Chamber and committees

The Executive welcomes the Health Technology Board for Scotland's Comment on the use of Cox II selective inhibitors. NHSScotland should take account of this advice and ensure that these treatments are made available to meet clinical need.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-26210.

The number of rheumatologists per head of the population is less than the level recommended by the British Society for Rheumatology. The staffing establishment in NHSScotland is decided by the local NHS board, in consultation with the trusts in its area, in order to provide a modern, flexible service matched to local needs. Criteria produced by external organisations do not govern the staffing establishment, although we would expect NHS boards to consider such recommendations in their future planning.The new workforce development arrangements that we are establishing will seek to bring a more co-ordinated approach to assessing the workforce needs of NHSScotland.

This is a matter for Scottish Enterprise. The information requested is not held centrally.

The information requested is not available

The evaluation of the operation of the pilot projects of the Victim Liaison Offices in Aberdeen and Hamilton is planned to proceed in the period from June to December 2002. An interim report is expected in September 2002.The management review of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service was completed in February 2002. Implementation of the recommendations of the review is now in progress.

Housing benefit administration is a matter for the UK Government. Local authorities in Scotland have a statutory duty to administer housing benefit and council tax benefit under social security legislation and are funded by the UK Government for doing this.All authorities are expected to secure Best Value by the pursuit of continuous improvement across the full range of their activities. The Local Government in Scotland Bill, introduced on 16 May, will give statutory backing to the duty of Best Value and the audit regime which supports it.

The first full year in which data was collected on the performance of local authorities against each relevant performance indicator was 2000-01. The average times were as follows:average time for processing new claims - 48 daysaverage time for processing notifications for changes of circumstance - 22 dayspercentage of renewal claims processed in time (before the end of the benefit period) - 75%Data for 2001-02 is not yet available.Source: Audit Scotland Performance Indicators 2000-01 - Benefits, Finance and Corporate Issues.Note: Three of the 32 local authorities in Scotland failed to provide the data requested and, in some cases, the appointed auditors expressed doubt as to the reliability of the data collected. The figures given are an average of the performance of the local authorities which responded.

The following information is collected about evictions in each of the two main social rented tenures:

Tenure	Information Collected	Frequency of Collection	Data Collected Since:	Latest Available
Rented from Council	Total number of evictionsNumber of evictions on the grounds of anti-social behaviour	Quarterly	Both from the quarter April-June 2001	July-September 2001
Rented from Registered Social Landlords	Total number of evictionsNumber of evictions on the grounds of anti-social behaviourNumber of evictions for non-payment of rent	Annually	The first since year to March 1999The others will be collected from 2001-02	For total evictions:Year to 31 March 2001

Information on evictions of private sector tenants is not collected centrally and we have no plans do to so.The latest available information on evictions in the local authority sector was published in the Scottish Executive Quarterly Housing Trends Bulletin HSG/2002/1, which is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (publication date 26 March 2002, Bib. number 20348). Information on evictions by Registered Social Landlords is held by Communities Scotland.In deciding on the regular statistical information to gather, maintain and publish centrally, the Executive consults regularly with suppliers and users of our statistics through established statistical liaison arrangements, and consultation on the annual Scottish Executive Statistics Plan.

The Victim Liaison Office based at the Procurator Fiscal's Office in Glasgow deals only with cases which occur in the Glasgow area and which fall within the categories dealt with by the Victim Liaison Office, as referred to in the answer to question S1W-24819 on 3 May 2002.