Chamber and committees

The current national target for a first outpatient appointment following a General Medical Practitioner/General Dental Practitioner referral in all specialties is nine weeks.

The percentage of patients whose first outpatient appointment was within nine weeks following referral to a consultant in paediatric dentistry, together with the median waiting time, by health board of residence, for the year ending 31 December 1999, is provided in the table.

NHS in Scotland: Percentage of Patients¹ Who Received Their First Outpatient Appointment Within Nine Weeks Following A General Medical Practitioner/ General Dental Practitioner Referral To A Consultant In Paediatric Dentistry And Median Waiting Times: By Health Board Of Residence: Year Ending 31 December 1999^p

Health Board2	Percentage	Median Waiting Time (Days)
Argyll and Clyde	61	52
Ayrshire and Arran	64	49
Fife	96	22
Forth Valley	52	62
Greater Glasgow	66	52
Lanarkshire	67	51
Lothian	96	18
Tayside	93	2
Scotland	81	26

Notes:

1. Information based on referrals by GDP/GMP only (excludes patients with a Patient's Charter guarantee exception code).

2. Health board areas where there are fewer than 10 outpatient appointments are not shown.

No changes have been made in the last three years to the national waiting times target of nine weeks for a first outpatient appointment following referral by a General Medical Practitioner/General Dental Practitioner.

The information requested on the number of "vulnerable" young people receiving an "appropriate service" is not available centrally.

Information available from Drug Action Teams (DATs), however, suggests that drug misuse information and advice services to "vulnerable" young people is being provided in the majority of DAT areas.

The information requested on the numbers of under 16s receiving an "appropriate service" is not available centrally. However, the following table presents for 1997-98 to 1999-2000, the number of new individuals aged less than 16 years reported to the Scottish Drug Misuse Database.

Number of new individuals attending services1
	102	1998-99	1999-20002
Under 16 years	108	119	102

Notes1. 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. Provisional data for the first nine months of 1999-2000.Information available from Drug Action Teams (DATs) suggest that 32% have specialist services targeted at young people in their areas. In addition, some services are available within mainstream adult services.

No statistics are available indicating the number of reports received by the Procurator Fiscal alleging the commission of the offences referred to. The available statistics indicate that between 1984 and 1998 inclusive, 11 persons were prosecuted in Scotland, where the main offence libelled was culpable and reckless conduct in relation to the supply of solvents. Of those 11 persons, nine were convicted of culpable and reckless conduct. Of the nine persons convicted, two were sentenced to custodial disposals, four were fined and three were ordered to perform community service.

The Action Programme for Youth is our pledge in the Programme for Government to launch an initiative which values young people and reflects their aspirations and needs. We are working with a range of voluntary and statutory agencies to engage with a wide range of young people on a wide range of issues and afford them opportunities to feed their views directly to us. As part of this process, we are holding a Youth Summit in the Civic Centre, Motherwell on 19 June which we hope will involve well over a 1,000 young people.

The Executive has invested £70,000 in the initiative to date from its community education budget. We will assess the need for any further funding after the Summit.

I will keep the Parliament informed as the initiative develops.

Figures for cases originally reported to Procurator Fiscal and referred to Reporters are given in the following table. It should be noted that these figures do not include cases in which there are multiple accused, some of whom were dealt with by the Procurator Fiscal and some by the Reporter. Nor do the figures show numbers of offences; they deal (as requested) with reports and some reports will have dealt with multiple offences. More detailed information is not available except at disproportionate cost.

Cases Referred to Reporter	January - December 1997	January - December 1998	January - December 1999
Aberdeen	25	18	46
Airdrie	115	54	43
Alloa	23	19	15
Arbroath	43	41	44
Ayr	127	86	53
Banff	6	12	13
Campbeltown	9	14	13
Cupar	64	69	36
Dingwall	17	20	11
Dornoch	5	1	0
Dumbarton	75	55	68
Dumfries	56	51	55
Dundee	95	85	117
Dunfermline	47	59	39
Dunoon	16	13	9
Duns	1	4	1
Edinburgh	356	291	245
Elgin	6	31	18
Falkirk	51	66	68
Forfar	13	16	13
Fort William	6	6	3
Glasgow	661	531	433
Greenock	86	39	25
Haddington	28	40	9
Hamilton	102	95	97
Inverness	37	60	40
Jedburgh	17	13	23
Kilmarnock	173	178	119
Kirkcaldy	109	164	92
Kirkcudbright	11	9	18
Kirkwall	35	26	25
Lanark	43	17	10
Lerwick	7	6	3
Linlithgow	98	90	44
Lochmaddy	4	3	0
Oban	13	14	6
Paisley	119	75	95
Peebles	0	0	1
Perth	22	31	35
Peterhead	12	6	2
Portree	3	1	3
Rothesay	14	4	1
Selkirk	17	19	12
Stirling	42	55	109
Stonehaven	84	61	60
Stornoway	17	4	8
Stranraer	12	8	27
Tain	15	8	14
Wick	5	5	5
Total	2,942	2,573	2,226

Appointments to task forces are made on the basis of relevant experience, knowledge and ability. Information on the age of appointees is not held centrally, although I am considering a register of younger appointees within the current consultation on modernising the system.

Statistical information on the age profiles of appointees since May 1997 is not available as appointments to Advisory NDPBs, Public Corporations and Nationalised Industries only came under the remit of the Commissioner for Public Appointments in October 1998. Prior to this date, data on appointments related solely to Executive NDPBs and NHS Bodies. Data for Tribunals, which have a high turnover of members, are not available.The Executive is required to maintain statistics on the age profiles of appointees in accordance with the age bands set down by the Commissioner. These show that during the period from 1 October 1998 to 31 December 1999, a total of 421 appointments were made to these bodies and eight were of people aged 35 or under.

The Scottish Executive has received no approach for support from any organisation of that name.