Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-04463

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the impact of hospital car parking charges on residents living near hospitals where charges have been introduced.

Noassessment has been made by the Scottish Government on the impact of hospitalcar parking charges on residents living near hospitals. The introduction of car parking charges, orthe revision of existing arrangements, is a matter for NHS boards in light oflocal circumstances and I would expect NHS boards totake account of local residents as part of their planning and consultationprocess before introducing charges.

The management ofhospital car parks is a local matter for NHS boards, in line with currentguidance issued by the previous administration earlier this year which the Scottish Government isreviewing. I announced the review on 14 September 2007 and I anticipate that the review group will reportback to me by the end of November.

Question reference: S3W-04464

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the impact of hospital car parking charges on people attending casualty units at short notice to be with friends or family suffering from life-threatening conditions resulting from acute illness or involvement in serious accidents.

By introducinghospital car park charges, NHS boards can better manage car parks and greatlyimprove the availability of parking spaces for patients, visitors and carersattending hospitals.

The currentguidance on hospital car park charging states that boards must provide freeparking or concessions to certain categories of car park users, includingfrequently attending visitors for longer stay patients, patients in highdependency units and patients in intensive care areas.

The management ofhospital car parks is a local matter for NHS boards, in line with currentguidance issued by the previous administration earlier this year which the Scottish Government isreviewing. I announced the review on 14 September 2007 and I anticipate that the review group will reportback to me by the end of November.

Question reference: S3W-04465

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will ensure that cancer patients and others who receive regular treatment in NHS hospitals are exempt from hospital car parking charges.

The currentguidance to NHS boards on hospital car park charging states that boards mustprovide free parking to certain categories of patients, such as those on longerterm treatments including radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

The management ofhospital car parks is a local matter for NHS boards, in line with currentguidance issued by the previous administration earlier this year which the Scottish Government isreviewing. I announced the review on 14 September 2007 and I anticipate thatthe review group will report back to me by the end of November.

Question reference: S3W-04243

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 20 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prison places have been available in each Scottish parliamentary region or equivalent in each year since 1979.

Question reference: S3W-04246

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 20 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many drug deaths there have been since 1997, broken down by local authority area.

The figures in thefollowing table on the numbers of drug-related deaths in Scotland since 1997 were compiled by the General Register Officefor Scotland (GROS).

Information on theproportion that led to a custodial sentence is not available as court proceedingsstatistics held centrally do not uniformly contain detailed information on circumstancesof the original offence.

Drug-Related Deaths¹in Scotland, Numbers, Local Authority Area, 1997-2006

Council Area	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Scotland	224	249	291	292	332	382	317	356	336	421
Aberdeen City	13	20	22	22	32	34	21	27	11	26
Aberdeenshire	7	6	11	6	14	9	13	8	10	16
Angus	2	4	2	3	1	4	5	8	8	11
Argyll and Bute	-	1	1	3	1	5	3	4	3	1
Clackmannanshire	1	2	-	-	-	7	2	5	3	7
Dumfries and Galloway	7	4	7	7	8	9	9	7	7	5
Dundee City	22	12	12	7	13	6	9	11	11	16
East Ayrshire	1	2	6	3	10	12	3	4	4	9
East Dunbartonshire	3	5	2	4	3	1	6	5	1	2
East Lothian	4	1	2	1	2	6	4	2	5	3
East Renfrewshire	-	3	3	4	3	5	3	5	1	3
Edinburgh, City of	33	29	25	28	39	27	26	17	41	30
Eilean Siar	-	-	1	-	1	1	1	-	1	1
Falkirk	2	-	5	1	7	8	6	7	8	10
Fife	8	13	9	12	11	12	12	17	21	19
Glasgow City	59	83	91	96	84	111	93	106	75	113
Highland	3	1	7	1	5	8	7	8	10	11
Inverclyde	5	9	12	11	12	8	7	9	7	9
Midlothian	4	4	4	3	5	2	3	5	5	6
Moray	2	-	5	3	-	4	3	4	2	5
North Ayrshire	2	2	5	11	15	14	9	13	6	11
North Lanarkshire	7	12	11	18	12	28	22	20	25	24
Orkney Islands	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Perth and Kinross	6	7	-	4	5	4	5	4	7	8
Renfrewshire	6	10	11	11	5	9	11	14	10	17
Scottish Borders	1	1	-	1	1	-	2	2	7	2
Shetland Islands	-	1	-	1	1	1	-	-	1	2
South Ayrshire	3	-	4	6	10	7	7	3	5	5
South Lanarkshire	7	11	17	12	16	14	8	17	16	22
Stirling	1	-	3	3	2	9	4	4	3	7
West Dunbartonshire	8	3	5	5	6	13	6	8	15	12
West Lothian	7	3	8	5	8	4	7	12	7	7

Source: http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/publications-and-data/drug-related-deaths/drug-related-deaths-in-scotland-2006/drug-related-deaths-in-scotland-2006-tables.html(Table 2a).Note: 1 Further informationon the definitions of drug related deaths can be found at Annex A of the GROS publicationDrug Related Deaths in Scotland 2006: http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/files1/stats/drug-related-deaths-2006/drug-related-deaths-2006.pdf.

Question reference: S3W-04245

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 20 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how much each local authority has spent on communications to residents in each year since 1999 in (a) cash and (b) real terms.

Question reference: S3W-04244

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 20 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many crimes and offences have been committed in each year since 1992 and, of these, what proportion led to a custodial sentence (a) nationally and (b) broken down by local authority area.

The number of crimesand offences recorded by the police are shown in the following tables. The statisticsdealing with recorded crime and court proceedings are not directly comparable asa person may be proceeded against for more than one crime involving more than onevictim and there is the possibility that the crime recorded by the police may bealtered in the course of judicial proceedings. Also a crime may be recorded by thepolice in one year and court proceedings concluded in a subsequent year. Thus theavailable statistics on court proceedings and recorded crime cannot be combinedin any meaningful way, for instance to show what proportion of recorded crimes leadto a custodial sentence.

Crimes and OffencesRecorded by the Police by Local Authority, 1992 to 1994 and 1995-96 to 2006-07

	1992¹	1993¹	1994¹	1995¹
All Scotland	998,786	958,959	964,027	927,566
Aberdeen City	45,969	42,628	47,380	47,441
Aberdeenshire	27,869	27,479	29,965	29,855
Angus	19,234	17,830	18,830	17,871
Argyll and Bute	12,684	12,068	11,387	12,066
Clackmannanshire	7,276	7,287	7,282	6,661
Dumfries and Galloway	27,643	25,061	26,018	24,697
Dundee City	37,292	36,999	36,485	33,818
East Ayrshire	24,334	21,918	20,537	20,425
East Dunbartonshire	13,289	12,559	12,279	11,483
East Lothian	10,700	10,142	11,086	11,671
East Renfrewshire	12,131	11,762	11,751	12,256
City of Edinburgh	96,892	94,344	91,036	87,925
Eilean Siar (W.Isles)	2,347	2,360	2,615	2,750
Falkirk	25,616	24,043	23,447	22,240
Fife	59,666	65,053	73,378	65,855
City of Glasgow	197,857	186,282	182,803	174,414
Highland	30,184	29,815	29,372	32,908
Inverclyde	17,602	16,310	16,649	14,797
Midlothian	13,158	12,592	11,386	11,693
Moray	13,111	13,720	15,098	14,378
North Ayrshire	25,488	24,080	21,711	20,840
North Lanarkshire	58,560	56,463	53,341	49,758
Orkney Islands	1,415	1,179	1,281	1,081
Perth and Kinross	23,915	22,090	22,684	22,340
Renfrewshire	37,393	33,700	32,077	30,658
Scottish Borders	15,094	14,413	16,821	14,800
Shetland Islands	1,617	1,902	1,899	1,863
South Ayrshire	19,972	19,934	19,612	20,518
South Lanarkshire	64,628	61,585	59,707	55,098
Stirling	13,550	13,315	14,257	13,656
West Dunbartonshire	18,697	17,619	17,266	17,006
West Lothian	23,603	22,427	24,587	24,744

	1995-96¹	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01
All Scotland	927,244	901,103	917,170	954,561	934,886	914,562
Aberdeen City	47,137	48,173	49,706	52,982	54,508	49,807
Aberdeenshire	30,214	32,844	31,015	35,089	32,123	27,898
Angus	17,518	13,742	15,748	16,332	19,985	13,713
Argyll and Bute	12,115	11,934	11,577	11,031	12,159	13,168
Clackmannanshire	6,826	5,926	6,117	6,319	6,164	6,675
Dumfries and Galloway	25,423	28,100	28,913	32,842	28,270	25,673
Dundee City	33,362	34,277	30,801	29,795	28,775	27,961
East Ayrshire	20,314	18,164	19,699	20,756	20,026	18,999
East Dunbartonshire	11,598	10,829	10,908	10,903	9,510	9,624
East Lothian	10,840	9,409	10,324	10,548	11,390	9,679
East Renfrewshire	12,134	10,449	8,613	9,413	9,789	7,827
City of Edinburgh	86,516	84,086	87,281	87,261	92,972	91,160
Eilean Siar (W.Isles)	2,721	3,040	2,303	1,995	1,946	1,667
Falkirk	22,754	22,266	20,994	21,273	23,874	21,063
Fife	65,143	64,158	63,754	70,932	59,713	65,750
City of Glasgow	175,590	169,043	179,675	183,635	191,702	193,718
Highland	33,614	33,072	29,494	30,927	31,885	32,609
Inverclyde	15,099	16,353	16,563	17,725	16,416	15,448
Midlothian	11,322	11,147	12,201	12,501	12,074	10,653
Moray	14,583	15,844	15,248	13,690	11,735	11,334
North Ayrshire	21,225	19,787	20,878	20,964	18,325	18,374
North Lanarkshire	49,799	51,158	54,056	54,870	50,400	52,195
Orkney Islands	1,117	1,167	1,263	1,569	1,337	1,215
Perth and Kinross	21,664	20,947	19,980	19,580	16,844	21,403
Renfrewshire	31,175	29,677	29,807	31,185	29,840	28,161
Scottish Borders	13,787	14,125	15,077	16,284	18,906	20,007
Shetland Islands	1,878	1,646	2,274	1,700	1,591	1,584
South Ayrshire	21,415	19,574	19,110	20,199	19,146	16,887
South Lanarkshire	54,046	46,482	50,945	49,151	46,281	45,594
Stirling	13,480	13,134	12,503	15,834	13,800	13,143
West Dunbartonshire	18,162	18,537	17,396	19,479	17,699	15,570
West Lothian	24,673	22,013	22,947	27,797	25,701	26,003

	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05²	2005-06	2006-07
All Scotland	958,144	942,403	1,030,090	1,076,685	1,017,673	1,024,857
Aberdeen City	50,440	55,215	60,458	62,028	60,449	59,953
Aberdeenshire	27,280	24,876	24,468	26,861	25,027	28,821
Angus	18,418	18,032	19,614	18,694	20,350	19,379
Argyll and Bute	12,573	12,717	14,157	13,725	12,722	13,742
Clackmannanshire	7,292	8,184	8,238	7,976	8,649	9,957
Dumfries and Galloway	24,057	26,736	34,605	41,547	39,800	42,316
Dundee City	30,912	33,264	37,469	41,070	37,284	37,894
East Ayrshire	18,832	19,184	22,631	37,668	18,633	18,531
East Dunbartonshire	9,173	8,979	8,813	10,458	9,642	9,857
East Lothian	10,414	10,381	9,147	8,606	8,655	9,444
East Renfrewshire	8,277	7,769	8,246	8,476	9,270	8,535
City of Edinburgh	94,703	91,833	119,824	134,114	119,482	114,194
Eilean Siar (W.Isles)	2,086	1,995	2,201	2,671	2,862	2,828
Falkirk	24,728	25,332	26,433	25,157	26,739	33,289
Fife	65,309	67,874	67,854	72,773	68,006	67,629
City of Glasgow	200,769	178,265	182,564	172,950	170,990	164,882
Highland	35,524	36,136	34,611	36,226	38,981	40,964
Inverclyde	15,027	13,863	14,412	15,063	13,399	13,002
Midlothian	11,508	11,225	10,640	13,491	12,583	11,071
Moray	12,806	11,686	11,650	12,641	11,595	13,802
North Ayrshire	19,193	19,254	19,083	21,528	21,596	21,142
North Lanarkshire	56,448	69,108	84,909	75,960	66,834	66,321
Orkney Islands	1,116	1,364	1,497	1,382	1,470	1,537
Perth and Kinross	25,586	24,297	31,484	30,624	31,056	31,087
Renfrewshire	28,400	26,438	27,281	26,990	24,400	27,500
Scottish Borders	21,191	17,982	25,239	27,202	25,078	25,574
Shetland Islands	1,510	1,604	1,960	1,927	2,210	2,077
South Ayrshire	17,128	17,800	15,258	17,530	17,159	18,149
South Lanarkshire	47,598	42,671	45,817	48,899	50,813	46,185
Stirling	15,102	17,088	19,875	17,268	16,581	20,843
West Dunbartonshire	15,933	15,433	16,351	17,853	18,075	18,176
West Lothian	28,811	25,818	23,301	27,327	27,283	26,175

Notes:

1. The local authoritybreakdown of the recorded crime figures from 1992 to 1994 and 1995-96 are basedon the data held at a district level. For those authorities which were formed from“parts” of districts, the figures were pro-rated using population figures.

2. Data from 2004-05onwards shows the impact of the implementation of the Scottish Crime Recording Standard(SCRS), which was expected to increase the numbers of minor crimes recorded by thepolice, such as minor crimes of vandalism and minor thefts.

Question reference: S3W-04107

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 07 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 20 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what knife crime figures have been in each year from 1995 to 2007, also showing the number of (a) street robberies involving blades, (b) people who died following blade attacks and (c) number of people admitted to hospitals with knife wounds, broken down by day of the week.

With theexception of homicide cases, statistics on knife crimes are not held centrally.The number of homicide cases in each year from 1995 to 2006, in which themethod of killing was with a sharp instrument, are shown in the following table.Homicide figures for 2006-07 are due to be published on 18 December 2007.

Number ofHomicides Where the Method of Killing was with a Sharp Instrument¹,1995-96 to 2005-06

Year	Number of Homicides
1995-96	69
1996-97	49
1997-98	39
1998-99	39
1999-2000	67
2000-01	48
2001-02	56
2002-03	60
2003-04	55
2004-05	72
2005-06	34

Note: 1. Includesknives and other sharp instruments.

Question reference: S3O-00629

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 20 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers it appropriate for staff working in the NHS to pay car parking charges at their places of work.

Question reference: S3W-04242

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 September 2007
Current Status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 19 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners have absconded while under escort in each year since 1987.

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

The following tableillustrates the number of incidents recorded where a prisoner has escaped whilebeing escorted from an SPS establishment. Reliable information is not availableprior to 2001.

2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
4	1	1	3	0	5	3

Chamber and committees