Chamber and committees

The information requested is not available centrally. I have asked Alan Miller, Principal Reporter of the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration, to respond. His observations are as follows:

As the age of criminal responsibility in Scotland is eight years, it is not possible for a child under eight years to be referred to the Reporter on offence grounds.

The information is not available in the format requested by the member. Information on children referred to the Children’s Reporter on offence grounds is collated and published by the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) in its Annual Reports (copies of which have been placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre with the following Bib. numbers:).

1997-98 – 18997

1998-99 – 6161

1999-2000 – 18780

2000-01 – 20128

2001-02 – 26838

2002-03 – 30751.

Data for 2003-04 will be available later this year. The SCRA is presently enhancing its management information systems and future statistical reports will have the option of being broken down by local authority area.

The available information is shown in the tables. Statistics dealing with recorded crime and court proceedings are not directly comparable as a person may be proceeded against for more than one crime involving more than one victim, while a crime may be recorded in one year and proceedings taken in a subsequent year. Charges recorded by the police may also be altered as a result of the judicial process.

Number of Offences Recorded of Consumption of Alcohol in Designated Places, 1999-2003

Police Force Area	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Central	180	371	576	366	318
Dumfries and Galloway	-	3	9	12	24
Fife1	134	253	411	406	305
Grampian	16	0	0	47	149
Lothian and Borders	54	55	197	100	111
Northern	42	27	154	259	118
Strathclyde	7,534	9,748	13,158	15,913	19,592
Tayside	101	133	151	144	290
Scotland	8,061	10,590	14,656	17,247	20,907

Note:

1. Byelaws restricting the consumption of alcohol in designated places were first introduced to parts of Fife in November 1997. Coverage was extended in November 1999 and again in July 2004.

Persons with a Charge Proved in Scottish Courts for Contravention of Local Byelaws on Consumption of Alcohol in Public Places¹, 1999-2002

Police Force Area	1999	2000	2001	2002
Central	7	22	36	64
Dumfries and Galloway	-	-	-	5
Fife	17	5	6	6
Grampian	3	4	2	2
Lothian and Borders	10	11	9	9
Northern	2	1	44	75
Strathclyde	1,242	872	1,219	1,089
Tayside	27	48	38	33
Scotland	1,308	963	1,354	1,283

Note:

1. Where main offence.

I have placed a table with the information requested in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 33285).

A commitment for match funding for Structural Funds has to be in place from a project before any application is submitted and then subsequently approved.

In addition, payments of Structural Funds are not made to projects in advance, but in arrears. Once a project has made a claim of eligible costs, the amount claimed against Structural Funds is provided back to the project as a re-imbursement.

There is no central register of drug users in Scotland. However, the Scottish Drug Misuse Database collects information on drug users at the point of their coming into contact with drug treatment services. This information can be found at www.drugmisuse.isdscotland.org.

There are many reasons why planned admissions to hospital for inpatient and day case treatment may be cancelled, such as the absence of key staff on sick leave and/or an unexpected short term increase in the number of emergency admissions. When a patient’s admission is cancelled we expect NHSScotland to reschedule their admission as soon as possible, taking into account the clinical needs of the patient.

Information on the number of planned admissions for inpatient and day case treatment (including non-surgical treatment) recorded as cancelled for the years ending 31 March 2000 to 2004 inclusive, by NHS board of residence is given in the table.

NHS boards are expected to adopt best practice in managing admissions to reduce the incidence of cancellations and thus improve patients’ experience of waiting. Best practice advice was included in “Managing Waiting Times: A Good Practice Guide”, issued to the NHS in 2003. In addition, there are concerns about the accuracy and quality of data recorded by hospitals on cancelled admissions. The Executive is working with NHS National Services Scotland to address these concerns through its strategic review of health and care statistics.

NHSScotland – Cancellations Of Planned Admissions For Inpatient Or Day Case Treatment, By NHS Board: Years Ending 31 March 2000 To 2004^P Inclusive

NHS Board	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04P
Argyll and Clyde	1,042	1,398	1,090	1,480	916
Ayrshire and Arran	461	374	323	276	243
Borders	437	458	348	328	261
Dumfries and Galloway	277	151	98	534	421
Fife	1,472	1,076	975	949	1,188
Forth Valley	446	588	730	604	930
Grampian	1,835	1,963	1,789	1,857	1,902
Greater Glasgow1	3,210	4,3191	5,740	4,6111	3,446
Highland	899	1,081	1,009	884	1,283
Lanarkshire	409	387	468	1,301	1,750
Lothian	2,238	2,575	2,213	2,362	2,409
Orkney	20	14	7	15	15
Shetland	25	17	34	9	2
Tayside	1,455	1,478	1,287	1,300	1,185
Western Isles	6	10	25	36	70
Scotland	14,232	15,889	16,136	16,546	16,021

Source: ISD Scotland (Form ISD (1)).

^PProvisional.

Note:

1. Excludes data from the Southern General Hospital for years ending March 2001 and 2003.

We are in regular contact with the UK Government on a wide range of transport-related issues.

The information requested is set out in the following table. The figures for 2003 will be available at the end of August 2004.

 

Health Board Area	1998		1999		2000		2001		2002
	No	Rate per 100,000 pop	No	Rate per 100,000 pop	No	Rate per 100,000 pop	No	Rate per 100,000 pop	No	Rate per 100,000 pop
Scotland	249	4.9	291	5.7	292	5.8	332	6.6	382	7.6
Argyll & Clyde	23	5.4	30	7.1	31	7.4	22	5.2	31	7.4
Ayrshire & Arran	4	1.1	15	4.0	20	5.4	35	9.5	33	9.0
Borders	1	0.9			1	0.9	1	0.9
Dumfries & Galloway	4	2.7	7	4.7	7	4.7	8	5.4	9	6.1
Fife	13	3.8	9	2.6	12	3.4	11	3.1	12	3.4
Forth Valley	2	0.7	8	2.9	4	1.4	9	3.2	24	8.6
Grampian	26	4.9	38	7.2	31	5.9	46	8.7	47	9.0
Greater Glasgow	93	10.6	100	11.5	104	12.0	96	11.1	126	14.5
Highland	1	0.5	7	3.3	1	0.5	5	2.4	8	3.8
Lanarkshire	21	3.8	23	4.1	29	5.2	24	4.3	37	6.7
Lothian	37	4.8	39	5.1	37	4.8	54	6.9	39	5.0
Orkney
Shetland	1	4.4			1	4.5	1	4.6	1	4.6
Tayside	23	5.8	14	3.6	14	3.6	19	4.9	14	3.6
Western Isles			1	3.7			1	3.8	1	3.8

 

The following table showsthe available information on babies discharged from Neonatal Units with adiagnosis involving drug misuse.

Neonatal discharges (1,2)recording drug misuse (3)

Financial Year	Number of Discharges
1997-98	217
1998-99	245
1999-2000	325
2000-01	329
2001-02*	258
2002-03*	276

Source : ISD ScotlandNeonatal Discharge Summary (SMR11) and Scottish Birth Record (SMR11).

Notes:

1 A baby may be admitted toand discharged from neonatal care more than once. These figures relate to thetotal number discharges, not to the number of individual babies.

2 Includes births where NHS boardof residence is unknown or outside Scotland.

3 Drug misuse is definedusing the following International Classification of Disease (10th Rev.) codes:

·P04.4- Foetus and newborn affected by maternal use ofdrugs of addiction.

·P96.1- Neonatal withdrawal symptoms from maternal useof drugs of addiction.

4.* - Incomplete data.

Data for 01/02and 02/03 are considered incomplete. This is due partly to the introduction of the Scottish Birth Record (SBR) which replaces the SMR11 (sick babies only). TheSBR is currently being incrementally implemented across Scotland with a view to recording information on all birthsby Spring/Summer 2005.

The number of patients whodid not attend their first out-patient appointment with a consultant, followingreferral by their GP, by NHS board area of residence, during each of the last fiveyears is given in the table.Information on the cost tothe NHS of patients failing to keep appointments is not available centrally. Manyout-patient clinics schedule additional appointments to compensate for non-attendance.Information on the average cost of a consultant outpatient attendance isavailable on the Information and Statistics Division website at: http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/info3.jsp?pContentID=1370&p_applic=CCC&p_serv.

The Centre for Change and Innovation is overseeing a £3 million patient-focused booking initiativeacross NHSScotland. Pilot sites are implementing changes and their impact onDNA rates are being monitored. Early indications are that Patient-FocusedBooking is resulting in substantial reductions to DNA rates and cancellationsat all 30 major hospital booking sites included in the CCI Programme.

Nhsscotland: Number of PatientsThat Did Not Attend Their First Out-patient Appointment, by NHS Board Area of Residence,During The Years Ended 31 March 2000, 31 March 2001,31 March 2002, 31 March 2003 And 31 March 2004^P.

NHS Board	Year Ended 31 March 2000	Year Ended 31 March 2001	Year Ended 31 March 2002	Year Ended 31 March 2003	Year Ended 31 March 2004P
Argyll and Clyde	14,034	13,957	14,476	14,888	14,083
Ayrshire and Arran	10,797	10,717	11,850	12,233	11,971
Borders	1,617	1,572	1,588	1,692	1,815
Dumfries and Galloway	2,211	2,302	2,383	2,247	2,163
Fife	9,800	9,970	10,072	9,855	10,148
Forth Valley	6,692	6,837	7,216	6,766	7,234
Grampian	9,255	9,882	10,323	9,812	9,355
Greater Glasgow	45,943	42,619	47,947	49,242	43,546
Highland	3,969	3,855	3,758	3,753	4,043
Lanarkshire	20,116	19,264	19,748	21,494	19,330
Lothian	22,971	23,012	22,500	21,843	21,362
Orkney Islands	128	145	159	174	167
Shetland Islands	193	224	185	254	206
Tayside	13,873	13,676	13,920	13,075	10,541
Western Isles	497	558	570	670	561
NHSSCOTLAND	162,414	158,900	166,999	168,574	156,853

Source: ISD Scotland,SMR00.

Note: ^pProvisional.