Chamber and committees

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:About 2,100 prisoner places are currently available to prisoners who wish to have nothing to do with drugs. This figure represents 36% of available capacity. The SPS Drug Strategy (Partnership and Co-ordination, published in March 2000) looked for around 40% of capacity to be available to such prisoners by April 2002.

The Executive issued NHS HDL (Health Department Letter) (2002)20 to NHSScotland on 28 March 2002. This outlines guidance on payment verification arrangements for family health services. Chapter 4 of the payments verification procedures document at Annex B of the HDL lists the verification checks undertaken by the Common Services Agency on payments claimed by GPs under general medical services, including item of service fees. In addition, the Executive issued HDL(2002)23 on 5 April 2002 which provides guidance to NHSScotland on procedures to be followed where there is cause to suspect that a criminal offence, including fraud, has been committed involving public funds or property. There is a requirement to report the case to the Procurator Fiscal where there is prima facie evidence of fraud. The HDLs are available on the SHOW website at:http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/sehd/publications.aspIn addition to having their case referred to the Procurator Fiscal, GPs who are suspected of claiming payments falsely will be investigated by the Fraud Investigation Unit of the Common Services Agency and may be referred to one or more of the following bodies, depending on the gravity of the alleged offence - an NHS Discipline Committee, the NHS Tribunal, the General Medical Council.

The Executive recognises and supports the work of research charities with which we have a common purpose - to secure continuous improvements in outcomes, treatment, care and quality of life for NHS patients. Under a UK-wide agreement with the research charities, the Executive financially supports charity-funded research by meeting the costs to the NHS of hosting their research activities. These costs are met through the NHS R&D Support Fund which is managed by the Chief Scientist Office (CSO). It follows, therefore, that any increase in cancer research which charities fund within NHSScotland will be eligible for additional support funding from the NHS R&D Support Fund.Furthermore, as I announced last month, £1 million is being made available to support additional clinical trials in cancer.

As was made clear in my reply to the question S1W-23296, decisions regarding staffing levels for primary care nurses and the need for any specialist posts in the field of coronary heart disease are the responsibility for NHS boards. Information on the need for posts and how this is addressed is not held centrally. There is no specific guidance on appropriate staffing levels in relation to the provision of service in this area.

As we made clear in our response to the final report of the Bristol Inquiry, patient safety and the quality of clinical care are paramount within NHSScotland. To achieve that general aim, a variety of safeguards are in place. In relation to medicines, it is the responsibility of the Medicines Control Agency to ensure that all medicines on the UK market meet appropriate standards of safety, quality and efficacy. Clinical trials may also be used to assess the effectiveness of new treatments or technologies, such as new ways of carrying out operative procedures or new radiotherapy regimens. Prior to the start of NHS clinical trials, they should be appraised by the appropriate NHS research ethics committee.In relation to new interventional procedures, such as surgery and interventional cardiological and radiological examinations and treatments, the former Safety and Efficacy Register for New Interventional Procedures was taken over by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence with effect from 1 April this year. This is a UK initiative which will continue to apply to the introduction of new interventional procedures in NHSScotland.Highly specialised services are introduced only when the Executive has been assured by the National Services Advisory Group that this can be done without compromising patient safety.The safety and effectiveness of medical devices is the responsibility of the Medical Devices Agency, which operates on a UK basis.

In the event of any cases or outbreaks of smallpox in Scotland, vaccination measures would be deployed as appropriate. For security reasons, it is not UK policy to disclose details of vaccine stock or its location.

Data on the prescribing of statins will be included in the National Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) database, as the data will be generated by routine patient management. Information about the database will be given in the CHD and Stroke Strategy for Scotland, which we expect to publish in the early summer.

I refer the member to the answers given to questions S1W-23845 20 March 2002 and S1W-24850 on 19 April 2002.

The Public Health Institute for Scotland's remit extends to the creation of a Scotland wide learning network of practitioners, academics and decision makers around the topic of heart health. The functions of this network will be:

• To sift, analyse and share the existing national and international evidence base.
• To collate and analyse existing practice and share lessons.
• To support local policy-makers and practitioners to translate policy priorities into strategic action.
• To inform plans for dissemination and roll-out of lessons learned from the demonstration projects and identified areas of good practice.
• To identify implications for future practice and put forward relevant strategies/plans.

A co-ordinator for the network has recently been appointed and will take up post on 1 May.

The smallpox vaccine is regularly tested to ensure its potency. For security reasons, it is not UK policy to disclose details of vaccine stock.