Chamber and committees

I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

Every prisoner admitted to HMP Edinburgh goes through an initial health screening by a nurse. Prisoners are asked about historical and current substance misuse to ascertain immediate clinical need. A doctor undertakes a face-to-face medical consultation which includes a physical, mental health and substance misuse assessment and appropriate clinical intervention within the first 24 hours in custody.

Prisoners serving over 31 days in custody, identified with a substance misuse problem, are offered a comprehensive substance misuse assessment, details provided below:

2006-07 - of the 508 referrals made, 82% undertook an assessment (421).

2007-08 - of the 468 referrals made, 79% undertook an assessment (370).

2008-09 - of the 589 referrals made, 79% undertook an assessment (468).

I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

Every prisoner admitted to HMP Edinburgh goes through an initial health screening by a nurse. Prisoners are asked about historical and current alcohol misuse to ascertain immediate clinical need. A doctor undertakes a face-to-face medical consultation which includes a physical, mental health and alcohol misuse assessment and appropriate clinical intervention within the first 24 hours in custody.

Prisoners serving over 31 days in custody, identified with an alcohol misuse problem, are offered a comprehensive substance misuse assessment, details provided below:

2006-07 - of the 508 substance misuse referrals made, 13% were assessed for further alcohol intervention (68).

2007-08 - of the 468 substance misuse referrals made, 16% were assessed for further alcohol intervention (77).

2008-09 - of the 589 substance misuse referrals made, 22% were assessed for further alcohol intervention (132).

No such representations have been received other than positive dialogue with business organisations on the subject at recent meetings.

The available information is given in the following table.

Persons with a charge proved for supply/intent to supply drugs offences¹, by drug type, by police force area, 2003-04 to 2007-08:

2003-04

Drug Type	Central	Dumfries and Galloway	Fife	Grampian	Lothian and Borders	Northern	Strathclyde	Tayside	Scotland3
Cannabis	18	11	15	14	19	17	90	15	199
Heroin	12	1	5	11	16	5	143	7	200
Cocaine	1	-	-	4	1	1	3	2	12
Amphetamines	-	-	-	-	1	1	7	1	10
Ecstasy	-	4	-	4	6	5	41	5	65
Other Class A	-	-	-	1	1	-	2	1	5
Other Class B	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	1	3
Other Class C	-	1	3	-	-	2	52	-	58
Not recorded2	84	27	43	117	126	54	451	86	988
Total	115	44	66	151	170	86	790	118	1,540

2004-05

Drug Type	Central	Dumfries and Galloway	Fife	Grampian	Lothian and Borders	Northern	Strathclyde	Tayside	Scotland3
Cannabis	20	15	13	16	51	25	147	15	302
Heroin	18	10	13	6	63	10	135	16	271
Cocaine	2	2	-	2	13	3	13	-	35
Amphetamines	2	-	-	1	9	1	11	2	26
Ecstasy	3	4	1	7	12	13	42	9	91
Other Class A	-	-	1	2	4	-	4	1	12
Other Class B	-	-	1	-	2	-	5	-	8
Other Class C	2	3	-	1	7	2	52	4	71
Not recorded2	50	26	34	134	133	37	364	100	878
Total	97	60	63	169	294	91	773	147	1,694

2005-06

Drug Type	Central	Dumfries and Galloway	Fife	Grampian	Lothian and Borders	Northern	Strathclyde	Tayside	Scotland3
Cannabis	33	18	13	22	30	26	141	12	295
Heroin	15	22	13	24	41	7	151	14	287
Cocaine	4	4	1	5	8	.	18	1	41
Amphetamines	3	1	2	1	4	1	21	-	34
Ecstasy	3	6	3	2	8	2	55	8	87
Other Class A	-	-	1	1	-	2	8	-	12
Other Class B	-	-	-	1	-	-	2	1	4
Other Class C	8	1	-	3	4	1	51	1	69
Not recorded2	48	18	34	119	173	18	353	111	876
Total	114	70	67	178	268	57	800	148	1,705

2006-07

Drug Type	Central	Dumfries and Galloway	Fife	Grampian	Lothian and Borders	Northern	Strathclyde	Tayside	Scotland3
Cannabis	29	16	11	24	41	27	134	12	294
Heroin	21	32	20	58	41	22	245	27	466
Cocaine	7	8	3	20	10	2	67	3	120
Amphetamines	6	3	4	2	9	5	31	-	60
Ecstasy	6	5	2	3	7	7	50	6	86
Other Class A	1	-	1	2	5	-	10	-	19
Other Class B	-	-	-	-	-	-	5	1	6
Other Class C	3	4	2	9	1	3	61	8	91
Not recorded2	22	2	20	71	118	30	208	91	562
Total	95	70	63	189	232	96	811	148	1,704

2007-08

Drug Type	Central	Dumfries and Galloway	Fife	Grampian	Lothian and Borders	Northern	Strathclyde	Tayside	Scotland3
Cannabis	27	11	6	17	29	20	118	8	236
Heroin	30	25	27	60	63	27	228	21	481
Cocaine	10	5	4	34	22	7	99	11	192
Amphetamines	5	1	2	3	11	7	27	8	64
Ecstasy	7	7	5	8	13	17	70	4	131
Other Class A	1	-	1	2	1	1	14	1	22
Other Class B	2	-	-	-	-	-	3	1	6
Other Class C	10	5	-	7	5	4	63	2	96
Not recorded2	31	9	18	77	106	40	285	120	688
Total	123	63	63	208	250	123	907	176	1,916

Source: Scottish Government court proceedings database.

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Type of drug not recorded against the offence.

3. Contains a small number of cases where police force is unknown.

Information on the previous institution of study prior to attending higher education (HE) is collected by both the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) - for those doing HE at higher education institutions, and Scottish Funding Council - for those doing HE at colleges. However not all higher education institutions provide this information to HESA and as such the resulting data is of insufficient quality to provide a robust measurement of the number and proportion of graduates who received their senior school education in the Lothians region.

Three thousand, one hundred and fifty five of those graduating from a higher education institution with a first degree in Scotland in 2007-08 (15 per cent of all graduates in Scotland) lived in the Lothians region prior to entering higher education. It is likely this number and proportion of graduates will be similar to the number and proportion who attended a secondary school in the Lothians region prior to entering a higher education institution.

Information on the previous institution of study prior to attending higher education (HE) is collected by both the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) - for those doing HE at higher education institutions, and Scottish Funding Council - for those doing HE at colleges. However not all higher education institutions provide this information to HESA and as such the resulting data is of insufficient quality to provide a robust measurement of the number and proportion of graduates who received their senior school education in the Lothians region.

Three thousand, one hundred and fifty five of those graduating from a higher education institution with a first degree in Scotland in 2007-08 (15 per cent of all graduates in Scotland) lived in the Lothians region prior to entering higher education. It is likely this number and proportion of graduates will be similar to the number and proportion who attended a secondary school in the Lothians region prior to entering a higher education institution.

Patients with a drug-related diagnosis may be treated in general acute hospitals or in mental illness hospitals. 2006-07 is the latest year for which information is available on mental illness hospitals and psychiatric units. 2007-08 is the latest year for which complete information is available on general acute hospitals. Data for 2008-09 is not currently available.

Table 1 presents the number of patients discharged from general acute hospitals with a drug-related diagnosis in NHS Lothian by age group for 2006-07 and 2007-08.

Age Group	2006-07	2007-08p
Under 15	7	*
15-18	41	*
19-21	59	63
Over 21	610	591
Total	717	691

Table 2 presents the number of patients discharged from psychiatric hospitals and mental illness units with a diagnosis of drug misuse in NHS Lothian by age group for 2006-07.

Age Group	2006-07p
Under 15	-
15-18	6
19-21	16
Over 21	134
Total	156

Notes:

It is possible the same patient could be treated in both settings and they will be counted in each table. These figures should be treated with caution as the record of drug misuse may vary from hospital to hospital.

* - Indicates values that have been suppressed due to the potential risk of disclosure.

P “ provisional.

The General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) publishes each year life expectancy figures for local authority areas. These figures are based on data for a period of three consecutive years to provide large enough numbers to ensure accuracy. The most recent publication is for 2005-07. Figures for 2006-08 are due to be published in September.

The 2005-07 publication is on the GROS website, at:

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/publications-and-data/life-expectancy/life-expectancy-for-administrative-areas-within-scotland-2005-2007/index.html.

Data for 2004-06 can be found at:

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/publications-and-data/life-expectancy/life-expectancy-for-administrative-areas-2004-2006/index.html.

Life expectancy at birth for each local authority area is given in tables 1, 2 and 3, for all persons, males and females respectively, together with the ranking of each local authority area.

GROS does not currently produce life expectancy figures for wards.

Suicides are defined as deaths due to intentional self-harm and events of undetermined intent. The General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) and the Scottish Public Health Observatory (ScotPHO) provide a wide range of statistics on suicides in Scotland, including the numbers in each local authority area in each year, available at:

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/deaths/suicides.html (GROS).

http://www.scotpho.org.uk/home/Healthwell-beinganddisease/suicide/suicides_data/suicides_national.asp (ScotPHO).

The information on the GROS website includes five-year moving averages, and the data on the ScotPHO website include suicide rates for each local authority for five-year periods, as such figures should be a better indicator of the relative level in each area than the annual numbers, which may well be affected by year-to-year fluctuations.

The following table gives the figures requested for 2003 to 2007. These should be interpreted with caution because there can be large percentage changes between one year and the next, especially when the numbers involved are relatively small. The corresponding figures for 2008 will be published on 7 August 2009 in Scotland''s Population 2008: the Registrar General''s Annual Review of Demographic Trends.

Suicide Numbers In Males And Females Aged Under 18 And Over 18 In Lothian

	2003		2004		2005		2006		2007
	Under 18	18+	Under 18	18+	Under 18	18+	Under 18	18+	Under 18	18+
Males
East Lothian	0	7	0	8	0	8	0	5	0	4
Edinburgh	0	41	0	41	2	50	1	39	2	45
Midlothian	0	8	0	10	0	9	0	8	0	5
West Lothian	0	15	0	18	3	12	0	10	2	18
Females
East Lothian	0	5	0	6	0	1	0	4	0	0
Edinburgh	0	10	0	18	2	23	0	15	0	25
Midlothian	1	6	0	6	0	3	0	2	0	0
West Lothian	0	10	0	3	0	3	1	4	0	5

Source: GROS.

Suicides are defined as deaths due to intentional self-harm and events of undetermined intent. The General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) and the Scottish Public Health Observatory (ScotPHO) provide a wide range of statistics on suicides in Scotland, including the numbers in each local authority area in each year, available at:

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/deaths/suicides.html (GROS).

http://www.scotpho.org.uk/home/Healthwell-beinganddisease/suicide/suicides_data/suicides_national.asp (ScotPHO).

The information on the GROS website includes five-year moving averages, and the data on the ScotPHO website includes suicide rates for each local authority for five-year periods. As such, these figures may be a better indicator for each area than annual numbers, which may well be affected by year-to-year fluctuations.

The following table gives the figures that were requested for 2006 and 2007. As some of the rates are based on small numbers of deaths, they should be interpreted with caution. The figures for the earlier years were given in the answer to question S2W-27556, on 23 August 2006. The corresponding figures for 2008 will be published on 7 August 2009 in Scotland''s Population 2008: the Registrar General''s Annual Review of Demographic Trends.

Suicides: deaths due to intentional self-harm and events of undetermined intent rates per 100,000 population in Lothian and in Scotland.

Local Authority	2006	2007
East Lothian	10	4
Edinburgh	12	15
Midlothian	13	6
West Lothian	9	15
Scotland	15	16

Source GROS.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.