Chamber and committees

The formula used to distribute financial support for capital expenditure to local authorities takes account of a wide range of factors, including relative deprivation. It is up to each council to decide how best to direct its resources according to local needs and priorities.From 2004-05 onwards, the existing limits on council's capital expenditure will be replaced by a new prudential system. This will allow local authorities to set the level of capital borrowing they consider they can afford, within the limits of prudential indicators.

The Scottish Executive expects the same level of expertise from the members of the Scottish Medicines Consortium as members of committees advising the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (former Medicines Control Agency) would have, for example the Medicines Commission and the Committee on Safety of Medicine. The Chairman of the Scottish Medicines Consortium is the former Chairman of the Medicines Commission and Committee on the Review of Medicines.

The Scottish Executive expects the Scottish Medicines Consortium to take full regard of its policies and strategies.

Details of the new registrations in each NHS board area are set out in the table. Because of an overhaul by NHS UK Transplant of the Organ Donor Register database in 2000, the information requested is only available from 2001.

	2001	2002	2003
Argyll and Clyde	8,619	9,908	4,083
Ayrshire and Arran	6,558	7,344	3,844
Borders	2,924	3,341	1,466
Dumfries and Galloway	2,762	3,107	1,514
Fife	8,449	8,539	4,392
Forth Valley	5,756	6,099	2,799
Grampian	12,947	14,994	8,202
Greater Glasgow	28,634	40,132	4,834*
Highland	4,276	5,752	3,091
Lanarkshire	7,017	8,948	3,647
Lothian	22,864	25,455	13,008
Orkney	432	501	226
Shetland	450	590	277
Tayside	7,914	8,690	10,865*
Western Isles	523	586	301
Total	120,125	143,986	63,549

Note: *NHS UK Transplant is currently reviewing these figures, which appear to be anomalous.

Until the directive has been finalised it is not possible to know what legislation will be needed to give effect to it.In the Scottish Executive's consultation paper Proposal for a Directive on Environmental Liability with regard to the Prevention and Remedying of Environmental Damage, published in April 2002, it was acknowledged that extensive changes to existing measures would be required as the proposed new directive has many differences, including new duties for competent authorities. A copy of the consultation paper is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 20877).

The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the UK Government on a wide range of issues including environmental liability.

Some Scottish legislation requires polluters to pay for damage to the environment. For example the Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003 sets out a framework for improving Scotland's water environment, underpinned by the principle that the polluter will pay for the required improvements. The secondary legislation currently being developed shall also promote this fundamental principle, as will any charging schemes developed under the provisions of the act. This will be balanced by the need to take into account the social and economic impact of enforcing full cost recovery on business or industry. The contaminated land regime established under Part ll A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 enshrines the principle that those responsible for causing pollution of land should pay to clean it up. A framework for establishing who is responsible for remediation costs is set out in the legislation, alongside arrangements for taking into account hardship issues. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency also recovers the cost of its regulatory duties through charges levied on holders of environmental permits and licences.The Scottish Executive is currently monitoring the passage of the Environmental Liability Directive through the European legislative process to see what change might be required to our domestic arrangements.

EU negotiations on the proposed directive on environmental liability are on-going and currently at first reading stage. It is not possible at this stage to offer a definitive view on when the proposal will be agreed.The current position is that the Council of the European Union is expected to adopt a common position in September. This will then be forwarded to the European Parliament for a second reading.

The Executive issued a Health Department Letter NHS HDL(2003)9 on 5 March 2003 advising NHS employers to comply with the requirements of the Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations which implement the EU directive on part-time working. A copy of this letter can be viewed at http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/sehd/hdl.asp.

In line with its equal opportunities and diversity policies, the Scottish Executive does not discriminate against part-time workers and is committed to ensuring that all of its staff achieve a satisfactory work-life balance. Part-time working is only one of several ways in which Executive staff can enjoy additional flexibility in their working pattern.