Questions and answers

Question reference: S2W-17180

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 17 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what level of funding has been provided to drug and alcohol action teams in each of the lastfive years, broken down byNHSboard area.

The table details the total funding provided to health boards to directly support the work of Drug and Alcohol Action Teams in Scotland:

NHS Board	2000-01 (£)	2001-02 (£)	2002-03 (£)	2003-04 (£)	2004-05 (£)
Argyll and Clyde	110,000	174,098	178,549	178,549	178,549
Ayrshire and Arran	110,000	169,278	173,139	173,139	173,139
Borders	80,000	113,154	115,077	115,077	115,077
Dumfries and Galloway	80,000	117,096	120,048	120,048	120,048
Fife	110,000	167,026	168,963	168,963	168,963
Forth Valley	110,000	159,826	161,413	161,413	161,413
Grampian¹	110,000	229,384	231,192	231,192	231,192
Greater Glasgow*	110,000	221,140	232,070	232,070	232,070
Highland	110,000	153,156	157,078	157,078	157,078
Lanarkshire	110,000	187,574	190,287	190,287	190,287
Lothian²	110,000	277,374	280,687	280,687	280,687
Orkney	65,000	89,638	90,819	90,819	90,819
Shetland	65,000	89,966	90,983	90,983	90,983
Tayside³	110,000	215,998	222,499	222,499	222,499
Western Isles	65,000	90,398	92,199	92,199	92,199
Total	1,455,000	2,455,006	2,505,003	2,505,003	2,505,003

Notes:

* - GreaterGlasgow has a separate Drug Action Team andAlcohol Action Team, the combined total has been provided.

1 –Grampian NHS Board comprises Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray Drug and Alcohol ActionTeams.

2 – LothianNHS Board comprises East Lothian, Edinburgh City, Midlothian and West Lothian Drug and AlcoholAction Teams.

3 – TaysideNHS Board comprises Angus, Dundee City and Perth andKinross Drug and Alcohol Action Teams.

In addition the Executive provides significant resources to key partner agencies of the drug and alcohol action teams to address drug and alcohol problems in their areas. Drug and Alcohol Action Teams must account for the use of these resources in their annual Corporate Action Plans.

NHS Boards received the following ring-fenced resources for drug and alcohol treatment:

NHS Board	2000-01 (£000)	2001-02 (£000)	2002-03 (£000)	2003-04 (£000)	2004-05 (£000)
Argyll and Clyde	984	1,111	1,338	1,338	2,265
Ayrshire and Arran	609	737	687	687	1,249
Borders	118	160	162	162	255
Dumfries and Galloway	124	298	258	258	379
Fife	514	698	789	789	1,028
Forth Valley	226	462	557	557	733
Grampian¹	1,085	1,283	1,313	1,313	2,176
Greater Glasgow*	3,670	4,387	4,488	4,488	6,155
Highland	181	300	414	414	575
Lanarkshire	607	862	1,449	1,449	1,769
Lothian²	2,922	3,214	3,539	3,539	4,055
Orkney	20	24	32	32	101
Shetland	42	46	55	55	125
Tayside³	1,225	1,348	1,483	1,483	1,727
Western Isles	25	43	87	87	159
Total	12,352	14,973	16,951	16,951	22,751

Notes:

1. – Grampian NHS Board comprises Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray Drug and Alcohol Action Teams.

2. – Lothian NHS Board comprises East Lothian, Edinburgh City, Midlothian and West Lothian Drug and Alcohol Action Teams.

3. – Tayside NHS Board comprises Angus, Dundee City and Perth and Kinross Drug and Alcohol Action Teams.

Local authorities also received resources earmarked for drugs rehabilitation, totalling £6.8 per annum. This is detailed in the following table with local authorities grouped by NHS board area:

NHS Board	Local Authority	2000-01 (£000)	2001-02 (£000)	2002-03 (£000)	2003-04 (£000)	2004-05 (£000)
Argyll and Clyde	Argyll and Bute	0	119	119	119	119
	Inverclyde	0	113	113	113	113
	Renfrewshire	0	235	235	235	235
	East Renfrewshire^%	0	119	119	119	119
	West Dunbartonshire^%	0	126	126	126	126
Ayrshire and Arran	East Ayrshire	0	161	161	161	161
	North Ayrshire	0	185	185	185	185
	South Ayrshire	0	152	152	152	152
Borders	Borders	0	141	141	141	141
Dumfries and Galloway	Dumfries and Galloway	0	195	195	195	195
Fife	Fife	0	464	464	464	464
Forth Valley	Clackmannanshire	0	65	65	65	65
	Falkirk	0	192	192	192	192
	Stirling	0	113	113	113	113
Grampian¹	Aberdeen City	0	282	282	282	282
	Aberdeenshire	0	302	302	302	302
	Moray	0	113	113	113	113
Greater Glasgow*	Glasgow City	0	812	812	812	812
	East Dunbartonshire	0	147	147	147	147
	East Renfrewshire^%	0	119	119	119	119
	West Dunbartonshire^%	0	126	126	126	126
	South Lanarkshire^%	0	408	408	408	408
	North Lanarkshire^%	0	436	436	436	436
Highland	Highland	0	277	277	277	277
Lanarkshire	North Lanarkshire^%	0	436	436	436	436
Lanarkshire	South Lanarkshire^%	0	408	408	408	408
Lothian²	East Lothian	0	120	120	120	120
	Edinburgh City	0	600	600	600	600
	Midlothian	0	108	108	108	108
	West Lothian	0	205	205	205	205
Orkney	Orkney	0	26	26	26	26
Shetland	Shetland	0	30	30	30	30
Tayside³	Angus	0	146	146	146	146
	Dundee City	0	192	192	192	192
	Pert and Kinross	0	178	178	178	178
Western Isles	Western Isles	0	37	37	37	37

Notes:

% - Only a percentage of the local authority lies within the NHS Board area.

1. – Grampian NHS Board comprises Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray Drug and Alcohol Action Teams.

2. – Lothian NHS Board comprises East Lothian, Edinburgh City, Midlothian and West Lothian Drug and Alcohol Action Teams.

3. – Tayside NHS Board comprises Angus, Dundee City and Perth and Kinross Drug and Alcohol Action Teams.

Question reference: S2W-17175

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tavish Scott on 17 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-3695 by Susan Deacon on 4 February 2000, how many people have died as a result of (a) road traffic accidents, (b) using Class A drugs and (c) using volatile substances in each of the last five years, broken down by police force area.

The information requested is given in the following table.

Underlying Cause of Death and Police Force Area	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Road traffic accidents¹
All areas	324	343	369	321	351
Central Scotland	14	19	22	19	12
Dumfries and Galloway	17	14	13	20	12
Fife	19	18	19	27	20
Grampian	40	56	49	47	53
Lothian and Borders	49	57	46	48	53
Northern	35	37	40	30	33
Strathclyde	119	117	139	106	134
Tayside	31	25	41	24	34
Use of Class A drugs²
All areas	231	244	273	333	259
Central Scotland	4	4	5	18	11
Dumfries and Galloway	5	6	8	7	7
Fife	8	10	10	9	8
Grampian	33	27	38	44	34
Lothian and Borders	30	26	44	33	29
Northern	7	1	5	5	3
Strathclyde	133	159	148	208	156
Tayside	11	11	15	9	11
Use of volatile substances³
All areas	3	3	2	4	3
Central Scotland	-	1	-	-	-
Dumfries and Galloway	-	-	-	-	-
Fife	1	-	-	2	-
Grampian	-	-	-	-	-
Lothian and Borders	-	-	1	1	1
Northern	1	-	-	-	-
Strathclyde	1	1	1	1	2
Tayside	-	1	-	-	-

Source: Death registration data held by the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS).

Notes:

1. Road traffic accidents: GROS uses slightly different definitions to those used for classifying the road accident statistics collected by the police. For example, the GROS data are classified by place of residence, whereas police road accident statistics are based on the place where the accident took place.

2. Use of Class A drugs: Each year GROS publishes a short paper on drug-related deaths. The figures in the table are based on the definition of drug-related deaths currently used in these papers and are restricted to cases where a Class A drug was known to have been involved. The figures in the answer to S1W-3695 were based on an earlier definition and are therefore not directly comparable.

3. Use of volatile substances: A research team at St.George’s Hospital, London, also collates (GB) information on deaths from volatile substance abuse. These figures are usually slightly higher than those of GROS because, for example, they include some deaths where volatile substance abuse was not the underlying cause of death.

Question reference: S2W-17176

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 17 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average sentence was for criminals convicted of accessing and downloading child pornography on the internet in each of the last six years.

Cases involving the accessing, distribution and possession of child pornography are prosecuted under sections 52 and 52A of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982. However, the data held centrally does not distinguish between cases involving pornography downloaded from the internet and those where it was obtained by other means. The available information on sentences imposed in all convictions under sections 52 and 52A of the 1982 Act is given in the following table.

Persons With A Charge Proved In Scottish Courts for an Offence¹ Under Sections 52 Or 52A of The Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982, 1998 – 2003

Main Result of Proceedings	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003²
Total	9	9	15	16	26	68
Custodial sentence	2	1	3	9	9	21
Community sentence	1	2	5	3	12	37
Financial penalty	5	5	6	4	5	9
Other sentence	1	1	1	-	-	1
Average fine (£)	814	435	434	688	1,930	1,478
Average custodial sentence (days)	274	365	213	301	352	387

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Includes estimated data.

Question reference: S2W-16928

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 17 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive why on-time delivery of prisoners to court fell from 98% in July 2004 to 85% in December 2004 and what action it intends to take to address this.

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

The major reason was the significant expansion of operations to cover the whole of Scotland and double the number of prisoner movements compared to the start of the contract. Figures published on SPS’s website (www.sps.gov.uk) show that, since the roll-out was completed, performance has improved. The contract provides incentives for further improvements. Both SPS and the escort provider believe these are achievable, and the company will be working to deliver them.

Question reference: S2W-17184

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 17 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S1W-33992, S2W-16103, S2W-16477 and S2W-16486 by Mr Jim Wallace and Cathy Jamieson on 26 February 2003, 4 May, 24 May and 23 May 2005, whether, when it intends to restrict the answer to a parliamentary question to a certain period of time, it will make this clear in future and whether it will state the time period covered by the answer.

Question reference: S2W-17178

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 15 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many incidents of racially motivated hate crimes have been reported in the last five years, broken down by police force area.

Exact information on the numbers of racially motivated hate crimes is not available centrally. For information on the number of racially motivated incidents I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-15791 on 10 May 2005, as corrected by the reply to question S2W‑17089 on 13 June 2005. However, these figures include all such incidents, some of which would not have lead to the recording of a crime. 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 recorded crime statistics collected centrally cannot distinguish the motive behind the crimes, such as assault, and therefore information on the total numbers of racially motivated hate crimes recorded by the police is not available centrally. However, the available information on the numbers of offences recorded by the police of racially aggravated harassment and racially aggravated conduct is shown by police force area in table A7 of the statistical bulletin Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2003, copies of which are available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 33018).

Question reference: S2W-17185

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 15 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-8626 and S2W-16509 by Cathy Jamieson on 11 June 2004 and 26 May 2005, why information on the time it took to return prisoners released in error by Reliance Secure Task Management Ltd to police custody was provided in answer to S2W-8628 but not in answer to S2W-16509.

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

Although the SPS knows when prisoners are returned to prison custody, we do not know when the prisoner is returned to police custody. Question S2W-8626 gave the date that one prisoner was returned to police custody because in that sole case we did know because of the intense media interest following the implementation of the contract.

Question reference: S2W-16952

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 14 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-7558 and S2W-16514 by Cathy Jamieson on 20 May 2004 and 24 May 2005, what the net present value will be of VAT payments to be made in relation to the contract with Reliance Secure Task Management Ltd for the escort of prisoners, shown in figures comparable to thosein the answer to S2W-7558.

Question reference: S2W-17029

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 14 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on CruiseScotland; whether it is still trading and what the extent is of any outstanding debt, and what the Executives strategy is for promoting Scotland as a cruise liner destination.

CruiseScotland is still trading and has debts of around £7,000. It is currently in negotiations with Forth Ports plc to re-establish itself on a new basis, albeit under the same name. Under such a new format, CruiseScotland would be based on private sector membership, and would be able to access VisitScotland Challenge Funding.

VisitScotland recognises that the cruise liner market brings a significant number of visitors to particular areas of Scotland. It will, therefore, work with CruiseScotland if there is an opportunity to develop products aimed at passengers while they are disembarked.

Question reference: S2W-17033

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill, MSP for Lothians, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 13 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many instances there have been of emergency vehicles being restricted in attending incidents as a result of illegal or inappropriate parking; what legislation applies in such cases, and what action it plans to take to address the issue.

Chamber and committees