Scottish Executive

Alcohol Misuse

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-6196 by Mr Tom McCabe on 10 March 2004, how much funding it provided to address alcohol misuse in 2004-05, showing the proportion spent on national advertising.

Lewis Macdonald: Core costs are incurred by health, the police and other agencies in tackling alcohol problems. This is also targeted through generic social and, in particular, joint drugs/alcohol initiatives such as the Lloyds TSB PDI initiative which supports activities to support children at risk from drugs and alcohol (£2 million) and training programmes offered by STRADA for drug and alcohol professionals (£0.8 million).

Specific Health Department funding of £5.5 million in 2004-05 covers core grant funding for Alcohol Focus Scotland, support for local Alcohol Action Teams, the Gender Issues Network on Alcohol (GINA), support for the Serve Wise programme and from 2002, support for the National Alcohol Information Resource at ISD. It also includes £744,000 (14%) for national advertising campaigns to tackle binge drinking.

Autism

Donald Gorrie (Central Scotland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what sums were allocated to each local authority for services related to autism for each of the last five years and what information it has on how much has each local authority spent from its allocation and how any unallocated or unspent monies were utilised.

Lewis Macdonald: Local authority Grant Aided Expenditure, including allocations for community care for adults with disabilities, is published on the Scottish Executive website at: www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/gaestats.

Grant Aided Expenditure is funded by a combination of central government funding through Aggregate External Finance and funding raised by local authorities including council tax revenue. Local authorities are free to spend above or below the Grant Aided Expenditure level, according to their own priorities. The money that local authorities receive through Aggregate External Finance is, in the main, provided by way of a block grant and is not allocated to specific services. Grant Aided Expenditure is allocated to individual local authorities on the basis of a needs-based distribution formula agreed with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities.

Information on local authority spend on services for people with autistic spectrum disorders is not detailed separately from spend on services for people with learning disabilities. Spend on community care services for adults aged 18 to 64 with learning disabilities is detailed by local authority in the table.

Source: LFR 3 returns.

Notes:

1. Figures prior to 2002-03 exclude home care.

2. North Lanarkshire – high increase in 2003-04 due to change in the council’s treatment of Supporting People income and expenditure.

Dentistry

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-9962 by Mr Tom McCabe on 6 September 2004, how many people are now registered with a dentist, broken down by NHS board.

Lewis Macdonald: The information requested is provided in the table.

Number of People Registered with an NHS General Dental Practitioner, 31 March 2005

Source: MIDAS (Management Information and Dental Accounting System).

Education

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting time was between the referral of a child to an educational psychologist and the child’s appointment in (a) each local education authority area and (b) Scotland in each of the last five years.

Peter Peacock: The information requested is not held centrally.

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many established full-time equivalent educational psychologist posts there are in (a) each local education authority and (b) Scotland and how many such posts are vacant.

Peter Peacock: The information requested is provided in the following table. The "permanent" column covers permanent established posts for the complement of the Psychology Service. The "project-based" column covers non-permanent posts funded from temporary funding streams.

Educational Psychologist Vacancies as at 18 February 2005

Source: Teacher and Educational Psychologist Vacancies Survey.

Elderly People

John Swinburne (Central Scotland) (SSCUP): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to introduce year-on-year targets to eliminate cold or winter-related deaths of elderly people.

Malcolm Chisholm: The Scottish Executive has no plans to introduce such targets. The causes of excess winter deaths are complex and the number of cases varies widely from year-to-year.

John Swinburne (Central Scotland) (SSCUP): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to ensure that there are no winter-related deaths amongst the elderly population during the winter months of 2005-06.

Malcolm Chisholm: The Scottish Executive is taking action on a number of fronts to minimise winter-related deaths amongst the elderly.

The central heating programme is providing central heating to all those aged 60 and over who have none or whose system is broken down irretrievably and is up-grading inefficient and partial systems for the over 80s. The Warm Deal is providing insulation measures to pensioners on benefits, with a smaller grant to pensioners not on benefit. We will spend £57 million on these programmes this year.

The influenza vaccination campaign to vaccinate those aged 65 and over and those in risk groups under 65 will start in October 2005. As in previous years, the Executive is organising central information letters to all those aged 65 and over across Scotland reminding them that they are eligible for free flu immunisation and encouraging them to contact their GP Practice if they have not heard about an appointment by the end of October.

Before winter the Chief Medical Officer will issue a reminder to older people to keep warm, use the winter fuel payment to ensure their homes are adequately heated and to wear plenty warm clothes when they go outside. He will also remind neighbours, relatives and carers to check up regularly on older people during cold weather.

Emergency Services

Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost was of dealing with hoax calls to the (a) ambulance, (b) fire, (c) police and (d) coastguard service in each of the last five years, broken down by region.

Cathy Jamieson: This information is not held centrally.

Fisheries

Richard Lochhead (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the level of unclaimed Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance (FIFG) funding is for the (a) Highlands and Islands and (b) rest of Scotland, expressed also as a percentage of the original allocations of FIFG funding.

Ross Finnie: Some £1.47 million of FIFG funding remains to be allocated to projects in the Highlands and Islands area representing some 8.95% of the FIFG allocation. The equivalent Lowland Scotland figures are £13.9 million and 38.6%.

Health

Michael Matheson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what strategies it is using to promote Scotland’s natural features as a means of encouraging and promoting physical activity.

Peter Peacock: The Scottish Executive has introduced a range of strategies to encourage physical activity, sport and the use of Scotland’s natural features, such as the National Physical Activity Strategy, our policy on Active Schools and the Healthy Living Campaign.

As part of Scotland’s National Physical Activity Strategy, the Paths to Health programme supports over 90 local schemes to promote walking in communities across Scotland. The recent release of the Walkwise magazine, which is partly funded through the Healthyliving Campaign, compliments this by highlighting scenic countryside routes and providing local environmental information.

We also want more people to experience the far reaching benefits of physical activity in the outdoors, and see opportunities for outdoor education for young people as an important means of encouraging that. LTS has been commissioned to undertake a development programme to raise the profile of outdoor education. Through a Development Officer, we will work to promote better opportunities for young people to engage with Scotland’s outdoors at an early stage and develop lifelong interest.

Justice

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-16495 and S2W-17355 by Cathy Jamieson on 27 June and 23 May 2005 and given that there are matters in the draft Framework Decision on retention of data processed and stored in connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or data on public communications networks for the purpose of prevention, investigation, detection and prosecution of crime and criminal offences, including terrorism, that may fall within the Parliament’s legislative responsibility, whether it will express a fuller view on the draft Framework Decision’s impact on (a) Scots law on criminal investigations and procedure, (b) Scots law on judicial co-operation with other countries and (c) civil liberties in Scotland.

Cathy Jamieson: I refer the member to the answers to questions S2W-16495, S2W-16497 and S2W-16498 on 23 May 2005 and S2W-17355 and S2W-17356 on 27 June 2005. 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/webapp/search_wa.

An assessment of the decision’s impact on matters that fall within the Parliament’s responsibilities will be made in due course, if necessary. The matters covered by the latest draft of the Framework Decision (dated 29 June 2005) are wholly reserved.

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-16432 by Colin Boyd QC on 8 July 2005, how many charges for (a) assault, (b) petty assault and (c) breaches of the peace resulted in a guilty verdict in each year since 2002-03, broken down by police force.

Cathy Jamieson: The available information relates to calendar years 2002 and 2003 and is given in the following table. Information relating to later years is not yet available.

Selected Offences with a Charge Proved in Scottish Courts, by Police Force Area, 2002-03.

Margaret Mitchell (Central Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the equipment, software and data of police computers are compatible between forces and, if not, what action it is taking to ensure their compatibility.

Cathy Jamieson: The Scottish Police Information Strategy, which received £3 million in 2005-06 from the Scottish Executive, is working closely with Scottish police forces and relevant agencies to ensure that they can share relevant data and information in an efficient and effective way and to maximise the inter-operability of systems. Both the Criminal History System (CHS) and the Scottish Intelligence Database (SID) are available to all eight forces.

Margaret Mitchell (Central Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the information input to the Scottish Intelligence Database is logged in a standardised way and, if not, whether it will support the deployment of resources to ensure standardised input.

Cathy Jamieson: The input of information to the Scottish Intelligence Database (SID) is governed by a comprehensive set of Data Input Standards endorsed by the Association of Chief Officers Scotland. The Chief Constable of the force from which information originates is responsible for the quality, relevance, legality and accuracy of information submitted to SID. The Intelligence Support Bureau, established within the structure of the Scottish Criminal Record Office, maintains national oversight of SID compliance and auditing issues and routinely monitors compliance of data input standards.

Margaret Mitchell (Central Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive to what extent the Scottish Intelligence Database (SID) is used by other organisations such as the Scottish Prison Service.

Cathy Jamieson: The Scottish Intelligence Database is currently utilised as the primary intelligence database for the eight Scottish Police Forces and the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency. Under the terms of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Association of Chief Police Officers Scotland and the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS), selected staff within the Scottish office of NCIS have been granted access to SID.

At present no other agency has direct access to the database. The Scottish Prison Service, Ministry of Defence Police and British Transport Police in Scotland are at various stages of progress in realising a connection to SID subject to agreement on a MOU and compliance with the comprehensive SID security requirements.

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-17650 by Cathy Jamieson on 26 July 2005, if the UK Government were to make a declaration under article 35(2) of the Treaty of the European Union accepting the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in justice and home affairs matters, what obligation the Scottish Parliament would be under to assent to legislation ratifying the decision and whether the Executive would support the passage of such legislation.

Cathy Jamieson: No implementing legislation would be required to give effect to a declaration under 35(2) of the Treaty of European Union.

Margaret Mitchell (Central Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many crimes and offences were committed in each local authority area in the week beginning (a) 20 June, (b) 27 June, (c) 4 July and (d) 11 July 2005.

Cathy Jamieson: The information requested is not available centrally.

Ministerial Correspondence

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many letters to it remain unanswered after more than a month, broken down into those which are (a) one month, (b) two months, (c) three months, (d) four months and (e) over six months old.

Ms Margaret Curran: The information requested will not be available until 31 August due to the need for collation of the relevant statistics. I will write to the member with the information after that date.

Police

Bill Butler (Glasgow Anniesland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many uniformed police officers in the city of Glasgow were available to respond to calls from the public during the week ending on Sunday 24 April 2005.

Cathy Jamieson: This information is not held centrally. The number of uniformed officers deployed at any time in the city of Glasgow is a matter for the Chief Constable of Strathclyde.

Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many calls were made to the police in each of the last five years and how many such calls were found to be hoaxes, broken down by police force area.

Cathy Jamieson: This information is not held centrally.

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many bus drivers were charged with (a) drink driving, (b) speeding and (c) operating a mobile phone while driving in each of the last five years, broken down by police force area.

Cathy Jamieson: The information requested is not available. The statistics available centrally on motoring crimes recorded by the police do not distinguish the occupation of the offender.

Prison Service

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-14101 by Cathy Jamieson on 28 February 2005, what steps it will take to address any concerns raised by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons’ interim report on HM Prison Cornton Vale and the fatal accident inquiry into the recent suicide of Alice Bone held on remand there.

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

In his interim report of March 2005, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons made many positive comments. The Governor of Cornton Vale continues to implement a number of local initiatives which improve access to visits and access to toilets at night. This is greatly assisted by the opening of Wallace Block and the introduction of CCTV coverage in Younger House.

A date has not yet been set for the Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) referred to. Once a determination is made at the FAI, SPS will respond appropriately.

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-33267 by Mr Andy Kerr on 23 January 2003 and in light of the review by the Financial Reporting Advisory Board referred to therein, whether it now agrees with Kilmarnock Prison Services Ltd (KPSL) that the prison was sold to the public sector and, if it does agree, on which public department’s or agency’s books the asset is held; if it disagrees, what steps it has taken, or intends to take, with relevant bodies to correct the statement made by KPSL, and, if it is unable to either agree or disagree at this time, what steps it plans to take to clarify on which balance sheet the asset, and its concommitant liabilities, should properly be held.

Mr Tom McCabe: The Scottish Executive’s view of the accounting treatment has not changed and is reported in the Scottish Prison Service’s (SPS) annual accounts for 2004-05 published in July (laid in the Scottish Parliament (SE/2005/137) and available at www.sps.gov.uk ). The prison property itself does not appear on the SPS Balance Sheet, but the SPS does account for its commitments under the contract and for its reversionary interest in the asset.

The Executive supported the review by the Financial Reporting Advisory Board (FRAB). Information on this review can be found at www.frab.gov.uk. It was not, however, the FRAB’s role to consider the detail of individual cases with a view to revising the accounting treatment adopted: it is for each party to conduct their own assessment, according to relevant accounting standards and guidance. In the present case, the SPS and the private sector contractor have both applied the relevant guidance and in both cases the respective auditors have accepted the conclusion reached.

The Executive is committed to proper accounting practice and to achieving a satisfactory resolution to the apparent problem of anomalous treatment. The Executive will therefore comply with, and promote compliance with, applicable guidance in this area, including therefore any revised guidance issued in due course.

Supermarkets

Ms Rosemary Byrne (South of Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make any representations to the Department for Trade and Industry on appointing an independent regulator of the supermarket code of practice to ensure fair trade between supermarkets and suppliers.

Ross Finnie: The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) recently published its report on supermarkets’ compliance with the code of practice. We shall be discussing with OFT the report’s conclusions and the way forward. We shall continue to emphasise to supermarkets how seriously the Executive views the importance of maintaining a sustainable food chain with good trading relationships between suppliers and retailers.

The following questions were given holding answers:

S2W-18009

S2W-18010