Questions and answers

Question reference: S2W-32272

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 28 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) underweight and (b) premature babies were born in the last year for which figures are available and how many were born in 1997, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S2W-32294

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 28 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of police time was spent on frontline duties in each police force area in each year since 2003-04.

Question reference: S2W-32192

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 02 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 28 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much severance pay was provided to political advisers who left the civil service in each year since 1999.

Combined information on the net amount of severance pay provided to special advisersover four periods is provided in thefollowing table. Information cannot be provided on an annual basis to preserveconfidentiality as the number of Special Advisers receiving severance in someyears is low.

Year	1999-2003	2003-07
Net Amount	£154,754	£122,813

The criteria for thecalculation of severance pay are set out in paragraph 14d of the ModelContract for Special Advisers which is available in the Scottish ParliamentInformation Centre (Bib. number 37226).

Question reference: S2W-32534

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 27 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many and what proportion of patients with Availability Status Codes have waited (a) under six, (b) six to 12, (c) over 12 and (d) over 24 months for hospital in-patient treatment in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board.

The information requested is not availablecentrally.

The recording of Availability StatusCodes (ASCs) on in-patient/day case discharge data is not mandatory and consistencyof recording will vary across NHSScotland. It is not possible thereforeto establish exactly how many patients had an ASC applied and to distinguish preciselybetween those patients eligible for waiting times standards and those that are ineligible.For this reason, routinely published waiting times figures are based on all in-patients/daycases regardless of whether they have an ASC code.

Census data, provided by NHS boards to ISD Scotland andpublished each quarter, shows the number of patients waiting over specified periodsas at the census date. This census data does identify all patients with an AvailabilityStatus Code and it is therefore possible to report on the number of patients witha guarantee and an Availability Status Code waiting over specified periods on thatparticular census date.

Availability Status Codes willbe abolished at the end of this year and replaced by a new system of defining andmeasuring waiting which will be clearer, more consistent and fairer to patients.The new approach will balance the responsibility of the NHS to provide care andtreatment quickly with patients responsibility to make sure they attend appointmentsand do not change appointments once agreed.

Question reference: S2W-32535

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 27 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average number was of people on waiting lists for (a) radiotherapy, (b) chemotherapy and (c) other treatments for prostate cancer in the latest period for which figures are available and what the average waiting time was during that period.

Question reference: S2W-31710

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 26 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of prisoners sentenced for crimes involving violence have been granted home detention curfews in each of the last five years.

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

Home Detention Curfew (HDC) wasintroduced on 3 July 2006. There are therefore no figures to report before thisdate.

HDC is available only to short-termconvicted prisoners serving sentences of three months or more and less than fouryears. Current evidence of serious violence and/or previous convictions for seriousviolence would indicate a significant risk to the public, and as a result, the SPSwould be unlikely to release such prisoners on HDC.

Question reference: S2W-32036

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 February 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of sex offenders in prisons attended the Sex Offender Treatment Programme in each of the last five years.

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

Improvements made in the SPSPR2 prisoner records system provide accurate information on recorded sexoffenders over the last two years. Based on this information the population ofsex offenders in prisons who attended sex offenders treatment programmes are:

	2004-05	2005-06
Total number of Sex Offenders in prison	755	896
Total number of Sex Offenders that completed STOP programmes	60	76
Proportion (%) of Sex Offenders that completed STOP programme during the year	7.9%	8.5%

Numbers of prisonersentering programmes annually are limited by factors such as sentence length andwillingness to change on the part of individual offenders.

Sex offenders also need toundertake STOP programmes at the right stage in their sentence, therefore somemay have already completed a STOP programme in previous years either duringtheir current sentence or during previous sentences. Some offenders may alsohave undertaken Core STOP and been subsequently assessed as requiring to participatein further STOP programmes such as Extended STOP to address their offendingbehaviour. Some may also require access to other interventions such as mentalhealth support in advance of participation.

Question reference: S2W-32336

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many crimes were committed in each hospital in each of the last five years for which figures are available, broken down by type of crime.

Question reference: S2W-32326

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-31895 by Cathy Jamieson on 2 March 2007, whether it will list the 10 local authority areas with the (a) biggest and (b) smallest (i) reductions and (ii) increases in the number of (A) crimes against public justice, (B) crimes of handling an offensive weapon and (C) drug-related crimes since 1996-97.

The requested information isshown in the following tables. “Drug-relatedcrime” has been taken to mean specifically drug crimes (possession, supply, manufacture or trafficking).

Recorded Crimes AgainstPublic Justice by Local Authority, 1996-97 and 2005-06

	1996-97	2005-06	Difference	% Difference
Scottish Borders	117	401	284	242.7
Moray	150	451	301	200.7
Clackmannanshire	138	371	233	168.8
City of Edinburgh	1,047	2,457	1,410	134.7
Fife	740	1,693	953	128.8
Stirling	256	582	326	127.3
Eilean Siar (W.Isles)	39	84	45	115.4
Perth and Kinross	323	677	354	109.6
West Lothian	283	590	307	108.5
North Lanarkshire	920	1,868	948	103.0
West Dunbartonshire	352	695	343	97.4
Inverclyde	231	444	213	92.2
Dumfries and Galloway	469	899	430	91.7
Midlothian	189	341	152	80.4
Dundee City	762	1,360	598	78.5
Falkirk	507	863	356	70.2
South Lanarkshire	880	1,495	615	69.9
East Lothian	121	204	83	68.6
East Ayrshire	299	494	195	65.2
North Ayrshire	407	638	231	56.8
Argyll and Bute	273	412	139	50.9
Renfrewshire	494	734	240	48.6
Angus	329	483	154	46.8
Highland	705	1,019	314	44.5
City of Glasgow	4,437	6,072	1,635	36.8
Aberdeenshire	384	508	124	32.3
South Ayrshire	307	394	87	28.3
Aberdeen City	764	969	205	26.8
East Renfrewshire	153	191	38	24.8
East Dunbartonshire	165	203	38	23.0
Orkney Islands	29	35	6	20.7
Shetland Islands	50	41	-9	-18.0
All Scotland	16,320	27,668	11,348	69.5

The category of “crimes againstpublic justice” includes breaches of conditions of bail. The increase in this categorypartially reflects an increase in the granting (and enforcement of) additional bailconditions in order to provide safeguards over and above the standard bail conditions(for example: exclusions from an area/address in domestic abuse cases, curfew ordersand electronic monitoring as a condition of bail). The number of these crimes hasbeen increasing steadily over the last eight years.

Recorded Crimes of HandlingOffensive Weapons by Local Authority, 1996-97 and 2005-06

	1996-97	2005-06	Difference	% Difference
Moray	45	110	65	144.4
Scottish Borders	45	103	58	128.9
Shetland Islands	9	19	10	111.1
Aberdeen City	151	309	158	104.6
Clackmannanshire	44	89	45	102.3
City of Edinburgh	399	748	349	87.5
West Dunbartonshire	173	324	151	87.3
Inverclyde	133	247	114	85.7
Midlothian	59	106	47	79.7
South Lanarkshire	334	586	252	75.4
North Ayrshire	199	345	146	73.4
North Lanarkshire	387	669	282	72.9
City of Glasgow	1,811	3,112	1,301	71.8
Highland	171	282	111	64.9
West Lothian	114	187	73	64.0
East Dunbartonshire	85	129	44	51.8
East Ayrshire	166	240	74	44.6
Renfrewshire	286	401	115	40.2
Stirling	90	125	35	38.9
Aberdeenshire	127	169	42	33.1
East Lothian	52	66	14	26.9
Orkney Islands	8	10	2	25.0
Argyll and Bute	84	103	19	22.6
Eilean Siar (W.Isles)	16	19	3	18.8
Falkirk	152	164	12	7.9
South Ayrshire	142	145	3	2.1
Fife	305	273	-32	-10.5
East Renfrewshire	85	76	-9	-10.6
Dumfries and Galloway	170	137	-33	-19.4
Angus	118	74	-44	-37.3
Dundee City	347	186	-161	-46.4
Perth and Kinross	206	75	-131	-63.6
All Scotland	6,513	9,628	3,115	47.8

Recorded Drug Crimes byLocal Authority, 1996-97 and 2005-06

	1996-97	2005-06	Difference	% Difference
Eilean Siar (W.Isles)	74	230	156	210.8
South Lanarkshire	1,000	2,589	1,589	158.9
Dundee City	678	1,582	904	133.3
Shetland Islands	49	113	64	130.6
East Lothian	154	347	193	125.3
East Ayrshire	482	1,065	583	121.0
North Ayrshire	632	1,361	729	115.3
East Dunbartonshire	187	399	212	113.4
Perth and Kinross	505	1,063	558	110.5
Falkirk	489	1,016	527	107.8
Scottish Borders	390	806	416	106.7
Argyll and Bute	336	655	319	94.9
North Lanarkshire	1,616	3,067	1,451	89.8
Stirling	334	629	295	88.3
Moray	230	432	202	87.8
City of Edinburgh	1,898	3,550	1,652	87.0
West Lothian	599	1,089	490	81.8
South Ayrshire	490	871	381	77.8
East Renfrewshire	181	320	139	76.8
West Dunbartonshire	638	1,089	451	70.7
City of Glasgow	6,379	10,741	4,362	68.4
Clackmannanshire	231	388	157	68.0
Renfrewshire	693	1,140	447	64.5
Highland	1,155	1,856	701	60.7
Angus	451	678	227	50.3
Aberdeen City	1,354	1,992	638	47.1
Inverclyde	701	932	231	33.0
Midlothian	317	412	95	30.0
Dumfries and Galloway	758	949	191	25.2
Orkney Islands	24	30	6	25.0
Fife	1,848	1,992	144	7.8
Aberdeenshire	881	864	-17	-1.9
All Scotland	25,754	44,247	18,493	71.8

Question reference: S2W-32325

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 March 2007
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 23 March 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-31895 by Cathy Jamieson on 2 March 2007, whether it will list the 10 local authority areas with the (a) biggest and (b) smallest (i) reductions and (ii) increases in the number of (A) serious assaults, (B) robberies, (C) crimes of indecency, (d) rapes and attempted rapes, (e) indecent assaults and (f) cases of lewd and indecent behaviour since 1996-97.

The figures requested are shownin the following tables:

Recorded Crimes of Serious Assaultby Local Authority, 1996-97 and 2005-06

	1996-97	2005-06	Difference	Difference (%)
Eilean Siar (W.Isles)	0	15	15	-
Shetland Islands	0	8	8	-
Highland	51	228	177	347.1
Fife	96	260	164	170.8
Orkney Islands	5	10	5	100.0
Clackmannanshire	32	47	15	46.9
City of Glasgow	1,449	1,954	505	34.9
Aberdeenshire	98	120	22	22.4
West Dunbartonshire	177	215	38	21.5
Renfrewshire	279	300	21	7.5
East Ayrshire	149	156	7	4.7
Moray	45	47	2	4.4
Midlothian	59	61	2	3.4
Dundee City	143	147	4	2.8
South Ayrshire	139	141	2	1.4
North Ayrshire	227	228	1	0.4
Aberdeen City	175	173	-2	-1.1
East Dunbartonshire	100	98	-2	-2.0
Inverclyde	162	157	-5	-3.1
Dumfries and Galloway	110	106	-4	-3.6
Stirling	57	53	-4	-7.0
East Renfrewshire	60	55	-5	-8.3
South Lanarkshire	497	443	-54	-10.9
Perth and Kinross	62	55	-7	-11.3
North Lanarkshire	534	458	-76	-14.2
West Lothian	163	138	-25	-15.3
Argyll and Bute	107	88	-19	-17.8
Falkirk	128	96	-32	-25.0
Angus	64	45	-19	-29.7
Scottish Borders	88	57	-31	-35.2
City of Edinburgh	552	330	-222	-40.2
East Lothian	62	31	-31	-50.0
All Scotland	5,870	6,320	450	7.7

Recorded Crimes of Robbery byLocal Authority, 1996-97 and 2005-06

	1996-97	2005-06	Difference	Difference (%)
Shetland Islands	0	1	1	-
Moray	4	20	16	400.0
Fife	108	183	75	69.4
East Lothian	13	21	8	61.5
Aberdeenshire	20	32	12	60.0
Falkirk	24	32	8	33.3
Highland	32	39	7	21.9
West Lothian	69	71	2	2.9
Aberdeen City	183	188	5	2.7
Orkney Islands	0	0	0	0.0
Stirling	42	38	-4	-9.5
Argyll and Bute	19	17	-2	-10.5
North Ayrshire	109	97	-12	-11.0
Dumfries and Galloway	43	37	-6	-14.0
East Ayrshire	68	58	-10	-14.7
City of Edinburgh	696	556	-140	-20.1
North Lanarkshire	228	172	-56	-24.6
Scottish Borders	15	11	-4	-26.7
Midlothian	26	19	-7	-26.9
South Ayrshire	56	38	-18	-32.1
Dundee City	160	107	-53	-33.1
South Lanarkshire	261	173	-88	-33.7
East Renfrewshire	71	44	-27	-38.0
City of Glasgow	2,004	1,200	-804	-40.1
Clackmannanshire	32	19	-13	-40.6
West Dunbartonshire	148	85	-63	-42.6
Angus	13	7	-6	-46.2
Renfrewshire	362	192	-170	-47.0
Perth and Kinross	50	20	-30	-60.0
Inverclyde	189	57	-132	-69.8
East Dunbartonshire	69	19	-50	-72.5
Eilean Siar (W.Isles)	4	0	-4	-100.0
All Scotland	5,118	3,553	-1,565	-30.6

Recorded Crimes of Indecency¹by Local Authority, 1996-97 and 2005-06

	1996-97	2005-06	Difference	Difference (%)
Eilean Siar (W.Isles)	5	31	26	520.0
Dumfries and Galloway	39	136	97	248.7
Clackmannanshire	24	81	57	237.5
Shetland Islands	13	41	28	215.4
Falkirk	79	197	118	149.4
Moray	85	199	114	134.1
Fife	235	479	244	103.8
Midlothian	68	134	66	97.1
Perth and Kinross	76	130	54	71.1
Highland	159	258	99	62.3
Stirling	82	126	44	53.7
Argyll and Bute	62	92	30	48.4
North Ayrshire	140	198	58	41.4
Aberdeenshire	172	242	70	40.7
West Lothian	137	188	51	37.2
West Dunbartonshire	65	88	23	35.4
East Ayrshire	77	103	26	33.8
North Lanarkshire	220	288	68	30.9
Scottish Borders	83	105	22	26.5
Aberdeen City	421	525	104	24.7
East Lothian	72	89	17	23.6
East Renfrewshire	31	30	-1	-3.2
Dundee City	306	296	-10	-3.3
Renfrewshire	124	115	-9	-7.3
South Ayrshire	101	93	-8	-7.9
South Lanarkshire	193	177	-16	-8.3
Orkney Islands	10	9	-1	-10.0
City of Edinburgh	794	654	-140	-17.6
City of Glasgow	1,755	1,293	-462	-26.3
Angus	139	97	-42	-30.2
East Dunbartonshire	47	26	-21	-44.7
Inverclyde	127	38	-89	-70.1
All Scotland	5,941	6,558	617	10.4

Note: 1 All group 2 crimes ofindecency recorded by the police, that is total of rape and attempted rape, indecentassault, lewd and indecent behaviour and all other crimes of indecency.

Recorded Crimes of Rape and AttemptedRape by Local Authority, 1996-97 and 2005-06

	1996-97	2005-06	Difference	Difference (%)
Eilean Siar (W.Isles)	0	4	4	-
East Renfrewshire	1	7	6	600.0
Falkirk	5	33	28	560.0
Dumfries and Galloway	5	32	27	540.0
Clackmannanshire	2	10	8	400.0
Fife	22	101	79	359.1
Moray	8	33	25	312.5
West Lothian	15	48	33	220.0
East Lothian	9	26	17	188.9
Stirling	11	27	16	145.5
Perth and Kinross	12	29	17	141.7
Midlothian	10	24	14	140.0
Highland	20	47	27	135.0
North Lanarkshire	24	54	30	125.0
East Ayrshire	9	20	11	122.2
North Ayrshire	18	36	18	100.0
Orkney Islands	2	4	2	100.0
Renfrewshire	10	19	9	90.0
South Lanarkshire	22	40	18	81.8
South Ayrshire	12	21	9	75.0
Aberdeenshire	22	37	15	68.2
City of Glasgow	108	175	67	62.0
Angus	18	26	8	44.4
Argyll and Bute	9	13	4	44.4
Scottish Borders	18	26	8	44.4
Aberdeen City	39	56	17	43.6
City of Edinburgh	108	137	29	26.9
Shetland Islands	1	1	0	0.0
West Dunbartonshire	11	11	0	0.0
Dundee City	57	51	-6	-10.5
Inverclyde	17	9	-8	-47.1
East Dunbartonshire	8	4	-4	-50.0
All Scotland	633	1,161	528	83.4

Recorded Crimes of Indecent Assaultby Local Authority, 1996-97 and 2005-06

	1996-97	2005-06	Difference	Difference (%)
East Dunbartonshire	5	14	9	180.0
Clackmannanshire	10	26	16	160.0
Moray	18	46	28	155.6
West Dunbartonshire	12	27	15	125.0
West Lothian	19	42	23	121.1
Fife	55	120	65	118.2
East Ayrshire	12	26	14	116.7
Falkirk	20	42	22	110.0
Shetland Islands	4	8	4	100.0
Aberdeenshire	21	40	19	90.5
North Ayrshire	28	49	21	75.0
Stirling	18	31	13	72.2
Highland	32	55	23	71.9
South Ayrshire	16	27	11	68.8
Argyll and Bute	19	32	13	68.4
Eilean Siar (W.Isles)	3	5	2	66.7
North Lanarkshire	51	70	19	37.3
City of Glasgow	206	278	72	35.0
Scottish Borders	20	26	6	30.0
East Lothian	17	22	5	29.4
Perth and Kinross	32	38	6	18.8
Dundee City	58	68	10	17.2
Renfrewshire	34	38	4	11.8
Aberdeen City	80	88	8	10.0
Dumfries and Galloway	12	13	1	8.3
South Lanarkshire	53	53	0	0.0
City of Edinburgh	176	163	-13	-7.4
Angus	24	22	-2	-8.3
Midlothian	27	22	-5	-18.5
East Renfrewshire	9	6	-3	-33.3
Orkney Islands	2	1	-1	-50.0
Inverclyde	29	10	-19	-65.5
All Scotland	1,122	1,508	386	34.4

Recorded Crimesof Lewd and Indecent Behaviour by Local Authority,

1996-97 and2005-06

	1996-97	2005-06	Difference	Difference (%)
Eilean Siar (W.Isles)	2	20	18	900.0
Dumfries and Galloway	15	83	68	453.3
Clackmannanshire	9	39	30	333.3
Midlothian	25	83	58	232.0
Falkirk	47	106	59	125.5
Stirling	30	67	37	123.3
Perth and Kinross	23	50	27	117.4
Shetland Islands	8	17	9	112.5
Argyll and Bute	20	41	21	105.0
Aberdeen City	94	177	83	88.3
Moray	49	90	41	83.7
Fife	134	220	86	64.2
Highland	71	113	42	59.2
Scottish Borders	37	48	11	29.7
Aberdeenshire	102	129	27	26.5
North Ayrshire	85	98	13	15.3
North Lanarkshire	113	130	17	15.0
East Ayrshire	49	48	-1	-2.0
West Lothian	87	80	-7	-8.0
East Lothian	39	35	-4	-10.3
East Renfrewshire	18	15	-3	-16.7
City of Glasgow	401	329	-72	-18.0
South Ayrshire	46	37	-9	-19.6
West Dunbartonshire	39	31	-8	-20.5
Dundee City	159	126	-33	-20.8
South Lanarkshire	106	75	-31	-29.2
Renfrewshire	72	46	-26	-36.1
City of Edinburgh	425	253	-172	-40.5
Angus	82	41	-41	-50.0
East Dunbartonshire	25	6	-19	-76.0
Inverclyde	75	17	-58	-77.3
Orkney Islands	6	1	-5	-83.3
All Scotland	2,493	2,651	158	6.3

Chamber and committees