Chamber and committees

Data about injury road accidents are collected by the police and reported to the Scottish Executive using the STATS 19 statistical report form. These returns cover only road accidents in which one or more people were injured: they do not cover damage only accidents.

The following table gives the numbers of such accidents which were identified in the STATS 19 returns as occurring on the A713 in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004, and those that had at least one fatality.

It should be noted that the statistics given below are based upon the data which are held in the central statistical database and which were collected by the police at the time of the accident and subsequently reported to the Executive. They may differ from any figures which the local authorities would provide now, because they do not take account of any subsequent changes or corrections that local authorities may have made to the statistical information, for use at local level, about the location of each accident, based upon their knowledge of the roads and areas concerned.

Injury Road Accidents on the A713 in South Ayrshire and East Ayrshire

Area	Type	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
South Ayrshire	All injury road accidents	7	8	7	6	7
	of which fatal accidents	0	0	0	0	0
East Ayrshire	All injury road accidents	20	18	15	13	27
	of which fatal accidents	0	1	1	2	1

Data about injury road accidents are collected by the police and reported to the Scottish Executive using the STATS 19 statistical report form. These returns cover only road accidents in which one or more people were injured: they do not cover damage only accidents.

The table gives the numbers of such accidents which were identified in the STATS 19 returns as occurring in South Ayrshire in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004, and those that had at least one fatality.

Injury Road Accidents in South Ayrshire by Severity

	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
All injury road accidents	335	326	299	300	271
Of which: Fatal accidents	5	7	9	6	10

 

The information requested is set out in the following table . Information is not available for periods prior to April 2002¹.

Number of Charges Reported to the Procurator Fiscal at Ayr^2,3

Charge Group	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	Grand Total
Murder	0	1	4	5
Culpable Homicide	1	0	0	1
Assault to Severe Injury4	93	101	147	341
Assault4	1,156	1,137	1,635	3,928
Possession of a Bladed Weapon5	128	77	77	282

Notes:

1. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service completed an upgrade of its electronic case management system in April 2002. Only case records created after that date contain complete data which is capable of electronic analysis. If a Procurator Fiscal amends a charge submitted by a reporting agency the database will record details only of the amended charge.

2. The information in this table has been extracted from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service’s Case Management Database. The database is a live, operational database used to manage the processing of reports submitted to procurators fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies.

3. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service’s Case Management Database is charge-based. The figures in the table therefore relate to the number of charges rather than the number of incidents that gave rise to such charges.

4. There are 124 separate charge codes containing the word “assault”. The results in this table are restricted to the following charges: Assault includes - assault; assault injury. Assault to Severe Injury includes - assault to danger of life; assault disfigurement; assault severe injury; assault severe injury and danger of life; assault to severe injury, disfigurement; assault to severe injury, disfigurement, danger of life; assault to severe injury, disfigurement, impairment; assault to severe injury, impairment; assault to severe injury, impairment, danger of life.

5. The results in the table are restricted to offences under the following sections of the Criminal Law Consolidation (Scotland) Act 1995 – Section 49 (possession of a knife), Section 49A (possession of a knife in school premises), and Section 47 (possession of an offensive weapon). Charges under section 47 have only been included where the weapon in question was a knife, an axe, scissors or an open blade razor.

Data about injury road accidents are collected by the police and reported to the Scottish Executive using the STATS 19 statistical report form. These returns cover only road accidents in which one or more people were injured: they do not cover damage only accidents.

The following table gives the numbers of such accidents which were identified in the STATS 19 returns as occurring on the A70 in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004, and those that had at least one fatality.

It should be noted that the statistics given below are based upon the data which are held in the central statistical database and which were collected by the police at the time of the accident and subsequently reported to the Executive. They may differ from any figures which the local authorities would provide now, because they do not take account of any subsequent changes or corrections that local authorities may have made to the statistical information, for use at local level, about the location of each accident, based upon their knowledge of the roads and areas concerned.

Injury Road Accidents on the A70 in South Ayrshire and East Ayrshire

		2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
South Ayrshire	All injury road accidents	20	15	8	17	11
	of which: Fatal accidents	0	1	0	0	2
East Ayrshire	All injury road accidents	20	17	24	19	16
	of which: Fatal accidents	0	2	0	0	1

 

The information requested is provided in the following table.

Year	Fatal	Serious	Slight	Total
2000	2	15	33	50
2001	1	12	40	53
2002	3	17	33	53
2003	4	11	45	60
2004	4	9	37	50
Total	14	64	188	266

 

The number of air ambulance missions to Ayr Hospital and Crosshouse Hospital are recorded in the following table:

Year	Ayr Hospital	Crosshouse Hospital
2001-02	15	59
2002-03	29	108
2003-04	11	54
2004-05	12	41
2005-06(April to Aug 2006)	6	19
Total	73	281

 

It should be noted that it is not possible to identify the exact receiving unit within the hospitals to which the patient was taken.

Strathclyde Police, in the planning of their security arrangements for the arrival and departure of foreign heads of government, are aiming to cause the minimum disruption possible. The police have been working closely with the Scottish Executive and other partner agencies to ensure that things go as smoothly as possible. It is anticipated that there will be some disruption to road traffic in the area and anyone who requires to travel in this area between 6 and 8 July is advised to leave additional time for their journey. There are currently no plans to change air and rail timetables.

For security reasons it is not possible to disclose all of the contingency plans which have been put into place for the management of the movements of the delegates at Prestwick.

We have now agreed the framework of the new Co-operative Development Agency (CDA). The CDA will have an overarching enterprise focus to help in the promotion, creation and development of dynamic and sustainable co-operatives, and more generally to help maximise the contribution co-operatives can make to growing the Scottish economy. It will provide a means to promote the co-operative business model as a real alternative to other business structures and, at a practical level, it will deliver advice and information to new and growing co-operatives businesses – Scotland wide. The Executive will fund the new agency by allocating up to £3 million for this work over the next three years.

The agency will be incorporated within the enterprise networks to ensure an appropriate level of integration with the broader business support structure. It will, however, have its own identity as a subsidiary company of the networks and operate with an advisory board, including representatives from the co-operative sector.

We have already started our detaiIed discussions with Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise on the establishment of the CDA and we are keen to set the body up as quickly as possible.

South Ayrshire Council, acting on behalf of the Scottish Executive, is progressing the detailed design of the revised junction layout and signalisation at Whitletts Roundabout on the A77 trunk road.

Subject to the availability of funding and the satisfactory completion of the statutory procedures, including land acquisition, it is anticipated that construction will commence in 2005-06 and should take five to six months to complete the work on the ground.

I have asked Dr Paul Stollard, Chief Executive of the Scottish Building Standards Agency, to answer. His response is as follows:

New guidance on provisions for sanitary facilities has been introduced through the new technical handbooks which support the Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004. The guidance alerts people to the dangers of lead in drinking water pipework and includes links to the Scottish and Northern Ireland Plumbing Employers Federation and Scottish Water, where further guidance can be obtained.