Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the UK Government on a wide range of issues, including consumer protection.

Consideration is being given to funding a range of initiatives as part of the spending review, the outcome of which will be announced later this year.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The Executive is currently reviewing the How much is too much? campaign following completion of the first phase last year.Learning from this review will be used to take forward a communications campaign which will seek to integrate core national messages with local priorities identified by Alcohol Action Teams.

Alcohol education forms part of health education in schools, specifically within drug education. Guidelines already exist in the form of 5-14 Health Education Guidelines which were published in October 2000, together with a Guide for Teachers and Managers. These offer a framework within which education authorities should develop their health education programmes including alcohol education.The 2001-02 drug education survey published in October 2002 indicted that 99% of Scottish schools provide alcohol education.

The Plan for Action on alcohol problems, published in January last year, sets out a range of measures to reduce alcohol-related harm in Scotland. Action is grouped into the areas of culture change, prevention and education, providing support and treatment services, protection and controls for individuals and the wider community and delivery. The two key priorities of the plan are to reduce binge drinking and reduce harmful drinking by children and young people.In September last year we published an Alcohol Problems Support and Treatment Services Framework to provide guidance to those involved in planning, commissioning and managing services. This identified a range of ways in which services could respond to specific and more general needs.

The Executive provides core funding for Alcohol Focus Scotland to support Local Councils on Alcohol provide individual counselling and support for people with alcohol problems. Section 9 funding is also provided as a contribution to training costs.

Recruitment policies are matters for the relevant NHS bodies, in this case NHS Argyll and Clyde, who must satisfy themselves that practice is consistent with current employment legislation. The Health Department is not aware of any conflict between recruitment policies operated locally by the NHS in Argyll and Clyde and the legislation. The new interim management team, whose appointment to NHS Argyll and Clyde I announced on 17 December, will review approaches to staff recruitment and retention across the board area.

Allocations are made to NHS boards and not the individual trusts. Argyll and Clyde Health Board received the following allocations:

Financial Year	Allocation Received(£000)
1999-2000	396,906
2000-01	430,583
2001-02	456,986
2002-03*	475,936

Note:*Not full year allocation (to October 2002).The distribution of these funds between the trusts is a matter for the board and trusts to negotiate.However, the following data has been extracted from the board accounts:

	Argyll and Clyde Acute(£000)	Lomond and Argyll PCT(£000)	Renfrewshire and Inverclyde PCT(£000)	Trust Total(£000)
2001-02	142,489	87,165	151,527	381,181
2002-03	148,866	90,664	158,099	397,629

I know that recruitment and retention of skilled staff is a major issue for NHS Argyll and Clyde, as elsewhere in NHSScotland. The new interim management team, whose appointment I announced on 17 December, will review staff recruitment and retention among other important matters.