Chamber and committees

The main public sessions of the Beauly to Denny line public inquiry concluded on 20 December 2007 and associated hearings connected with land acquisition and the sub-station at Beauly concluded in May of this year. Following the closure of the inquiry, the reporters are compiling their report for the Scottish ministers who will take this into account in reaching their determination. Their report is not expected until the end of 2008, consequently it is likely to be 2009 before a determination is made.

The Scottish Government is satisfied that where snaring is carried out according to best practice, it is lawful. Intentional or reckless snaring of European protected species is a criminal offence.

Following an extensive period of consultation the Scottish Government decided that the balance of argument was in favour of allowing snaring to continue, subject to further regulation to improve animal welfare. This was set out in the statement of 20 February 2008. There are no plans for a further review of snaring.

The Scottish Government in conjunction with Scottish Natural Heritage will provide limited funding over the next two years to enable PAW to take a more active short term role supporting projects promoting good practice in wildlife crime enforcement.

Funding of recommendations which are relevant to the Police and the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service will be considered separately by these organisations.

The deployment of personnel is an operational matter for individual Chief Constables to determine. The recommendations of the report Natural Justice: A Joint Thematic Inspection of the Arrangements in Scotland for Preventing, Investigating and Prosecuting Wildlife Crime, are currently being considered by the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland.

The Organisational changes recommended for the Partnership for Action against Wildlife Crime (PAW), will be put in place over the summer.

Similarly those recommendations relating to the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), where not in place will be implemented over the same time period. Recommendations for the police are for the chief constables to consider.

The Scottish Government is establishing a working group to develop the detail of new legislation to regulate the use of snares. The group will include land management and animal welfare groups. It is expected that the group will submit proposals later this year.

The specific information requested is not available centrally because it is not possible to determine the type of diabetes (type 1 and type 2) from SMR01 hospital admission data, as the ICD10 coding system only allows categorisation of the majority of people with diabetes as either “insulin dependent” or “non-insulin-dependent”. Whereas virtually all people with type 1 diabetes will be insulin dependent, a substantial proportion of people with type 2 diabetes will also be insulin dependent. In addition, the ICD10 system does not allow the categorisation of the type of coma.

The following tables show the number of emergency admissions recorded for diabetic ketoacidosis without coma (Table 1) and all comas (Table 2) for each of the last three financial years, broken down by age group, gender and NHS board of residence.

Table 1. Number of Emergency Admissions for Diabetic Ketoacidosis (Without Coma) by Age Group, Gender and NHS Board Area for Financial Years Ending 31 March 2005 to 2007

		Male			Female
		2005	2006	2007	2005	2006	2007
Scotland	Total	732	770	933	789	784	909
	0-24	319	343	403	355	382	443
	25-44	226	229	306	225	238	263
	45-64	137	158	171	131	101	115
	65+	50	40	53	78	63	88
Ayrshire and Arran	Total	37	59	69	67	56	87
	0-24	12	30	41	23	26	48
	25-44	14	12	17	27	22	22
	45-64	6	12	7	8	4	7
	65+	5	5	4	9	4	10
Borders	Total	9	2	12	5	9	11
	0-24	3	-	4	2	6	4
	25-44	4	2	5	1	2	4
	45-64	1	-	2	2	-	2
	65+	1	-	1	-	1	1
Dumfries and Galloway	Total	8	8	23	17	16	8
	0-24	2	3	15	10	4	3
	25-44	3	4	3	4	8	3
	45-64	2	1	3	2	4	2
	65+	1	-	2	1	-	-
Fife	Total	52	54	59	73	56	71
	0-24	22	18	18	42	23	34
	25-44	17	22	21	22	20	16
	45-64	7	9	15	7	4	7
	65+	6	5	5	2	9	14
Forth Valley	Total	35	51	46	30	36	51
	0-24	16	26	24	11	11	25
	25-44	10	11	11	10	19	16
	45-64	6	12	8	4	4	8
	65+	3	2	3	5	2	2
Grampian	Total	71	95	68	84	66	84
	0-24	38	42	32	51	39	50
	25-44	18	33	16	11	11	14
	45-64	10	19	15	14	7	3
	65+	5	1	5	8	9	17
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	Total	198	179	268	240	245	269
	0-24	74	72	103	98	119	112
	25-44	62	51	92	64	74	100
	45-64	52	41	57	47	34	41
	65+	10	15	16	31	18	16
Highland	Total	35	35	41	33	57	56
	0-24	19	18	20	16	33	26
	25-44	6	8	11	8	14	17
	45-64	8	6	9	6	7	7
	65+	2	3	1	3	3	6
Lanarkshire	Total	97	96	120	82	79	87
	0-24	52	50	63	35	35	41
	25-44	24	25	39	29	30	29
	45-64	15	18	15	8	11	11
	65+	6	3	3	10	3	6
Lothian	Total	126	121	131	96	103	112
	0-24	56	49	47	38	54	64
	25-44	37	38	49	32	27	25
	45-64	26	29	28	21	12	18
	65+	7	5	7	5	10	5
Orkney	Total	3	-	1	4	10	-
	0-24	-	-	1	3	2	-
	25-44	3	-	-	1	-	-
	45-64	-	-	-	-	8	-
	65+	-	-	-	-	-	-
Shetland	Total	-	4	2	2	2	6
	0-24	-	1	-	2	1	4
	25-44	-	-	-	-	1	1
	45-64	-	3	2	-	-	1
	65+	-	-	-	-	-	-
Tayside	Total	54	62	91	50	41	64
	0-24	21	32	35	21	24	30
	25-44	28	21	41	16	9	16
	45-64	4	8	10	10	4	8
	65+	1	1	5	3	4	10
Western Isles	Total	7	4	2	6	8	3
	0-24	4	2	-	3	5	2
	25-44	-	2	1	-	1	-
	45-64	-	-	-	2	2	-
	65+	3	-	1	1	-	1

Source: SMR01, ISD Scotland.

Notes:

1. Hospital admission data are derived from linked records on discharges from non-obstetric and non-psychiatric hospitals (SMR01) in Scotland.

2. Diabetes was defined as ICD10 codes: E10-E14, in the main diagnosis position.

3. Ketoacidosis was defined as E101, E111, E121, E131 and E141.

4. The basic unit of analysis for these figures is a continuous stay in hospital. Probability matching methods have been used to link together individual SMR01 hospitals episodes for each patient, thereby creating “linked” patient histories.

Table 2. Number of Emergency Admissions for Diabetic Hypoglycaemic Coma (Including Ketoacidotic Coma, Hypoglycaemic Coma and Other Coma) by Age Group, Gender and NHS Board Area for Financial Years Ending 31 March 2005 to 2007

		Male			Female
		2005	2006	2007	2005	2006	2007
Scotland	Total	147	123	118	149	148	132
	0-24	30	15	12	25	14	19
	25-44	30	20	19	11	17	14
	45-64	38	35	36	17	26	18
	65+	49	53	51	96	91	81
Ayrshire and Arran	Total	10	4	4	2	3	6
	0-24	3	1	-	-	1	1
	25-44	1	-	-	-	-	-
	45-64	2	1	-	-	1	1
	65+	4	2	4	2	1	4
Borders	Total	3	1	1	2	3	3
	0-24	2	-	1	-	1	1
	25-44	1	1	-	-	1	1
	45-64	-	-	-	-	-	-
	65+	-	-	-	2	1	1
Dumfries and Galloway	Total	-	1	1	1	-	-
	0-24	-	-	-	-	-	-
	25-44	-	-	-	-	-	-
	45-64	-	-	-	-	-	-
	65+	-	1	1	1	-	-
Fife	Total	10	3	3	10	9	7
	0-24	4	-	-	5	1	-
	25-44	1	-	-	-	-	1
	45-64	1	1	1	-	-	1
	65+	4	2	2	5	8	5
Forth Valley	Total	11	3	12	19	7	6
	0-24	3	-	2	5	1	-
	25-44	4	2	1	-	1	2
	45-64	1	-	3	3	-	-
	65+	3	1	6	11	5	4
Grampian	Total	17	27	16	24	16	14
	0-24	-	-	2	2	-	1
	25-44	3	7	3	3	2	-
	45-64	10	9	6	4	3	2
	65+	4	11	5	15	11	11
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	Total	32	29	37	33	47	44
	0-24	5	3	1	2	7	10
	25-44	4	3	8	5	5	4
	45-64	10	10	12	3	8	4
	65+	13	13	16	23	27	26
Highland	Total	12	18	12	13	10	20
	0-24	2	4	2	1	-	2
	25-44	2	1	1	1	1	2
	45-64	2	2	7	3	3	5
	65+	6	11	2	8	6	11
Lanarkshire	Total	20	14	16	12	22	15
	0-24	5	2	4	2	-	2
	25-44	2	1	2	-	4	2
	45-64	7	6	4	2	4	2
	65+	6	5	6	8	14	9
Lothian	Total	12	6	5	9	14	7
	0-24	1	1	-	-	1	2
	25-44	6	3	1	1	-	-
	45-64	2	1	-	1	4	1
	65+	3	1	4	7	9	4
Orkney	Total	5	3	-	-	-	-
	0-24	1	3	-	-	-	-
	25-44	4	-	-	-	-	-
	45-64	-	-	-	-	-	-
	65+	-	-	-	-	-	-
Shetland	Total	1	4	1	1	2	-
	0-24	-	-	-	-	1	-
	25-44	-	-	-	-	1	-
	45-64	-	2	1	-	-	-
	65+	1	2	-	1	-	-
Tayside	Total	8	6	6	18	11	7
	0-24	3	-	-	4	-	-
	25-44	-	2	1	1	2	1
	45-64	1	2	1	1	1	-
	65+	4	2	4	12	8	6
Western Isles	Total	6	4	4	5	4	3
	0-24	1	1	-	4	1	-
	25-44	2	-	2	-	-	1
	45-64	2	1	1	-	2	2
	65+	1	2	1	1	1	-

Source: SMR01, ISD Scotland.

Notes:

1. Hospital admission data are derived from linked records on discharges from non-obstetric and non-psychiatric hospitals (SMR01) in Scotland.

2. Diabetes was defined as ICD10 codes: E10-E14, in the main diagnosis position.

3. All diabetic comas, including hypoglycaemic coma, was defined as E100, E110, E120, E130 and E140.

4. The basic unit of analysis for these figures is a continuous stay in hospital. Probability matching methods have been used to link together individual SMR01 hospitals episodes for each patient, thereby creating “linked” patient histories.

All existing discount arrangements, except for the national concessionary schemes for young persons, older and disabled islanders and the 10% discount on the overnight freight service between Ullapool and Stornoway, will cease on the road equivalent tariff (RET) pilot routes.

Where necessary, arrangements will be put in place to ensure no existing user is disadvantaged by the introduction of RET.

The Climate Challenge Fund is due to open for applications in the next few weeks, at that point guidance and the outline of eligibility for communities wishing to apply for the fund will be announced.