge by the regulations.

Column 2 – Payments are madeto the purchasing banks for loans which are written off due to age or death.

Column 3 – Shows paymentsmade for loans which are “repurchased” and returned to the government portfoliofor reasons of permanent disability or being medically unfit for work.

Column 4 – First lossclaims, reimburse the purchasing banks for loans which become 24 months or morein arrears, as these loans no longer attract the interest rate subsidy.

Column 5 – First lossrepayments are deducted from the total Executive payment as loan repayments canstill be received after the first loss claim is put in place, i.e. after thebad debt is written off. 

Column 6 – Adjustments canbe made to the figures in respect of year-end  reconciliations between what hasbeen paid by the DfES and the devolved administrations. Adjustments can also bemade to reflect accruals and differences in spend across financial years.

Information on health visitorsin NHS Scotland is published on the Scottish Health Statistics website under WorkforceStatistics, at www.isdscotland.org/workforce.

Section E gives details of nursingand midwifery staff employed in NHS Scotland. In particular, tables E1 and E2 showthe whole-time equivalent (WTE) and headcount number of health visitors, brokendown by NHS board area. WTE adjusts headcount staff figures to take account of part-timestaff.

There has been an increase of1.7% WTE and 7.5% increase in headcount in health visitors in post in NHSScotlandfrom September 1999 to September 2004.

Prior to 2002, health visitingand school nursing were regarded as separate disciplines with separate training.However, in December 2002 the National Midwifery Council changed the qualificationfrom Health Visiting to specialist Public Health Nurse.

Drug Action Teams (DATs) are responsible for the strategic planning and  co-ordination of action to tackle drug misuse in their areas.

The allocations to DATs from the additional £4 million to community drug treatment services we announced for 2005-06 were specifically linked to increasing the range of treatment available locally, including abstinence services, as well as expanding capacity and reducing waiting times.

The majority of funding, £23.7 million in 2005-06, allocated by the Scottish Executive for Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation is provided to National Health Boards to support the work of local Drug and Alcohol Teams in Scotland.

Local authorities receive resources earmarked for drugs rehabilitation, totalling £6.8 per annum, through Grant Aided Expenditure. These funds may also be used support to the work of local Drug and Alcohol Teams. It is for each area to decide how their allocated resources are spent, based on local need.

NHS Board	Local Authority	2000-01 (£000)	2001-02 (£000)	2002-03 (£000)	2003-04 (£000)	2004-05 (£000)
Argyll and Clyde	Argyll and Bute	0	119	119	119	119
	Inverclyde	0	113	113	113	113
	Renfrewshire	0	235	235	235	235
	East Renfrewshire%	0	119	119	119	119
	West Dunbartonshire%	0	126	126	126	126
Ayrshire and Arran	East Ayrshire	0	161	161	161	161
	North Ayrshire	0	185	185	185	185
	South Ayrshire	0	152	152	152	152
Borders	Borders	0	141	141	141	141
Dumfries and Galloway	Dumfries and Galloway	0	195	195	195	195
Fife	Fife	0	464	464	464	464
Forth Valley	Clackmannanshire	0	65	65	65	65
	Falkirk	0	192	192	192	192
	Stirling	0	113	113	113	113
Grampian1	Aberdeen City	0	282	282	282	282
	Aberdeenshire	0	302	302	302	302
	Moray	0	113	113	113	113
Greater Glasgow*	Glasgow City	0	812	812	812	812
	East Dunbartonshire	0	147	147	147	147
	East Renfrewshire%	0	119	119	119	119
	West Dunbartonshire%	0	126	126	126	126
	South Lanarkshire%	0	408	408	408	408
	North Lanarkshire%	0	436	436	436	436
Highland	Highland	0	277	277	277	277
Lanarkshire	North Lanarkshire%	0	436	436	436	436
	South Lanarkshire%	0	408	408	408	408
Lothian2	East Lothian	0	120	120	120	120
	Edinburgh City	0	600	600	600	600
	Midlothian	0	108	108	108	108
	West Lothian	0	205	205	205	205
Orkney	Orkney	0	26	26	26	26
Shetland	Shetland	0	30	30	30	30
Tayside3	Angus	0	146	146	146	146
	Dundee City	0	192	192	192	192
	Perth and Kinross	0	178	178	178	178
Western Isles	Western Isles	0	37	37	37	37

Notes:

% - Only a percentage of the local authority lies within the NHS board area.

1. Grampian NHS Board comprises Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray Drug and Alcohol Action Teams.

2. Lothian NHS Board comprises East Lothian, Edinburgh City, Midlothian and West Lothian Drug and Alcohol Action Teams.

3. Tayside NHS Board comprises Angus, Dundee City and Perth and Kinross Drug and Alcohol Action Teams.