Chamber and committees

Information on numbers who have received free central heating is only available at main postcode level. In the PA post code area the number of properties that have benefited from the Central Heating Programme in the private sector, since the programme began in September 2001 until September 2006, is 4,294.

Information on numbers receiving concessionary travel cards is only available at local authority level. The following table shows the number of concessionary travel cards held by those living in the Renfrew Council area.

Card Type	Number
Aged 60 or over	28,688
Disabled	1,930
Disabled + Companion	3,139
Visually impaired	267
Visually impaired + Companion	340

The most recent published informationon the use of the legal measures in the Antisocial Behaviour (Scotland)Act 2004 is provided in our Standing Up To Antisocial Behaviour CommunityNewsletter which can be viewed via the attached link:http://www.antisocialbehaviourscotland.com/asb/files/StandinguptoAntisocialbehaviour_Issue2.pdf.

Further statistics on use of the measures will be published following the second anniversary of act whichwill be in October.

Estimated and actual non-domestic rate income (NDRI) are shown in the following table.

Year	Estimated NDRI (£)	Actual NDRI (£)
1995-96	1,193,000,000	1,222,135,831
1996-97	1,313,000,000	1,332,051,869
1997-98	1,326,129,000	1,327,178,743
1998-99	1,395,228,000	1,435,935,145
1999-2000	1,440,522,000	1,496,647,480
2000-01	1,510,992,000	1,577,612,309
2001-02	1,553,926,000	1,670,869,187
2002-03	1,569,817,000	1,705,090,426
2003-04	1,804,423,000	1,706,480,343

Estimated NDRI, Source: Budget Publications.

Actual NDRI, Source: Certified returns submitted by Local Authorities to the Scottish Executive.

Estimates for 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 are available on page 154 of the Scottish Executive’s Draft Budget 2005-06 (Bib. number 34133).

The majority of patients who require in-patient or day case treatment, including heart operations, are treated quickly. Nearly 55% of patients treated in NHSScotland hospitals are admitted immediately and never join a waiting list. Of those who do wait, 41% are admitted within one month and almost 70% within three months.

For those who have to wait longer, the national maximum waiting time was reduced from 12 months to nine months at the end of 2003. This guaranteed waiting time will be further reduced to six months by the end of this year and to 18 weeks by the end of 2007.

National maximum waiting times have also been set for the diagnosis and treatment of coronary heart disease. Currently, these are eight weeks for angiography – a diagnostic test – and 18 weeks for coronary artery bypass graft surgery or angioplasty. These guaranteed waiting times will be replaced by a “total journey” maximum wait of 16 weeks from GP referral, through a rapid access chest pain clinic or equivalent, to cardiac intervention, from the end of 2007.

With regard to out-patient waiting times, the majority of patients referred by a general medical or dental practitioner for a first out-patient appointment at a consultant-led clinic are seen quickly, with nearly 54% of patients being seen with nine weeks of referral and 66% within 13 weeks. For those who have to wait longer, we have set a national maximum waiting time target of 26 weeks from referral to consultation, by the end of 2005. This will be reduced to 18 weeks from the end of 2007.

To ensure performance is monitored effectively, Partnership for Care included a commitment to establish a national out-patient waiting list. Information on this list was published for the first time on 30 September 2004, and has been published quarterly since then. On 30 June 2005, 15,432 patients without an availability status code had waited more than 26 weeks for a first out-patient appointment – a reduction of 6,706 since 31 March 2005.

Information on waiting times for in-patient and day case treatment for the last five years and for the treatment of coronary heart disease against national commitments, since 30 June 2003, is given in the table.

Information about waiting times in England is available from Department of Health websites:

http://www.performance.doh.gov.uk/waitingtimes/index.htm.

http://www.hesonline.nhs.uk/ .

NHSScotland: Number of In-Patient and Day Cases with a Guarantee who had Waited More than Six, Nine and 12 Months

Date	Waiting Time Commitment	Number of Patients Waiting More than 6 Months	Number of Patients Waiting more than 9 Months	Number of Patients Waiting more than 12 Months
30 June 2001	12 Month Guarantee	11,619	3,227	0
30 June 2002	12 Month Guarantee	12,336	3,841	0
30 June 2003	12 Month Guarantee	9,974	1,177	0
30 June 2004	9 Month Guarantee	6,161	0	0
30 June 2005	9 Month Guarantee	1,121	0	0

 

NHSScotland: Number of Patients with a Guarantee who had Waited more than Eight Weeks and 12 Weeks for Angiography and 18 Weeks and 24 Weeks for Coronary Artery Bypass Graft or Angioplasty

Date	Waiting Time Commitment	Angiography		Coronary Artery Bypass Graft/Angioplasty (CABG/PTCA)
		Number Of Patients Waiting More Than 8 Weeks.	Number Of Patients Waiting More Than 12 Weeks.	Number Of Patients Waiting More Than 18 Weeks.	Number Of Patients Waiting More Than 24 Weeks.
30 June 2003*	12 Weeks for Angiography and 24 Weeks for CABG/PTCA	122	7	33	0
30 June 2004	12 Weeks for Angiography and 18 Weeks for CABG/PTCA	193	1	17	3
30 June 2005	8 Weeks for Angiography and 18 Weeks for CABG/PTCA	16	2	0	0

Source ISD Scotland: SMR3.

Note: *Information only available from 30 June 2003.

There is nothing in these planswhich should delay the current timetable.

I understand that the committee is making good progress, in line with the timetable set out on its website. The committee is of course independent. Its target remains to report by summer 2006.

Statistics for the children’s hearings system are a matter for the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA). The information requested by the Member is not held centrally.

The youth justice performance baseline announced to Parliament on 4 November 2004 (Bib. number 34397) showed that there were 1,201 persistent young offenders in 2003-04. Total numbers for persistent young offenders are not available for years previous to that. Children were identified as persistently offending if they had been referred to the reporter for five offending episodes in the previous six months.

The responsibility for monitoring bus operators rests with the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency of the Department for Transport (DfT). Prior to 1999 the monitoring of operators compliance with bus registrations was undertaken as required by staff from DfT’s Scottish Traffic Area. In July 1999 two dedicated bus compliance officers were recruited to work within Scotland as part of DfT’s Vehicle Inspectorate (now part of the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency – VOSA). Last year, the Scottish Executive agreed to fund an additional four bus compliance officers. The first two of these additional posts were filled in November 2004 and the intention is that VOSA will fill the remaining two posts later this year.

The sixth report of the Planning Audit Unit provides an analysis and assessment of trends across Scotland as a whole and identifies those authorities who have met targets. The audit report is available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/planning/paur6-00.asp.

The table is based on the data provided in answer to S2W-12561, on 13 December 2004, (Bib. number 34606) and provides details of those authorities who have recorded a year-on-year increase or decrease of at least 1% in each available year of data. They do not include authorities where performance has remained static at any point over the period.

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/webapp/wa.search.

Target	Year-on-Year Increase	Year-on-Year Decrease
80% of all applications within 2 months	Falkirk Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park* (only 2 years data available)	Dumfries and Galloway
85% of all applications within 3 months (only 4 years data available)	Falkirk Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park*	Angus Dumfries and Galloway East Lothian Highland
90% of householder applications within 2 months	Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park*	Renfrewshire
95% of householder applications within 3 months (only 4 years data available)	Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park*	East Lothian Glasgow City
80% of all major applications within 4 months (only 2 years data available)	Aberdeenshire Argyll and Bute Dundee City East Dunbartonshire Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Moray North Ayrshire West Dunbartonshire	Aberdeen City Angus Clackmannanshire Dumfries and Galloway East Ayrshire East Lothian East Renfrewshire Edinburgh Falkirk Fife Glasgow Highland Inverclyde Midlothian North Lanarkshire Orkney Perth and Kinross Renfrewshire Scottish Borders Shetland South Ayrshire South Lanarkshire Stirling Western Isles

 

The reasons why the targets are not met will vary from authority to authority. The Scottish Executive currently carries out audits of planning authorities in respect of their development control functions. These audits seek to identify areas of good practice or concern.

In view of this the Scottish Executive have also commissioned two pieces of research, resources for planning and business development and the planning system to help inform our understanding of differing performance by planning authority. The aim of these research projects is to identify and examine how efficiently staff resources are managed within local authority planning departments, to address issues of organisation, direction, motivation and morale and to consider the wider implications these may have on business development.

The sixth report of the Planning Audit Unit provides an analysis and assessment of trends across Scotland as a whole and highlights those authorities which have met targets. Overall the report shows a general increase in the performance by planning authorities against the two month statutory target in the face of increasing numbers of applications. The Audit Report is available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/planning/paur6-00.asp.

The following table identifies those planning authorities the performance of which matched or exceeded the performance targets set out in Scottish Planning Policy 1: The Planning System and is based on the data provided in answer to parliamentary question S2W-12561, answered on 13 December 2004, (Bib. number 34606).

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/webapp/wa.search.

Target	01-04-1999 to 31-03-2000	01-04-2000 to 31-03-2001	01-04-2001 to 31-03-2002	01-04-2002 to 31-03-2003	01-04-2003 to 31-03-2004
80% of all applications within 2 months	Clackmannanshire	Clackmannanshire	Clackmannanshire	Clackmannanshire	Clackmannanshire
	Inverclyde	East Lothian		West Lothian
	Orkney	Inverclyde
	West Lothian	Western Isles
85% of all applications within 3 months (only 4 years data available)	N/A	Angus	Angus	Angus	Aberdeen City
		Clackmannanshire	Clackmannanshire	Clackmannanshire	Angus
		East Dunbartonshire	East Dunbartonshire	East Dunbartonshire	Clackmannanshire
		East Lothian	East Lothian	East Lothian	East Dunbartonshire
		East Renfrewshire	East Renfrewshire	East Renfrewshire	East Renfrewshire
		Inverclyde	Fife	Fife	Fife
		Moray	Inverclyde	Inverclyde	Moray
		Orkney	Moray	Moray	North Lanarkshire
		Renfrewshire	Perth and Kinross	Orkney	Orkney
		Shetland	Renfrewshire	Perth and Kinross	Shetland
		West Lothian	Shetland	Renfrewshire	South Lanarkshire
		Western Isles	West Lothian	Shetland	West Dunbartonshire
			Western Isles	South Lanarkshire	West Lothian
				West Lothian	West Lothian
				Western Isles
90% of householder applications within 2 months	Angus	Angus	Aberdeenshire	Aberdeenshire	Clackmannanshire
	Clackmannanshire	Clackmannanshire	Angus	Argyll and Bute	Falkirk
	Inverclyde	East Lothian	Argyll and Bute	Clackmannanshire	Inverclyde
	Moray	Inverclyde	Clackmannanshire	East Lothian	Moray
	Shetland	Moray	East Lothian	Inverclyde	West Lothian
	West Dunbartonshire	Orkney	Fife	Moray
	West Lothian	Shetland	Inverclyde	South Lanarkshire
		South Lanarkshire	Moray	West Lothian
		Western Isles	Perth and Kinross
			Shetland
95% of householder applications within 3 months (only 4 years data available)	N/A	Angus	Aberdeenshire	Aberdeenshire	Aberdeen City
		Clackmannanshire	Angus	Angus	Aberdeenshire
		Dundee City	Argyll and Bute	Clackmannanshire	Angus
		East Lothian	Clackmannanshire	Dundee City	Argyll and Bute
		Inverclyde	Dundee City	East Renfrewshire	Clackmannanshire
		Moray	East Lothian	Falkirk	Dundee
		Orkney	Falkirk	Fife	East Renfrewshire
		Renfrewshire	Fife	Inverclyde	Falkirk
		Shetland	Inverclyde	Moray	Fife
		South Lanarkshire	Moray	Perth and Kinross	Inverclyde
		West Dunbartonshire	Perth and Kinross	Renfrewshire	Moray
		West Lothian	Renfrewshire	Shetland	North Lanarkshire
		Western Isles	Scottish Borders	South Lanarkshire	Shetland
			Shetland	Stirling	South Lanarkshire
			South Lanarkshire	West Lothian	Stirling
			Western Isles		West Lothian
80% of all major applications within 4 months (only 2 full years of data available)	N/A	N/A	N/A	Orkney	Dundee
				Shetland	Western Isles
				Stirling
				Western Isles

 

The reasons why the targets are not met will vary from authority to authority. The Scottish Executive currently carries out audits of planning authorities in respect of their development control functions. These audits seek to identify areas of good practice or concern.