The feasibility study referred to in the answer to question S1W-18320 has concurred that therapist training is feasible within Scotland and has identified the resources required. Potential numbers, location and timing are still being discussed, but it is expected that plans will allow therapist training to start in 2003. The Scottish Advisory Committee for the Dental Workforce (SACDW) will be discussing this issue at their next meeting, prior to making recommendations on the best balance of numbers in training between hygienists and therapists for Scotland. In order to encourage these professional groups to work in all areas of Scotland, we are also reviewing how, in the longer term, educational provision can be supplied in partnership with remote and rural areas of Scotland.

As part of the Scottish Executive's review of orthodontic services, a new grade of Specialist Salaried General Dental Practitioner and associated feescale were introduced on 9 April 2002 for the salaried general dental service. Such specialist practitioners include orthodontists, with a view to increasing availability of NHS orthodontic treatment. The Executive has already approved, to date, two specialist orthodontist salaried general dental practitioner posts.

The Executive has provided no funding to Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous in the last five years.

Details of the core funding provided by the Executive in each of the last five years to voluntary and other organisations to support and advise people with drug and alcohol problems are as follows:

	1998-99(£ million)	1999-2000(£ million)	2000-01(£ million)	2001-02(£ million)	2002-03(£ million)
Scotland Against Drugs	0.97	1	1	1.5	1.5
Scottish Drugs Forum	0.153	0.156	0.164	0.187	0.290
Alcohol Focus Scotland	0.155	0.161	0.165	0.165	0.175
Crew 2000	0.025	0.026	0.026	0.027	0.027

Local agencies supporting people with drug and alcohol problems receive funding from a variety of sources, details of which are not held centrally. These include NHS boards, local authorities, Social Inclusion Partnerships, the Changing Children's Services Fund, the Rural Challenge Fund and the New Futures Fund.

A caries prevention scheme, which provides the dentist with additional capitation fees, was introduced in October 2001. The scheme is open to all six- and seven-year-olds in Scotland and provides the dentist with an enhanced monthly fee according to the Deprivation Category of the practice postcode. The number of six- and seven-year-olds registered in Deprivation Categories 5, 6 and 7 is set out in the following table:

NHS Board	Deprivation Category	Number of Children Aged 6 and 7 Years
Argyll and Clyde	56	4,2792,694
Ayrshire and Arran	56	3,764446
Borders	Nil	Nil
Dumfries and Galloway	5	667
Fife	5	1,860
Forth Valley	56	7621,929
Grampian	5	1,786
Greater Glasgow	567	4,9709,00712,403
Highland	5	497
Lanarkshire	567	5,7993,890616
Lothian	567	5,44174872
Orkney	Nil	Nil
Tayside	56	2,9551,762
Shetland	Nil	Nil
Western Isles	6	8

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-27544.

The information requested is not held centrally. Waiting time information for treatment for drug and alcohol problems is not held consistently by NHS Trusts. The Executive has, however, obtained information from Drug Action Team Corporate Action Plans which indicates that there are wide variations in waiting times for clients seeking help with drug problems, from a matter of days to several months. Waiting times also vary according to the type of treatment and care required and on the system of prioritisation operating locally. The Effective Interventions Unit's work on integrated care, which will be published in the autumn, will include material about good practice in managing drug treatment services to avoid lengthy waiting times. ISD Scotland and the National Waiting Times Unit are currently involved in identifying how waiting time information in this area might be improved and monitored in the future.

I have made clear to NHS Chairs that action must be taken to address this issue. NHS Chief Executives have received the same message from the Head of the Health Department. The Clinical Standards Board for Scotland (CSBS) is currently visiting individual NHS trusts to confirm its assessment of performance against the standard, including planning arrangements.Following up the CSBS interim report was discussed at the recent HAI convention. A detailed action plan based on that discussion will be issued later this year. When the CSBS has completed its detailed assessment of individual trust's performance further action appropriate to local circumstances will be agreed.

Under clinical governance NHSScotland is expected to implement evidence-based guidance from bodies such as Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN). SIGN Guidelines are an integral part of the development of condition-specific standards by the Clinical Standards Board for Scotland. The board's assessment visits to check compliance with these standards and its clinical governance or "generic" standards will ensure that procedures are in place to implement SIGN and other relevant evidence-based guidance.

Testicular cancer is one of the most curable of cancers, even if it is at an advanced stage at diagnosis, and effective platinum-based chemotherapy has been widely available for nearly 20 years. Although cancer of the testis was one of the most common forms of malignancy in men aged 15-34 between 1989 and 1998, it accounted for less than 2% of all male cancers.Due to improvements in treatment, with dose intensification and the development of new drugs, the outlook should improve for the small proportion of patients with poor prognostic disease, although this will not have a huge effect overall on this disease as the results are already very good.Therefore, although the incidence is rising in most countries in the western world (there are many theories - trauma, vasectomy, infective causes such as mumps, more fat in diet, more oestrogens in agricultural residues) the death rate is low and falling.The projected trends for testicular cancer suggest a continued increase in incidence to a level over 10 per 100,000 by 2010, with a small decrease in mortality.