- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 August 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Iain Gray on 26 September 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how many drug-related deaths there have been so far this year and in each of the last five years, broken down by health board area and expressed as a percentage of the population in each area.
Answer
Published information is available for 1995-99 and this is given in the table. Data covering 2000 will be published by the General Register Office for Scotland before the end of September.
Drug-related deaths, by health board area, 1995-99Number and rate per 100,000 population*Health boardarea | 1995 | | 1996 | | 1997 | | 1998 | | 1999 | |
No. | Rate | No. | Rate | No. | Rate | No. | Rate | No. | Rate |
SCOTLAND | 251 | 4.9 | 267 | 5.2 | 263 | 5.1 | 276 | 5.4 | 340 | 6.6 |
Argyll & Clyde | 24 | 5.5 | 19 | 4.4 | 20 | 4.7 | 26 | 6.1 | 29 | 6.8 |
Ayrshire & Arran | 17 | 4.5 | 12 | 3.2 | 9 | 2.4 | 7 | 1.9 | 29 | 7.7 |
Borders | 1 | 0.9 | 2 | 1.9 | - | - | 1 | 0.9 | - | - |
Dumfries & Galloway | 5 | 3.4 | 3 | 2.0 | 11 | 7.5 | 6 | 4.1 | 9 | 6.1 |
Fife | 5 | 1.4 | 10 | 2.9 | 20 | 5.7 | 15 | 4.3 | 11 | 3.2 |
Forth Valley | 9 | 3.3 | 6 | 2.2 | 11 | 4.0 | 9 | 3.3 | 19 | 6.8 |
Grampian | 15 | 2.8 | 31 | 5.8 | 27 | 5.1 | 31 | 5.9 | 42 | 8.0 |
Greater Glasgow | 98 | 10.7 | 96 | 10.6 | 69 | 7.6 | 94 | 10.3 | 112 | 12.4 |
Highland | 3 | 1.4 | 4 | 1.9 | 3 | 1.4 | 3 | 1.4 | 8 | 3.8 |
Lanarkshire | 16 | 2.9 | 13 | 2.3 | 22 | 3.9 | 28 | 5.0 | 27 | 4.8 |
Lothian | 40 | 5.2 | 53 | 6.9 | 46 | 6.0 | 37 | 4.8 | 38 | 4.9 |
Orkney | - | - | 1 | 5.1 | 1 | 5.0 | - | - | 1 | 5.1 |
Shetland | - | - | 1 | 4.3 | 1 | 4.3 | 1 | 4.4 | - | - |
Tayside | 18 | 4.6 | 16 | 4.1 | 23 | 5.9 | 18 | 4.6 | 14 | 3.6 |
Western Isles | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 3.6 |
* Rates per 100,000 are given instead of percentages as the latter would be very small (the largest would be 0.01%).
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 July 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 25 September 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to introduce more stringent enforcement of the Specified Risk Materials Regulations 1997 in relation to imported beef carcasses.
Answer
The Food Standards Agency has advised that European Law requires specified risk material (SRM) to be removed at the slaughterhouse, and it is illegal for another EU Member State to send consignments of meat to the UK, which contain spinal cord. The Specified Risk Material Regulations, as amended, are enforced by the Meat Hygiene Service in licensed plants and local authorities in unlicensed premises. The agency has addressed SRM infringements through enhanced checks on imported beef and by raising the issue at high level with the Commission and the member state in question. The agency's policy is to seek for the plant's licence to be suspended in cases of systematic failures.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 August 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 24 September 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHSiS appointments with (a) consultants and (b) GPs patients failed to attend in each health board area and health trust in each of the last three years, expressed as a percentage of all appointments in each case, and what the cost to the NHSiS of missed appointments was in each year.
Answer
The only data held centrally on missed appointments is the number of first consultant out-patient appointments not attended. The percentage who did not attend for each of the last three years by health board area and health trust can be found on the Information and Statistics website (http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/isd/ship/home.htm). The Scottish level is shown:
Year to: | Did Not Attend Rate of First Consultant Out-patient Appointments in Scotland | Number of First Consultant Out-patient Appointments not attended in Scotland |
31 March 2001 | 11.3% | 120,000 |
31 March 2000 | 11.3% | 129,000 |
31 March 1999 | 11.1% | 126,000 |
Note: 2001 data is provisional.
The average cost of a consultant out-patient appointment is £72, which would imply that the total cost to the NHS of these missed appointments could be as high as £8.6 million a year. In practice, the cost is likely to be less than this because clinics may schedule additional appointments to allow for failure to attend by a proportion of patients.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 August 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Sarah Boyack on 24 September 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the safety camera project being piloted by Strathclyde Police which allows them to retain the money raised through fixed-penalty speeding fines will be extended to other police force areas.
Answer
The extension of this project is currently being considered by the police, local authorities and other potential partners, the Executive and the United Kingdom government.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 August 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 20 September 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) residential, (b) operational and (c) other category prison officers based at each local and open prison have resigned from the Scottish Prison Service in each of the last 12 months and how many in each category have resigned from the Scottish Prison Service as a whole in each of the last three years and the three years prior to the introduction of Staff Structure Review.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:Information in the form requested is not readily available and could not be produced except at disproportionate cost.SPS staff turnover figures by pay band are available and are given in answer to question S1W-17720.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 August 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 20 September 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how many visits the Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service has made to each local prison establishment since his appointment.
Answer
The information is not readily available and could only be assembled at disproportionate cost.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 August 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 20 September 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average number of inmates occupying each local prison establishment has been for each of the last three years, and for each month so far this year, indicating in each case in both numerical and percentage terms the variance in relation to each prison's recommended capacity.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:The information is not available in the form requested However, details of the average number of prisoners in each prison is published annually in the Scottish Executive Statistical Bulletins which are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. numbers 11179, 11180, and 15640). The average design capacity for the last three financial years for each local prison is detailed in the table.
| | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 |
Aberdeen | 157 | 163 | 163 |
| Barlinnie | 926 | 943 | 943 |
| Cornton Vale | 217 | 217 | 219 |
| Dumfries | 150 | 150 | 150 |
| Edinburgh | 543 | 620 | 597 |
| Greenock | 233 | 238 | 243 |
| Inverness | 107 | 108 | 108 |
| Kilmarnock | 0 | 500 | 532 |
| Perth | 527 | 526 | 550 |
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 August 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 20 September 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what the most up to date figures available for staff turnover are, listed by staff category, for each local prison establishment and the Scottish Prison Service as a whole.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:The readily available information is as follows:Total SPS staff turnover for Period 1 April 2000 to 31 March 2001 by pay band was:
| Pay Band | A | B | C | C+ | D | D+ | E | E+ | F | F+ | G |
| % | 9.90 | 19.07 | 12.09 | 12.08 | 24.33 | 1.62 | 5.43 | 0.22 | 6.02 | 1.23 | 9.02 |
Percentage turnover is based on voluntary resignation: it does not include retiring employees.
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 August 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 20 September 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how many visits to each local prison establishment HM Chief Inspector of Prisons has made in each of the last three years and how much time he or his officials have spent at each prison over the same period.
Answer
There are nine local prisons in Scotland - Aberdeen, Barlinnie, Cornton Vale, Dumfries, Edinburgh, Greenock, Inverness, Kilmarnock and Perth.Each of Scotland's 17 prisons currently receives a full, formal inspection on a cyclical basis, every 3
-and-a-half-to-4 years. Full inspections take between a week and a fortnight depending on size and complexity of the establishment, during which all aspects of the establishment are examined from the point of view of safety, decency, and the establishment's contribution to crime prevention.Full inspection reports are followed up in subsequent years by intermediate inspections. The Inspectorate also undertakes occasional studies on a theme common to all or several penal establishments. The most recent study "Punishment First - Verdict Later?", a review of conditions for Remand Prisoners at the end of the 20th Century involved visits to all prisons holding remand prisoners but is not included in the figures given below. Similarly, inspectorate time spent in assessing the establishments' readiness for Y2K has not been included.Visits to Local Prisons August 1998 - August 2001 | Establishment | HMCIP | Inspectors | Total |
| Aberdeen | 9 | 37 | 46 |
| Barlinnie | 8 | 40 | 48 |
| Cornton Vale | 7 | 35 | 42 |
| Dumfries | 8 | 38 | 46 |
| Edinburgh | 9 | 44 | 53 |
| Greenock | 9 | 49 | 58 |
| Inverness | 5 | 20 | 25 |
| Kilmarnock | 9 | 73 | 82 |
| Perth | 6 | 14 | 20 |
| Total | 70 | 350 | 420 |
- Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 August 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 20 September 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what the daily average number of prisoners admitted to each local prison establishment has been for each month this year and for each of the last three years also expressed in per capita terms in relation to the population served by that prison.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:The information is not available in the form requested. However, details of the average number of prisoners admitted to Scottish prisons is published annually in the Scottish Executive Statistical Bulletins which are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. numbers 11179, 11180, and 15640).
