Information on levels of unmet need are not currently collected by the Scottish Executive. However, the Social Work Information Review Group indentified this as a requirement in their publication, Local and National Information Requirements for Social Work in Scotland, which was published last year.Definition work has now started and recommendations are expected to be put out to a variety of care organisations and local authorities for consultation during 2001-02.

Information about drugs used in the treatment of obesity and impotence is given in the table. Drugs used in the treatment of male-pattern baldness are not prescribable on the NHS by GPs.The amounts shown in the table relate to the cost of drugs dispensed by community pharmacists and dispensing doctors before the deduction of any discount or the addition of dispensing fees. The cost of drugs dispensed in hospitals is not held centrally.

	1997-98		1998-99		1999-2000
	Cost (£)	% of total *FHS drugs budget	Cost (£)	% of total *FHS drugs budget	Cost (£)	% of total *FHS drugs budget
Drugs used in the treatment of obesity	34,088	0.006%	177,180	0.031%	646,936	0.099%
Drugs used in the treatment of impotence	587,684	0.108%	989,148	0.171%	1,759,147	0.269%

*Family Health Services (FHS).

A large amount of research has been carried out in the UK and in many other countries on the effects of selenium deficiency on humans and animals. SERAD currently funds a small amount of work on the effects of selenium on thyroid function.

This information is not available.

The Scottish Executive does not have a formal strategy on research into brain development, brain functions and learning. However, it is generally recognised that developments in research related to the human brain have an important contribution to raising awareness among teachers, educational researchers and teacher educators of the factors which affect successful learning and teaching in the classroom.

Individual research programmes in Scottish higher education institutions are primarily funded by the UK Research Councils. They have mechanisms in place to ensure co-ordination across and between disciplines.

A wide range of conditions are captured by the term neuropsychiatric disease, including Huntington's Disease, head injury, dementia of cardiovascular origin and senile dementia among many others. The responses and contributions to care and prevention are equally wide-ranging and condition specific.We will continue to work with health boards and local authorities to devise and implement approaches to care and prevention that not only respond to the needs of different conditions but that also relate to individually assessed needs and inform our prevention measures.

At a strategic level, the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) within the Scottish Executive Health Department already encourages research projects to have a multidisciplinary involvement. The CSO publication Research Strategy for the National Health Service in Scotland, published in July 1998, identifies the promotion of a multidisciplinary approach to health services research as one of the prime objectives in its overall aim of improving the quality and cost-effectiveness of health services and healthcare. A copy of the Research Strategy is in the Parliament's Reference Centre.This multidisciplinary approach is reflected in CSO funding streams. Having an appropriate multidisciplinary mix is one of the 10 dimensions of assessment by which R&D Support Fund awards are allocated and annually reviewed. Similarly, the majority of research projects funded directly by CSO also have multidisciplinary research teams.

Work is under way to establish by 2003 Electronic Patient Records (EPRs) which will contain the detailed record of care of an individual patient in primary and secondary care organisations. Separately work is in hand to pilot by 2002 Electronic Health Records (EHRs) which will contain summarised information on important health events throughout a patient's life. An important part of the work currently under way is to establish protocols for access to these records by healthcare professionals and patients. However, in planning for such developments, security and confidentiality of patients' information, safeguarding patients' rights, is paramount. Such records will be established on secure private networks to ensure patient confidentiality where access can be strictly controlled.

The Food Standards Agency advises that all imported meat must conform to the same European hygiene standards as UK production. In accordance with European Single Market rules imports from other member states are not checked on import but the EU Food and Veterinary Office make inspection visits in all member states to ensure compliance with single market rules.Third country imports all come from plants approved by the European Commission. Officials in Border Inspection Posts check all consignments from non-EU countries. These checks ensure that all imported meat has been produced to at least the same standards as domestic produce.The agency has requested that food authorities step up checks on imports following recent breaches of EU BSE controls detected in consignments of meat from some member states and imports are currently being checked by either Meat Hygiene Service or local authority officers in the UK.