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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Scottish Executive does notgather data on the effectiveness of drug therapies.

The Scottish MedicinesConsortium (SMC) was established to advise all NHS boards in Scotland on newdrugs and new indications for established drugs. In January 2004 the SMC concluded:

Although zoledronic acid (zometa)demonstrated a reduction in skeletal related events (SREs) compared with placebo[in these patients], the absolute reduction was small and the study requires cautionin accepting this as sufficient evidence to introduce zoledronic acid into standardpractice for the treatment of patients with metastatic prostate cancer. An economiccase was submitted by the manufacturer but its quality was not judged to be sufficientto support a recommendation that the drug is cost-effective relative to standardpractice in Scotland for this particular indication.

In the event of new evidencecoming forward from the manufacturer regarding this therapy the SMC would be willingto consider it.

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.