Questions and answers

Question reference: S2W-17830

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 10 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many young people were not in employment, education or training, broken down by (a) constituency and (b) local authority (i) in total and (ii) as a percentage of each age group ranked in descending order and grouped by region, in the last year for which figures are available.

Young people not inemployment education or training is usually defined by the Scottish Executiveas those aged 16-19 not in employment, education or training (NEET). Data on theNEET group are taken from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). The most up to datedata available are for 2004. The LFS is a survey and is based on a sample of the population, therefore data are only available at certain geographies due tosmall sample sizes resulting is unreliable estimates. For this reason it is notpossible to provide data on NEET at constituency level. Table 1 gives the numberof 16-19 year olds not in employment, education or training broken down byLocal Authority Areas, grouped by region and ranked within each region. Table 2gives the age breakdown for areas where data is reliable.

Table 1 Number of 16-19 yearolds not in employment, education or training for each Local Authority Area,grouped by region, 2004

	Ages 16-19
	Number	Percentage
Scotland	35,000	13.5%
Borders
Scottish Borders, The	1,000	12.0%
Central
Stirling	1,000	16.0%
Clackmannanshire	..	..
Falkirk	..	..
Dumfries and Galloway
Dumfries and Galloway	..	..
Fife
Fife	..	..
Grampian
Aberdeen City	..	..
Aberdeenshire	..	..
Moray	..	..
Highland & Islands
Highland	..	..
Orkney Islands	..	..
Shetland Islands	..	..
Eilean Siar (Western Isles)	..	..
Lothian
Midlothian	1,000	15.9%
East Lothian	..	..
Edinburgh, City of	..	..
West Lothian	..	..
Strathclyde
Glasgow City	7,000	23.0%
West Dunbartonshire	1,000	17.7%
East Ayrshire	1,000	16.6%
East Dunbartonshire	1,000	9.8%
Inverclyde	1,000	17.4%
North Ayrshire	1,000	18.6%
South Ayrshire	1,000	18.5%
Argyll & Bute	..	..
East Renfrewshire	..	..
North Lanarkshire	..	..
Renfrewshire	..	..
South Lanarkshire	..	..
Tayside
Angus	1,000	11.5%
Dundee City	..	..
Perth and Kinross	..	..

Estimate is belowreliability threshold as defined by the Office for National Statistics.

Notes:

1. Estimates are rounded to the nearest thousand.

2. The total may not equal the sum of the individualcomponents due to rounding.

3.Percentages are calculated as the number of NEET divided by the totalpopulation for the relevant age group.

Table 2 Age breakdown of NEET, 2004

	Number	Percentage
	Age 16	Age 17	Age 18	Age 19	Age 16	Age 17	Age 18	Age 19
Scotland	6,000	7,000	10,000	12,000	10.0%	11.1%	15.3%	17.5%
North Ayrshire	..	..	..	1,000	..	..	..	28.6%

Source: Annual ScottishLabour Force Survey, 2004

.. Estimate is belowreliability threshold as defined by the Office for National Statistics

Notes:

1. Estimates are rounded to the nearest thousand.

2. The total may not equal the sum of the individualcomponents due to rounding.

3. Percentages arecalculated as the number of NEET divided by the total population for therelevant age group.

Question reference: S2W-17907

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 10 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average bed occupancy rate was of each acute hospital in each of the last five years.

The following table details percentage bed occupancy for acute specialties in Scottish hospitals. Hospitals with 25 or more average available staffed beds in acute specialties have been included in the table. While the occupancy of the large hospitals providing most of the acute care remains reasonably stable across the 5 years, some small, generally rural hospitals show changing occupancy figures as the provision of service changes due to service redesign. For example, Stracathro Hospital is being redeveloped as Scotland’s first Ambulatory Diagnostic and Treatment Centre and any spare inpatient capacity is to be used in partnership with the independent sector to help reduce waiting times in Tayside, Grampian and Fife.

NHSScotland - Percentage Acute¹ Bed Occupancy²by Hospital³; Years Ending 31 March 2001 - 2005²

	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005^p
Scotland - All Acute Specialties	81.1	81.3	81.8	81.7	81.7
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary	80.5	83.5	84.7	83.5	82.1
Ashludie Hospital	89.9	90.6	91.9	90.8	76.2
Astley Ainslie Hospital	80.9	82.2	82.1	84.7	86.1
Ayrshire Central Hospital	78.0	73.2	69.8	66.0	62.7
Balfour Hospital	59.4	65.2	70.7	62.4	58.2
Belford Hospital	75.8	76.5	73.3	73.7	66.8
Biggart Hospital	96.0	91.8	89.4	91.0	88.2
Blairgowrie Community Hospital	88.0	78.0	83.0	82.1	85.3
Borders General Hospital	78.6	78.8	80.4	82.5	81.3
Caithness General Hospital	71.9	74.4	78.7	78.0	75.9
Campbeltown Hospital	78.9	81.1	75.8	78.0	73.7
Canniesburn Hospital	70.3	68.1	55.7	60.9	63.6
Chalmers Hospital	58.2	64.5	58.8	59.3	59.5
City Hospital, Edinburgh	61.1	54.1	-	-	-
Coathill Hospital	83.9	93.5	81.8	84.0	79.5
Cowglen Hospital	80.5	26.0	-	-	-
Crieff Community Hospital	67.7	74.1	74.0	75.8	71.1
Crosshouse Hospital	82.8	81.9	82.1	81.1	81.8
Davidson Cottage Hospital	70.2	71.1	72.8	70.6	63.5
Dr Gray's Hospital	81.2	78.3	79.5	73.9	74.4
Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary	77.7	78.3	80.5	81.2	83.9
Dunoon and District General Hospital	88.3	82.8	80.4	76.5	82.9
Falkirk and District Royal Infirmary	89.2	87.5	90.0	91.6	91.7

NHSScotland - Percentage Acute¹ Bed Occupancy²by Hospital³; Years Ending 31 March 2001 - 2005²

	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005^p
Forth Park Hospital	59.7	48.1	48.3	52.1	46.3
Fraserburgh Hospital	67.6	67.5	65.6	75.9	63.1
Garrick Hospital	51.2	53.7	55.4	46.8	35.7
Gilbert Bain Hospital	66.3	70.6	64.6	59.4	53.9
Glasgow Royal Infirmary	86.6	86.8	87.0	84.6	85.1
Golden Jubilee National Hospital	-	-	-	-	100.0
Hairmyres Hospital	81.9	84.1	89.3	90.6	91.7
Hawick Cottage Hospital	68.5	73.3	73.6	78.4	63.5
Hay Lodge Hospital	99.8	100.0	100.0	97.2	93.0
Inverclyde Royal Hospital	79.5	80.6	79.2	78.4	82.7
Jubilee Hospital	67.8	64.8	60.2	61.9	60.5
Kings Cross Hospital	85.6	79.1	-	-	-
Law Hospital	70.7	72.1	-	-	-
Lawson Memorial Hospital	68.4	61.6	55.5	59.6	53.3
Leanchoil Hospital	94.7	98.9	97.1	91.0	92.6
Liberton Hospital	94.2	93.0	91.7	90.6	90.1
Lightburn Hospital	88.6	90.8	87.7	85.8	84.7
Lockhart Hospital	73.8	74.1	73.2	73.0	66.1
Lorn & Islands District Gen Hospital	77.5	73.3	65.4	66.6	69.2
Monklands Hospital	81.0	84.2	85.5	85.9	86.4
New Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh	-	60.8	71.4	85.2	88.9
Ninewells Hospital	80.6	83.6	83.0	81.8	83.6
Perth Royal Infirmary	83.6	84.8	88.4	86.0	87.0
Peterhead Community Hospital	76.0	75.4	80.4	78.0	76.8
Princess Margaret Rose Hospital	76.3	64.0	-	-	-
Queen Margaret Hospital	90.0	87.6	88.5	90.7	92.2
Raigmore Hospital	80.9	81.7	79.6	79.9	79.4
Ravenscraig Hospital	81.8	37.9	51.8	88.4	87.2
Roodlands General Hospital	89.2	90.2	87.9	89.3	89.0
Ross Memorial Hospital	76.4	77.0	74.8	76.1	75.8
Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital	54.5	55.0	55.0	51.5	55.4
Royal Alexandra Hospital	85.8	85.6	85.3	84.3	84.1
Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh	64.2	66.4	64.8	64.3	65.7
Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Glasgow	63.7	63.8	70.5	66.8	68.0
Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh	88.4	86.8	85.4	81.5	-
Royal Northern Infirmary	83.2	86.1	72.0	77.5	84.7
Royal Victoria Hospital, Edinburgh	96.5	96.9	96.8	95.5	97.4
Royal Victoria Hospital, Dundee	88.0	86.2	77.6	84.9	83.1
Seafield Hospital	88.8	93.9	100.0	100.0	100.0
Southern General Hospital	80.1	82.2	81.5	80.1	76.6

NHSScotland - Percentage Acute¹ Bed Occupancy²by Hospital³; Years Ending 31 March 2001 - 2005²

	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005^p
Spynie Hospital	85.3	85.4	86.0	82.3	42.0
St Columba's Hospice	80.4	88.1	84.0	87.0	74.9
St John's Hospital At Howden	83.2	81.6	81.9	82.7	81.8
Stirling Royal Infirmary	75.0	74.0	74.1	74.5	76.8
Stobhill Hospital	77.5	80.1	82.2	83.4	81.1
Stonehouse Hospital	58.8	100.0	-	-	-
Stracathro Hospital	79.5	74.1	68.7	65.6	61.7
Strathclyde Hospital	-	75.0	72.1	81.5	77.6
The Ayr Hospital	82.5	82.9	81.1	83.4	83.1
Tor-Na-Dee Hospital	70.6	62.9	77.2	-	-
Udston Hospital	90.0	90.3	94.6	87.3	88.9
Vale of Leven District General Hospital	88.3	88.5	82.9	81.4	80.4
Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy	81.4	79.5	79.2	81.8	82.5
Victoria Infirmary	87.2	85.7	88.6	88.4	88.7
Victoria Infirmary Geriatric Unit	94.5	92.1	91.0	90.3	91.3
Wester Moffat Hospital	-	86.3	86.3	74.8	75.0
Western General Hospital	85.3	77.9	84.6	87.1	88.4
Western Infirmary/Gartnavel General	77.2	77.5	78.8	78.8	80.8
Western Isles Hospital	77.1	77.4	71.1	68.0	62.8
Wishaw General Hospital	-	78.1	81.0	85.8	86.7
Woodend General Hospital	88.3	91.0	91.5	90.6	90.1

Note: ^pProvisional.

Question reference: S2W-18276

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 01 August 2005
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 10 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people are currently on waiting lists for aids and adaptations, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S2W-18203

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 10 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average student nurse bursary has been in each year since 1999.

Information on the totalexpenditure on bursaries is not collected in such a way as to provide averagebursary payments for these academic years. Lower and higher rates of bursaryfor the academic years 1999-2000 to 2005-06 are set out in the following table.Where applicable, nursing and midwifery students can also apply for a lone parent’sgrant, lone parent’s childcare grant and income-assessed dependants’ allowancesfor dependant children.

Academic Year	Lower Rate (students under 26)	Higher Rate (students over 26)
1999-2000	4,686	5,277
2000-01	4,803	5,409
2001-02	5,302	5,971
2002-03	5,430	6,115
2003-04	5,566	6,268
2004-05	5,700	6,418
2005-06	5,845	6,580

Question reference: S2W-17920

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 9 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive which five management consultancies received the highest value of contracts awarded by it in each of the last five years and what the total value was of the contracts awarded to each.

Listed are the payments made over the past three years where the word consultancy appears in the account code. Information pre SEAS is not available.

02/03

Vendor Name	Ac	Ac Desc	Invoice Amount SUM
Glasgow City Council	60101555	Consultancy Services Swsg 2	440,457.63
Astron Document Services Limited	60100650	Committees and Consultancies	286,441.00
Sinclair Knight Merz	20001425	Rail Consultancies	213,914.22
ICAS Limited	40100905	Consultancy	163,716.85
Press Data Bureau	40100905	Consultancy	154,603.78

03/04

Vendor Name	Ac	Ac Desc	Invoice Amount SUM
Ernst & Young LLP	60052650	Rail Consultancies	752,091.09
PA Consulting Services Limited	60253240	Safety Cameras PA Consulting	371,192.02
Astron Document Services Limited	60100650	Committees and Consultancies	342,047.26
Lanarkshire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust	60204205	Consultancy Services:Other	244,573.45
Valuation Office Agency	60204205	Consultancy Services:Other	227,086.38

04/05

Vendor Name	Ac	Ac Desc	Invoice Amount SUM
Newell and Budge Security Limited	40100905	Consultancy	951,346.47
Office For National Statistics	40100905	Consultancy	883,169.00
Ernst & Young LLP	60171310	Rail Consultancies	864,357.85
Miller Mitchell Burley Lane	40100905	Consultancy	671,326.50
Astron Document Services Limited	60221765	Tobacco consultation	457,178.45

Question reference: S2W-17921

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Peter Peacock on 9 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what research it has evaluated on whether there is a relationship between the number of hours spent watching television and children's academic achievement.

Question reference: S2W-17578

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 June 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 9 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total number of accident and emergency attendances was in each NHS board area in each of the last five years for which figures were available.

The information requested isshown in the following table. Data for the year ending March 2005 are not yetcomplete.

The figuresinclude return attendances as well as new presentations.

NHSScotland– Accident and emergency Attendances¹; by NHS Board Area YearsEnding 31 March 2000 - 2004

	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Scotland	1,552,634	1,530,276	1,527,403	1,501,272	1,513,863
Argyll and Clyde	149,082	148,378	147,806	144,412	151,214
Ayrshire and Arran	116,287	111,695	109,220	107,188	110,035
Borders	29,532	30,531	31,823	32,219	31,503
Dumfries and Galloway	39,483	40,175	41,898	42,104	42,709
Fife	89,652	90,591	89,305	85,360	88,916
Forth Valley	76,571	76,542	77,228	75,219	75,030
Grampian	124,890	113,419	114,252	109,222	102,699
Greater Glasgow	376,734	373,273	370,410	363,440	359,969
Highland	61,749	61,028	61,225	59,231	64,776
Lanarkshire	160,336	163,472	159,772	165,762	174,120
Lothian	206,080	203,918	197,654	188,191	183,639
Orkney	2,551	2,555	2,714	2,915	3,292
Shetland	7,190	7,407	8,972	7,999	8,036
Tayside	105,809	100,005	107,780	109,623	109,058
Western Isles	6,688	7,287	7,344	8,387	8,867

Source:ISD Scotland.

Note:1. Excludes patients attending for A&E treatment that are seen by GPs.

Question reference: S2W-17974

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 9 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it spent on organising or sponsoring conferences in each year since 1997.

Question reference: S2W-17882

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 9 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what research projects it has commissioned since 1999 and what the timetable is for the publication of each piece of research that has yet to be completed.

To provide a comprehensiveanswer to this question would involve disproportionate cost. There are,however, a number of websites where Scottish Executive's research programmesare recorded:Theannual report of the Scottish Executive Health Department ChiefScientist's Office, available at www.show.scot.nhs.uk/cso, givesdetails of research grants awarded.Thecurrent research programme of the Education Department is available at www.scotland.gov.uk/insight. Thepublications section of that Website lists earlier publications, by topic.Researchcommissioned by the Science and Research Group of the Scottish ExecutiveEnvironment and Rural Affairs Department is described at www.scotland.gov.uk/topics/research/abrg.

TheWebsite of the Environment Group of ERAD is at:

www.scotland.gov.uk/environment-group-research.Socialresearch contracts acrossDepartments, in 2002-03, 2003-04 and 2003-04: www.scotland.gov.uk/topics/research/research/sr/secontractors.

Researchprojects commissioned in connection with official statistics aredetailed in the relevant topic pages of the statistics website:

www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics.

Question reference: S2W-17878

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 July 2005
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 9 August 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people employed by it and non-departmental public bodies have a compulsory retirement age of 65.

The Scottish Executivenormal retirement age is 60, although staff can be retained on a yearly basisup to age 65 provided their performance, conduct and attendance aresatisfactory and there is a post available. This policy extends to all ScottishExecutive core departments, agencies and associated departments, which amountsto around ,7500 staff.

NDPBs are responsible fordetermining their own staff terms and conditions of employment and we do nothold information centrally on this.

Chamber and committees