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The numbers of men aged between 50 and 65 who were diagnosed with and operated on for AAA and who were alive at least 30 days after their last AAA-related operation in each year since 1999 are presented in Table 1.

The numbers of men aged between 50 and 65 who died as a result of an abdominal aortic aneurysm in each year since 1999 are presented in table 2.

Table 1. Numbers of men aged between 50 and 65 who were diagnosed with and operated on for an abdominal aortic aneurysm and who were alive at least 30 days of their last AAA-related operation in each year since 1999:

Source: General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) Death Data and SMR01 (ISD Scotland) Discharges from non-obstetric/non-psychiatric NHS hospitals in Scotland. Date extracted: October 2009.

Table 2. Numbers of men aged between 50 and 65 who died as a result of an abdominal aortic aneurysm in each year since 1999:

Source: General Register Office for Scotland (GROS). Date extracted: October 2009.

NHS boards in Scotland report their sickness absence rates based on contracted hours lost rather than days lost, due to different shift patterns in the NHS Scotland workforce. The latest available information is given in the following table. As can be seen, the rate of sickness absence has fallen from a high of 5.55% in 2007 to 4.95% in 2009 and this represents over 1 million more hours being available to NHSScotland.

Further information on the statistics, including information on how the data is collected and notes to aid interpretation, is given in the Background section of the Workforce Statistics website at:

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Hours Lost Due to Sickness Absence by NHS Board

Source: NHS Blood and Transplant.

Source: NHS Blood and Transplant.

Information on the numbers of staffed available beds and bed occupancy in NHS Hospitals in Scotland is published on the NHS National Services Scotland Information Services Division website at .

It should be noted that the range of facilities provided by hospitals (including inpatient beds) makes up only a small proportion of the total services provided by the NHS in Scotland.

The information requested on the funding made available to ASH Scotland in Financial Year 2008-09 is provided following:

(a) Available funding in cash terms

(i) Scottish Government funding

Note: *Partnership Action on Tobacco and Health (PATH) is a joint initiative set up in 2002 to support the expansion of evidence-based smoking cessation services involving the Scottish Government, NHS Health Scotland, the NHS in Scotland and COSLA, which is co-located with and managed on behalf of the partners by ASH Scotland.

(ii) Other Public Funding

NHS Health Scotland: £34,172.

(b) As a Proportion of ASH Scotland''s Budget

ASH Scotland is an independent Scottish charity and the Scottish Government does not hold information on ASH''s total budget other than that published annually in ASH''s audited accounts. Its audited accounts for 2008-09 have not yet been published but will in due course be publicly available and can be requested directly from the charity concerned.

It should also be noted that independent reviews to examine ASH Scotland''s performance in providing value for money in relation to the funding provided by the Scottish Government to support its core activities and projects and of PATH were undertaken in 2007-08. Copies of the review findings are available on the attached links .