Chamber and committees

This information is not held centrally. An action from the Wheelchair and Seating Service (WSS) Modernisation Action Plan is to review information management and technology (IM&T) provision within this service. All NHS boards are working towards the national referral to treatment target of a maximum of 18 weeks for the entire patient journey by 2011. Although the WSS is not formally included in the target, the five WSS centres need to ensure their contribution to an episode of care supports this objective where possible.

The available information is given in the following table.

Persons with a charge proved for supply/possession with intent to supply drugs offences¹, by drug type in Lothian and Borders police force area, 2003-04 to 2007-08.

Drug Type	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Heroin	16	63	41	41	63
Cocaine	1	13	8	10	22
Ecstasy	6	12	8	7	13
Amphetamines	1	9	4	9	11
Cannabis	19	51	30	41	29
Other Class A	1	4	0	5	1
Other Class B	0	2	0	0	0
Other Class C	0	7	4	1	5
Not recorded2	126	133	173	118	106
Total	170	294	268	232	250

Source: Scottish Government court proceedings database.

Notes:

1. Where main offence.

2. Type of drug not recorded against the offence.

The table below shows the estimated percentage of children, pensioners and households living in fuel poverty for East Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian and West Lothian. The estimates come from the Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS) for October 2004 to September 2005, October 2005 to September 2006, and 2007.

	East Lothian	Edinburgh	Midlothian	West Lothian	Scotland
Estimated %
% of Children in Fuel-Poor House-holds	9	5	13	5	9
% of Older Persons in Fuel-Poor House-holds	31	46	37	33	40
% of Fuel-Poor House-holds	21	19	20	14	22
Sample Size
Children	130	221	145	119	4,176
Older People	136	193	128	88	4,416
House-holds	249	555	250	245	9,273
+/- % Confidence Interval
% of Children in Fuel-Poor House-holds	3	2	3	2	1
% of Older Persons in Fuel-Poor House-holds	5	4	5	6	1
% of Fuel-Poor House-holds	3	2	3	2	1

The table also includes the SHCS sample size for each of the authority divisions and the 95% confidence interval. As the figures are derived from a survey they are estimates. So for example the percentage of children living in fuel poverty in East Lothian is 9% +/- 3%. So the 95% confidence interval is from 6% to 12%.

Fuel poverty measures are dependent on fuel prices. In the three-year period represented in the data, the overall level of fuel poverty is 22%, while by 2007 25% of households in Scotland were in fuel poverty.

The SHCS sample size is about 3,000 households per year. This is too small to provide reliable estimates at local authority for each year. Nonetheless one can estimate what the figures would have been in mid-2007 using the three year data and the 2007 fuel poverty levels. The following table shows the estimated level of fuel poverty in 2007 - using the three-year data and the 2007 national fuel poverty level.

Authority	2007 Estimated %
	% of Children in Fuel-Poor Households	% of Older Persons in Fuel-Poor Households	% of Fuel-Poor Households
East Lothian	10	35	23
Edinburgh	6	51	22
Midlothian	15	41	23
West Lothian	6	37	15
Scotland	11	45	25

 

The Scottish Government''s view is that the noise impact of airport operations in Scotland is best dealt with locally and it is for the airport to provide adequate facilities for consultation and discussion with users of the airport, local authorities and local representative organisations. Both Edinburgh and Glasgow airports are designated under section 35 of the Civil Aviation Act 1982 and consultative committees, independent of the airports'' operator, are established at both for this purpose.

BAA as operator, is the competent authority for producing a noise action plan under the Environmental Noise (Scotland) Regulations 2006. Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen airports have published noise action plans in December 2008 which are available on their websites. Further details on noise from the major Scottish airports can be found at http://www.scottishnoisemapping.org/.

We are currently implementing the environmental noise action plans produced under the Environmental Noise (Scotland) Regulations 2006. These regulations implement EU Directive 2002/49EC relating to the assessment and management of environmental noise. We in Scotland were one of the first administrations in Europe to submit action plans produced under the terms of this directive. Further details can be found at http://www.scottishnoisemapping.org/.

A variety of measures is available to local authorities to monitor and control noise, including measures introduced in 2005 to tackle anti-social noise. These go beyond any scheme in EC in providing a fixed penalty notice deterrent for domestic noise offences and set objectively measured noise limits for any part of the day or night.

Data on the number of VAT registrations are released annually by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (DBIS). These figures are used to monitor the number of business start-ups. The latest available data refers to all VAT registrations taking place in Scotland in 2007. Please note that these figures do not account for all business activity as only companies with a turnover above the VAT threshold are required to register.

The VAT registration rate in Scotland has remained relatively stable over the last 10 years. However, the registration figures for 2007 have increased substantially since 2006 and are the highest since the series began in 1994. It is likely that these figures partly reflect the impact of changes in tax rules in April 2007 surrounding managed service companies (MSC). We would not anticipate that the higher level of registrations seen in 2007 will be sustained once the business behaviour in response to the tax rule change diminishes.

Data and further information on VAT registrations can be found on the DBIS website at:

http://stats.berr.gov.uk/ed/vat/.

(a) Table 1 shows the rate of VAT registrations per 10,000 resident adults in both the City of Edinburgh local authority area and Scotland from 1997 to 2007.

Year	City of Edinburgh	Scotland
1997	40	30
1998	40	29
1999	35	28
2000	38	27
2001	35	27
2002	33	27
2003	36	29
2004	37	29
2005	36	28
2006	37	28
2007	40	35

Source: DBIS

Businesses de-registering from VAT do so due to closure or because turnover has fallen below the registration threshold. However, this does not necessarily mean the business has failed (i.e. lead to bankruptcy or insolvency proceedings).

(b) Table 2 shows the rate of VAT de-registrations per 10,000 resident adults in both the City of Edinburgh local authority area and Scotland from 1997 to 2007.

Year	City of Edinburgh	Scotland
1997	28	25
1998	30	25
1999	33	25
2000	30	25
2001	30	25
2002	31	25
2003	32	24
2004	27	24
2005	28	23
2006	27	22
2007	27	23

Source: DBIS

Over the five-year period 2004 to 2008, a total of £32.8 million in court fines was registered in the Sheriffdom of Lothian and Borders. For those fines still to be paid £0.7 million (2%) is in the process of being collected through agreed instalments and £2.1 million (6%) is currently in arrears, due to part or full payment default.

Collection figures for fines imposed over a five-year period will clearly show smaller amounts for the earlier years - and conversely larger amounts for the most recent years - since outstanding fines are collected over time, often through agreed installments over a number of years. Since March 2008, a team of dedicated Fines Enforcement Officers has used a range of sanctions including deduction from benefit and wages arrestment to tackle fines defaulters available to them. Collection rates are improving as a result.

The figures for each sheriff court are set out in the following tables:

2004

Sheriffdom	Value of Accounts Registered (£)	Balance Being Collected Through Instalments as at May 2009 (£)	Balance in Arrears as at May 2009 (£)
Duns	70,639	-	1,902
Edinburgh	2,135,739	14,203	38,435
Haddington	205,748	125	528
Jedburgh	146,675	2,137	4,155
Linlithgow	574,573	254	3,170
Peebles	61,533	-	145
Selkirk	131,811	1,640	3,250
Totals	3,326,717	18,360	51,585

2005

Sheriffdom	Value of Accounts Registered (£)	Balance Being Collected Through Instalments as at May 2009 (£)	Balance in Arrears as at May 2009 (£)
Duns	70,875	440	4,791
Edinburgh	17,427,422	10,563	43,169
Haddington	186,171	955	5,160
Jedburgh	174,574	1,300	7,499
Linlithgow	585,299	2,198	11,814
Peebles	51,323	-	2,015
Selkirk	168,276	821	2,776
Totals	18,663,941	16,277	77,225

2006

Sheriffdom	Value of Accounts Registered (£)	Balance Being Collected Through Instalments as at May 2009 (£)	Balance in Arrears as at May 2009 (£)
Duns	62,706	2,657	10,716
Edinburgh	2,649,895	46,908	154,434
Haddington	162,334	812	9,211
Jedburgh	134,535	6,433	14,925
Linlithgow	541,395	2,785	16,277
Peebles	56,704	3,113	5,764
Selkirk	162,423	5,669	10,285
Totals	3,769,993	68,377	221,612

2007

Sheriffdom	Value of Accounts Registered (£)	Balance Being Collected Through Instalments as at May 2009 (£)	Balance in Arrears as at May 2009 (£)
Duns	57,785	4,138	7,871
Edinburgh	2,154,615	93,491	379,606
Haddington	189,108	8,860	27,678
Jedburgh	111,826	9,693	14,881
Linlithgow	427,606	14,383	35,400
Peebles	52,421	1,487	8,659
Selkirk	119,822	10,623	11,671
Totals	3,113,184	142,674	485,766

2008

Sheriffdom	Value of Accounts Registered (£)	Balance Being Collected Through Instalments as at May 2009 (£)	Balance in Arrears as at May 2009 (£)
Duns	61,264	13,676	9,645
Edinburgh	2,997,242	273,146	1,123,547
Haddington	178,136	26,424	38,518
Jedburgh	114,125	36,574	17,458
Linlithgow	402,125	74,616	76,636
Peebles	44,055	5,227	6,754
Selkirk	96,093	17,998	15,744
Totals	3,893,040	447,660	1,288,301

 

>	Value of Accounts Registered	Balance being collected through instalments as at May 2009	Balance in arrears as at May 2009
Five year totals	£32,766,875	£693,348	£2,124,489

 

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

The SPS does not hold the historical data in the format requested. There are currently 13 young offenders under the age of 18 in custody within HMP Edinburgh.

This is a matter for NHS Lothian. The Scottish Government does not hold detailed information centrally on attacks on NHS staff.

The Scottish Government recognises that violence against staff is a major concern and has several initiatives to tackle this issue. It was announced on 17 June that over a million pounds of funding has been released for staff well-being projects through the Working Well Challenge Fund. Of this, £350,688 was awarded for projects addressing violence against staff, including a successful bid from NHS Lothian. Work is also ongoing through the occupational health and safety community across Scotland to tackle this issue.

The following tables set out the amounts secured by the civil recovery unit in respect of cash forfeiture and asset recovery cases originating in the Lothian and Borders police force area. It is not possible to break down these cases by criminality. The civil recovery unit was established in 2003 following the implementation of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

Financial Year	Cash Forfeited: Lothian and Borders	Cash Forfeited: National
2003-04	£21,046.50	£672,823.71
2004-05	NIL	£797,839.33
2005-06	£33,723.18	£604,199.67
2006-07	£90,315.25	£1,200,427.29
2007-08	£151,872.70	£1,335,188.27
2008-09	£254,603.00	£1,961,333.33

 

Financial Year	Assets Forfeited: Lothian and Borders	Assets Forfeited: National
2003-04	NIL	£23,986.29
2004-05	£35,919.09	£203,407.93
2005-06	NIL	£761,602.33
2006-07	NIL	£496,214.77
2007-08	£242,254.18	£1,365,267.13
2008-09	NIL	£789,967.52

The following table sets out the value of confiscation orders secured by the national casework division in column 1 in respect of cases reported by Lothian and Borders police and in column 2 the orders secured nationally. The national casework division deals with the confiscation of proceeds of crime following conviction and secures confiscation orders instructing criminals to make payment of the sums noted. Details of payments made to these confiscation orders are collated not by Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service but by Scottish Court Service.

Financial Year	Value of Confiscation Orders: Lothian and Borders (Predicate Offence “ Misuse of Drugs Act 1971)	Value of Confiscation Orders: National
2003-04	£438,200.34	£1,494,365.05
2004-05	£107,916.84	£1,347,599.02
2005-06	£300,845.22	£3,469,739.48
2006-07	£457,242.77	£4,424,313.00
2007-08	£261,169.44	£2,847,037.02
2008-09	£205,610.60	£3,508,548.30