Questions and answers

Question reference: S2W-26554

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 28 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many times illegal drugs have been found in each prison in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) type of drug and (b) quantity of drugs found.

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

The information requested isnot available. I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-23897 on 20 March 2006. All answersto written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, thesearch facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The breakdown by type of illegaldrugs and quantity of drugs is not available as normally SPS pass any suspicioussubstances and packages over to the police. The police do not routinely pass informationback to the SPS following the analysis of suspicious substances and packages.

Question reference: S2W-26591

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 27 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many individuals were in arrears to the Student Loans Company for (a) less than one month, (b) less than three months, (c) less than six months and (d) more than six months at the end of each year from 1997-98 to 2005-06.

The table shows borrowers withpublicly-owned mortgage-style loans in arrears by length of arrears at the end offinancial years 2004-05 and 2005-06.

Financial Year	In Arrears, No Repayment Schedule¹	Less than One Month in Arrears	From 1 Month to Less than 3 Months in Arrears	From 3 Months to Less than 6 Months in Arrears	6 Months or More in Arrears
2004-05	52,900	2,600	6,600	4,900	53,600
2005-06	59,900	2,200	5,300	3,600	43,600

Source: Student Loans Company.

Note: 1. Borrowers in arrearswith no repayment schedule include those with a very small balance remaining, andthose subject to litigation. In both cases the borrower is required to repay thewhole amount outstanding.

This level of detail is not availablefor earlier years. However, the second table shows borrowers with publicly-ownedmortgage-style loans in arrears by whether they are less than two months in arrearsor more than two months in arrears at the end of financial years 2001-02 to 2003-04.

Financial Year	Less than 2 Months in Arrears¹	More than 2 Months in Arrears
2001-02	28,700	80,400
2002-03	39,300	71,700
2003-04	51,100	62,100

Source: Student Loans Company.

Note: 1. Includes borrowers inarrears with no repayment schedule.

Comparable information is notavailable before 2001-02. Income-contingent loans were introduced in 1998. Mostincome-contingent loan repayments are collected by employers through the tax systemand current policy ensures that deductions keep pace with earnings so borrowersdo not become overdue on their accounts.

Question reference: S2W-26592

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 27 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many individual student loan accounts were passed to debt collection agencies by the Student Loans Company in each year from 1997-98 to 2005-06.

Year	Number of Cases Instructed
*2000-01	27,424
2001-02	72,564
2002-03	53,478
2003-04	47,966
2004-05	100,497
2005-06	56,938

Note: *The table contains detailsof all accounts sent to Debt Collection Agencies since October 2000. There are norecords prior to this date.

These numbers do not representindividual borrowers, but the number of instructions sent to agencies.

Question reference: S2W-26989

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 27 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been granted compensation for being wrongly denied fully-funded NHS continuing care in each of the last 10 years and what the aggregate cost was of that compensation.

Question reference: S2W-26877

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 27 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) mean and (b) median waiting times have been in respect of in-patient procedures for the 50 most common specialties in each year since 1997.

The majority of patients whorequire in-patient and day case treatment are treated quickly. Nearly 53% of thepatients treated in NHSScotland hospitals receive immediate treatment and neverjoin a waiting list. Of those who do wait, over 40% are admitted within one monthsand over 70% within three months.

The distribution of waiting timesfor in-patient discharges is highly positively skewed. The arithmetic mean is aninappropriate statistical measure for such distributions because a very small numberof long waiting times can have a disproportionate effect on the mean waiting time.

The median and mean are not targets for NHSScotland;they are only summary measures for patients who waited for treatment. Reducing maximumwaiting times is the Scottish Executive’s priority for NHSScotland. The current national maximum waiting time forin-patient and day case treatment is six months. This will be reduced to 18 weeksby the end of 2007.

NHSScotland is making good progresstowards meeting the next key target of a maximum wait of 18 weeks by the end of2007. At that point, a new approach to defining and measuring waiting will alsobe introduced to replace availability status codes (ASCs), which have the effectat present of excluding patients from waiting times guarantees where for example,they are medically unfit for treatment, where they have asked for their treatmentto be postponed, or where their treatment is highly specialised or of low clinicalpriority. The new approach will be fairer, more consistent and more transparent.

Retrospective analyses of waitingtimes for hospital treatment compiled from SMR01 returns are based on data thatdoes not record whether patients have had an ASC applied. The information requestedhas been place in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 39918)and it includes the waiting times of patients who have been exempted from waitingtimes guarantees for the reasons given above and therefore overstates true waitingtimes. It is not possible to estimate the extent of the overstatement.

Question reference: S2W-26832

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Curran on 27 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive on how many days the (a) St Andrew’s flag and (b) Union flag has been flown from each Executive building since 1999.

The information is given in thefollowing table:

Year	Union Flag	St Andrew’s Flag
1999	10	10
2000	18	18
2001	18	18
2002	34	34
2003	27	27
2004	15	15
2005	24	100
Up to June 19, 2006	10	170

The Executive’s Flag Flying Guidelineswere first issued in June 2001, following consultations with the Department of Culture,Media and Sport (who were responsible, pre-devolution, for guidance on flags). InOctober 2005, the Executive’s Flag Flying Guidelines were amended to state thatthe St Andrew’s flag should be flown every day. A copy of the Executive’s currentFlag Flying Guidelines has been placed in the Scottish Parliament InformationCentre (Bib. number 39896).

Question reference: S2W-26537

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 27 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many educational maintenance allowances are being paid in each local education authority area; what percentage of the relevant age cohort these figures represent; and what estimate it has made of the take-up rate in each area.

The latest year for which wehave complete information is 2004-05. Education Maintenance Allowances (EMAs) werelaunched across Scotland in August 2004 for eligible 16-year-olds. The nationalroll-out to all eligible 16 to 19-year-olds will be complete in 2007-08.

The total number of studentswho received an EMA in 2004-05 was 23,650 – see the Statistical Publication Noticeavailable from the internet at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/11/02112052/20531.

The following table relates the16-year-olds that receive EMA payments for attending either school or college tothe total 16-year-old population in each area. Note that those not receiving EMApayments may no longer attend full-time education, may not have applied or may notbe eligible on income grounds. As we do not have family income data for all youngpeople in each area it is impossible to say what the take-up rate of EMAs is.

Table: 16-Year-Olds in Scotland: PercentageReceiving an EMA Payment, by Local Authority – 2004-05

	16-Year-Old Students Receiving an EMA Payment	Total Number of 16-Year-Olds	Percentage of the Age Cohort Receiving EMA
Total¹	19,060	62,200	31%
Aberdeen City	545	2,195	25%
Aberdeenshire	685	3,255	21%
Angus	555	1,340	41%
Argyll and Bute	325	1,185	27%
Borders	630	1,305	48%
Clackmannanshire	220	640	34%
Dumfries and Galloway	660	1,835	36%
Dundee	600	1,680	36%
East Dunbartonshire	435	1,500	29%
East Lothian	300	1,155	26%
East Renfrewshire	365	1,365	27%
Edinburgh	1,155	4,775	24%
Eilean Siar	120	365	33%
Falkirk	445	1775	25%
Fife	1,650	4,640	36%
Glasgow	2,030	6,875	30%
Highland	925	2,740	34%
Inverclyde	455	1,070	43%
Midlothian	265	1,050	25%
Moray	310	1,215	25%
North Ayrshire	785	1,850	42%
North Lanarkshire	1,390	4,255	33%
Orkney	60	265	23%
Perth and Kinross	440	1,760	25%
Renfrewshire	755	2,105	36%
Shetland	60	315	20%
South Ayrshire	485	1,390	35%
South Lanarkshire	1,220	3,790	32%
Stirling	225	1,080	21%
West Dunbartonshire	340	1,215	28%
West Lothian	635	2,210	29%

Source: ScottishExecutive and General Register Office for Scotland (GROS)

Note:

1. East Ayrshirehave been excluded from this table due to incomplete data returns.

2. All numbersin this table have been rounded to the nearest five.

3. Numbers maynot sum to totals exactly due to rounding.

Question reference: S2W-26536

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 05 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Nicol Stephen on 27 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many higher education institutions offered (a) mathematics, (b) physics, (c) biology, (d) chemistry, (e) computing and electronics and (f) engineering-related degrees and how many enrolments there were in each of these subjects in each year since 1994-95.

The number of student enrolmentsand number of Scottish Higher Education Institutions offering degrees in the specifiedsubjects in each academic year since 1994-95 are given in the following tables.

(a) Mathematics

Academic year	Total Enrolments	Number of Higher Education Institutions Offering Degrees
1994-95	2,520	13
1995-96	2,365	13
1996-97	2,210	13
1997-98	2,275	13
1998-99	2,410	13
1999-2000	2,410	12
2000-01	2,475	12
2001-02	2,525	12
2002-03	2,530	11
2003-04	2,880	11
2004-05	3,330	11

Source: Higher Education StatisticsAgency.

Note: Numbers have been roundedto the nearest five to protect confidentiality.

(b) Physics

Academic Year	Total Enrolments	Number of Higher Education Institutions Offering Degrees
1994-95	1,970	12
1995-96	1,920	12
1996-97	1,890	12
1997-98	1,890	13
1998-99	1,865	13
1999-2000	1,815	12
2000-01	1,705	12
2001-02	1,660	12
2002-03	1,585	11
2003-04	1,630	9
2004-05	1,545	9

Source: Higher Education StatisticsAgency.

Note: Numbers have been roundedto the nearest five to protect confidentiality.

(c) Biology

Academic year	Total Enrolments	Number of Higher Education Institutions Offering Degrees
1994-95	3,610	13
1995-96	3,605	13
1996-97	3,655	13
1997-98	3,630	13
1998-99	3,555	13
1999-2000	3,600	13
2000-01	3,815	14
2001-02	4,025	16
2002-03	4,070	13
2003-04	4,315	15
2004-05	4,080	15

Source: Higher Education StatisticsAgency.

Note: Numbers have been roundedto the nearest five to protect confidentiality.

(d) Chemistry

Academic Year	Total Enrolments	Number of Higher Education Institutions Offering Degrees
1994-95	2,990	13
1995-96	3,060	14
1996-97	3,080	14
1997-98	2,945	14
1998-99	3,055	13
1999-2000	2,810	13
2000-01	2,510	13
2001-02	2,325	14
2002-03	2,295	14
2003-04	2,255	12
2004-05	2,020	12

Source: Higher Education StatisticsAgency.

Note: Numbers have been roundedto the nearest five to protect confidentiality.

(e) Computing

Academic year	Total Enrolments	Number of Higher Education Institutions Offering Degrees
1994-95	5,625	16
1995-96	5,730	15
1996-97	6,185	14
1997-98	6,420	14
1998-99	7,390	13
1999-2000	8,150	13
2000-01	8,390	13
2001-02	9,740	14
2002-03	10,150	15
2003-04	9,990	15
2004-05	9,490	15

Source: Higher Education StatisticsAgency.

Note: Numbers have been roundedto the nearest five to protect confidentiality.

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Academic Year	Total Enrolments	Number of Higher Education Institutions Offering Degrees
1994-95	4,510	12
1995-96	4,160	12
1996-97	3,840	12
1997-98	3,955	12
1998-99	3,925	11
1999-2000	3,995	11
2000-01	4,590	11
2001-02	4,750	13
2002-03	4,825	13
2003-04	3,910	13
2004-05	3,550	12

Source: Higher Education StatisticsAgency.

Note: Numbers have been roundedto the nearest five to protect confidentiality. Electronics is an engineering subjectwhich cannot be separated clearly from electrical engineering.

(f) Engineering (including Electricaland Electronic Engineering)

Academic year	Total Enrolments	Number of Higher Education Institutions Offering Degrees
1994-95	12,590	13
1995-96	12,735	13
1996-97	12,275	12
1997-98	12,200	12
1998-99	12,125	11
1999-2000	11,410	11
2000-01	11,570	11
2001-02	12,435	13
2002-03	13,155	13
2003-04	13,380	14
2004-05	13,465	13

Source: Higher Education StatisticsAgency.

Note: Numbers have been roundedto the nearest five to protect confidentiality.

The data above includes all studentson first degree or postgraduate degree courses in the given subjects.

The subject given in each of the above tables is that being studied as a single subject, the main subject ina combination of subjects or one of the subjects studied in a balanced combinationof study.

The number of highereducation institutes (HEI) offering a particular course has been determined as thenumber of HEIs teaching one or more students in the subject in the given year. Thenumber of institutions offering these subjects fluctuated during the reporting periodas did the total number of HEIs in Scotland: in 2001-02 Bell College and UHIMI have become higher education institutions.

Question reference: S2W-26861

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 26 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children have been treated for (a) tobacco addiction and (b) tobacco-related illnesses in each of the last five years, broken down by age and NHS board.

Table 1 presents the number of people aged 15 years and under, dischargedfrom general acute Scottish hospitals with a diagnosis of Mental and behavioural disorders dueto use of tobacco, from 2000-01to 2004-05. None of these children had a specific diagnosis of dependence on tobacco.

The numbers by age and health board are too low to bepublished without increased risk of disclosure of additional information about theseindividuals. Health boards with at least one case over the five year period were:Grampian, Highland, Lanarkshire and Lothian.

There are a large number of conditionswhich could be related to smoking, but which could also have other causes. Whethera patient smokes or not is not recorded centrally on most routine datasets.

In the future, data on peopleseeking help to stop smoking will be available from the new National Smoking CessationDatabase, introduced in 2005. Statistics from this new resource will be made availableonce the quality and consistency of the data have been assured.

Table 1 – Scottish General Acute Hospital Discharge Records: Numberof People with an Explicit Diagnosis of Tobacco Misuse: 2000-01 to 2004-05^P

2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05^P
2	2	2	6	2

^PProvisional.

Question reference: S2W-26835

Asked by: Stewart Stevenson, MSP for Banff and Buchan, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2006
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 26 June 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many young people have been waiting to access child and adolescent mental health services and what the average waiting time has been in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board.

Chamber and committees