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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: S1W-15045

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jack McConnell on 3 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many secure places for young offenders there were in each of the last three years, broken down by parliamentary region.

Any child or young person may be placed in secure accommodation either following a children's hearing, or by a local authority chief social work officer, with the agreement of the person in charge of the secure establishment, or by a court. The number of secure places located in residential establishments available for children and young people as at 31 December in each of the last 3 years by parliamentary region is as follows:

Parliamentary Region	1998	1999	2000
Lothian	12*	12*	12*
Mid-Scotland and Fife	2	2	Nil
North-East	25*	25*	29**
Southern	24	24	24
West	24	24	30
Total	87	87	95

* Includes one emergency bed** Includes two emergency beds

Question reference: S1W-15036

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Susan Deacon on 3 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting time for paediatric orthodontic treatment was in each of the last three years, broken down by health board area.

Question reference: S1W-15038

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 3 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what the core contractual hours for police officers were in each police force in each of the last three years; how many and what percentage of officers in each force exceeded these core hours in each of these years, and what the average number of hours worked per week per officer was in each force in each year.

Question reference: S1W-15037

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 3 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how much overtime each police force paid to police officers in each of the last three years and what percentage of the total salary budget of each force each of these figures represents.

This is set out in the table for the latest 3 years for which information is available.

	1997-98		1998-99		1999-2000
Force	Overtime £m	As % of salary budget	Overtime £m	As % of salary budget	Overtime £m	As % of salary budget
Central	1.2	7.2	1.3	7.1	2.1	10.7
Dumfries and Galloway	0.9	8.6	0.9	8.3	1.0	9.2
Fife	1.3	6.4	1.3	5.9	1.9	8.4
Grampian	2.4	8.0	2.9	9.1	3.3	9.9
Lothian and Borders	5.0	7.7	3.2	4.9	4.8	7.0
Northern	1.2	7.4	1.2	7.1	1.9	10.5
Strathclyde	13.1	7.4	14.2	7.7	20.0	10.2
Tayside	1.5	5.5	1.5	5.3	2.3	8.1
Total	26.7	7.3	26.5	7.0	32.4	9.4

Notes: (i) For the purposes of the table above, the salary budget for each force is taken as the total pay to police officers plus overtime but excluding allowances, pensions, superannuation and national insurance. (ii) Source: Police Grant Claim form (PG1) submitted annually by police authorities

Question reference: S1O-03329

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Ross Finnie on 3 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it supports voluntary and charitable organisations receiving assistance towards their water bills.

Question reference: S1W-15042

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how much and what percentage of the budget made available to (a) Grampian Health Board and (b) Tayside Health Board for drug detoxification treatment was spent outwith the Grampian and Tayside areas in each of the last three years.

Figures available for the year 1998-1999 show that, for residential rehabilitation only, the spend outwith the area was for (a) Grampian Health Board £110,000 or some 66%, and for (b) Tayside Health Board, 100%. Figures are not available for 1997-98.The Drug Action Teams within both Health Board areas are working to establish local residential drug rehabilitation services in addition to the range of other treatment and other care services available for drug misusers.

Question reference: S1W-15035

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many discarded hypodermic needles were collected in public places in each of the last three years, broken down by local authority area, and what percentage of the number collected nationally each of these figures represents.

Question reference: S1W-15043

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 2 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of crime has been estimated as drug-related in each of the last five years, broken down by police force.

The recorded crime statistics in Scotland distinguish crimes involving drugs, such as cultivation, importation, possession and supply. They do not identify all drug-related crimes, such as those committed to fund a drugs habit. This more general information is not collected nationally or at police force level, and is only available from criminal justice research, such as the reports listed:

Interviewing and Drug Testing of Arrestees in Scotland: A Pilot Study of the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) Methodology.

Published by the Scottish Executive Central Research Unit in 2000

The Criminal Histories of 372 Suspected Drug Offenders.

Published by the Scottish Executive Central Research Unit in 2001

Recreational Drugs and Driving: Prevalence Survey.

Published by the Scottish Executive Central Research Unit in 2001Copies of these reports are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib numbers 7209, 12860 and 11659 respectively).

Question reference: S1W-15032

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive how many intravenous drug users were diagnosed with hepatitis B in each of the last five years, showing any percentage increase or decrease in each year, broken down by health board area.

The information requested is given in the following table:

Hepatitis B infected drug users : 1996-2000
health board¹	Number					Percentage change²
Hepatitis B (Drug misuse cases)	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-00	1996-00³
Argyll & Clyde	4	15	17	11	3	275	13	-35	-73	-25
Ayrshire & Arran	-	-	1	-	-	n/a	n/a	-100	n/a	n/a
Dumfries & Galloway	-	-	-	2	-	n/a	n/a	n/a	-100	n/a
Forth Valley	-	-	-	-	-	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Grampian	5	1	25	65	44	-80	2400	160	-32	780
Greater Glasgow	7	7	13	20	18	0	86	54	-10	157
Highland	-	-	-	1	1	n/a	n/a	n/a	0	n/a
Lanarkshire	-	-	-	2	3	n/a	n/a	n/a	50	n/a
Lothian	1	-	-	1	1	-100	n/a	n/a	0	0
Tayside	-	-	-	13	1	n/a	n/a	n/a	-92	n/a
Not Known	3	1	2	-	-	-67	100	-100	n/a	-100
Scotland	20	24	58	115	71	20	142	98	-38	255
1 'Health Board' refers to the persons health board of residence, or where it is not known the health board of specimen.
2 Percentage change is calculated by dividing the previous year from the subsequent year, multiplying by 100 and subtracting 100.
3 Percentage increase between years 1996 and 2000.

Additional information is published in Table number 71 and pages 107 to 109 of Drug Misuse Statistics Scotland 2000 (Chapter 8 - HIV, AIDS, Hepatitis B and hepatitis C Infection), a copy of which is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib number 10066).The publication can also be accessed at the following web address:http://www.drugmisuse.isdscotland.org/publications/00bull/Chapter8.pdf

Question reference: S1W-15033

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 April 2001
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 May 2001

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding was allocated to hypodermic needle exchange programmes in each of the last five years, broken down by health board area.

There is no funding exclusively set aside for the provision of needle exchange facilities.

The table sets out the funding specifically provided to boards over the last five years to assist their work in preventing the transmission of bloodborne viruses. Such work can, where appropriate, include the provision of needle exchange facilities:

	1996-97 £m	1997-98 £m	1998-99 £m	1999-2000 £m	2000-01 £m
Argyle & Clyde	0.387	0.387	0.387	0.341	0.363
Ayrshire & Arran	0.414	0.414	0.414	0.309	0.303
Borders	0.113	0.116	0.116	0.102	0.106
Dumfries & Galloway	0.178	0.180	0.180	0.132	0.106
Fife	0.204	0.151	0.152	0.225	0.358
Forth Valley	0.427	0.466	0.466	0.380	0.244
Grampian	0.271	0.271	0.269	0.386	0.601
Greater Glasgow	1.319	1.299	1.299	1.206	1.357
Highland	0.262	0.262	0.262	0.203	0.178
Lanarkshire	0.360	0.322	0.322	0.318	0.382
Lothian	1.603	1.528	1.528	1.676	2.206
Orkney	0.030	0.027	0.027	0.028	0.036
Shetland	0.037	0.033	0.033	0.039	0.054
Tayside	0.852	0.906	0.906	0.760	0.754
Western Isles	0.048	0.048	0.048	0.043	0.046
State Hospital	0.027	0.027	0.027	0.023	0.023
Total	6.532	6.437	6.436	6.171	7.117

The sum being provided to boards for prevention work in 2001-02 will be £8.119m.In addition, health boards are to receive an additional £10m over the next three years for drug treatment services, some of which may be used to provide needle exchange facilities. The Executive expects expenditure by health boards on treatment to increase those in contact with services for the first time by 50% to 16,500 by 2004.Also, in 1999-2000, a sum of £4.09m was provided to boards for them to negotiate contracted pharmacy services; pharmacy-based needle exchange was one such service. This element of funding is now included in the unified budget provided to health boards on a global basis.