Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-02368

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 7 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the availability is of dual energy X-ray absorptiometry in each NHS board area.

Question reference: S3W-02365

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 7 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the incidence has been of osteoporosis in each year since 1980, broken down by (a) gender and (b) age group.

Information on the incidenceof osteoporosis in Scotland is not available centrally. Information for Scottish Parliamentary constituencies and for Scottish parliamentary regions is onlyavailable from 1 April 1999.

The proportion of the population who consult each year(annual patient rate) and the number of patients seen for osteoporosis in anyyear by a member of the practice team in Scotland can be estimated from Practice Team Information (PTI) data, which is datareceived from a sample of Scottish practices. This data is currently availablefor the years 2003-04 to 2005-06.

Osteoporosis – annual patient rates per 1,000 population andestimated number of patients consulting in Scotland; years ending 31 March 2004, 2005 and2006 by gender and agegroup

Gender		2003-04		2004-05		2005-06
Gender	Age group	Annual patient rate per 1,000 population	Estimated number of patients	Annual patient rate per 1,000 population	Estimated number of patients	Annual patient rate per 1,000 population	Estimated number of patients
Males	Under 50 years	0.1	250	0.1	200	0.1	100
	50 - 69	1.5	850	1.4	850	1.2	700
	70 - 79	4.2	700	4.6	750	3.4	550
	80 years & over	3.0	200	3.9	250	3.4	250
	All ages	0.8	2,000	0.8	2,100	0.6	1,600
Females	Under 50 years	0.6	1,000	0.4	650	0.4	650
	50 - 69	11.9	7,200	8.5	5,200	8.8	5,450
	70 - 79	27.1	5,800	25.0	5,350	23.3	5,000
	80 years & over	24.2	3,300	23.9	3,300	18.9	2,600
	All ages	6.4	17,350	5.4	14,500	5.0	13,700
Total	All ages	3.6	19,300	3.1	16,600	2.8	15,250

Source: ISD.

Notes:

Estimated numbers of patients are rounded to the nearest 50.Total figures may not add up to the sum of the parts due to this rounding.

Due to the small numbers on which these estimates are based,care must be taken when examining these data as a trend.

Following a substantial review of PTI data and subsequentrevisions to the methodology for all PTI analyses, direct comparisons withfigures produced prior to 27th March 2007are not valid. Further information can be found on the ISD website, at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/4724.html.

Question reference: S3W-02367

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 7 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has undertaken any study into the causes of osteoporosis.

The Chief Scientist Office(CSO) within the Scottish Government is providing £4.4 million of funding forGeneration Scotland, a large scale genetic study of which osteoporosis is oneof the conditions under investigation.

CSOhas funded other research projects into osteoporosis in the past. Furtherproposals on research into osteoporosis would be welcomed by CSO. These wouldbe subject to the usual peer and committee review.

The Medical Research Council(MRC) is one of the main agencies through which the Government supports medicaland clinical research. In 2005-06, MRC expenditure on research intoosteoporosis amounted to £2.3 million.

Question reference: S3W-02364

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 7 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the incidence has been of osteoporosis in each year since 1980, broken down by socio-economic group.

Information on the incidenceof osteoporosis in Scotland is not available centrally. Information for Scottish Parliamentary constituencies and for Scottish parliamentary regions is onlyavailable from 1 April 1999.

The proportion of the population who consult each year(annual patient rate) and the number of patients seen for osteoporosis in anyyear by a member of the practice team in Scotland can be estimated from Practice Team Information (PTI) data, which isdata received from a sample of Scottish practices. This data is currentlyavailable for the years 2003-04 to 2005-06 and is shown in the following table.

Osteoporosis – annual patient rates per 1,000 population andestimated number of patients consulting in Scotland; years ending 31 March 2004, 2005 and2006 by deprivationcategory.

Deprivation category (SIMD)	2003-04		2004-05		2005-06
Deprivation category (SIMD)	Annual patient rate per 1,000 population	Estimated number of patients	Annual patient rate per 1,000 population	Estimated number of patients	Annual patient rate per 1,000 population	Estimated number of patients
1 (least deprived)	4.0	4,250	3.0	3,200	3.7	3,950
2	3.6	3,750	3.4	3,600	2.6	2,850
3	3.3	3,450	3.0	3,150	2.4	2,600
4	4.0	4,300	3.2	3,400	2.7	2,850
5 (most deprived)	3.3	3,650	3.0	3,300	2.8	3,050
Scotland	3.6	19,300	3.1	16,600	2.8	15,250

Source: ISD.

Notes:

Estimated numbers of patients are rounded to the nearest 50.Total figures may not add up to the sum of the parts due to this rounding.

Due to the small numbers on which these estimates are based,care must be taken when examining these data as a trend.

the Scottish Indices of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) are used here as a proxy forsocio-economic group.

Following asubstantial review of PTI data and subsequent revisions to the methodology forall PTI analyses, direct comparisons with figures produced prior to 27th March 2007 are not valid. Furtherinformation can be found on the ISD website, at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/4724.html.

Question reference: S3W-02261

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 7 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHS registered dentists there have been in each year since 1990, broken down by (a) Scottish parliamentary constituency, (b) Scottish parliamentary region, (c) local authority area and (d) NHS board area.

The information requested isgiven in the tables 1 to 4: Number of NHS dentists registered to providegeneral dental services, by Scottish parliamentary constituency, in the yearsending 31 March 2000 to 2007; Number of NHS dentists registered to providegeneral dental services; by Scottish parliamentary region, in the years ending31 March 2000 to 2007; Number of NHS dentists registered to provide generaldental services, by local authority area, in the years ending 31 March 1996 to2007; and Number of NHS dentists registered to provide general dental services,by NHS Board, in the years ending 31 March 1996 to 2007. Copies of thesetables have been placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib numbers43309, 43310, 43311 and 43312).

Information for Scottish Parliamentary constituencies and for Scottish parliamentary regions is onlyavailable from 1 April 1999.

Information on the number ofdentists registered to provide general dental services by local authority andNHS board areas is only shown from the year ending 31 March 1996. Comparableinformation is not readily available for the years prior to 31 March 1996.

Question reference: S3W-02363

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 7 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the incidence has been of osteoporosis in Scotland compared with (a) the United Kingdom as a whole, (b) each EU member state and (c) each OECD nation in each year since 1980.

Question reference: S3W-02542

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 27 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 6 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion and number of skillseekers went on to enter the Modern Apprenticeship programme in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S3W-02240

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Maxwell on 6 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has measured, or has any plans to measure, the success of Scotland’s five new towns and, if so, what criteria it uses to measure such success.

The ScottishGovernment has not measured and has no plans to measure the success of Scotland’s five new towns. The UK Government reviewed anumber of aspects of the new towns prior to their wind up in the late 1980s.The key documents in this respect are: The Scottish New Towns: the way ahead(Cm 711) and Industry Department for Scotland: Review of Scottish New Towns (House of CommonsPaper 1987-88).Both documents have been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre(Bib.numbers 43317 and 43318 respectively).

Question reference: S3W-02216

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 6 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on how many megawatt hours of electricity were generated from (a) nuclear, (b) oil and gas, (c) hydro, (d) wind, (e) solar and (f) other sources in each year since 1980.

The ScottishExecutive doe not hold this information centrally. However, in 2006 the Scottish Executive published volumes 1 and 2 of the Scottish Energy Study whichprovides a comprehensive comparison of electricity supplies and demand in 1990and 2002.

These volumes of the Energy Study can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/01/19092748/0 - Volume 1http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/01/19093058/0 - Volume 2

National (UK)data from 1970 onwards, is available from the Department of Business andRegulatory Reform’s long term trends tables, which are published in theinternet version of the Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics. At thefollowing link:

http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/statistics/source/electricity/page18527.html.

Wind and solardata are only available since 1998. These can be found in the renewableschapter of DUKES (Chapter 7) in Table 7.1 - 7.3, and also in Tables 7.4 and7.5.

http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/statistics/source/renewables/page18513.html.

Question reference: S3W-02215

Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 July 2007
Current Status: Answered by Jim Mather on 6 August 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on how many megawatt hours of electricity were (a) generated and (b) consumed in each year since 1980.

the Scottish Executive does not hold this information centrally. However, in 2006the Scottish Executive published volumes 1 and 2 of the Scottish Energy Studywhich provides a comprehensive comparison of electricity supplies and demand in1990 and 2002.

Thesevolumes of the Energy Study can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/01/19092748/0 - Volume 1http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/01/19093058/0 - Volume 2

National (UK)data from 1970 onwards, is available from the Department of Business andRegulatory Reform’s long term trends tables, which are published in theinternet version of the Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics.

However,regional data, including those for Scotland, is only available from 2003onwards. These are published annually in a special article in December's energytrends, and can be accessed via the following link:

http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/statistics/publications/trends/index.html.

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