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The information requested is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government has published sexual health outcomes for 2008-11. One of these outcomes, being led by NHS boards and local authorities, is the provision of young people''s drop-in services in or near every school in Scotland offering general health advice, Chlamydia testing, pregnancy testing and condoms.

The recent Quality Improvement Scotland Standard on sexual health and young people sets out a target to increase chlamydia testing in under 25s. This includes a specific target to increase the number of young men being offered a test. Every young person who visits a sexual health service is asked if they have put themselves at risk and, if so, offered a test.

In addition, health boards are responsible for putting in place a range of measures which will reach young people in their local area and many are taking innovative approaches to reach young men, such as postal testing kits which can be given directly to young men or to a young woman to pass on to her partner.

The available information is given in the following tables (2007 is the year for which the latest data is available):

Genital Chlamydia Infection, Scotland 2006 and 2007; Laboratory Diagnoses by Gender and Age Group

Gender	Age Group	2006	2007
Male	15-24	3,927	3,970
	25-49	2,363	2,505
	50+	60	85
	Total*	6,374	6,582
Female	15-24	8,892	8,655
	25-49	2,436	2,365
	50+	22	27
	Total*	11,374	11,065
Total1	15-24	12,819	12,625
	25-49	4,799	4,870
	50+	82	112
	Total*	17,748	17,647

Source: Health Protection Scotland - February 2009.

Notes:

1.Excludes cases where gender is not known.

*Includes age not known.

Genital Chlamydia Infection, Scotland 2006 and 2007; Laboratory Diagnoses by NHS Board of Report

NHS Board	2006	2007
Ayrshire and Arran	891	1,133
Borders	230	262
Dumfries and Galloway	598	567
Fife	1,198	1,211
Forth Valley	916	887
Grampian	1,781	1,805
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	4,766	4,763
Highland	711	743
Lanarkshire	1,534	1,597
Lothian	3,414	3,137
Orkney	38	50
Shetland	37	23
Tayside	1,790	1,743
Western Isles	22	7
Total	17,926	17,928

Source: Health Protection Scotland - February 2009.

Human Reproduction and The Lancet medical journals published Swedish research in spring 2008 which stated that there is a robust and independent association between failure to conceive and chlamydia antibodies in men, independent of semen quality.

The Scottish Government has been advised however that while chlamydia infection can reduce male fertility, further research is required to determine the actual effect on fertility, as this is not clear.

We know that men are less likely to access health services generally. Recent NHS Quality Improvement Scotland Standards on Sexual Health set out a target to increase chlamydia testing in those under 25, and contain a specific target to increase the number of young men being offered a test.

Health boards are responsible for putting in place a range of measures which will reach young people in their local area and many are taking innovative approaches to reach young men.

The Scottish Government is committed to increasing the uptake of self-directed support (SDS) as a way of giving those receiving social care choice, flexibility and control over the services they receive. We are funding three test sites (Dumfries and Galloway, Glasgow and Highland Councils) to consider three specific interventions (bridging finance, leadership and training, and cutting red tape). Legislation already allows the inclusion of health money in a SDS package in Scotland. This enables long-term conditions to be managed holistically. Evidence suggests that there can be distinct advantages for service users receiving care in this way.

The personalisation of health care is central to our approach to enabling people to live well with long-term conditions. Aside from funding work with NHS Lothian to consider how health money can be used more routinely in SDS packages, we will of course be interested in the outcomes from the UK Government pilots.

The following table details the number of volunteer ambulance car drivers since 2004, broken down by NHS board area. Information is not held for the years prior to 2003-04.

NHS Board	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
Argyll and Clyde#	18	18	0	0	0	0
Ayrshire and Arran	15	16	14	11	14	17
Borders	9	9	10	10	10	4
Dumfries and Galloway	25	25	21	21	28	22
Fife	11	13	14	12	17	14
Forth Valley	29	34	35	35	45	45
Grampian	19	21	20	19	19	15
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	47	46	45	38	42	31
Highland	57	58	64	64	88	58
Lanarkshire	28	30	32	26	29	17
Lothian	13	11	10	10	10	8
Orkney	4	4	2	1	4	2
Shetland	0	1	0	0	1	0
Tayside	28	25	24	24	27	23
Western Isles	12	13	14	9	17	10
Scotland	315	324	305	280	351	266

Notes:

*Information provided by the Scottish Ambulance Service.

**Information for 2008-09 is as at 19 February 2009.

^#Dissolution of NHS Argyll and Clyde “ figures for 2005-06 and 2006-07 included in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Highland.

The Scottish Ambulance Service do not employ drivers. The service employs a mix of paramedics, technicians and ambulance care assistants to deliver the accident and emergency service and the patient transport service. Volunteer car drivers support the patient transport service by taking patients to hospital for routine appointments.

The Scottish Ambulance Service recognises that the role of the volunteer driver in rural areas, in particular in the north of Scotland, is vital to ensuring that patients get to their hospital appointments. The patient transport service, which volunteer drivers support, exists for those with a medical need for transport. The appropriate mix of resources is the subject of on-going review against the changing requirements of patient groups.

In order to attract some more volunteer car drivers in specific areas, the Scottish Ambulance Service ran an advertising campaign in local newspapers that cover rural areas. They also ran a targeted poster campaign in hospital clinics and GP surgeries. The service will continue to promote the recruitment of volunteer drivers through these channels.

Information on sickness absence rates is based on hours lost at a national level and is available from 2001 onwards. NHS board level information is available from 2005 onwards:

http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/servlet/FileBuffer?namedFile=Sickness%20Absence.xls&pContentDispositionType=inline.

Sickness absence information is based on hours lost to take account of part-time workers whose standard day is different to a whole-time worker''s standard day.

Sickness absence is a complex issue and it is difficult to identify cause and effect, which impacts on where best to target interventions. Much work has been done at the national level, including publishing a Health at Work PIN (Partnership Information Network) guideline. A specialist group (The Promoting Attendance and Managing Sickness Absence Group) has also been established at national level with membership from NHS management, trade unions and the Scottish Government and has within its remit responsibility to identify, disseminate and promote good practice. All Boards have agreed to a target of 4% by March 2009 (with the exception of the Scottish Ambulance Service and NHS 24, whose targets are 5% and 6% respectively). Each board has a sickness absence policy in place and the sickness absence targets have been integrated into objectives for individuals and operational units.

To ensure comparability of data the Scottish Ambulance Service record sickness absence rates as a percentage which allows benchmarking against other health boards. Sickness absence information is based on hours lost to take account of part-time workers whose standard day is different to a whole-time worker''s standard day.

The following table shows sickness absence figures from 2002 onwards. This information is not available from 1999-2001.

2002-03	5.7%
2003-04	5.4%
2004-05	5.9%
2005-06	5.5%
2006-07	5.6%
2007-08	5.8%
2008-09	5.3% (to end January 2009)

 

Scottish Ambulance Service are currently working towards a target of 5% absence rate by 31 March 2009.

This information is not collected centrally.

Figures for the number of pupils in independent schools are published each year on the government website at the following link:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/PubIndSchoolCensus.

However, since pupils attend independent schools outwith their area and information on the location of residence of pupil in independent schools is not collected, the requested information is not available.

Police working days lost due to sickness absence 1999-2000 to 2007-08

Force	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Central	8,673	9,869	8,944	9,592	9,807	7,596	5,959	7,357	5,881
Dumfries and Galloway	3,413	3,687	3,052	2,598	4,532	3,952	3,596	3,315	3,707
Fife	8,818	7,920	9,804	8,870	9,044	10,341	9,427	11,454	9,715
Grampian	7,522	7,035	7,561	10,519	11,742	11,075	10,295	11,629	10,548
Lothian and Borders	30,624	32,222	30,840	33,967	34,168	28,845	31,227	31,239	30,822
Northern	6,234	5,436	6,095	6,213	6,789	6,439	7,908	8,595	7,203
Strathclyde	88,017	76,113	79,542	82,037	83,153	73,221	73,389	81,788	81,716
Tayside	16,246	16,003	14,910	13,893	12,543	12,019	11,870	12,749	11,832
Scotland	169,547	158,285	160,748	167,689	171,778	153,488	153,671	168,126	161,424

Sources:

1999-2000 to 2001-02 police force annual statistical returns to Her Majesty''s Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland.

2002-03 to 2006-07 Audit Scotland.

2007-08 Scottish Police Performance Framework collection.

Note: Days lost refer to police officers and do not include support staff.