Chamber and committees

An extensive range oforganisations have provided invaluable and insightful contributions to mentalhealth working groups over recent years. There have also been contributionsfrom individuals where those concerned have not been attached to anorganisation or group.

A review of all involvementsince 1999 would incur disproportionate cost. However, the spread ofcontribution has been considerable and, as well as individuals, would includeorganisations such as:

Advocacy Safeguards Agency

Alzheimer Scotland –Action on Dementia

Carers Scotland

Consultation and AdvocacyPromotion Service

Disability RightsAssociation

ENABLE

Highland User’s Group

Highland Community Care Forum

National SchizophreniaFellowship Scotland

Scottish Association forMental Health

Scottish IndependentAdvocacy Alliance.

TheMedicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA – formerly theMedicines Control Agency) is responsible for enforcing the Medicines Act 1968and related legislation which regulate the sale and supply of medicines. The agencyshares public concerns about the apparent increasing availability of medicines,particularly prescription only medicines, via the Internet and by mail order. TheMHRA does not routinely monitor internet pharmacies. However, its enforcement groupinvestigates any allegations of illegal activity of which it is made aware.

Information on what NHS boardsgather locally on their own initiative is not held centrally.

As I said in my answer toS2W-5135 work has started as part of the Improving Mental Health InformationProgramme on what will be a complex and lengthy process to collect enhancedinformation on psychological interventions. This will include: identifying clinical codes already available;facilitating discussion among psychological therapists on definitions ofinterventions and groupings; and building capacity in clinical systems toprovide a means to capture the data.

The report on complementaryinterventions for children with attention deficit hyperkinetic disorder hasbeen received by the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) and was considered by CSO’sHealth Services Research Committee at its meeting on 28 January 2004. An executivesummary of the report will be made available on CSO’s website at www.show.scot.nhs.uk/cso/ in thenear future.

Methylphenidatehydrochloride is available in a number of proprietary forms: Ritalin®; Equasym®; Tranquilyn®; Concerta XL®.

Concerta XL® is a modifiedrelease preparation which offers the advantage of once-daily dosing. Thispreparation, which became available in 2002, is significantly more expensivethan the standard preparations. The Scottish Medicines Consortium hasrecommended Concerta XL® for restricted use within NHSScotland.

The British NationalFormulary (www.BNF.org) gives basic netprices of drugs which will provide an indication of the relative cost of thedifferent products.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-5679 on 9 February 2004.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/search_wa.

The Executive, along withthe UK government and the other devolved administrations, has begun awell-publicised process to review the long term management of radioactivewaste. The Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) has been set up toassess the options for radioactive waste management. It is to deliver itsrecommendations to ministers on a preferred option, or combination of options,by the end of 2005. The use of deep geological disposal is only one of the manyoptions to be assessed. Central to the process will be a round of public debatein 2006, with implementation set to begin in 2007.

It would not be appropriatefor the Executive to make any response directly to the European Parliamentabout its consideration of the Commission’s proposed directives on spent nuclearfuel and on radioactive waste management, including the option of deepgeological disposal, but the Executive recognises the need not to undermine thecurrent CoRWM process which is essential to the future long term management ofradioactive waste within the UK.

Data for the Continuous Morbidity Recording (CMR) is obtained from a sample of Scottish general practices, on a basis which is broadly representative of the Scottish population in terms of age, sex, deprivation category and rural/urban mix. From this, national estimates of the number of patients seen by GPs in Scotland can be calculated.

The number of patients with depression seen by GPs in the last five years in Scotland is estimated as follows:

Estimated Number of Patients with Depression Seen by GPs in Scotland, Years Ending 31 December: 1998 - 2002

Sex	Age Group	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
Male	Under 15	397	371	430	319	347
	15 - 24	6,113	6,570	7,459	7,762	9,226
	25 - 44	26,292	27,034	28,007	28,286	30,725
	45 - 64	21,799	21,549	21,791	24,396	25,213
	65 - 74	5,108	4,826	4,638	4,860	5,146
	75 - 84	2,509	2,983	2,642	2,849	3,324
	85 +	682	588	707	660	698
Total	All ages	63,4131	64,7071	66,8471	70,4971	75,9361
Female	Under 15	676	629	611	712	741
	15 – 24	18,271	17,624	19,167	22,032	23,178
	25 – 44	75,107	72,366	75,822	79,713	84,669
	45 – 64	48,839	49,129	49,512	53,433	55,458
	65 – 74	12,038	12,164	12,176	12,968	12,917
	75 – 84	7,761	8,206	7,803	8,184	8,301
	85 +	2,478	2,485	2,249	2,527	2,360
Total	All ages	165,5171	163,6171	169,0411	180,7501	188,6771

Source: Information Statistics Division.

This information is not heldcentrally.

The cost of the car hireservice to convey judges on circuit has been as follows:

Year	Cost
1998-99	£  75,792
1999-2000	£118,574
2000-01	£132,741
2001-02	£187,422
2002-03	£199,000

In addition, judges may use private car or train to undertake journeys for which expenses are reimbursed. No details of these costs is readily available.