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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-27555

Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for Dundee East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by George Lyon on 23 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) men and (b) women committed suicide in each of the last five years, broken down into persons (i) under 18 and (ii) 18 and over.

In presenting statistics on suicidesit is conventional to combine deaths classified as intentional self-harm (suicides)with those classified as events of undetermined intent. This is because the majorityof the latter are likely to have been suicides. However, this assumption is knownto be less valid for children, particularly those aged under 10. For this reasonthe following table shows the two categories separately and excludes informationon events of undetermined intent involving children aged under 10.

	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Deaths from Intentional Self-Harm (Suicides)
(a) males
(i) under 18	10	5	7	11	6
(ii) 18 and over	431	476	406	437	387
(b) females
(i) under 18	6	11	9	5	7
(ii) 18 and over	162	144	138	153	147
Deaths Classified as Events of Undetermined Intent
(a) males
(i) 10 - 17	2	8	1	6	6
(ii) 18 and over	202	186	164	155	149
(b) females
(i) 10 - 17	0	0	3	0	1
(ii) 18 and over	73	67	66	68	59

Question reference: S2W-27556

Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for Dundee East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by George Lyon on 23 August 2006

In presenting statistics on suicidesit is conventional to combine deaths classified as intentional self-harm (suicides)with those classified as events of undetermined intent. This is because the majorityof the latter are likely to have been suicides. The following table provides informationon this basis. Following normal practice for mortality data compiled by the GeneralRegister Office for Scotland, the information has been presented by calendar year.As many of the rates are based on small numbers of deaths, trends should be interpretedwith caution.

Suicides¹in Scotland, Rate² Per 100,000 Population

	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Scotland	18	18	16	16	15
Aberdeen City	12	18	17	21	17
Aberdeenshire	16	14	11	18	11
Angus	6	11	15	16	18
Argyll and Bute	16	16	19	23	10
Clackmannanshire	25	19	17	21	16
Dumfries and Galloway	13	19	14	15	19
Dundee City	22	18	18	13	13
East Ayrshire	30	22	14	13	17
East Dunbartonshire	11	14	12	14	11
East Lothian	11	11	13	15	10
East Renfrewshire	10	6	7	12	8
Edinburgh, City of	20	17	11	13	17
Eilean Siar	30	4	23	11	27
Falkirk	15	17	12	13	7
Fife	14	19	11	14	15
Glasgow City	24	21	20	20	21
Highland	24	21	20	29	19
Inverclyde	18	28	19	17	18
Midlothian	17	20	19	20	15
Moray	20	17	22	21	16
North Ayrshire	21	14	14	16	15
North Lanarkshire	17	17	19	13	17
Orkney Islands	5	16	31	5	20
Perth and Kinross	22	12	23	18	13
Renfrewshire	11	21	16	21	11
Scottish Borders	15	20	18	15	7
Shetland Islands	18	27	32	18	9
South Ayrshire	21	16	7	12	12
South Lanarkshire	14	19	11	16	11
Stirling	17	15	13	15	8
West Dunbartonshire	17	25	28	14	19
West Lothian	13	16	16	13	11

Notes:

1. Deaths from intentionalself-harm and deaths classified as events of undetermined intent (all ages).

2. Rates based on fewer than20 deaths are shown in italics.

Question reference: S2W-26978

Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for Dundee East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 17 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made to First ScotRail in the last year.

Question reference: S2W-27356

Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for Dundee East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 4 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been awaiting organ donations in each NHS board over the last five years.

The number of Scottish patientson the waiting list for a transplant in each NHS board area at the end of the lastfive financial year is set out in the following table.

Health Board	31-3-2002	31-3-2003	31-3-2004	31-3-2005	31-3-2006
Argyll and Clyde	38	37	43	54	66
Ayrshire and Arran	30	39	40	48	49
Borders	10	13	17	16	20
Dumfries and Galloway	19	20	20	17	19
Fife	38	43	46	53	61
Forth Valley	33	34	26	30	33
Greater Glasgow	154	141	135	133	141
Grampian	69	68	56	69	82
Highland	33	35	34	40	45
Lanarkshire	65	58	62	66	62
Lothian	98	113	102	110	118
Tayside	58	48	47	51	58
Total	645	649	628	687	754

Source: UK Transplant.

On grounds of patient confidentiality,the Island NHS boards have not been included because of the very small numbers.

Question reference: S2W-27355

Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for Dundee East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 4 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the budget for publicising organ donation was in 2005-06.

Question reference: S2W-27358

Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for Dundee East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 4 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to improve public awareness in respect of organ donation.

The Executive’s organ donationadvertising campaigns are part of a long-term strategy designed to raise awarenessand encourage positive attitudes towards organ donation. This year’s campaign willbe launched soon and includes press and poster advertising and direct response opportunitiesfor members of the public in 33 shopping centres throughout Scotland. Thecampaign aims to build on the success of the campaign in 2005.

Question reference: S2W-27357

Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for Dundee East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 4 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the annual (a) cadaveric and (b) living donor organ donation rate was per million of the population in each of the last 10 years for which records are available.

The number of organ donors inScotland in each of the last 10 financial years is set out in the following table.

Year of Donation	Cadaveric Donor	pmp	Living Donor	pmp
1996-97	58	11.4	17	3.3
1997-98	66	12.9	21	4.1
1998-99	72	14.1	20	3.9
1999-2000	70	13.7	34	6.7
2000-01	58	11.4	40	7.8
2001-02	62	12.2	33	6.5
2002-03	58	11.4	34	6.7
2003-04	46	9.0	37	7.3
2004-05	61	12.0	33	6.5
2005-06	48	9.4	38	7.5
Total	599		307

Source: UK Transplant.

Question reference: S2W-27359

Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for Dundee East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 4 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been invested in (a) intensive care unit beds, (b) high dependency unit beds and (c) nurses with the critical care skills needed to staff those beds in each year since 1999.

Decisions on investment in intensivecare and high dependency unit beds and the planning of the workforce to deliverfirst class health services, including specialist nurses, to patients in Scotland, areprimarily a matter for individual NHS boards. Each NHS board receives an annualallocation of funds to meet the health care services of its resident population.It is for Boards to decide how best to utilise these funds taking account of nationaland local priorities. No specific information on levels of investment is availablecentrally. Details of the running costs of intensive care and high dependency bedsand the associated nursing staff costs since 1999 are as follows:

	Intensive Care Units		High Dependency Units
	Expenditure on Nursing Staff (£000)	Total Net Expenditure (£000)	Expenditure on Nursing Staff (£000)	Total Net Expenditure (£000)
1999-2000	24,660	58,712	-	-
2000-01	28,109	59,735	-	-
2001-02	30,890	66,533	-	-
2002-03	33,159	69,864	-	-
2003-04	38,591	80,107	10,295	23,153
2004-05	37,205	81,830	13,188	29,676

Source: Scottish HealthService Costs.

Note: Financial information onHigh dependency Units is only available from 2003-04

Question reference: S2W-27360

Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for Dundee East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 July 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 4 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were on the waiting list for an organ transplant and what the average waiting time was for such an operation in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board and organ type.

Question reference: S2W-26981

Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for Dundee East, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 3 August 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to investigate with First ScotRail ways to lower the cost of rail travel.

The National Transport Strategy(NTS) will aim to provide a single, comprehensive, national statement of the ScottishExecutive’s priorities and plans for the future. It will build on our White Paperof June 2004 by showing how transport will contribute to our five key priorities(economy; environment; social inclusion; safety, and integration) over the mediumto long-term. The recent NTS consultation included a section relating to issueson fares, including the question of cost of public transport fares. We are currentlyconsidering the responses to the NTS consultation.

Transport Scotland willpublish a rail strategy later this year which will set out the priorities for Scotland’s railwayover the short, medium and longer term. Fares policy is likely to be a key leverin achieving our aspirations. A research study to ensure that future options forfares policy and fares regulation are based upon the most relevant and robust Scottishdata is currently underway. Transport Scotland will work with First ScotRail and look to improve uponthe existing fares structure considering in particular options to move towards asingle small family of easily recognisable and easy to market fares in Scotland.