Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-03483

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 4 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the death rate was from cancer in each year since 1980.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-3479on 4 September 2007. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website the search facility for whichcan be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Trends in cancer mortalityover time are best interpreted using European Age Standardised Rates (EASR). EASRensure that differences observed do not simply reflect variations in the age structureof the populations being compared. This is important when considering rates of cancer,because cancer is a disease that predominantly affects the elderly.

EASR for cancer arepublished by the Information Services Division (ISD) at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/1508.html.

(See Annual Mortalityat the bottom of the page.)

The published tableincludes data for 1980-2005. These tables will be updated with 2006 data in September2007.

Question reference: S3W-03235

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 4 September 2007

The numbers of railpassenger journeys originating in Scotland in each year from 1960 (calendar year)to 2004-05 (financial year) were published by the Scottish Executive in December2006 in Table H1 of Scottish Transport Statistics number 25, 2006 edition,a copy of which is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib.number 41474). The corresponding figure for the 2005-06 financial year is 78.1 million.Figures for years prior to 1960 are not available.

Question reference: S3W-03508

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 4 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many assaults were reported in each year since 1990, broken down by (a) local authority and (b) police board area.

The requested informationis shown in the following tables. The figures are for total crimes of assault, whichincludes serious assaults, minor assaults and – since 2005 – minor assaults of anemergency worker.

Number of AssaultsRecorded by the Police, by Local Authority, 1990 to 1994

Local Authority	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994
Aberdeen City	2,653	2,654	2,533	2,637	2,996
Aberdeenshire	1,363	1,517	1,511	1,573	1,852
Angus	824	716	857	822	819
Argyll and Bute	631	637	641	635	715
City of Edinburgh	3,860	4,305	4,292	4,187	4,655
City of Glasgow	9,086	9,828	10,497	9,670	9,930
Clackmannanshire	478	420	421	511	536
Dumfries and Galloway	939	926	1,101	1,045	1,105
Dundee City	1,293	1,431	1,496	1,330	1,431
East Ayrshire	1,129	1,080	1,136	1,078	1,086
East Dunbartonshire	550	597	609	658	703
East Lothian	484	453	422	446	567
East Renfrewshire	352	377	467	439	506
Eilean Siar (W.Isles)	113	126	121	127	151
Falkirk	1,515	1,400	1,414	1,336	1,410
Fife	2,495	2,290	2,552	2,642	3,098
Highland	1,338	1,385	1,536	1,473	1,613
Inverclyde	804	863	812	834	995
Midlothian	616	609	658	592	646
Moray	793	812	767	789	864
North Ayrshire	1,222	1,359	1,365	1,217	1,177
North Lanarkshire	3,325	3,625	3,841	3,442	3,531
Orkney Islands	92	71	77	67	84
Perth and Kinross	892	946	935	891	913
Renfrewshire	1,600	1,702	1,879	1,681	1,974
Scottish Borders	537	567	501	479	589
Shetland Islands	81	84	100	94	92
South Ayrshire	748	745	786	869	896
South Lanarkshire	2,936	3,054	3,284	2,989	3,164
Stirling	645	606	617	675	769
West Dunbartonshire	902	1,010	950	977	994
West Lothian	1,044	1,124	1,127	933	1,139
Scotland	45,340	47,319	49,305	47,138	51,000

Number ofAssaults Recorded by the Police, by Local Authority, 1995-96 to 2006-07

Local Authority	1995-96	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01
Aberdeen City	3,075	2,813	3,100	3,225	3,467	3,233
Aberdeenshire	1,818	1,734	1,672	1,718	1,907	1,875
Angus	933	818	908	1,014	1,012	842
Argyll and Bute	733	758	660	675	776	702
City of Edinburgh	5,164	5,990	7,060	7,143	7,629	7,789
City of Glasgow	9,950	9,864	10,018	10,630	11,867	11,624
Clackmannanshire	550	510	443	423	428	434
Dumfries and Galloway	1,339	1,382	1,496	1,561	1,401	1,239
Dundee City	1,418	1,572	1,577	1,885	2,177	2,046
East Ayrshire	1,252	1,191	1,117	1,274	1,409	1,212
East Dunbartonshire	777	746	751	708	564	617
East Lothian	578	637	829	864	1,086	896
East Renfrewshire	515	465	414	404	431	374
Eilean Siar (W.Isles)	138	199	171	154	138	151
Falkirk	1,522	1,336	1,256	1,429	1,579	1,533
Fife	3,330	3,313	3,279	3,214	3,506	3,528
Highland	1,779	1,886	1,931	2,146	1,857	2,017
Inverclyde	828	952	839	931	870	984
Midlothian	672	811	956	930	1,062	978
Moray	886	967	922	871	924	940
North Ayrshire	1,438	1,400	1,345	1,264	1,391	1,339
North Lanarkshire	3,606	3,378	3,107	3,215	3,228	3,405
Orkney Islands	96	91	101	120	101	80
Perth and Kinross	961	984	874	1,027	959	1,011
Renfrewshire	2,089	2,023	2,039	1,965	2,036	2,095
Scottish Borders	658	836	995	922	1,045	1,146
Shetland Islands	127	120	119	129	108	121
South Ayrshire	1,123	1,190	1,188	1,229	1,161	1,033
South Lanarkshire	3,176	2,756	2,888	2,766	2,991	2,783
Stirling	804	737	697	691	722	704
West Dunbartonshire	1,102	1,103	1,111	1,089	1,144	1,080
West Lothian	1,243	1,589	1,787	1,929	2,059	2,389
Scotland	53,680	54,151	55,650	57,545	61,035	60,200

Local Authority	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05¹	2005-06	2006-07
Aberdeen City	3,580	3,171	3,300	4,387	4,626	4,415
Aberdeenshire	1,811	1,594	1,596	2,271	2,425	2,442
Angus	1,281	1,214	1,315	975	1,154	1,409
Argyll and Bute	640	795	842	1,182	1,207	1,259
City of Edinburgh	7,409	6,382	6,202	7,821	7,469	8,591
City of Glasgow	12,001	12,406	12,514	15,218	14,647	15,001
Clackmannanshire	587	580	628	730	714	959
Dumfries and Galloway	1,272	1,524	2,127	2,231	1,939	2,132
Dundee City	2,070	2,142	2,268	1,864	2,298	2,877
East Ayrshire	1,426	1,322	1,142	2,158	1,740	1,841
East Dunbartonshire	607	575	589	945	867	848
East Lothian	860	770	709	786	779	993
East Renfrewshire	400	387	477	624	557	632
Eilean Siar (W.Isles)	120	179	197	308	323	346
Falkirk	1,706	1,728	1,891	2,097	1,923	2,085
Fife	3,710	3,985	4,264	5,919	5,637	5,982
Highland	2,240	2,291	2,426	2,971	2,874	3,303
Inverclyde	1,053	1,006	1,121	1,282	1,031	1,053
Midlothian	952	843	821	1,076	1,141	1,311
Moray	1,032	1,035	1,012	1,196	1,271	1,431
North Ayrshire	1,360	1,480	1,534	2,267	2,304	2,426
North Lanarkshire	3,670	3,794	4,203	5,758	5,485	5,539
Orkney Islands	87	84	116	107	158	118
Perth and Kinross	976	995	1,091	1,188	1,336	1,516
Renfrewshire	2,018	1,922	1,963	2,471	2,372	2,746
Scottish Borders	1,022	1,089	1,064	1,120	1,180	1,171
Shetland Islands	115	150	162	194	162	206
South Ayrshire	1,113	1,134	1,019	1,670	1,413	1,647
South Lanarkshire	2,931	2,972	3,230	4,201	3,942	4,119
Stirling	874	979	1,044	1,233	1,179	1,433
West Dunbartonshire	1,171	1,172	1,378	1,646	1,725	1,845
West Lothian	1,983	1,910	1,735	2,590	2,723	3,016
Scotland	62,077	61,610	63,980	80,486	78,601	84,692

Number ofAssaults Recorded by the Police, by Force, 1990 to 1994

Police Force	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994
Central	2,638	2,426	2,452	2,522	2,715
Dumfries and Galloway	939	926	1,101	1,045	1,105
Fife	2,495	2,290	2,552	2,642	3,098
Grampian	4,809	4,983	4,811	4,999	5,712
Lothian and Borders	6,541	7,058	7,000	6,637	7,596
Northern	1,624	1,666	1,834	1,761	1,940
Strathclyde	23,285	24,877	26,267	24,489	25,671
Tayside	3,009	3,093	3,288	3,043	3,163
Scotland	45,340	47,319	49,305	47,138	51,000

Number ofAssaults Recorded by the Police, by Force, 1995-96 to 2006-07

Police Force	1995-96	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01
Central	2,876	2,583	2,396	2,543	2,729	2,671
Dumfries and Galloway	1,339	1,382	1,496	1,561	1,401	1,239
Fife	3,330	3,313	3,279	3,214	3,506	3,528
Grampian	5,779	5,514	5,694	5,814	6,298	6,048
Lothian and Borders	8,315	9,863	11,627	11,788	12,881	13,198
Northern	2,140	2,296	2,322	2,549	2,204	2,369
Strathclyde	26,589	25,826	25,477	26,150	27,868	27,248
Tayside	3,312	3,374	3,359	3,926	4,148	3,899
Scotland	53,680	54,151	55,650	57,545	61,035	60,200

Police Force	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05¹	2005-06	2006-07
Central	3,167	3,287	3,563	4,060	3,816	4,477
Dumfries and Galloway	1,272	1,524	2,127	2,231	1,939	2,132
Fife	3,710	3,985	4,264	5,919	5,637	5,982
Grampian	6,423	5,800	5,908	7,854	8,322	8,288
Lothian and Borders	12,226	10,994	10,531	13,393	13,292	15,082
Northern	2,562	2,704	2,901	3,580	3,517	3,973
Strathclyde	28,390	28,965	30,012	39,422	37,290	38,956
Tayside	4,327	4,351	4,674	4,027	4,788	5,802
Scotland	62,077	61,610	63,980	80,486	78,601	84,692

Note: 1. Figures from2004-05 onwards shows the impact of the implementation of the Scottish Crime RecordingStandard, which was expected to increase the numbers of minor crimes – includingminor assault – recorded by the police.

Question reference: S3W-03481

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 4 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the incidence is of heroin addiction, broken down by age group, and what comparative information it has for (a) the United Kingdom as a whole, (b) each EU member state and (c) each OECD nation.

For estimated numbersof problem drug users (opiates and/or benzodiazepines only) in Scotland in 2000 and 2003, I refer the member to the answerto question S3W-3089 on 28 August 2007. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Comparative informationfor the United Kingdom, EU member states and OECD nations is notheld centrally. Prevalence information on the use of opiate drugs internationallyis available in the United Nations 2007 World Drug Report, Chapter 3, StatisticalAnnex, Section 3.5: Consumption:

http://www.unodc.org/pdf/research/wdr07/WDR_2007_3.5.1_annual_prevalence.pdf.

Question reference: S3W-03513

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 4 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many assaults on fire and rescue services’ staff were reported in each year since 1990, broken down by fire and rescue service area.

Question reference: S3W-03479

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 4 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the incidence is of cancer, broken down by age group, and what comparative information it has for (a) the United Kingdom as a whole, (b) each EU member state and (c) each OECD nation.

Irefer the member to the answer to question S3W-3483 on 4 September 2007. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.Dataon cancer incidence in Scotland are available by age group and year (1980 to 2004) on the InformationServices Division website at http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/files/cancer_all_types_inc.xls.

(a)Comparative data on cancer incidence in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland (2002-04) are available onthe website of the Office of National Statistics at:

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_health/UK_inc_mort_charts_tables2002_04.xls,

TheCancer Atlas of the United Kingdom and Ireland 1991-2000 at:

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=14059.

(b)Comparative data on cancer incidence in Scotland and each EU member state are held inthe Scotland and European Health for All(HfA) Database, which can be accessed from the website of the Scottish Public HealthObservatory at:

http://www.scotpho.org.uk/web/site/home/Comparativehealth/InternationalComparisons/Scotland_and_European_HfA.asp(see indicators Morbidity, disability and hospital discharges).

(c)Data on cancer incidence worldwide are held by CANCERMondial in two databases:GLOBOCAN 2002 and CI5 I-VIII. GLOBOCAN2002 contains estimates of cancer incidencefor all the countries of the world, although data for the four constituent countriesof the UK are not included separately.The database CI5 I-VIII contains cancer incidence data collected by cancer registriesworldwide, including Scotland, although not aggregated to country level.

Bothof these databases can be accessed from the website of CANCERMondial at http://www-dep.iarc.fr/.

Question reference: S3W-03238

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 4 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what input it or its agencies have in setting rail fares.

Following the RailwaysAct 2005, Scottish ministers are responsible for fares regulation in Scotland. The current structure of fares in Scotland is a mix of regulated and unregulated fares. Scottishministers can restrict the permitted increase on regulated fares while unregulatedfares are set by the operator. Responsibility for setting regulated fares on cross-borderservices rests with the Secretary of State for Transport.

Question reference: S3W-03237

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 4 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what average number of vehicles per day used the (a) Skye, (b) Erskine, (c) Tay and (d) Forth road bridges in each year since 1980.

Information on thetotal number of crossings each year, and the average number per day, is given inthe following table, in terms of thousands of vehicle crossings. More detailed figuresare available in the annual publication Scottish Transport Statistics, copiesof which may be obtained from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.

	Skye Bridge		Erskine Bridge		Tay Road Bridge⁴		Forth Road Bridge⁵
	Full Year	Average Per Day	Full Year	Average Per Day	Full Year	Average Per Day	Full Year	Average Per Day
1980			4,245	12	4,947	14	10,774	29
1981			4,079	11	4,807	13	10,982	30
1982			3,756	10	4,873	13	11,444	31
1983			4,047	11	5,102	14	11,675	32
1984			4,327	12	5,211	14	12,001	33
1985			4,436	12	5,192	14	12,397	34
1986			4,802	13	5,370	15	12,236	34
1987			5,526	15	5,628	15	13,497	37
1988			5,751	16	5,933	16	14,705	40
1989			6,368	17	6,269	17	15,839	43
1990			6,748	18	6,694	18	16,585	45
1991			7,077	19	6,720	18	16,922	46
1992			6,764	18	6,946	19	17,802	49
1993			6,809	19	6,944	19	18,177	50
1994			6,865	19	7,198	20	18,994	52
1995	78	1	7,401	20	7,414	20	19,540	54
1996	612	2	6,622	18	7,534	21	20,374	56
1997	627	2	7,420	20	7,656	21	21,078	58
1998	656	2	7,966	22	7,778	21	20,782	57
1999	665	2	8,230	23	7,920	22	21,868	60
2000	675	2	8,695	24	8,074	22	22,168	61
2001	666	2	8,881	24	8,184	22	22,608	62
2002	718	2	9,480	26	8,414	23	23,374	64
2003	756	2	9,677	27	8,684	24	24,010	66
2004	769	2	10,078	28	8,929	24	23,562	64
2005	1,182	3	10,007	27	8,942	24	23,810	65
2006	1,227	3	11,438	31	8,868	24	23,682	65

Source: Figures aretaken from Scottish Transport Statistics, Numbers 11, 19 and 25 - Table 4 on TollBridges. Traffic figures are reported in thousands.

Notes:

1. The Skye Bridgeopened on 16 October 1995.

2. Tolling at theSkye Bridge ended on 21 December 2004.

3. Tolling at theErskine Bridge ended on 31 March 2006.

4. Responsibilityfor the Tay Road Bridge lies with the Tay Road Bridge Joint Board.

5. Responsibilityfor the Forth Road Bridge lies with the Forth Estuary Transport Authority.

Question reference: S3W-03510

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 4 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many assaults on doctors in the workplace were reported in each year since 1990, broken down by NHS board area.

Question reference: S3W-03509

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 20 August 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 4 September 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many assaults on nurses in the workplace were reported in each year since 1990, broken down by NHS board area.

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