Chamber and committees

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Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

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Question reference: S3W-30671

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 26 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive (a) how many and (b) what percentage of shoplifters have been repeat offenders in each year since 1998-99 and how many such offenders have committed (i) two, (ii) three, (iii) four, (iv) five to 10 and (v) more than 10 crimes, broken down by local authority area.

The data in the following table are taken from the Scottish Government Court Proceedings Database and are based on individuals with a charge proved for shoplifting. Information about whether or not individuals had a criminal record at the time of prosecution is not held centrally. However, the table shows the number of these individuals who had a previous charge proved in court for any offence, at least once, in the previous 10 years. The previous charge has been identified as having a date of sentence which is earlier than the date of sentence for the latest charge of shoplifting.

In 2007-08, 5,133 individuals had a charge proved in court for shoplifting. Of the 5,133 individuals convicted for shoplifting in 2007-08, 3,353 individuals (65 per cent) had another charge proved for shoplifting, in the previous 10 years.

Persons Convicted of Shoplifting¹ in 2007-08, with a Previous Offence¹ for Shoplifting by Local Authority² and Number of Shoplifting Offences since 1997-98¹

	Number of Shoplifting Offences^1,3
Local Authority	2	3	4	5 to 10	11 and over	All
Aberdeen City	50	34	24	86	78	272
Aberdeenshire	10	5	2	18	8	43
Angus	15	8	9	21	5	58
Argyll and Bute	4	1	2	2	.	9
Clackmannanshire	11	2	2	20	9	44
Dumfries and Galloway	18	6	13	26	9	72
Dundee City	52	55	27	110	69	313
East Ayrshire	24	22	19	45	38	148
East Lothian	5	3	1	4	1	14
East Renfrewshire	3	.	1	2	1	7
Edinburgh, City of	86	42	33	108	68	337
Eilean Siar	1	.	.	.	1	2
Falkirk	16	14	10	24	32	96
Fife	35	34	23	65	48	205
Glasgow City	127	91	58	195	183	654
Highland	25	7	6	30	18	86
Inverclyde	15	6	5	25	9	60
Midlothian	3	2	1	6	1	13
Moray	11	3	1	11	4	30
North Ayrshire	10	1	3	3	1	18
North Lanarkshire	31	21	13	26	21	112
Perth and Kinross	21	8	9	35	20	93
Renfrewshire	34	18	19	37	29	137
Scottish Borders	10	7	2	5	1	25
Shetland Islands	2	.	.	.	1	3
South Ayrshire	15	8	9	30	25	87
South Lanarkshire	49	25	25	46	31	176
Stirling	20	7	11	16	16	70
West Dunbartonshire	21	13	7	25	19	85
West Lothian	31	12	10	24	7	84
Scotland	755	455	345	1045	753	3353

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Based on local authority of the index shoplifting offence in 2007-08.

3. Including the index 2007-08 shoplifting offence.

This analysis has been completed for the most recent year of data only, by examining the frequency of shoplifting convictions for those convicted of shoplifting in 2007-08. The ability to match data using the personal identifiers available in the dataset diminishes when using the older data, so it is not possible to produce equivalent results for previous years on a consistent basis.

In addition, the data in the Scottish Government Court Proceedings database are derived from data held on the Criminal History System. Prosecution in court is only one of a range of possible options for dealing with an individual who has been charged with an offence. Other actions include the use of fiscal warnings, diversion to social work, fixed penalty notices and fiscal fines. However, these alternatives to court prosecution are not currently held on the Scottish Government Court Proceedings database and are not included in the data provided.

Some national trend data are presented in the Scottish Government Reconvictions Statistical Bulletins, though it should be noted that this is a different type of analysis to that described above, based upon reconvictions in the two years following the index shoplifting convictions. This information is summarised in the following table. It has been taken from the reconvictions bulletins published on the Scottish Government website.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PubReconvictions.

Reconviction Rates for Shoplifting, 1997 to 2005-06

Cohort	Number Convicted of Shoplifting in Cohort	Number Reconvicted for Shoplifting within 2 Years	Percentage with a Reconviction for Shoplifting within 2 Years.
1997	3,673	1,359	37%
1999	3,544	1,453	41%
2003-04	3,697	1,738	47%
2004-05	3,830	1,762	46%
2005-06	3,759	1,729	46%

Source: Reconvictions of offenders:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PubReconvictions.

Question reference: S3W-30705

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 26 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people had a charge proved in court for supply of drugs offences in the Lothian and Borders police force area in 2008-09 and what disposals were applied to them, broken down by type of drug.

Question reference: S3W-30667

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been convicted of shoplifting in each year since 1998-99, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S3W-30668

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what disposals have been applied to people caught shoplifting in each year since 1998-99, broken down by local authority area.

The available information is given in the following table:

Persons with a Charge Proved in Scottish Courts for Shoplifting Crimes¹ by Local Authority² and Disposal 1998-99 to 2007-08

Local Authority/ Disposal	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Aberdeen City
Custody	142	122	128	138	151	148	168	201	162	126
Community sentence	101	77	99	142	213	208	164	210	150	147
Monetary	535	352	368	338	305	255	212	238	236	244
Other	145	111	99	91	118	117	99	122	138	124
Total	923	662	694	709	787	728	643	771	686	641
Aberdeenshire
Custody	19	9	6	18	19	22	30	42	17	45
Community sentence	5	5	9	23	13	14	32	26	24	24
Monetary	68	48	72	64	66	66	102	80	64	47
Other	18	17	12	20	16	16	20	23	11	13
Total	110	79	99	125	114	118	184	171	116	129
Angus
Custody	8	7	19	26	24	13	17	36	54	45
Community sentence	20	9	6	17	16	11	10	16	32	28
Monetary	43	49	45	38	34	33	24	50	75	43
Other	7	18	16	23	28	28	19	12	32	39
Total	78	83	86	104	102	85	70	114	193	155
Argyll and Bute
Custody	8	-	3	3	6	10	10	2	5	7
Community sentence	1	3	9	3	3	5	1	6	6	9
Monetary	30	15	8	20	17	15	12	8	6	8
Other	12	13	6	3	6	16	11	6	6	3
Total	51	31	26	29	32	46	34	22	23	27
Clackmannanshire
Custody	1	4	6	27	31	13	12	10	18	12
Community sentence	2	7	16	12	17	15	34	25	34	46
Monetary	11	16	24	23	25	38	31	39	53	44
Other	2	3	4	19	8	7	15	9	14	12
Total	16	30	50	81	81	73	92	83	119	114
Dumfries and Galloway
Custody	44	33	69	60	98	73	83	78	70	49
Community sentence	18	24	36	34	51	55	53	45	81	44
Monetary	44	51	80	38	55	47	43	39	45	45
Other	20	25	30	30	34	41	10	17	35	30
Total	126	133	215	162	238	216	189	179	231	168
Dundee City
Custody	85	96	95	127	106	100	147	245	273	290
Community sentence	61	81	64	92	107	87	129	176	163	131
Monetary	187	195	234	221	219	254	255	236	321	302
Other	77	84	78	65	61	87	78	108	94	69
Total	410	456	471	505	493	528	609	765	851	792
East Ayrshire
Custody	5	44	163	204	157	161	166	172	161	173
Community sentence	4	10	25	41	78	88	96	127	106	92
Monetary	12	26	94	81	103	101	94	102	109	90
Other	2	1	19	27	35	39	40	42	44	61
Total	23	81	301	353	373	389	396	443	420	416
East Dunbartonshire
Custody	7	2	7	-	2	1	-	-	-	-
Community sentence	-	8	-	6	1	-	-	1	-	-
Monetary	33	24	27	23	16	9	22	6	-	1
Other	14	9	13	24	32	8	18	8	-	-
Total	54	43	47	53	51	18	40	15	-	1
East Lothian
Custody	3	1	1	7	13	6	6	1	7	12
Community sentence	1	1	5	6	10	7	6	2	4	2
Monetary	14	15	17	17	37	16	12	3	16	20
Other	5	3	5	4	2	3	3	5	6	6
Total	23	20	28	34	62	32	27	11	33	40
East Renfrewshire
Custody	-	-	-	1	-	1	-	-	-	1
Community sentence	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	2
Monetary	6	12	8	6	14	4	9	3	10	12
Other	2	3	8	5	-	3	1	4	4	-
Total	8	15	16	12	14	8	10	8	14	15
Edinburgh, City of
Custody	160	205	180	186	207	280	183	199	167	159
Community sentence	137	131	139	126	179	173	182	201	148	141
Monetary	565	507	517	483	424	324	378	312	339	387
Other	148	133	81	100	115	134	153	155	210	194
Total	1,010	976	917	895	925	911	896	867	864	881
Eilean Siar
Custody	-	4	1	1	-	2	2	-	-	2
Community sentence	1	-	1	1	-	-	-	-	3	1
Monetary	8	3	2	4	5	5	3	-	9	3
Other	3	3	1	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	12	10	5	7	5	7	5	-	12	6
Falkirk
Custody	70	76	89	115	123	91	72	52	52	53
Community sentence	20	40	57	69	49	36	43	50	82	61
Monetary	95	99	106	110	83	59	110	49	69	48
Other	36	36	38	40	62	64	70	42	43	85
Total	221	251	290	334	317	250	295	193	246	247
Fife
Custody	65	71	80	72	66	128	161	139	148	162
Community sentence	67	70	111	90	95	57	88	104	109	88
Monetary	214	292	250	247	187	140	150	130	186	141
Other	37	54	56	60	126	81	92	132	121	156
Total	383	487	497	469	474	406	491	505	564	547
Glasgow City
Custody	550	746	403	621	569	457	525	444	423	328
Community sentence	138	197	90	190	229	160	104	121	137	118
Monetary	1,038	821	463	600	795	620	770	688	733	730
Other	245	246	177	193	255	266	252	328	403	397
Total	1,971	2,010	1,133	1,604	1,848	1,503	1,651	1,581	1,696	1,573
Highland
Custody	34	36	37	34	57	41	58	55	69	50
Community sentence	22	24	21	26	47	28	45	51	48	63
Monetary	105	105	82	124	110	131	110	124	112	71
Other	22	29	17	22	39	36	23	45	43	55
Total	183	194	157	206	253	236	236	275	272	239
Inverclyde
Custody	112	87	82	105	145	93	52	34	29	28
Community sentence	80	67	61	39	43	72	64	23	21	25
Monetary	38	51	39	53	56	32	35	27	17	27
Other	48	43	30	41	49	46	41	41	35	43
Total	278	248	212	238	293	243	192	125	102	123
Midlothian
Monetary	27	26	32	30	30	17	19	23	34	18
Other	5	5	6	6	6	6	2	2	1	7
Total	32	31	38	36	36	23	21	25	35	25
Moray
Custody	8	5	7	6	10	13	13	17	16	22
Community sentence	4	3	-	8	2	8	5	9	12	11
Monetary	38	41	35	25	12	20	16	10	22	24
Other	13	10	4	4	7	7	9	6	3	4
Total	63	59	46	43	31	48	43	42	53	61
North Ayrshire
Custody	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-
Community sentence	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-
Monetary	-	11	20	10	27	30	12	44	27	29
Other	-	-	-	2	2	5	6	7	6	8
Total	-	11	20	12	29	36	18	52	33	37
North Lanarkshire
Custody	39	74	38	76	78	80	64	50	69	65
Community sentence	39	21	28	50	45	46	44	41	40	49
Monetary	166	117	122	200	89	138	94	105	92	111
Other	36	54	58	84	77	70	53	48	50	79
Total	280	266	246	410	289	334	255	244	251	304
Orkney Islands
Custody	-	3	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-
Community sentence	-	-	1	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
Monetary	3	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	-
Other	-	1	1	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	3	7	2	2	-	1	-	-	2	-
Perth and Kinross
Custody	29	17	32	39	40	43	35	39	50	54
Community sentence	38	24	36	39	33	49	43	45	44	27
Monetary	60	84	76	89	83	83	79	77	111	114
Other	45	25	22	25	23	26	36	36	31	35
Total	172	150	166	192	179	201	193	197	236	230
Renfrewshire
Custody	87	89	127	85	91	76	77	84	60	81
Community sentence	37	53	56	49	56	52	58	36	24	36
Monetary	105	107	87	121	120	115	147	130	158	122
Other	51	60	48	57	56	53	87	81	84	75
Total	280	309	318	312	323	296	369	331	326	314
Scottish Borders
Custody	3	5	3	17	10	22	27	25	13	25
Community sentence	6	7	4	11	6	9	8	8	11	5
Monetary	21	29	26	23	21	28	48	42	44	24
Other	12	10	6	8	9	9	14	8	15	16
Total	42	51	39	59	46	68	97	83	83	70
Shetland Islands
Custody	-	1	1	-	-	1	-	2	2	5
Community sentence	1	-	-	-	1	-	1	5	2	5
Monetary	8	6	2	3	-	2	3	2	1	1
Other	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-
Total	10	7	3	3	1	3	4	10	5	11
South Ayrshire
Custody	65	108	159	190	169	140	137	79	105	104
Community sentence	35	32	63	73	64	78	73	46	34	40
Monetary	73	85	89	65	71	48	61	29	35	37
Other	33	30	43	77	85	51	55	46	27	36
Total	206	255	354	405	389	317	326	200	201	217
South Lanarkshire
Custody	50	88	108	83	152	138	157	144	107	138
Community sentence	39	45	54	56	106	97	108	68	64	57
Monetary	94	122	147	149	154	122	113	99	98	140
Other	26	49	46	62	75	72	71	75	98	104
Total	209	304	355	350	487	429	449	386	367	439
Stirling
Custody	19	16	61	65	47	44	49	37	38	46
Community sentence	13	52	60	61	53	42	64	27	28	29
Monetary	20	47	47	43	28	57	52	48	56	59
Other	7	16	24	37	33	24	32	34	41	47
Total	59	131	192	206	161	167	197	146	163	181
West Dunbartonshire
Custody	61	80	76	75	66	84	68	77	63	57
Community sentence	42	30	20	32	23	27	26	31	29	31
Monetary	72	85	75	76	67	66	55	29	52	74
Other	52	36	30	37	46	47	36	16	24	39
Total	227	231	201	220	202	224	185	153	168	201
West Lothian
Custody	7	7	14	38	51	40	53	36	40	48
Community sentence	16	6	10	38	30	54	66	37	63	55
Monetary	62	109	92	103	94	71	78	70	58	69
Other	10	9	5	17	12	13	13	20	21	30
Total	95	131	121	196	187	178	210	163	182	202
Scotland³
Custody	1,682	2,037	1,995	2,419	2,492	2,324	2,372	2,302	2,219	2,187
Community sentence	948	1,027	1,081	1,335	1,570	1,478	1,547	1,539	1,499	1,367
Monetary	3,795	3,553	3,286	3,427	3,347	2,946	3,149	2,842	3,190	3,086
Other	1,134	1,136	983	1,185	1,417	1,375	1,359	1,479	1,640	1,767
Total	7,559	7,753	7,345	8,366	8,826	8,123	8,427	8,162	8,548	8,407

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Incorporates an approximate mapping of sheriff courts into local authority areas. Some sheriff courts will deal with cases from more than one local authority area. Four local authority areas, namely East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Midlothian and North Ayrshire, do not contain a sheriff court.

3. Contains a small number of cases where local authority is unknown.

Question reference: S3W-30669

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 21 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive (a) how many of the fines issued in shoplifting cases have been collected and (b) what their value has been in each of the last 10 years, broken down by local authority area.

Question reference: S3W-30704

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 20 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been collected in the Lothians region in fiscal fines imposed since December 2008 and in how many cases (a) no payment has been made and (b) payments are overdue.

Question reference: S3W-30416

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Frank Mulholland on 20 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many direct measures were issued for (a) assault and (b) assault to injury in December 2009, broken down by sheriff court.

The following table shows the number of charges of (a) assault and (b) assault to injury where the initial decision taken by the Procurator Fiscal was to deal with the offending behaviour by means of a direct measure.

The 222 charges relate to a total of 211 persons issued with an offer of a direct measure, out of a total of 3,330 persons offered a direct measure during the same period.

The figures include only those direct measures that were affected by the provisions in the Criminal Proceedings etc (Reform) (Scotland) Act 2007.

Office	Direct Measure Issued		Charges Reported
Office	Assault	Assault to Injury	Assault	Assault to Injury
Aberdeen	5	2	215	58
Airdrie	6	-	128	15
Alloa	-	1	26	21
Arbroath	2	1	18	8
Ayr	4	1	63	53
Banff	2	1	5	12
Campbeltown	2	-	4	1
Cupar	-	1	21	1
Dingwall	-	-	14	1
Dornoch	-	-	8	-
Dumbarton	3	1	55	33
Dumfries	2	3	18	15
Dundee	5	3	54	30
Dunfermline	2	-	73	32
Dunoon	1	2	9	5
Duns	-	-	1	4
Edinburgh	11	5	203	135
Elgin	2	2	44	30
Falkirk	13	2	99	30
Forfar	-	-	25	7
Fort William	2	-	6	2
Glasgow	32	3	463	126
Greenock	1	1	12	20
Haddington	3	5	27	13
Hamilton	6	2	164	28
Inverness	35	1	77	-
Jedburgh	-	-	9	3
Kilmarnock	1	1	108	47
Kirkcaldy	3	-	105	37
Kirkcudbright	-	2	2	3
Kirkwall	-	-	15	-
Lanark	-	-	15	2
Lerwick	5	-	16	-
Livingston	6	6	66	43
Lochmaddy	-	-	3	-
Oban	-	-	10	8
Paisley	3	2	88	31
Peebles	1	-	-	6
Perth	1	-	53	18
Peterhead	2	-	26	14
Rothesay	-	-	-	2
Selkirk	1	1	8	16
Stirling	4	-	46	7
Stonehaven	-	-	11	4
Stornoway	1	-	12	-
Stranraer	1	-	11	9
Tain	3	-	20	-
Wick	2	-	14	3
Grand Total	173	49	2,470	933

Notes:

1. 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. If a Procurator Fiscal amends a charge submitted by a reporting agency, the database will record details only of the amended charge.

2. The database is charge-based. The figures quoted therefore relate to the number of charges rather than the number of individuals charged or the number of incidents that gave rise to such charges.

3. Procurator Fiscal jurisdictions match sheriff court jurisdictions.

Question reference: S3W-30415

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Frank Mulholland on 20 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many direct measures were issued for (a) assault and (b) assault to injury in November 2009, broken down by sheriff court.

The 239 charges relate to a total of 218 persons issued with an offer of a direct measure, out of a total of 3,411 persons offered a direct measure during the same period.

The figures include only those direct measures that were affected by the provisions in the Criminal Proceedings etc (Reform) (Scotland) Act 2007.

Office	Direct Measure Issued		Charges Reported
Office	Assault	Assault to Injury	Assault	Assault to Injury
Aberdeen	13	1	170	65
Airdrie	9	2	117	6
Alloa	1	-	17	4
Arbroath	-	-	17	25
Ayr	-	2	70	52
Banff	-	-	9	12
Campbeltown	-	-	5	3
Cupar	-	-	22	18
Dingwall	9	-	18	2
Dornoch	-	-	2	-
Dumbarton	-	-	49	29
Dumfries	2	3	18	15
Dundee	6	7	67	32
Dunfermline	8	1	45	33
Dunoon	2	-	9	1
Duns	-	-	-	2
Edinburgh	12	2	157	114
Elgin	1	3	44	16
Falkirk	11	2	107	18
Forfar	-	-	10	4
Fort William	2	-	8	2
Glasgow	23	7	562	105
Greenock	3	2	21	16
Haddington	1	1	21	16
Hamilton	17	2	169	22
Inverness	10	-	104	2
Jedburgh	-	-	7	8
Kilmarnock	7	2	76	56
Kirkcaldy	1	3	70	60
Kirkcudbright	1	-	3	4
Kirkwall	2	-	3	-
Lanark	-	-	16	2
Lerwick	1	-	3	-
Livingston	3	2	59	47
Lochmaddy	-	-	2	-
Oban	1	-	12	3
Paisley	15	5	76	53
Peebles	3	-	4	4
Perth	3	-	40	17
Peterhead	1	1	40	10
Rothesay	-	-	2	2
Selkirk	-	4	6	7
Stirling	6	-	55	10
Stonehaven	3	-	7	2
Stornoway	6	-	15	-
Stranraer	1	-	7	14
Tain	-	-	15	-
Wick	3	-	16	6
Grand Total	187	52	2,372	919

Notes:

2. The database is charge-based. The figures quoted therefore relate to the number of charges rather than the number of individuals charged or the number of incidents that gave rise to such charges.

3. Procurator Fiscal jurisdictions match sheriff court jurisdictions.

Question reference: S3W-30498

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 18 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many emergency hospital admissions in NHS Lothian can be attributed to the recent cold weather conditions and what proportion was represented by individuals aged over 60.

Official statistics relating to emergency admissions to acute general hospitals in NHS Lothian are published as part of the quarterly update to the Acute Hospital Care section of the Information Services Division''s (ISD) website (http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/3400.html).

The next publication is scheduled for 30 March 2010 and will include high level statistics up to the quarter ending 31 December 2009 based on ISD(S)1 aggregate data returns.

The subsequent publication is scheduled for 29 June 2010 and will include high level statistics up to the quarter ending 31 March 2010.

Publication of annual hospital activity, national statistics up to the year ending 31 March 2010 is scheduled for 28 September 2010 as part of the annual update to the Acute Hospital Care section of ISD''s website. These statistics will include detailed age and diagnosis specific information for emergency admissions based on SMR01 patient level discharge records.

Whilst details of diagnoses on SMR01 records can be used to identify medical conditions likely to be related to cold weather, the data collection cannot attribute admissions due to prevailing cold weather per se.

Question reference: S3W-30497

Asked by: Gavin Brown, MSP for Lothians, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 18 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been treated at emergency units in NHS Lothian due to falls during the recent cold weather conditions and what proportion was represented by individuals aged over 60.

The precise number of people attending NHS Lothian emergency services due to falls during the recent severe weather is not available from centrally collected, validated statistics.

According to provisional management information, during the period 28 December 2009 to 3 January 2010, there were approximately 37% more attendances at accident and emergency (A&E) departments in NHS Lothian, due to falls and fractures, when compared to the same period last year.

Official statistics on A&E attendances up to 31 December 2009 will be published by Information Services Division on 24 February 2010 http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/4024.html.