Chamber and committees

As an executive agency of the Scottish Executive, Transport Scotland will have a clear remit focused on delivery of transport services and delivery, distinct from the wider role of a Government department and with the relevant skills and resources all in one place. It therefore has a visible and understandable role in the eyes of the public, whilst remaining accountable to Scottish ministers through the Chief Executive.

Transport Scotland will provide a centre of excellence with the right professional skills to deliver major transport projects in Scotland – making the most of the £3 billion capital programme for public transport and roads that we have committed over the next decade – as well as transport services which support integration – such as the national concessionary fares scheme, integrated ticketing and Real Time Information.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-21258 on 15 December 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.

There will be a requirement on the contractor to maintain two lanes open in each direction on weekdays between 6am and 8pm. Similar arrangements have been used on other major projects on the A720, the A8, and the Auchenkilns upgrade.

Projections have been made for the years 2010 and 2025 for the existing A80 (do minimum) and for the upgrading of the route to motorway status (with scheme). Volumes vary along the route. Typical values are shown in the following tables:

Do Minimum

Route Section	2010 Annual Average Daily Flow	2025 Annual Average Daily Flow
Muirhead to Mollinsburn	49,000 – 53,000	48,000 – 54,000
Mollinsburn to Low Wood (Auchenkilns)	86,000	89,000
Auchenkilns to Castlecary	87,000 – 91,000	93,000 – 99,000

 

With Scheme

Route Section	2010 Annual Average Daily Flow	2025 Annual Average Daily Flow
Muirhead to Mollinsburn	5,000 – 8,000	7,000 – 9,000
Mollinsburn to Low Wood (Auchenkilns)	123,000	134,000
Auchenkilns to Castlecary	104,000 – 107,000	111,000

 

Should it be necessary to control the volume of traffic on the new route to preserve good traffic flow conditions, then measures will be considered to restrict access to the road at junctions and on the motorway upstream of the scheme to give priority to busses, HGV’s and multiple occupancy vehicles.

Transport Scotland’s purpose is to support the delivery of the Scottish Executive’s vision for sustainable transport in Scotland, making a real difference for people and businesses using the national rail and road systems. The specific aims, objectives and targets which Transport Scotland is tasked with delivering on behalf of ministers will be set out in the Corporate Plan 2006-08, which will be published in January 2006.

The Scottish Executive is implementing a number of measures including the central heating and Warm Deal Programmes, the Chief Medical Officer’s Wrap Up for Winter Campaign and the annual influenza campaign.

The main allocations for the delivery of the Working for Families fund in local authorities are £10 million per annum for 2004-06 and £15 million per annum for 2006-08.

In addition to the main allocations, piloting, development and evaluation activities have also been carried out as shown in the following table:

	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Pilot Projects	£565,000	£0	£0
Rosemount Lifelong Learning Centre	£133,197	£116,559	£185,955
Local Authority Project Development	£54,543	£36,000	£400,000
Miscellaneous (including training events)	£9,285	£9,780	£3,708
Evaluation	£48,085	£38,989	£77,978

 

Before a medicine can be placed on the UK market it must have a marketing authorisation either from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency or the European Medicines Agency. Decisions on the marketing authorisations of medicines made by the MHRA or the EMEA are binding on the Executive and the NHS in Scotland.

Information about the MHRA and its work can be found at www.mhra.gov.uk.

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) reviewed memantine (Ebixa) in July 2003 and did not recommend it for use within NHS Scotland. Its advice was that, although this is currently the only agent licensed for use in moderately severe to severe Alzheimer's disease, the magnitude of the effect is extremely small. Compared with placebo it is associated with a statistically significant reduction in the rate of deterioration in global, functional and cognitive scales. On the evidence presented, the associated gains appear to be marginal relative to the overall costs.

The company subsequently made a resubmission to SMC for assessment and in December 2003 SMC did not recommend it for use. The economic case submitted by the manufacturer did not suggest that use of this drug would be cost effective relative to standard practice in Scotland.

The licensed indication submitted for review was for the treatment of patients with moderately severe to severe Alzheimer's disease and SMC therefore commented on this indication only.