Chamber and committees

Data about injury road accidents are collected by the police and reported to the Scottish Executive using the STATS 19 statistical report form. These returns cover only road accidents in which one or more people were injured: they do not cover damage only accidents.

The following table gives the numbers of road accidents which were identified in the STATS 19 returns as occurring on the A71 in 2002 and 2003, and the associated fatalities and serious casualties. The information is broken down by local authority area. I will write to the member providing the statistics for 2004 which will not be available until Key 2004 Road Accident Statistics has been published on Monday 13 June.

It should be noted that the statistics given below are based upon the data which are held in the central statistical database and which were collected by the police at the time of the accident and subsequently reported to the Executive. They may differ from any figures which the local authoritieswould provide now, because they do not take account of any subsequent changes orcorrections that local authorities may have made to the statistical information,for use at local level, about the location of each accident, based upon their knowledge of the roads and areas concerned.

Injury road accidents occurring on the A71, and the associated numbers of fatalities and seriously-injured casualties, as reported in the STATS 19 statistical returns.

Local Authority	Year	Injury Road Accidents	Fatalities	Seriously-Injured Casualties
Edinburgh	2002	37	0	4
	2003	53	1	5
West Lothian	2002	28	1	3
	2003	27	2	6
North Lanarkshire	2002	10	0	0
	2003	13	0	2
South Lanarkshire	2002	26	1	7
	2003	24	0	8
East Ayrshire	2002	23	0	6
	2003	28	1	4
North Ayrshire	2002	6	0	5
	2003	4	0	0

As I said in my answer of 2 June,this information was covered by my statement to Parliament on 9 January 2005, andit was detailed in the accompanying documents.

The information defining strategicnetwork costs is given in footnote 11 of Investing In Water Services: Objectivesfor 2006-2014, a copy of which has been placed in the Parliament’s ReferenceCentre (Bib. number 35491).

Information defining local networkcosts is given in paragraphs 45 to 49 of The Principles To Be Applied In ChargingFor Public Water And Sewerage Services In Scotland 2006-2010, a copy of whichhas been placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 35492).

The Scottish Executive has made available an international development fund of £3 million per year from 2005-06. The funding criteria and application forms for funding from the International Development budget have recently been launched by the Scottish Executive. The deadline for receipt of completed applications is 17 June 2005. These applications will then be considered by the Scottish Executive and the recently appointed expert group before any funding commitments are made.

The Scottish Executive has committed the following costs to tsunami reconstruction work:

Renfrewshire Council sending environmental health officer to Sri Lanka - one off payment of £6,000

Education Coordinator for Edinburgh Council – one post at £33,000 for 18 months

Match funding for house building project with Fife Council (to backfill posts) - £60,000 over three years.

There are a number of other proposals being considered, and some provisional decisions to fund activities have been made. We have committed £360,000 over three years to improve maternal health in Malawi. We have also agreed to fund an administrative resource within NIDOS for the benefit of all NGOs and we have agreed to work with VSO to help meet the costs of an extra 10 volunteers in Malawi. Costs for these have not been finalised.

Details of expenditure will be available on the Scottish Executive website in due course.

Since its launch in March 2002, the globalscot initiative has grown to an active network of over 800 international business people who have links to Scotland and want to contribute to its economic development. Approaching half of the members are based in the USA with around 40% in Europe and 10% in Asia.

In the last year globalscot recorded over 500 contributions by members, 300 of which involved direct assistance to Scottish organisations and individuals. Examples of support include meeting and advising Scottish businesses when they visit new markets; taking up appointments as directors with start-up companies, and participating in Enterprise in Education programmes as role models for school pupils and students.

The following tables confirm the destinations of graduates from each medical school in Scotland in 2003 and 2004. The tables show where the first appointments as a pre-registration house officer (PRHO) occurred. The destinations of St Andrews students are not shown on this table as they do not graduate in medicine in Scotland. Each year, after a three-year pre-clinical course leading to a BSc, around 100 of these students move to complete a three year clinical course at Manchester University. As graduates of Manchester University their destinations are ordinarily within the NHS in England.

Table 1 - Destination of 2003 Graduates as at 30 September 2003

Destination of PRHO* Post	Aberdeen School	Dundee School	Edinburgh School	Glasgow School	All Schools
Scotland	173	136	164	248	721
England and Wales	7	23	9	9	48
Northern Ireland	1	2	0	3	6
HM Forces	1	0	0	0	1
Abroad	2	1	0	0	3
Not known	1	1	1	3	6
Other (i.e. posts not taken up)	0	0	3	0	3
Total	185	163	177	263	788

 

Table 2 – Destination of 2004 Graduates as at 30 September 2004

Destination of PRHO* Post	Aberdeen School	Dundee School	Edinburgh School	Glasgow School	All Schools
Scotland	142	112	198	192	644
England and Wales	13	21	17	6	57
Northern Ireland	3	1	2	3	9
HM Forces	0	0	0	1	1
Abroad	2	2	3	2	9
Not known	0	1	0	3	4
Other (i.e. posts not taken up)	1 (taking Master’s degree)	1 (not applying for registration)	1 (taking 6 months leave)	0	3
Total	161	138	221	207	727

Note:*Pre- Registration House Officer.

I have asked Angiolina Foster,Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is as follows:

Ministers have given a commitmentto approve 21,500 new and improved homes for social rent and low-cost home ownershipin the three years up to 2008. The principal mechanism for funding this new affordablehousing is the Scottish Executive Housing Investment Programme. The number of new and improvedhomes for affordable rent and low-cost home ownership approved with funding fromCommunities Scotland which were completed in the financial years 2002-03, 2003-04and 2004-05 and projected for 2005-06 areas follows:

	Affordable Rent	Low-Cost Home Ownership
2002-03	4,345	1,075
2003-04	3,753	489
2004-05	4,397	990
2005-06 Planned	4,562	948

 

The number of completions inan individual year is determined by the number of units approved for constructionin previous years. Large or complex housing projects, especially when linked toa wider regeneration initiative, can often take some time to be formally completed.In addition, in some instances, there is a time-lag in the recording of this dataand these figures are therefore be subject to revision.

Officials are due to presentadvice to ministers on the review in the coming weeks and an announcement aboutthe proposed way forward will be made shortly thereafter. We understand thatthe Home Office will not be responding to the Scottish report but we will beworking with them to ensure it meets the requirements of the GB Strategy.

Information on staff in postin NHS Scotland is published on the Scottish Health Statistics website under WorkforceStatistics, at www.isdscotland.org/workforce.

Section E gives details of nursingand midwifery staff employed in NHS Scotland. In particular, table E18 shows thewhole-time equivalent (WTE) number and headcount of clinical nurse specialists,broken down by NHS board area. WTE adjusts headcount staff figures to take accountof part-time staff. Latest available figures are at 30 September 2004.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is asfollows.

Glasgow Housing Association(GHA) is the only existing whole-stock transfer organisation with plans fornew-build housing.

A total of 6,000 newproperties are planned to be completed by 2012-13 for GHA tenants whose homeswill be demolished as part of GHA’s regeneration plans.  2,800 units will bedelivered directly by GHA with a further 3,000 properties built by other registeredsocial landlords and 200 units from programmes already agreed by Glasgow CityCouncil.

Last year the first phase of the new build programme totalling 600 homes to be delivered by other RegisteredSocial Landlords began. So far, 119 new homes have been approved with fundingof £2.23 million. Further funding of £2 million has been earmarked for thecurrent year with another 376 homes expected to be approved by the end of March2006.

GHA’s own contribution tothe programme was deferred during 2004-05 pending consideration of its widerassessment of future stock requirements.

In its statement of intent2005-06, GHA has set three targets:

by June 2005, to agree thefirst three year programme of its new build strategy within the context of a10-year outline programme;

by March 2006, to reachagreement with GCC on 100 GHA new build units within GCC Regeneration Projects,and

by March 2006, to achievesite start for 100 units.

The Scottish Executive hasnot issued central guidance to the police covering the classes of persons authorisedto apply restraint to persons in a public place. The operational guidance andinstruction given to police officers is a matter for Chief Constables.