I refer the member to the answerto question S2W-14476 on 15 March 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The Scottish Executive does not hold the information for agencies or other public bodies. A proportionof Scottish Executive staff time is spent in administering visits by membersof the Royal Family but we cannot provide yearly breakdowns as records of this typeare not held. We estimate that, for 2004, the cost of staff time was approximately£2000 to £2500.

The Executive also runs and paysfor a small number of events most years where members of the Royal Family are inattendance. The information we hold on cost and location is set out below.

Year	Cost £000	Location
1999	2	Stirling
2000	1	Edinburgh
2002	0
2003	33	Edinburgh
2004	1	Edinburgh

 

The 2003 figure of £33,000 relatesto the Union of the Crowns Dinner, attended by The Queen, the Dukeof Edinburgh and the Duke of York and hosted by the First Minister.

There is no precise legal definition in Scots law on what constitutes elder abuse, nor is there a statutory or operational requirement for the Executive to collect such information.

In developing our proposals for additional protections for vulnerable adults, however, we will continue to work with a broad range of stakeholders like Age Concern Scotland and Help the Aged to ensure these measures are as comprehensive and inclusive as possible.

To date, extra-parliamentary representations regarding progress on a Vulnerable Adults Bill have been received from a range of organisations and individuals, and as a result of the Help the Aged’s New Years Resolution campaign.

We will take all such representations into account as we develop our legislative proposals.

The cost to local authorities of administering and servicing the duties of lords lieutenant and their deputies is not identified separately in the local authority expenditure returns made to the Scottish Executive.

The cost to local authorities of administering royal visits and royal holidays is not identified separately in the local authority expenditure returns made to the Scottish Executive.

The following table shows core funding under the Children, Young People and Families Unified Voluntary Sector Fund received by four services which cover the south of Scotland.

	2001-02 (£)	2002-03 (£)	2003-04 (£)	2004-05 (£)
Family Mediation Borders	31,930	32,888	33,710	34,553
Family Mediation Dumfries and Galloway	56,650	58,350	59,808	61,303
Family Mediation Lothian	52,005	53,565	54,904	56,277
Family Mediation West	147,466	151,890	155,687	159,579

Figures are given in the Annual Reports published by Family Mediation Scotland (FMS). In general, these relate to the number of people who contact local services for information or advice of any kind, not of the final numbers who proceed to mediation (though the report for 2001 does distinguish these, as noted below). Not all the figures have been collated in the same way since 1999.

	2000	2001*	2002	2003
Family Mediation Borders	158	308	297	638
FM Central	325	500	680	587
FM Dumfries and Galloway	169	221	261	127
FM Fife	392	321	70	523
FM Grampian	352	X(1)	X(1)	X(1)
FM Highland	588	768	637	460
FM Lothian	2,377	1,330	1,367	2,000
FM Orkney	107	19	97	113
FM Shetland	48	50	X(2)	X(2)
FM South Lanarkshire (from 2002)	X(3)	X(3)	109	240
FM Tayside	534	553	543	650
FM West	1,151	1,034	1,337	1,063
Counselling and Mediation Western Isles	97	29	76	145

Notes:

*In the report for 2001, the total number of all new contacts was given as 5,133, of which 628 mediation cases were started:

X(1): Figures not provided to FMS.

X(2): Service not operational.

X(3): Service not operational until 2002.

The FMS report for 2004 provides a chart showing the distribution of cases across services but does not give figures of either initial contact or mediation cases.

We have outlined various non-legislative proposals to complement the Family Law Bill, including a possible telephone helpline or information service on family relationship issues. Before allocating any funding for a helpline project we will discuss key questions with stakeholders, including the added value of a helpline on family relationships, the links with existing helplines for parents, step-parents and children, and impact on service provision at local level. We will also take account of the current scoping study of telephone helpline services by Parenting across Scotland. We are also currently looking at options for providing web-based information to improve the availability of information about family law and support services in Scotland.

The table gives the percentage of the total prescribing expenditure for drugs used in treatment of obesity (as defined in Section 4.5 of the British National Formulary) and drugs used in diabetes (as defined in Section 6.1 of the British National Formulary) for the financial years 2000-01 to 2003-04, and April to November 2004. The data refer to prescriptions dispensed by community pharmacists and dispensing doctors, but do not take into account medicines dispensed by hospitals or hospital based clinics. The cost of the drugs is before deduction of discount and patient charges and addition of dispensing fees.

The data reflect the costs of medicines used to treat obesity and diabetes directly and do not include drugs prescribed to treat other conditions associated with these disease states.

	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	April to November 2004
Percentage Total Expenditure	Percentage Total Expenditure	Percentage Total Expenditure	Percentage Total Expenditure	Percentage Total Expenditure
Drugs used in the Treatment of Obesity	0.111%	0.337%	0.412%	0.364%	0.375%
Drugs Used In Diabetes	3.498%	3.730%	3.921%	4.182%	4.510%