Chamber and committees

This information is not held centrally. The Scottish Government provides funding to NHS boards for treatment and support to address alcohol misuse and it is for each board, working with its partners, to determine which services and programmes should receive support according to identified need.

Our approach is to act always in the Scottish national interest.

We have made clear our commitment to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and to promoting and supporting the rights of all children in Scotland.

Following the recent recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child we are currently considering the age of criminal responsibility in the wider context of meeting the needs of children while managing risk appropriately. These considerations are on-going.

It is not clear which specific partnership this question refers to. However, the Scottish Government is generally supportive of community partnership activity to tackle alcohol misuse and considers that this can play a valuable role in reducing alcohol-related harm and under-age drinking and in tackling anti-social behaviour.

The Scottish Government provides funding to NHS boards to tackle alcohol misuse and it is for each board, working with its partners, to determine which services and programmes should receive funding according to identified need. Funding for diversionary activities is also made available through the Cashback for Communities scheme and to Lloyds TSB Partnership Drugs Initiative.

The Scottish Government is generally supportive of community partnership activity to tackle alcohol misuse and considers that this can play a valuable role in reducing alcohol-related harm and under-age drinking, as well as tackling anti-social behaviour.

Estimates prepared by Scottish Government Analytical Services put the total cost of alcohol misuse to the NHS at £405 million in 2006-07. (These are the most recent annual figures available). Details of the estimates and a breakdown of the costs are available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/222103/0059736.pdf.

Not all local authorities use the national entitlement card (NEC) to access local leisure and/or library services. As the NEC is an additional means of access to local services the alternatives available will be the decision/choice of each local authority.

All data collected from a national entitlement card (NEC) application is collected in accordance with the Data Protection Act, 1998. Applicants are made aware of their rights under the act via the application form and a separate terms and conditions leaflet. In addition, applicants are asked whether or not they grant consent for their information to be shared with other public sector organisations. Individuals can also change this consent.

Applicants for a NEC provide their local council with personal details including their name and address, date of birth, telephone number, gender etc. This information is necessary to validate and verify an applicant''s entitlement to services and establish a card holder citizen account, which is used to administer the NEC scheme i.e. information which allows the council to issue/re-issue a card.

Each local authority has access to the records of their own residents only and is the data controller of this information. Council employees need a digital certificate (the means of allowing secure and private communications between authenticated parties) in order to access the system and all activities on the system are audited and logged (including any unauthorized attempts to access the system). Any transaction data in relation to individual services continues to be held separately by local authorities, i.e. it is not stored on the central card management system.

Plans are also in place for individual card holders to have their own secure user login and password in order to see the data that is held about them and to be able to change the data, e.g. to notify a change of circumstances such as change of address.

As of 26 January 2009, there were a total of 248,470 cards issued to young people aged between 11 to 26.

Of these, 186,492 were for those young people aged 11 to 15 and 19 to 26 inclusive i.e. those young people not eligible for the Young Persons Concessionary Travel Scheme.

These figures exclude cards issued to young disabled people who qualify for the Scotland-wide free travel scheme for older and disabled people as these are not readily available.

Not all councils use the national entitlement card (NEC) to access local services.

For those councils who do offer access to local services via the NEC it is not compulsory for individuals to use it. The NEC is an additional convenient means of accessing local services.

All councils offer alternatives for those customers who do not wish to use the NEC to access local services.