Chamber and committees

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

Sheriff Croan’s determination in the fatal accident inquiry related to Premier Custodial Group Ltd., not to the Scottish Prison Service. There was, therefore, no recommendation for SPS to implement.

The target set for the ambulance service is that, by March 2008, 75% of Category A (life threatening) calls will receive a response within eight minutes. In April 2005, the service achieved performance of 60.2%, up from 54.3% in the corresponding month a year earlier. The ambulance service has assured me that it is on track to meet the March 2008 target.

Ambulance service figures provided in the answer to question S2W-16528, answered on 25 May 2005, show that in the period since August 2002, when the priority based dispatch system was first introduced, the number of GP urgent calls has fallen substantially – from about 16,000 a year to around 4,300. The priority based dispatch system enables ambulance controllers to direct the most appropriate ambulance resource to category A (life threatening) incidents. At the same time, the proportion of category A cases responded to within eight minutes has increased from 54% in April 2004 to 60% in April 2005. The ambulance service believes that the reduction in GP urgent calls is at least partly attributable to GPs dialling 999 to request an ambulance for patients, in the knowledge that the priority based despatch system will ensure that calls are prioritised appropriately. The ambulance service constantly monitors its performance towards the target of responding to 75% of category A calls in eight minutes by March 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.

The information requested is set out in these tables:

GP Urgent Calls for 2002-03

Health Board	Total GP Urgent Calls With An Agreed 1 Hour Time Factor	Achieved Within 1 Hour
Argyll and Clyde	5,035	3,615
Ayrshire and Arran	473	411
Borders	41	25
Dumfries and Galloway	281	242
Fife	235	198
Forth Valley	190	152
Grampian	2,015	1,757
Greater Glasgow	1,713	861
Highland	1,468	1,317
Lanarkshire	3,887	2,358
Lothian	200	125
Orkney	175	161
Shetland	89	81
Tayside	291	240
Western Isles	287	260
Grand Total	16,380	11,803

 

GP Urgent Calls for 2003-04

Health Board	Total GP Urgent Calls With An Agreed 1 Hour Time Factor	Achieved Within 1 Hour
Argyll and Clyde	3,203	2,332
Ayrshire and Arran	76	60
Borders	12	7
Dumfries and Galloway	30	24
Fife	56	42
Forth Valley	49	37
Grampian	1,405	1,325
Greater Glasgow	2,064	858
Highland	1,067	1,018
Lanarkshire	2,335	1,278
Lothian	160	101
Orkney	69	64
Shetland	39	38
Tayside	73	51
Western Isles	244	234
Grand Total	10,882	7,469

 

GP Urgent Calls for 2004-05

Health Board	Total GP Urgent Calls With An Agreed 1 Hour Time Factor	Achieved Within 1 Hour
Argyll and Clyde	213	140
Ayrshire and Arran	141	85
Borders	13	6
Dumfries and Galloway	45	18
Fife	31	15
Forth Valley	37	26
Grampian	1,635	1,620
Greater Glasgow	234	82
Highland	1,154	1,137
Lanarkshire	260	126
Lothian	68	42
Orkney	113	112
Shetland	56	56
Tayside	42	26
Western Isles	281	280
Grand Total	4,323	3,771

 

The percentage figures provided in the answer to question S2W-15713 were calculated on the basis of all urgent calls received by the ambulance service, most of which are from GPs. Percentages calculated from the figures given above will therefore differ very slightly from those provided in the previous answer.

The time for ambulance response agreed between the ambulance service control room and a GP is a guideline and not a target. An ambulance tasked to respond to a GP urgent call may be diverted to respond to a category A (life threatening) call if it can provide the quickest response to that call. Such a diversion would be communicated to the GP or the patient. Where a GP decides that a patient’s need for an ambulance is urgent, the GP will dial 999 and the call will be categorised (where appropriate) as category A leading to an immediate ambulance response.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

The number of serious assaults by prisoners on prisoners is published in SPS annual reports. 2004-05 figures have yet to be audited for the SPS annual report. The breakdown by establishment was:

	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Aberdeen	10	6	8
Barlinnie	10	28	8
Castle Huntly	1	0	0
Cornton Vale		0	2
Dumfries	3	3	4
Dungavel		0	0
Edinburgh	12	14	8
Glenochil	10	11	4
Greenock	4	4	1
Inverness		0	4
Kilmarnock	10	16	8
Low Moss	5	11	1
Noranside		1	0
Perth	4	14	16
Peterhead	2	0	2
Polmont	8	15	11
Shotts	6	4	9”

 

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

The 2003-04 figures are given in the following table. The 2004-05 figures have yet to be audited for the SPS Annual Report.

	2003-04
Aberdeen	0
Barlinnie	3
Castle Huntly	37
Cornton Vale	62
Dumfries	14
Edinburgh	88
Glenochil	401
Greenock	31
Inverness	0
Low Moss	0
Noranside	17
Perth	282
Peterhead	251
Polmont	134
Shotts	431

 

Such information was not previously collected.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

Information on local budgetsfor 2004-05 are:

	2004-05 (£ Million)
Aberdeen	5.9
Barlinnie	23.3
Cornton Vale	9.1
Dumfries	5.4
Edinburgh	16.8
Glenochil	13.8
Greenock	6.9
Inverness	4.0
Low Moss	6.4
Open Estate	5.5
Perth	16.2
Peterhead	8.3
Polmont	14.8
Shotts	14.7

Notes:

1. Performance Contracts wereintroduced in 2004-05 these allocated local budgets for delivering specific outputs.

2. In addition to the “local”budgets there were and are a number of significant costs for public prisons whichwere and are met centrally for SPS as a whole and not disaggregated.

3. During 2004-05 a number ofcentral budgets were devolved eg Psychologists. Like for like budgets at local levelare therefore not available for prior years.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

Establishment	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Aberdeen	164	164	169
Barlinnie	606	589	602
Castle Huntly	72	69	69
Cornton Vale	247	256	259
Dumfries	160	154	153
Edinburgh	478	468	468
Glenochil	474	474	474
Greenock	186	189	203
Inverness	110	111	112
Low Moss	168	172	172
Noranside	72	64	64
Perth	452	431	441
Peterhead	250	241	234
Polmont	351	345	345
Shotts	449	436	417

 

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

The daily information is not available. Comparing the annual average prisoner  population with the capacity gives the following percentages for the last three years for which audited figures are currently available.

Establishment	2001-02 %	2002-03 %	2003-04 %
Aberdeen	122	136	144
Barlinnie	114	116	112
Castle Huntly	90	94	98
Cornton Vale	103	106	93
Dumfries	81	97	106
Edinburgh	114	113	94
Glenochil	86	84	79
Greenock	127	127	121
Inverness	123	133	138
Kilmarnock	98	98	99
Low Moss	84	76	85
Noranside	76	88	98
Perth	85	99	114
Peterhead	95	96	102
Polmont	102	105	96
Shotts	97	92	89
Zeist	50		“

 

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

The number of serious assaults by prisoner on staff is published in SPS Annual Reports. The breakdown by establishment was:

Establishment	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
Aberdeen
Barlinnie	1	4	1
Castle Huntly
Cornton Vale	2
Dumfries	1
Dungavel
Edinburgh	1	1	1
Glenochil	1	2	3
Greenock		1
Inverness			1
Kilmarnock	2	6	1
Low Moss
Noranside
Perth	1	1
Peterhead			2
Polmont	1	3	1
Shotts	2	11	1