Estimated number of people with Crohn’s disease at the end of 2004 based on hospital admissions between 1981 and 2004

NHS Board of Residence	Estimated Number of Patients
Argyll and Clyde	1,257
Ayrshire and Arran	1,005
Borders	220
Dumfries and Galloway	352
Fife	1,377
Forth Valley	874
Grampian	1,845
Greater Glasgow	2,496
Highland	683
Lanarkshire	1,485
Lothian	2,043
Orkney	59
Shetland	81
Tayside	1,047
Western Isles	56
Scotland	14,880

Source: SMR01 Linked database, ISD.

Patients with Crohn’s disease could be treated in a variety of health care settings. Many will be treated in acute hospitals at some point.

The table shows an estimate of the number of people with Crohn’s disease based on the number of people with an inpatient or day case episode for Crohn’s disease at some time in the period since 1981 who are still alive in 2005.

The Chief Scientist’s Office (CSO) is currently funding three research projects relating to Crohn’s disease at a total cost of £334,000. Two of the projects, namely, “Gene-environmental interactions in inflammatory bowel disease” and “An investigation of the genetic determinants of susceptibility of Crohn's disease in the Scottish population” are being carried out at the University of Edinburgh. The third project, namely, “Magnetic Resonance Imaging of small bowel in Crohn's disease: evaluation of a novel orally administered hypersomolar bowel-distending agent” is being carried out at the University of Dundee.

The CSO works closely with the Medical Research Council (MRC), the main agency through which the UK Government supports medical and clinical research. It is an independent body deciding what research to support on its own expert judgement. In 2003-04, the MRC spent £1.4 million on research relevant to Crohn’s disease. This included a recently completed project entitled “Microbiology of the gastrointestinal tract” carried out at the University of Dundee.

Details of these projects can be found on the National Research Register (NRR), which is a database of on-going and recently completed publicly funded research projects. this can be accessed at www.nrr.nhs.uk/search.htm. the nrr shows that in scotland, in addition to the projects already mentioned, there are a further three projects researching Crohn’s disease taking place at the University of Edinburgh.

The cause of Crohn’s disease is unknown, although it is common for more than one member of a family to suffer from the condition, and therefore there may be genetic factors involved. I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-17324 on 24 June 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.

The figure of 15,000 does not represent a Scottish Executive estimate for total housing supply requirements, and is not comparable with the house building figures quoted by Homes for Scotland.

Fifteen thousand is a working estimate of the number of new homes per annum which over the period 2006-14 will require entirely new strategic water and sewerage infrastructure, taking account of growth trends. It does not, therefore, include new housing which will be serviced by existing capacity.

The figure derives from Investing in Water Services 2006-2014: Scottish Water Assets, a report by the Quality and Standards (Q & S) 3 Board, which can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/environment/iwswp2swa.pdf.

New strategic infrastructure was discussed as part of the Q & S 3 process with a range of stakeholders, including Homes for Scotland.

We will keep the estimates used for strategic water capacity requirements under review and revise these in the light of further evidence.

The Scottish Executiverecognises the importance of Johne’s disease to the livestock industry andfunds a significant programme of research into the disease epidemiology,bacteriology and immunology at the Moredun Research Institute and the ScottishAgricultural College (SAC).

Following work commissionedfrom SAC, the Scottish  Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department (SEERAD)issued an advisory leaflet on the control and management of the disease to alldairy farmers last September.  More detailed guidance, being developed with thelivestock industry, will be issued shortly.

As part of the GBSurveillance Group of the Diseases and Infections of Animals, SEERAD will beinvolved in a forthcoming study to determine the prevalence of Johnes in the UK.

The level of funding allocatedto a health board by the Arbuthnott formula reflects the board’s relative needfor health care. The Arbuthnott formula includes an adjustment to take intoaccount the additional costs of delivering health care in remote and ruralareas.

Any changes to thepopulation of any board area brought about by the redrawing of NHS boardboundaries would be reflected in a revised calculation which would ensure thatthe level of funding each new board receives reflects the relative health careneeds of the new board’s resident population. This would be calculated on thebasis of the existing Arbuthnott formula i.e. there will be no re-assessment totake account of the 26 Islands in Argyll and Clyde.

Additionally, theNHSScotland Resource Allocation Committee was set-up earlier this year toimprove and refine the Arbuthnott formula. Among other aspects of the formula,the committee is planning to consider how remoteness is address.

Drug Treatment and Testing Orderswill be available in all but three criminal justice social work groupings by thestart of July 2005.

The exceptions are Dumfries and Galloway, theArgyll, Bute and Dunbartonshires grouping and the Forth Valley groupingwhere the plans are for the Order to be available by September.

In the schools context the Executive is working to improve the mental and emotional well-being of pupilsas part of a whole school health promotion agenda which seeks to connect workon mental and emotional well-being, diet and physical activity into a cohesivewhole. To this end, the Executive has established and continues to support the Scottish Health Promoting Schools Unit, which includes a national developmentofficer with a specialist focus on mental and emotional well-being, whose keyrole is to enable all schools to become health promoting by 2007. This workcomplements the wider aims of the Executive’s National Programme for ImprovingMental Health and Well-Being.

The Arbuthnott formula allocates resources to health boards in Scotland by determining their relative need for funding. The formula is based on a board’s population but adjusted for factors that determine relative need for health care. These factors are the age structure of the population and relative number of males and females, the level of deprivation and an adjustment to take into account the additional costs of delivering healthcare in remote and rural areas.

Based on the indicators which contribute to the Arbuthnott formula, the Western Isles has, relative to Orkney, a higher proportion of population characteristics which indicate the need for more healthcare resources. Western Isles also has higher levels of deprivation and remoteness. These adjustments result in higher per capita funding for Western Isles.

Numbers of local authority dwellings vacant as at 31 March each year are published in the Scottish Executive Statistical Bulletin (Housing Series): the most recent published figures as at 31 March 2004 are shown in table 19 of HSG/2004/4 Housing trends in Scotland: quarters ending 31 December 2003 and 31 March 2004. This is available on-line in the published information section of the Housing Statistics Branch reference site. Figures for March 2005 are due to be published in August 2005.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/housing/hsbref.