The Executive has commissioned further research from the Health Education Board for Scotland to inform the development of a sexual health strategy. This is due to be completed next month.

The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and regulations made under the Act, provide the basis for preventing misuse of controlled drugs.

There are measures in place to ensure that controlled drugs are prescribed and dispensed on the NHS in accordance with the statutory requirements. Guidance and advice on the principal legal requirements relating to the prescribing of controlled drugs is contained in the British National Formulary provided free to all doctors and pharmacists.

If prescribed controlled drugs became available illegally, then this would be a matter for the police.

The information on MMR vaccination uptake rates to 30 June 2001, published by ISD Scotland, do not include data on single vaccines. They do, however, include information on triple vaccines administered outwith the UK to children who moved to Scotland after being immunised elsewhere.

The £3 million Healthy Respect National Health Demonstration project, currently running in Lothian, has as one of its aims the reduction of unwanted teenage pregnancies. The project, which will be independently evaluated, seeks radically to transform teenage attitudes to sexual health and sexual relationships, with a particular focus on marginalised groups such as young people in care.

In addition to measures taken by health boards and other interests at local level, the Executive is also funding the setting up by Brook in Scotland of four new advice centres for young people, the first of which is expected to open later this year.

The decision to prescribe methadone, or any other pharmacological intervention, is made on clinical grounds based on the assessment of the nature and extent of the individual's problem drug use.

The Scottish Executive liaises with key sectors identified in the Scottish Diet Action Plan in order to monitor its implementation and this will be further enhanced by the recent appointment of the Scottish Food and Health Co-ordinator. Formal reporting mechanisms include the Scottish Health Survey and publications from the Food Standards Agency, Health Education Board for Scotland and from Scottish Executive funded initiatives to improve Scotland's diet.

There are no rapid detoxification clinics in Scotland at present. The Executive's Effective Interventions Unit is in the process of commissioning a research review to examine the evidence on the effectiveness of a range of treatments for opiate users, including residential and community detoxification. The results of this review will enable Drug Action Teams to consider whether such clinics offer best practice.

The UK National Screening Committee (NSC) has now considered the final evaluation report of the chlamydia screening pilot projects run in England over the year to August 2000 and has concluded that a universal national screening programme for chlamydia is not feasible at the present time. The emphasis should rather be on targeted programmes for particular groups. In this respect the national health demonstration project, Healthy Respect, will shortly pilot chlamydia testing in a range of settings to help achieve its headline target of an increase in the reported cases of chlamydia amongst young people by 2003 through raised awareness. This will underpin delivery of the longer-term target to decrease reported prevalence of this infection by 50% by 2010.

The number of organ donor leaflets requested from the Scottish Executive so far this year has already exceeded last year's total by over 31,000. The Scottish Executive has recently provided funding support towards a billboard and cinema advertising initiative organised by the Scottish Transplant Co-ordinators, which took place during Transplant Awareness Week.

The Scottish Executive is currently considering a range of potential measures to raise public awareness about organ donation. We have asked the Scottish Transplant Group to develop a strategy to increase organ donation and I expect to be able to make an announcement once I have received its report later this year.

One key way of helping to increase organ donation rates is for people who would be willing to donate organs to discuss their intentions with their family, so that the family is aware of those intentions if they are ever asked to decide whether organ donation should take place.

We are currently undertaking a review of the implementation of the recommendations of the Expert Advisory Group on Infertility Services in Scotland. This review will cover, amongst other aspects, funding of infertility treatments by health boards. This work is an on-going process but initial results should be available in 2002.