Chamber and committees

The £18.5 million languagesfund provided to education authorities since 2001 has been used to: trainmodern languages teachers; allow teachers to be seconded to support modernlanguages developments; enhance learning and teaching resources; provideforeign language assistants; support cluster planning; provide links abroad;and to teach languages to nursery pupils and those with Additional SupportNeeds. We believe that this will have had a positive impact on attainment.

Through the implementationof A Curriculum for Excellence we will revise and streamline Primary curriculumguidelines and overhaul the curriculum in S1 to S3 to increase opportunitiesfor challenge, choice and motivation. Work in these areas will ensure thatchildren are able to maintain their progress in learning as they move frompre-school to primary, and from primary to secondary school. It will also allowteachers more flexibility and scope to provide rich and varied experiences. Theactions under A Curriculum for Excellence are expected to improvemotivation and attainment across the whole curriculum.

North Ayrshire Council has now been allocated £300,000 per annum for 2006-07 and 2007-08 to tackle financial exclusion because of the connection between financial exclusion and the very high-level of income deprivation in North Ayrshire.

There have been no discussions to date.

A consultation on the future arrangements for the supply of appliances currently available on prescription was conducted in 2003 when views were sought from all interested parties. Only three patient organisations responded - the British Colostomy Association, the Ileostomy and Internal Pouch Support Group, and the Dumfries and Galloway Ileostomy Association.

The way forward was announced in January 2005 and the development proposals will ensure that patients, their representative bodies and stoma nurses all have the opportunity to be involved in the detail of the new arrangements.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-16273, answered 10 May 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

A consultation on the future arrangements for the supply of appliances currently available on prescription was conducted in 2003 and the Scottish Pharmaceutical General Council (SPGC) was one of the bodies that responded.

The way forward was announced in January 2005. An action plan for the development and implementation of the new arrangements will be published shortly. This will include the establishment of a steering group that will include community pharmacy contractor representation. Additionally, negotiations on the new community pharmacy contract are on-going with the SPGC; these will cover the contractual arrangements in respect of any dispensing by community pharmacists of prescriptions for appliances.

The Scottish Executive provides funding to the Scottish Road Safety Campaign for the development of key road safety education initiatives and publicity messages. The campaign encourages the use of protective headgear through the Scottish Cycle Training Scheme and other promotional materials.

No. However, to encourage the purchase of cycle helmets, all cycle helmets have been zero rated for VAT since 1 April 2001.

The number of pedal cyclistsadmitted to hospital with head injuries as a result of being involved in a transportaccident was 527 in the year ending March 2004, the latest date available. Dataare not routinely collected at a level of detail that would allow explicit identificationof the number of patients in Scotland with head injuries resulting from skateboarding or rollerblading.

The number of pedestrians admittedto hospital with head injuries as a result of being involved in a transport accidentwas 401 in the year ending March 2004. A pedestrian is any person involved in anaccident who was not at the time of the accident riding in or on a motor vehicle,railway train, streetcar or animal-drawn or other vehicle, or on a pedal cycle oranimal. It is not possible to distinguish between individual pedestrian conveyanceswhich includes skateboarding and rollerblading.

Source: ISD Scotland,SMR01 at 18 April 2005.

Notes:

1. These statistics are derivedfrom data collected on discharges from non-obstetric and non-psychiatric hospitals(SMR01) in Scotland. The International Statistical Classification of Diseasesand Related Health Problems, tenth revision (ICD10) is used to identify (i) HeadInjury, S00-S09, (ii) Pedal cyclists injured in transport accidents, V10-V19, and(iii) Pedestrians injured in transport accidents, V01–V09.

2. Up to six diagnoses (one principal,five secondary) are recorded on SMR01 returns. Head injuries have been selectedin principal diagnostic position with “pedal cyclists injured in transport accidents”and “pedestrians injured in transport accidents” selected in diagnostic positionstwo to six.

3. A number of patients involvedin such accidents will be treated as out-patients in accident and emergency departments.However, it is not possible to identify the reason for attendance at accidentand emergency from centrally held data.

4. Cases where the patient wasnot admitted to hospital are not included.

5. Information presented is forScottish residents only.

6. In order to count patients,the SMR01 linked data set was used. All records for each patient are linked togetherusing “probability matching”. The “probability matching” algorithm uses all theavailable identifying information (name, date of birth, postcode, hospital casereference number etc) to link the records.

7. A pedestrian is any personinvolved in an accident who was not at the time of the accident riding in or ona motor vehicle, railway train, streetcar or animal-drawn or other vehicle, or ona pedal cycle or animal. A pedestrian includes:

Person:

Changing wheel of a vehicle

Making adjustment to motor ofvehicle

On foot

User of a pedestrian conveyancesuch as:

Baby carriage

Ice-skates

Perambulator

Push-cart

Push-chair

Roller-skates

Scooter

Skateboard

Skis

Sled

Wheelchair (powered).

A Prostate Cancer Risk ManagementPrimary Care Resource Pack has been circulated to every general practitioner inScotland to help provide advice to men about prostate cancer risk.

We have made available £4 millionover two years to fund 10 well man pilot clinics across the country targeting ourmost disadvantaged men who are at the greatest risk of poor health. The pilots providemen with the opportunity to undertake a holistic health assessment which includesthe opportunity to discuss concerns regarding prostate cancer.

Scottish Referral Guidelinesfor Suspected Cancer were published in 2002. These guidelines are aimed at facilitatingappropriate referral between primary and secondary care for men whom a GP suspectsmay have cancer and include information and advice about the signs and symptomsof prostate cancer.

I refer the member to the answerto question S2W-14639 on 10 March 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for whichcan be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

2001 is the most recent yearfor which these data are available.