Chamber and committees

We are not taking forward proposals that will lead to there only being Sheriffs on the bench. On 22 March we published Smarter Justice, Safer Communities: Summary Justice Reform – Next Steps. This sets out our intention to invest in the recruitment, training and appraisal of lay justices, rather than moving to an entirely professional judiciary. It can be accessed from the Summary Justice Reform website at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/about/JD/CP/00019008/Homepage.aspx.

Copies are also available in the Parliament’s reference centre (Bib. number 35821).

The measures announced in this publication are intended to help to improve the overall quality of lay justice, and to make the lay bench more representative of the communities it serves. They will therefore enhance the link between the lay bench and the local communities it serves.

Operations are carried out within NHSScotland in a wide range of settings dependent on a number of factors including the complexity of the operation and the clinical and personal needs of the patient. Complete information on the range of operations performed in NHSScotland in every possible setting is not available but national sources do provide a detailed account of surgical activity in certain cases. Comparability over time is affected by changes in clinical practice, service redesign, the development of non-invasive treatments for some conditions and the development of technology which allows procedures to be carried out in a community or out-patient setting which does not involve a hospital stay. 1. Information on the numbers of in-patient/day case operations performed annually in NHSScotland is available at http://www2.isdscotland.org/acute_activity/surgical.asp.

For all procedures select PROC1 after selecting link. The spreadsheet accessible from this link covers the period 1990-91 to 2003-04.

2. From April 2003 the national reporting of surgical activity in out-patients has been required and ISD has been working with NHS boards to develop full compliance nationally. Comprehensive information on out-patient surgical activity is not yet available but indicative information on common out-patient procedures is available at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/collect2.jsp?pContentID=1232&p_applic=CCC&p_service=Content.show&in. Scroll down after selecting the above link.

3. Information on surgery performed in obstetrics, principally Caesarean Sections, is available at http://www.isdscotland.org/births. Select “information” link on left hand side of screen after selecting link.

Information on surgical activity in other NHSScotland settings (e.g. minor operations performed in general practice) is not available from routine statistical returns.

The Scottish Executive has a role in ensuring that guidance, once agreed, is implemented but does not set guidance itself. The main source of guidance in Scotland is NHS Quality Improvement Scotland which also has responsibility for the Scottish Inter-Collegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN). NHS Quality Improvement Scotland and SIGN are independent bodies that set their own agenda for developing guidance.

The Scottish Executive has established Managed Clinical Networks (MCN) for diabetes services in each of the 15 NHS board areas. These MCNs bring together clinicians, patients and carers across primary, secondary and tertiary care to plan and deliver services. The MCNs offer a framework for encouraging communication between specialists, including renal medicine specialists, eye specialists, heart specialists, and vascular surgery specialists, and other members of the diabetes care team.

The Diabetes National Overview report concluded that the care of people with diabetes in Scotland is generally of a very high quality. It offered NHS boards constructive feedback on the strengths of their clinical management of diabetes and also highlighted areas for further development.

NHS boards now have an opportunity to address those areas in which more work is needed to meet the standards. Meanwhile, the data and information technology element of the standards are being addressed on a Scotland-wide basis.

NHS Quality Improvement Scotland will be invited to conduct a second series of review visits. These visits will focus on those criteria that were not met at the original visits. The final report of these visits is planned for publication in 2006.

I refer the member to the question S2W-14748 answered on 8 March 2005. 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.

The following table provides information on the number of patients with diabetic nephropathy who received dialysis during the years 1999 to 2003, broken down by health board. The data presented in the table reflect the number of patients registered at 31 December each year, so one patient will generally feature in several years’ figures. Figures include hospital and home haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis.

Number of Patients with Diabetic Nephropathy who Received Dialysis During the Years 1999 to 2003, Broken Down by Health Board

NHS Board area	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Argyll and Clyde	13	11	14	20	21
Ayrshire and Arran	6	7	7	10	10
Borders	*	*	*	*	*
Dumfries and Galloway	8	6	6	6	*
Fife	10	12	8	9	8
Forth Valley	9	10	11	13	13
Grampian	16	18	26	24	28
Glasgow	33	33	30	33	34
Highland	*	7	10	9	13
Lanarkshire	13	23	27	29	29
Lothian	16	17	16	18	16
Orkney
Tayside	19	19	10	17	27
Shetland	*	*	*	*	*
Western Isles	*	*	*	*	*
Scotland Total	148	166	169	195	210

Source: Scottish Renal Registry.

Note: *Figure of five or less.

The number of road accidents that have occurred on the A90 north of Aberdeen on the single carriageway stretch between Tipperty and Balmedie in each year since 1999 (from January 1999 to October 2004), broken down by level of severity, is as follows:

Year	Fatal	Serious	Slight	Total
1999	1	2	5	8
2000	0	5	5	10
2001	0	2	3	5
2002	0	2	4	6
2003	0	0	8	8
*2004	0	0	10	10

Notes:

We do not hold records of non-injury accidents.

*Covers the period from 1 January 2004 to 31 October 2004

This information is not held centrally and is an operational matter for the Chief Constable of Tayside Police.

The available information is shown in the following table.

Total Number of Assaults on Police Officers

Force	Central	Dumfries and Galloway	Fife	Grampian	Lothian and Borders	Northern	Strathclyde	Tayside	Total
Year
1994	210	149	200	427	328	216	7,736	496	9,762
1995	262	174	233	485	373	188	8,035	322	10,072
1995-96	262	174	233	485	373	188	8,035	322	10,072
1996-97	204	112	233	n/k	191	190	8,892	330	10,152
1997-1998	241	86	257	259	172	202	8,609	329	10,155
1998-99	234	47	55	172	264	194	8,970	204	10,140
1999-2000	267	14	53	68	304	215	n/k	276
2000-01	42	11	9	279	299	223	n/k	270
2001-02	404	111	56	76	313	236	n/k	14
2002-03	407	176	381	238	269	249	n/k	117
2003-04	873	448	58	316	41	n/k	n/k	153

Source: Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary’s Annual Statistical Returns (ASRs) from police forces. Until 1995, information was supplied at 31 December each year and subsequently provided at 31 March.

nk: not known/no data supplied.

Scottish Executive were not involved in the sale of this building which we understand was owned by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.