Chamber and committees

Information on the costs associated with the free school meals trial for P1 to P3 pupils is included in the report on the findings of the independent evaluation of the trial which is available on the Scottish Government website at:

www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/08/29114033/0.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-11245 on 16 April 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

I am advised by Health Protection Scotland (HPS) that existing testing methods for Clostridium difficile are not recommended for children under the age of 15. Younger children are carriers of Clostridium difficile without any symptoms and the disease does not appear to occur in childhood. Given the lack of appropriate tests and the probability that this group of individuals is at very low risk it does not seem appropriate to recommend testing which is unproven and could lead to unnecessary treatment. HPS will, however, keep the situation under review.

Yes. As with all areas of healthcare associated infection, Health Protection Scotland (HPS) regularly monitors developments around the UK and in other countries. It will continue to study all the research evidence to determine whether testing in this age group should be introduced here.

In June 2008, I announced that, alongside the roll-out of the Domestic Abuse Court in Glasgow, the Scottish Government will be extending provision for the ASSIST service to support victims and their children in the 3 police divisions of the city of Glasgow.

Ministers are currently considering a proposal from ASSIST and I expect a decision to be made shortly.

The Scottish Government accepted the conclusion of the feasibility study group that to assist the support to victims and their children across Scotland, development work is required to:

Develop occupational standards for working with victims of domestic abuse;

Increase the collaboration and opportunity for joint activity between key agencies working with victims of domestic abuse and other forms of violence against women;

Work with local partners providing services to victims to develop enhanced support provision, and

Develop an operational manual that could be used to improve support for victims of domestic abuse and enable organisations to develop co-ordination and advocacy work.

Further details can be found in section 5 of the feasibility study group report.

This work will be taken forward over the next three years.

Within NHS Tayside, school nurses will lead the implementation of the HPV vaccination programme supported by the other nursing staff. The other nursing staff will consist of both community staff nurses and public health staff nurses. All nurses will undergo a training programme if required.

The following table provides the number of whole-time equivalent (WTE) and head count school nurses in Tayside in 2003, 2004, 2005. These figures are collected by Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland.

Data for 2006 is unavailable due to the non-direct match between Whitley Council grades and new Agenda for Change grades. Data for 2007 has not been included as accuracy cannot yet be guaranteed. This reflects the fact that the assimilation of NHS staff to Agenda for Change bandings by NHS boards is on-going. There may also be anomalies with the coding which may affect correct numbers of staff being identified.

NHS boards are currently working through a process of cleaning up the data to ensure future high quality data standards. Once full assimilation to Agenda for Change has been achieved, the publication of workforce statistics will be updated to reflect this.

	Number of WTE Qualified School Nurses	Number of Head Count Qualified School Nurses
2003	22.0	40
2004	20.8	37
2005	21.6	37

 

The official source of economic activity rates by local authority is the Annual Population Survey (APS). The following table shows the economic activity rates in Dundee City and Scotland for the last three calendar years.

Year	2005	2006	2007
Economic Activity Rate - Dundee City	76.6%	76.6%	77.6%
Economic Activity Rate - Scotland	79.2%	80.0%	79.9%

Note: Rate applies to working age population (i.e. men aged 16 to 64 and women aged 16 to 59).

Further information from the 2007 Annual Population Survey can be viewed on the Scottish Government website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/06/25095306/0.

The number of students classified as economically inactive in Dundee City during the last three calendar years is shown in the following table. This also shows the level of economically inactive students as a percentage of the working-age population in Dundee City.

It should be noted that not all students are classified as economically inactive. A student who does at least one hour paid work or has stated that they are actively seeking and available for work is classified as economically active. The effect on Dundee City''s economic activity rate of some students being classified as economically inactive is not quantified as the Scottish Government does not hold information on whether those individuals would be economically active or inactive if they were not students.

Year	2005	2006	2007
Number of Inactive Students	5,700	5,000	5,200
Percentage of Working-Aged Population	5.9%	5.6%	5.9%

Source: Annual Population Survey (APS).

Notes:

1. Working age population refers to men aged 16 to 64 and women aged 16 to 59.

2. Figures on number of Inactive Students are rounded to the nearest hundred.

The gross value added and gross value added per head estimates for the area of Angus and Dundee City for the latest three years (2003, 2004 and 2005) are reported in the following table:

Headline Gross Value Added (£ Million) and Gross Value Added Per Head at Current Basic Prices

	2003	2004	20051
Gross Value Added	3,502	3,709	3,894
Gross Value Added per head	13,973	14,806	15,506

Note: 1. Provisional.

These figures were published by the Office for National Statistics and can be found in tables NUTS3.1 and NUTS3.2 of the Regional, sub regional and local gross value added publication:

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/gva1207.pdf.