Chamber and committees

The information requested is not held centrally. Under Paragraph 34 of Schedule 1 of the National Health Service (General Dental Services) (Scotland) Regulations 1996, a dentist is permitted to charge patients who do not turn up for their appointments.

Information on patients who did not attend a hospital appointment is available only for first out-patient appointments. The number, and percentage, of patients who did not attend (DNA) their first out-patient appointment, for the years ended 31 March 2000, 31 March 2001 and 31 March 2002, by NHS board, is given in the following table.There are many reasons why patients might fail to attend a hospital appointment. Work is currently under way to examine ways of reducing the number of patients who do not keep appointments, to identify and disseminate good practice, and to consider the development of targets to drive improvements in performance. The group is expected to report before the end of 2002.NHSScotland: Number and Percentage of Patients That Did Not Attend Their First Out-patient Appointment, by NHS Board of Residence. Years Ended 31 March 2000, 31 March 2001 and 31 March 2002^P

	Year Ended 31 March 2000		Year Ended 31 March 2001		Year Ended 31 March 2002P
NHS Board	Number	Percentage	Number	Percentage	Number	Percentage
Argyll and Clyde	14,031	11.6%	13,947	11.5%	10,817	12.3%
Ayrshire and Arran	10,791	10.2%	10,708	10.4%	11,653	11.4%
Borders	1,730	6.3%	1,666	6.3%	1,679	6.2%
Dumfries and Galloway	2,166	6.8%	2,189	6.9%	1,766	7.2%
Fife	9,827	9.9%	9,979	10.1%	9,975	10.2%
Forth Valley	6,761	9.2%	6,913	9.5%	6,897	10.4%
Grampian	9,277	8.0%	9,912	8.8%	10,318	9.0%
Greater Glasgow	45,883	15.5%	42,402	14.9%	46,615	16.8%
Highland	3,968	7.2%	3,856	7.1%	3,758	6.9%
Lanarkshire	20,096	13.0%	19,120	12.7%	18,451	13.9%
Lothian	22,966	11.4%	23,001	11.6%	21,103	11.5%
Orkney	129	4.0%	149	4.6%	154	5.7%
Shetland	210	4.1%	243	4.6%	157	3.4%
Tayside	13,956	10.2%	13,714	10.3%	13,305	10.4%
Western Isles	497	7.3%	556	8.0%	440	7.9%
Scotland	162,288	11.3%	158,357	11.3%	157,088	12.0%

^PProvisional.Source: SMR00, ISD Scotland.

I have referred the question to the Scottish Arts Council asking that a response be made directly to the member.

In spring this year Scottish Enterprise Grampian commissioned a feasibility study into the establishment of a film liaison service for the north east. A meeting was subsequently held on 27 August between the Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Councils and SE Grampian, and it was agreed to progress this development by drafting objectives for such a service for further discussion.

The information requested is not held centrally. A service-led group, chaired by a NHS Trust Chief Executive, has been established to consider the issue of missed appointments. NHS boards and trusts, together with primary care teams are already working to ensure that wherever possible if an appointment is cancelled it can be filled by another patient. Patients also have a responsibility to ensure that where they are likely to have difficulty in attending an appointment they inform their practice or clinic as soon as possible.

The Scottish Executive set out its broadband strategy last year in Connecting Scotland: Our Broadband Future and our vision was to make broadband connections more affordable and pervasive across the country, including in rural areas. As part of that strategy, the Executive has developed the Pathfinder initiatives to aggregate public sector demand for broadband in the Highlands and Islands and South of Scotland. It is hoped that this major investment on the part of the public sector will help to stimulate both demand for and supply of broadband within these areas, which might not be immediately covered by the commercial market. Work on the Pathfinder initiative is well in hand.Our strategy also undertook to identify where there was a need for direct support measures; our programme under the UK Broadband Fund is developing this element through almost a dozen projects managed by Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. These include awareness raising measures and technology trials in rural areas, such as Powerline Carrier and Wireless pilots, which aim to determine the potential of these technologies for delivering broadband in rural communities. The UK Government has set a general target on broadband which is to "have the most extensive and competitive broadband market in the G7 by 2005" and the Scottish Executive's broadband strategy is designed to contribute to this overall objective.Currently, about half of the Scottish population has access to broadband via terrestrial ADSL and/or cable-modem equivalents.

The latest available information on the number of consultant vacancies in each acute trust, is shown in the following table. Information at hospital level is not held centrally.Consultant Vacancies in Acute Trusts in NHSScotland: Headcount at 30 September 2001

	Establishment	In Post	Total Vacancies	Length of Vacancy		Vacancies as a % of Establishment
				< 6 Months	6 Months or More	Total	6 Months or More
Argyll and Clyde Acute Hospitals NHS Trust	164	151	13	8	5	7.9	3.0
Ayrshire and Arran Acute Hospitals NHS Trust	138	136	2	2	-	1.4	-
Borders Acute Hospital NHS Trust	49	47	2	2	-	4.1	-
Dumfries and Galloway Acute and Maternity Hospitals NHS Trust	69	68	1	-	1	1.4	1.4
Fife Acute Hospitals NHS Trust	129	116	13	1	12	10.1	9.3
Forth Valley Acute Hospitals NHS Trust	112	110	2	1	1	1.8	0.9
Grampian University Hospitals NHS Trust	308	295	13	11	2	4.2	0.6
North Glasgow University Hospitals NHS Trust	469	462	7	2	5	1.5	1.1
South Glasgow University Hospitals NHS Trust	211	209	2	2	-	0.9	-
Yorkhill NHS Trust	115	112	3	3	-	2.6	-
Highland Acute Hospitals NHS Trust	102	102	-	-	-	-	-
Lanarkshire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust	226	207	19	8	11	8.4	4.9
Lothian University Hospitals NHS Trust	445	437	8	1	7	1.8	1.6
West Lothian Healthcare NHS Trust1	85	80	5	2	3	5.9	3.5
Tayside University Hospitals NHS Trust	270	262	8	8	-	3.0	-
Orkney Health Board2	3	3	-	-	-	-	-
Shetland Health Board2	9	7	2	-	2	22.2	22.2
Western Isles Health Board2	15	12	3	1	2	20.0	13.3

Source: ISD(M)4 Medical and Dental Census ISD Scotland.Notes:West Lothian Healthcare is an integrated trust providing acute and primary care services. It is not possible to provide separate data for each of these services.Orkney Health Board, Shetland Health Board and Western Isles Health Board are special health boards providing acute and primary care services. It is not possible to provide separate data for each of these services.

The information requested is as follows:

Cases Marked: "No Proceedings"	April 1999 to March 2000	April 2000 to March 2001	April 2001 to March 2002
Aberdeen	2,198	1,188	1,269
Airdrie	1,319	1,523	1,225
Alloa	362	397	473
Arbroath	389	324	184
Ayr	1,009	923	858
Banff	456	102	199
Campbeltown	76	69	36
Cupar	388	391	353
Dingwall	143	169	148
Dornoch	39	43	47
Dumbarton	1,275	1,538	1,563
Dumfries	806	787	862
Dundee	1,251	1,115	911
Dunfermline	1,153	883	1,081
Dunoon	148	176	212
Duns	56	74	88
Edinburgh	3,386	2,804	3,879
Elgin	486	277	309
Falkirk	864	1,099	1,329
Forfar	276	259	224
Fort William	109	135	109
Glasgow	13,726	16,081	13,967
Greenock	817	792	724
Haddington	347	380	359
Hamilton	2,440	2,355	2,198
Inverness	720	776	705
Jedburgh	175	150	172
Kilmarnock	1,451	1,216	1,614
Kirkcaldy	1,308	1,710	1,349
Kirkcudbright	171	170	119
Kirkwall	72	71	57
Lanark	346	344	201
Lerwick	94	60	76
Linlithgow	841	769	841
Lochmaddy	24	21	18
Oban	184	142	132
Paisley	2,036	1,586	1,660
Peebles	81	65	60
Perth	893	695	766
Peterhead	204	174	135
Portree	32	51	60
Rothesay	30	22	45
Selkirk	273	303	231
Stirling	660	943	922
Stonehaven	118	129	86
Stornoway	34	46	52
Stranraer	446	320	276
Tain	134	181	209
Wick	112	152	123
PF Service Total	43,958	43,980	42,516

The information requested is not available but Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service Management reviews each instance of this and takes steps to ensure that lessons are learned to seek to avoid repetitions.

The following table sets out estimates of the requested proportions based on the relevant published spending plans for the years 1997-98 to 2003-04.

Year	(a) Total Scotland(£ million)	(b)Total Environment and Rural Affairs(£ million)	(c) Estimated Amount of (b) with no Linkage to European Funding(£ million) (%)	(d) Amounts in (c) as a % of Amounts in (a)
1997-98	14,614	908	459 (51%)	3.1%
1998-99	14,523	804	392 (49%)	2.7%
1999-2000	15,895	783	392 (50%)	2.5%
2000-01	16,691	834	391 (47%)	2.3%
2001-02	19,744	1,188	714 (60%)	3.6%
2002-03	20,913	1,207	737 (61%)	3.5%
2003-04	22,075	1,252	784 (63%)	3.6%

Spending plans from 2001-02 are in resource terms, while those for previous years are in cash terms.