- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 27 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive how many of its staff have been seconded to UKRep; which departments have any such staff been seconded from, and how long any such secondment has lasted.
Answer
Mobility between Government Departments is defined as a loan rather than a secondment. The number of Scottish Executive staff who have been on loan to UKRep since 1987 is 13. The duration of each loan and the Scottish Executive Departments such staff have been on loan from are as follows:Total Number of Scottish Executive staff on loan to UKRep: 13Scottish Executive Departments
Development Department | 4 |
Environment and Rural Affairs Department | 6 |
Justice Department | 2 |
Corporate Services | 1 |
Duration of Loans
0-1 year | 1-2 years | 2-3 years | 3+ years |
1 | 1 | 2 | 9 |
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Wendy Alexander on 27 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive how its priorities for growing businesses as set out in A Smart, Successful Scotland: Ambitions for the Enterprise Networks are being applied in rural areas.
Answer
The vision statement Rural Scotland: A New Approach, outlined the Executive's commitment to supporting rural economic development by building on existing strengths and promoting opportunities. The Way Forward: The Framework for Economic Development in Scotland recognised the particular opportunities in rural Scotland, while Smart Successful Scotland recognised Highlands and Islands Enterprise's on-going role in promoting the social development of the sparsely populated areas, and required Scottish Enterprise to be "responsive to the integrated nature of rural development". It also included a commitment to rural development and clearly set out mechanisms for priority setting. Smart Successful Scotland has three priorities - growing businesses, global connections and learning and skills. These apply equally in rural areas. Particular rural challenges include sparsity of population, access to markets, distance, critical mass e.g. an insufficient concentration of entrepreneurs, limited job opportunities, labour supply, availability of development sites and limited range of services. These needs have been taken into account when growing businesses in rural economies:Greater entrepreneurial dynamism and creativityCreating openness to a world economy.Access to capital for business birth via the Business Growth Fund, and Social Investment Scotland for social economy organisations.Improving development for new starts e.g. 555 new businesses aided in the Borders and Dumfries and Galloway in 2001-02.Providing Business advice and information via Business Mentoring Scotland, the Small Business Gateway, developing Single Entry Points for business development services in the Highlands and Islands, and innovative promotional events such as the Scottish Enterprise Grampian rural roadshows in 2001.Greater employment inclusion for disadvantaged groups, young persons, and women.More e-businessAssistance on all aspects of e-business delivered though the Enterprise networks and takes the form of workshops, seminars, one-to-one advice and online help. Businesses are advised about the best way for them to implement appropriate e-business solutions, including online trading.Supporting infrastructure development through public sector procurement of broadband in pathfinder areas - Highlands and Islands and South of Scotland. This should help telcos make a business case for investment and extending services to businesses in these areas. Trials under the DTI Fund for innovative uses of broadband will test alternative technologies for delivering broadband in rural areas. Projects include a wireless trial in the Western Isles, two powerline carrier trials in Crieff and Campbeltown and a network trial in Ayrshire. Broadband Demand Stimulation through the DTI Fund. A network of demonstration centres and a website will demonstrate the benefits of broadband to businesses. The first centre, "Broadband for Business" in Inverness, was launched on 19 March 2002. Developing use e.g. though public sector e-procurement (launched in Skye on 25 March 2002), and e-rings for rural cattle sales.Increasing commercialisation of research and innovationIncreased research and development links with universities and businesses through the Science Strategy 2001, the UHI Millennium Institute, the Borders electronics design link to Napier University, the rural entrepreneurship and tourism link to Crichton Campus Dumfries (in conjunction with Paisley/Glasgow universities), and agricultural projects with Scottish Agricultural College.Fostering growth industries to develop Centres of Excellence in areas such as renewable energy (Muck Community Windpower unit, Vestas in Campbeltown, HIE Renewable Energy Forum, and the European Marine Energy Test Centre in Orkney), aquaculture (Dunstaffnage as the European Centre for Marine Biotechnology), nuclear decommissioning (Dounreay), and healthcare (Inverness MediCentre). Global success in key sectorsRestructuring of traditional industries such as textiles and shipbuilding, ensuring transfer of skills into other key sectors e.g. through the SE Grampian Peterhead Company Diversification Scheme.Business expansion through RSA.Creating exportable excellence through the biotechnology, opto-electronics (Strakan in the Borders), food and drink, tourism, creative industries and forest industries clusters, and the growth industries above.Where possible, we propose to develop a rural dis-aggregation of the progress measures of the Enterprise Networks, as published in Measuring Progress towards Smart Successful Scotland. This will allow the networks to become more responsive to the needs of the rural economy, and the success of specific interventions to be accurately measured.Highlands and Islands Enterprise will develop the priorities of Smart, Successful Scotland in their forthcoming document A Smart Successful Scotland: The Highlands and Islands Dimension, with the Scottish Enterprise Rural Group leading evolution in the Scottish Enterprise Area.These principles, whether rural or urban, will integrate under the overarching Doing it Differently enterprise strategy launched on 12 February 2002, providing a new start for a new era.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 27 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people are employed in the administration of the Farm Business Development (Scotland) Scheme 2001 in each area office of its Environment and Rural Affairs Department.
Answer
No staff are being employed solely and directly to administer the Farm Business Development (Scotland) Scheme 2001 in the non-Highlands and Islands area offices.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 11 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Simpson on 25 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive how many drug misusers have been registered in each NHS board area (a) so far this year and (b) in each of the last five years and, in each case, what percentage of such misusers are prescribed (i) methadone and (ii) other drug substitutes.
Answer
There is no longer an index of registered drug addicts. However, the following table shows the number of
new individual patients/clients by NHS board of residence, reported to the Scottish Drug Misuse Database during the five years ending 31 March 2001. This information has already been published in the ISD Scotland publication
Drug Misuse in Scotland 2001 and is available on the national drug misuse website at:
http://www.drugmisuse.isdscotland.org Information on the estimated number of problem drug users at both national and local level is contained in
Estimating the National and Local Prevalence of Problem Drug Misuse in Scotland, published in November 2001, also available on the national drug misuse website.Information on the number of drug users being prescribed methadone or other drug substitutes is not held centrally.New
1 individual patients/clients
2,3 reported to the Scottish Drug Misuse Database by NHS Board of residence:Years ending 31 March
| Numbers |
| 1996-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 |
Scotland | 8,652 | 8,846 | 9,280 | 10,608 | 10,591 |
By NHS Board | | | | | |
Argyll and Clyde | 957 | 1,365 | 1,459 | 1,228 | 1,330 |
Ayrshire and Arran4 | 303 | 356 | 141 | 1,182 | 1,239 |
Borders | 59 | 21 | 79 | 80 | 102 |
Dumfries and Galloway | 149 | 153 | 231 | 200 | 207 |
Fife | 384 | 362 | 396 | 433 | 598 |
Forth Valley | 172 | 160 | 334 | 281 | 247 |
Grampian | 947 | 1,056 | 835 | 712 | 631 |
Greater Glasgow | 3,224 | 2,833 | 2,871 | 3,306 | 3,290 |
Highland | 58 | 60 | 74 | 124 | 124 |
Lanarkshire | 353 | 320 | 427 | 551 | 513 |
Lothian | 1,886 | 1,789 | 1,876 | 2,000 | 1,947 |
Tayside | 169 | 357 | 577 | 551 | 405 |
Island Boards5 | 28 | 46 | 29 | 31 | 24 |
Outside Scotland | 3 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 7 |
Notes:1. It is emphasised the information held on the Scottish Drug Misuse Database relates to
new patients/clients. The definition of "new" is (a) the person is attending the particular service for the first time ever, or (b) the person has attended before but not within the previous six months.2. All figures in this table exclude penal establishment inmates and information received from needle exchanges.3. The database collects anonymous information about new problem drug users presenting at a broad range of drug services across, Scotland, including general practices.4. In 1999-2000 information was received for the first time from nine agencies in the Ayrshire and Arran NHS Board area.5. Shetland and Western Isles NHS Boards.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 11 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 25 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what the recidivism rates are for each prison and how such rates are measured.
Answer
Recidivism figures were published by the Scottish Executive in February 2001. The study, which looked at a cohort of offenders released in 1995, recorded that 45% were reconvicted within two years.The Scottish Prison Service publishes return to custody figures. These are not recidivism figures but the number of people released from prison, who are returned to custody within a two-year period. The most recent Research Bulletin setting out the figures for those released in 1997 was published in December 2001 (Parliament's Reference Centre, Bib. number 10938).The data is not broken down by establishment, as many offenders do not spend their complete sentence in any one prison.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 11 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 25 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost was of commissioning the review by PricewaterhouseCoopers of non-clinical services in NHS Grampian.
Answer
This is a matter for NHS Grampian, who commissioned the review in order to improve services for patients.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 11 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 25 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive how many prescriptions for (a) methadone (b) other drug substitutes have been issued (i) so far this year and (ii) in each of the last five years in each NHS board area.
Answer
In the following tables, the number of prescriptions issued for methadone in each of the last five years in each health board area is shown in table 1, and table 2 sets out the number of dispensings carried out in accordance with prescriber's instructions. Current year data are not available.It is not possible to determine the volume of prescribing of drug substitutes, other than methadone because such drugs can also be appropriately prescribed for the treatment of certain medical conditions. These data refer to prescriptions dispensed in the community and do not take into account medicines dispensed by hospitals or hospital based clinics.Table 1: Methadone - Number of Prescribed Items:
Health Board | Number of Prescribed Items |
| 1996-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 |
Argyll and Clyde | 8,167 | 13,780 | 18,451 | 21,749 | 24,319 |
Ayrshire and Arran | 12,789 | 21,649 | 23,751 | 25,209 | 26,576 |
Borders | 427 | 477 | 473 | 425 | 521 |
Dumfries and Galloway | 6,548 | 6,259 | 7,139 | 6,531 | 7,238 |
Fife | 5,017 | 6,677 | 7,599 | 9,449 | 11,398 |
Forth Valley | 2,758 | 2,744 | 2,362 | 2,561 | 3,094 |
Grampian | 13,396 | 15,006 | 17,924 | 22,863 | 26,931 |
Greater Glasgow | 69,023 | 75,689 | 80,342 | 87,152 | 98,897 |
Highland | 1,068 | 1,082 | 1,626 | 2,461 | 2,388 |
Lanarkshire | 11,034 | 12,552 | 17,847 | 24,929 | 28,940 |
Lothian | 18,549 | 18,877 | 19,567 | 23,139 | 26,312 |
Orkney | 17 | 15 | 17 | 16 | 9 |
Shetland | 153 | 245 | 372 | 353 | 652 |
Tayside | 13,919 | 14,533 | 15,155 | 15,709 | 17,172 |
Western Isles | 3 | 7 | 10 | 11 | 3 |
Total | 162,868 | 189,592 | 212,635 | 242,557 | 274,450 |
Table 2: Methadone - Number of Dispensings:
Health Board | Number of Dispensed Items |
| 1996-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 |
Argyll and Clyde | 72,238 | 133,726 | 201,803 | 243,356 | 314,851 |
Ayrshire and Arran | 58,797 | 103,716 | 113,963 | 125,240 | 155,010 |
Borders | 2,314 | 2,927 | 2,244 | 2,102 | 3,010 |
Dumfries and Galloway | 14,877 | 15,897 | 28,873 | 35,832 | 40,333 |
Fife | 29,979 | 42,623 | 64,715 | 85,624 | 117,528 |
Forth Valley | 23,428 | 31,427 | 32,332 | 39,700 | 52,534 |
Grampian | 73,782 | 101,494 | 152,075 | 215,705 | 283,015 |
Greater Glasgow | 619,964 | 740,037 | 830,292 | 914,886 | 1,178,988 |
Highland | 4,334 | 4,271 | 7,089 | 13,769 | 14,422 |
Lanarkshire | 30,885 | 43,960 | 80,578 | 141,789 | 205,731 |
Lothian | 145,827 | 161,738 | 197,206 | 245,302 | 297,526 |
Orkney | 17 | 15 | 17 | 16 | 9 |
Shetland | 395 | 493 | 754 | 626 | 2,206 |
Tayside | 101,094 | 119,445 | 141,752 | 163,207 | 189,665 |
Western Isles | 9 | 34 | 55 | 57 | 6 |
Total | 1,177,940 | 1,501,803 | 1,853,748 | 2,227,211 | 2,854,834 |
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 11 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 25 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive on the basis of how many samples taken in each catchment area in the proposed Strathmore Nitrate Vulnerable Zone, designation of the 'one was proposed.
Answer
Detailed information about sample numbers and distribution can be found in the report Groundwater nitrate vulnerable zones for Scotland (Parliament's Reference Centre, Bib. number 18567), as detailed in the answer to question S1W-23978 today.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 11 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 25 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the Scottish Environment Protection Agency monitoring sites located in the proposed Nitrate Vulnerable Zones in the North-east Scotland parliamentary region.
Answer
The locations of Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) monitoring sites in the north-east Scotland parliamentary region, can be found from the SEPA maps entitled SEPA Groundwater Monitoring (Parliament's Reference Centre, Bib. number 20139) and SEPA Surface Water Monitoring (Bib. number 20140). Further locational details of the monitoring sites can be obtained from the local SEPA office in Aberdeen, or from the SEPA Corporate Office in Stirling.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 11 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 25 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive how the success of each prison is measured with regard to rehabilitation.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:It is not possible to measure rehabilitation directly and future behaviour is affected by many factors, many of which occur outwith the prison, but two of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of the SPS relate to the work we do to assist prisoner rehabilitation:
Programmes to address offending behaviour; the number of programmes delivered and percentage of those which are fully accredited.Education; the number of learning hours delivered.In addition, the work of SPS in the fields of health, medical, nursing, drugs, work, employability and throughcare, will contribute to rehabilitation by encouraging and helping the prisoner to be more responsible.