Chamber and committees

This information is not held centrally.

The operational costs for the healthy living line from 1 January 2004 to 31 December 2005 are presented in the following table. As the healthy living line is an integral part of NHS 24 there are costs which cannot be identified separately, for example, staff training, management time, infrastructure costs.

2004		2005
January	£78,525*	January	£6,536
February	£9,814	February	£6,293
March	£10,900	March	£5,335
April	£4,481	April	£5,500
May	£6,015	May	£5,249
June	£6,171	June	£4,324
July	£6,468	July	£7,525
August	£6,184	August	£3,980
September	£6,374	September	£5,569
October	£6,665	October	£6,075
November	£6,482	November	£6,389
December	£4,340	December	£4,996

*The January 2004 costs includes £69,470 of transfer costs as the line was transferred from Essentia to NHS 24 on 6 January 2004.

The Water Division Team in the Environment and Rural Affairs Department are responsible for direct liaison with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

The Scottish Executive has already had extensive discussions on the Controlled Activities Regulations with the CBI, Scotch Whisky Association, other industry bodies and individual firms at official and ministerial level. Dialogue with industry is continuing.

Latest statistics as at 30 September 2004 suggest that NHSScotland does not employ specialist prostate cancer nurses. However, other clinical nurse specialists may provide a service in this area as part of their current role, e.g. urological nurse specialists and urology/oncology cancer nurse specialists.

Staffing numbers across a range of professional groups will be forecast by NHS boards and regions as they develop and submit their workforce plans in 2006, taking into consideration a range of drivers affecting future demand such as Delivering for Health.

Information on staff in post - including clinical nurse specialists - in NHS Scotland is published on the Scottish Health Statistics website under Workforce Statistics, at www.isdscotland.org/workforce.

The Chief Scientist Office (CSO), within the Scottish Executive Health Department, has responsibility for encouraging and supporting research into health and health care needs in Scotland. The CSO does not allocate its funds to particular illnesses or conditions. Cancer is a research priority and in 2004-05 CSO spent 23% of its total budget on cancer research.

In 2004-05, the CSO allocated £34.74 million of its budget of £49.21 million to health boards to meet the cost to the NHS of hosting, supporting and conducting non-commercial research (funded by Government, charities and research councils). The remainder of the CSO’s budget is spent on directly funded research by responding to requests for funding research proposals initiated by the research community in Scotland. This role is well known and advertised throughout the healthcare and academic community.

The CSO is not funding directly any research on prostate cancer. The CSO would be pleased to consider research proposals for innovative prostate cancer studies of a sufficiently high standard. These would be subject to the usual peer and committee review.

The Development Department has not provided direct funding in respect of autistic spectrum disorders (ASD). However, funding for ASD has been given through the Scottish Executive’s Health and Education Departments. I refer the member to the answers to questions S2W-20805 and S2W-20806 on 30 November 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The Justice Department has not provided specific funding in respect of autistic spectrum disorders (ASD). However, funding for ASD has been given through the Scottish Executive’s Health and Education Departments. I refer the member to the answers to questions S2W-20805 and S2W-20806 on 30 November 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

NHS boards working with their partners are responsible for assessing and responding appropriately to all needs in their area.

NHS boards working with their partners are responsible for assessing and responding appropriately to all needs in their area.

NHS Quality Improvement Scotland has made no recommendation on this condition.