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Adoption “at birth”is impossible, because an adoption order can only be granted by a court after acomplex assessment process, and the mother’s agreement to offer a child for adoptionis not valid if given less than six weeks after the child’s birth. It is rare nowadaysfor an infant to be offered for adoption shortly after birth. The following tableshows, for each year since 1987, the number of children aged under six months registeredfor adoption. The table also gives the total number of births registered each year.Because of the small numbers of adoptions involved, percentages have not been presented.

Adoptions ofChildren Aged Under Six Months, 1987-2006

Year of Adoption	Number	Total Number of Births
1987	33	66,241
1988	35	66,212
1989	16	63,480
1990	21	65,973
1991	9	67,024
1992	4	65,789
1993	10	63,337
1994	3	61,656
1995	1	60,051
1996	2	59,296
1997	0	59,440
1998	1	57,319
1999	4	55,147
2000	1	53,076
2001	1	52,527
2002	1	51,270
2003	3	52,432
2004	4	53,957
2005	1	54,386
2006	3	55,690

 

Improvingservices for those with dementia and their carers is a priority for the Scottish Government and further options for change and improvement are beingexplored through the Better Health, Better Care consultation which runsto 12 November 2007. The outcomes will complement the rangeof initiatives already underway to increase support available to those withdementia.

I have alsoappointed a Dementia Forum to inform and advise current and future attention onthis important agenda. That agenda includes; a forthcoming integrated care pathwaystandard for dementia; the funding for a partnership dementia services redesignproject through NHS Forth Valley and the Dementia Services Development Centre;attention on ensuring all new and refurnished primary care premises aredesigned to be dementia friendly; work with NHS Education for Scotland todevelop a competency based framework for mental health staff working with olderadults and grant funding over the next three years to support both AlzheimerScotland and the Dementia Services Development Centre.

 

Biodiesel as a blendedtransport fuel with standard fossil and mineral diesel is already sold in outletsacross the UK without the need for separate labelling orpumps. The biofuel component of blended fuels will increase to 5% as part of theRenewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO) target by 2010. New vehicle engine warrantieswould be invalid if biofuel content greater than 5% were used. To provide furthercertainty to transport fuel suppliers and stimulate production, the Chancellor of the Exchequer extended the period of RTFO fuel duty incentive of 20p per litre onbiodiesel and bioethanol production until 2009-10.

We are developingplans to consult with key stakeholders to consider what reasonable steps can betaken to encourage wider use of higher blends of biofuels for all road vehicles.We continue to monitor UK and European discussions aimed at increasingthe RTFO target beyond 2010.

The ScottishGovernment has issued no guidance to NHS boards on the issuing of fines to out-patientsor any other hospital car park user. The management of hospital car parks is alocal matter for NHS boards, in line with current guidance issued by theprevious administration earlier this year which the Scottish Government is reviewing. Iannounced the review on 14 September 2007 and Ianticipate that the review group will report back to me by the end of November.

Noassessment has been made by the Scottish Government on the impact of hospitalcar parking charges on residents living near hospitals. The introduction of car parking charges, orthe revision of existing arrangements, is a matter for NHS boards in light oflocal circumstances and I would expect NHS boards totake account of local residents as part of their planning and consultationprocess before introducing charges.

The management ofhospital car parks is a local matter for NHS boards, in line with currentguidance issued by the previous administration earlier this year which the Scottish Government isreviewing. I announced the review on 14 September 2007 and I anticipate that the review group will reportback to me by the end of November.

By introducinghospital car park charges, NHS boards can better manage car parks and greatlyimprove the availability of parking spaces for patients, visitors and carersattending hospitals.

The currentguidance on hospital car park charging states that boards must provide freeparking or concessions to certain categories of car park users, includingfrequently attending visitors for longer stay patients, patients in highdependency units and patients in intensive care areas.

The management ofhospital car parks is a local matter for NHS boards, in line with currentguidance issued by the previous administration earlier this year which the Scottish Government isreviewing. I announced the review on 14 September 2007 and I anticipate that the review group will reportback to me by the end of November.

The currentguidance to NHS boards on hospital car park charging states that boards mustprovide free parking to certain categories of patients, such as those on longerterm treatments including radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

The management ofhospital car parks is a local matter for NHS boards, in line with currentguidance issued by the previous administration earlier this year which the Scottish Government isreviewing. I announced the review on 14 September 2007 and I anticipate thatthe review group will report back to me by the end of November.

I have asked MikeEwart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

A table showingthe average annual prisoner population across all sites since 1979 has beenplaced in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number  43685). SPSdoes not hold historical information on prisoner places in the formatrequested.

The figures in thefollowing table on the numbers of drug-related deaths in Scotland since 1997 were compiled by the General Register Officefor Scotland (GROS).

Information on theproportion that led to a custodial sentence is not available as court proceedingsstatistics held centrally do not uniformly contain detailed information on circumstancesof the original offence.

Drug-Related Deaths¹in Scotland, Numbers, Local Authority Area, 1997-2006

Council Area	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Scotland	224	249	291	292	332	382	317	356	336	421
Aberdeen City	13	20	22	22	32	34	21	27	11	26
Aberdeenshire	7	6	11	6	14	9	13	8	10	16
Angus	2	4	2	3	1	4	5	8	8	11
Argyll and Bute	-	1	1	3	1	5	3	4	3	1
Clackmannanshire	1	2	-	-	-	7	2	5	3	7
Dumfries and Galloway	7	4	7	7	8	9	9	7	7	5
Dundee City	22	12	12	7	13	6	9	11	11	16
East Ayrshire	1	2	6	3	10	12	3	4	4	9
East Dunbartonshire	3	5	2	4	3	1	6	5	1	2
East Lothian	4	1	2	1	2	6	4	2	5	3
East Renfrewshire	-	3	3	4	3	5	3	5	1	3
Edinburgh, City of	33	29	25	28	39	27	26	17	41	30
Eilean Siar	-	-	1	-	1	1	1	-	1	1
Falkirk	2	-	5	1	7	8	6	7	8	10
Fife	8	13	9	12	11	12	12	17	21	19
Glasgow City	59	83	91	96	84	111	93	106	75	113
Highland	3	1	7	1	5	8	7	8	10	11
Inverclyde	5	9	12	11	12	8	7	9	7	9
Midlothian	4	4	4	3	5	2	3	5	5	6
Moray	2	-	5	3	-	4	3	4	2	5
North Ayrshire	2	2	5	11	15	14	9	13	6	11
North Lanarkshire	7	12	11	18	12	28	22	20	25	24
Orkney Islands	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Perth and Kinross	6	7	-	4	5	4	5	4	7	8
Renfrewshire	6	10	11	11	5	9	11	14	10	17
Scottish Borders	1	1	-	1	1	-	2	2	7	2
Shetland Islands	-	1	-	1	1	1	-	-	1	2
South Ayrshire	3	-	4	6	10	7	7	3	5	5
South Lanarkshire	7	11	17	12	16	14	8	17	16	22
Stirling	1	-	3	3	2	9	4	4	3	7
West Dunbartonshire	8	3	5	5	6	13	6	8	15	12
West Lothian	7	3	8	5	8	4	7	12	7	7

 

 

Source: http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/publications-and-data/drug-related-deaths/drug-related-deaths-in-scotland-2006/drug-related-deaths-in-scotland-2006-tables.html(Table 2a).Note: 1 Further informationon the definitions of drug related deaths can be found at Annex A of the GROS publicationDrug Related Deaths in Scotland 2006: http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/files1/stats/drug-related-deaths-2006/drug-related-deaths-2006.pdf.

The information requestedis not held centrally. Information on the expenditure of local authorities is collectedannually via Local Financial Returns (LFRs). However, the LFR returns do not collectinformation at the level of detail requested.