Chamber and committees

The Executive's 1999 policystatement covering the provision of mental health and social work services formentally disordered offenders made proposals for the organisation anddevelopment of these services throughout Scotland. The statement confirmed that NHS boards wereresponsible for assessing the need for the structured development of localfacilities and services. Where these considerations involved medium secureservices, it was proposed that these be taken forward by NHS boards workingtogether in regional groupings.

Progress on planning andproviding local forensic services continues to be made. The Orchard Clinic withits 50-bed unit was opened on the Royal Edinburgh campus in 2001. Planningpermission for the proposed 70-bed unit at the Stobhill Hospitalsite in Glasgow has been granted, and work is scheduled to begin in2004, with an estimated completion date of mid 2006. The plans for thedevelopment of a 36-bed unit for the West of Scotland are currently out toconsultation. Tayside, Grampian and the Highland NHS boards are assessing theneeds of patients in the north and north east and are expected to come forwardwith proposals in 2004.

There has been a move awayfrom residential detoxification for people with an alcohol dependency tocommunity-based treatment and rehabilitation in the last few years, andinformation on the number of residential places is not consistently collectedby NHS boards, local authorities or alcohol action teams. The team at theNational Alcohol Information Resource will be examining the feasibility ofimproving information collection in this area.

NHS boards test for andtreat chlamydial infection in a range of appropriate clinical settings.

In addition, the nationalhealth demonstration project, Healthy Respect, includes a chlamydia testingprogramme. This involves an innovative postal testing kit available free atmusic stores, pharmacies and other retail outlets to promote and facilitatetesting for infection. The project was launched in 2001, and to date 10,000testing kits have been distributed. The project is being externally evaluated andfindings will be available in October 2004.

Although the aesthetic valueof wind farms is subjective, visual impact is a material consideration when newdevelopments are being considered. Research into wind farms by VisitScotlandindicates that their impact on tourism is generally felt to be minimal; themajority of those who took part in the research were of the view that windfarms will have few negative impacts on tourism. There is also some evidencethat certain wind farms may attract additional visitors who are interested inthe development of a "green" Scotland, as has been the experience in other Europeancountries.

The public consultation on proposals for a National SexualHealth and Relationships Strategy, launched on 12 November, reflects both theincreasing incidence of chlamydia and other sexually transmitted infections,and the impact these can have on health and well-being.

Established measures to raise awareness of chlamydia and itspotential consequences include a major campaign initiated by NHS HealthScotland on 4 June 2003 to raise awareness of the risks of sexually transmittedinfections including chlamydia, the chlamydia testing element of the healthy respectdemonstration project, and a range of targeted local initiatives, designed and delivered by NHS boards to raise awareness of sexually transmitted disease andprevent the spread of infection.

The consultation period forFarr wind farm has ended and we are now considering the application. A decisionwill be made soon.

The initial consultation forthe Gordonbush proposal ended on 20 October. We have, however, requested someadditional environmental information and once this is received, the developerhas a statutory obligation to advertise and invite public representation on theadditional information.

A formal application has notbeen received for Strathbrora Wind farm, but on 2 May 2003 Scottish ministersissued a scoping opinion outlining what issues they considered should becovered in the environmental statement which must accompany any application.

Community wardens are notpolice officers and will not have any police powers. The powers exercised bythe police remain unchanged.

We expect most schemes witha crime prevention focus to be run by local authorities. A wider range oforganisations may be involved in running schemes with a more explicitenvironmental and community development focus. The organisation running thescheme will be responsible for recruitment, salary and conditions of service.

I am aware from ourdiscussions with Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) that the company is in theprocess of preparing an environmental statement in respect of a transmissionline from Beauly to Denny and expects to make an application for consent in thesummer of next year. We have not yet had discussion with SSE about the detailof these proposals, but since any application for consent would fall to Scottishministers to determine, I cannot comment further on this matter.

Decisions concerning annualcheck-ups for over-75s will be taken forward on a UK basis as partof on-going discussions between the NHS Confederation and the UK GeneralPractitioners Committee. There are no plans at this stage for a widerconsultation to take place.