Chamber and committees

At present there is no central or national firearms licence application database covering all UK force areas. Each Scottish, and indeed UK, police force maintains its own standalone system. In Scotland, the Scottish Criminal Records Office receives and records details of firearm certificate holders located within the Scottish force areas. This information can then be accessed on-line by all Scottish police forces.The Police Information Technology Organisation is progressing the establishment of a National (UK) Firearms Certificate Holders Register. The National Firearms Certificate Holders Register Project Board, which includes representation from the Association of Police Officers in Scotland, is aiming for UK-wide implementation of the register by summer 2002.

Subject to considering matters arising from a detail design, I would expect the cost to be £1.84 million plus VAT at today's prices.

The Executive has had no discussions with Lothian Health Board about limiting the atypical antipsychotic drugs which GPs may prescribe to their patients with schizophrenia.The use of these drugs depends on the clinical judgement of the clinicians concerned, taking into account advice and evidence about their use.

The Executive has received correspondence calling for improvements to both the A70 and A71 but no explicit demands for upgrading to trunk roads status.

Any extension to the trunk road network would require Scottish ministers to conclude that a route should be added to the national system, after taking into consideration the statutory requirements set out in section 5 (2) of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984.

The net benefits of the slip roads measured as time and accident savings and the reduction in vehicle operating costs are less than the cost of building and maintaining the slip roads.

The Executive expects education authorities to develop policies on health education that will ensure that their health education programme effectively meets pupils' needs and develops pupils' ability to take responsibility for their health. To assist education authorities, Health Education 5 -14 National Guidelines have been published, together with Guidance for Teachers and Managers. Alongside this the Executive is encouraging education authorities to adopt a multi-agency approach to meeting the needs of the whole child, including through New Community Schools which bring together education, health, social work and other services for children and their families.The policies are monitored through annual reports and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education inspections of schools, including New Community Schools, which would include the planned programmes, procedures and provision of health education and the integration of services.

The latest information available on the number of medical staff working in the specialty of Old Age Psychiatry is shown in the following table, which should be read in conjunction with the notes.

Medical Staff directly employed by NHSScotland in Old Age Psychiatry

Headcount as at 30 September 2000^p, by Health Board and Grade

	Consultant	Associate Specialist	Staff Grade	Registrar Grades1	SHO2	Hospital Practitioner3	GMP (para 94 appt.)4	Total
Argyll & Clyde	5	-	-	1	-	-	-	6
Ayrshire & Arran	2	-	-	1	-	-	-	3
Borders	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Dumfries & Galloway	-	-	-	1	-	-	1	2
Fife	3	-	-	1	2	-	-	6
Forth Valley5	4	-	2	1	2	-	2	10
Grampian	5	-	-	3	3	9	5	25
Greater Glasgow	10	2	5	2	-	-	2	21
Highland	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	2
Lanarkshire	1	-	1	1	2	-	-	5
Lothian	9	-	-	4	1	-	7	21
Tayside	6	-	-	2	-	-	3	11
Scotland	46	2	8	17	10	9	22	113

Source: Medical and Dental Census (MEDMAN), ISD Scotland.

p Data for September 2000 is provisional and may be subject to change.^.

Notes:

1. Registrar Grades comprises Specialist and Senior Registrars. There are no Registrars.

2. Senior House Officers do not train in Old Age Psychiatry but it forms a part of their General Psychiatry training. For the trusts that record this level of detail the table shows the number of SHOs in this element of their training at the census point. There were a total of 256 SHOs in training in General Psychiatry at the census point.

3. Hospital Practitioners and GMP (para 94 appt.) include general medical practitioners employed part-time in hospitals.

4. Double counting of staff has been eliminated in the health board and Scotland total staff number. Where a doctor works in two grades, they will be counted once in each grade, but just once in the health board total.

We are allocating record levels of resources to local authorities for social care, with £1.25 billion provided this year. It is for authorities to use these resources to best meet local needs, including the provision of respite care or short breaks. In recognition of the importance of short break services we have made significant new funding available to local authorities from April this year to expand their current level of respite provision by an additional 22,000 weeks each year across Scotland by 2003-04. These resources will increase from £5 million in 2001-02 to £11 million by 2003-04. This is in addition to the £10 million a year already ear-marked under the Strategy for Carers in Scotland for supporting for carers and providing short breaks, doubling the resources previously available to authorities for these purposes.

This information is not held centrally.