Chamber and committees

The Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO) was the subject of a primary inspection by Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary in 2000. There were two follow-up review inspections carried out in 2001 and 2002. The cost of these inspections cannot, however, be separately identified. The review inspection reports were both positive and noted that considerable progress that had been made since the primary inspection. While the primary inspection was brought forward in terms of scheduling, these inspections are essentially part of normal Her Majesty's Inspectorate of the Constabulary activity. The cost of the involvement of the Procurator Fiscal at Paisley in the investigation and consideration of criminal proceedings against SCRO officers, which resulted in no proceedings being taken, also cannot be separately identified.An independent investigator, external to the police service, carried out an assessment of the process and procedures in place at SCRO Fingerprint Bureau in 1997. He concluded that there were no matters of misconduct or lack of capability surrounding the fingerprint comparisons carried out at the time. An Independent Scrutiny Committee later endorsed that conclusion. The cost of these assessments was £19,725.

The details requested on the usage and type of products in each of the years from 1989-90 to 2002-03 are shown in the following tables.Details of the how many patients were treated using each product are not held centrally.Yearly Usage of Factor VIII in Scotland (IU x 10⁶)

Year	89-90	90-91	91-92	92-93	93-94	94-95	95-96	96-97	97-98	98-99	99-00	00-01	01-02	02-03
PFC FVIII	6.99	7.68	8.24	10.85	11.63	11.54	13.41	10.94	8.62	6.72	4.94	3.35	5.17	1.48
Com FVIII	1.18	0.95	2.08	1.24	0.98	0.82	1.07	1.04	0.57	0.34	0.79	0.79	0.62	0.67
r FVIII	0	0	0	0	0	0.33	0.38	3.18	6.94	8.38	13.85	16.62	15.96	23.97
Tot FVIII	8.16	8.63	10.32	12.09	12.62	12.69	14.85	15.17	16.13	15.45	19.58	20.76	21.76	26.13

Notes:PFC FVIII Factor VIII manufactured by the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service at the Protein Fractionation Centre.Com FVIII Factor VIII purchased from a commercial manufacturer. These figures do not include recombinant factor VIII.r FVIII Recombinant factor VIII.Tot FVIII Total factor VIII usage.Yearly Usage of Factor IX in Scotland (IU x 10⁶)

Year	89-90	90-91	91-92	92-93	93-94	94-95	95-96	96-97	97-98	98-99	99-00	00-01	01-02	02-03
DEFIX	2.33	2.08	2.21	2.48	2.80	2.02	0.66	0.77	0.76	0.85	1.01	0.85	0.75	0.84
HIPFIX	0	0	0.11	0.14	0.23	0.77	2.41	1.22	0.09	0.09	0.01	0.00	0.00	0.00
Com HP9	0	0	0	0	0	0.10	0.14	2.09	3.98	3.13	1.14	0.69	0.59	0.52
r FIX	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.01	0.02	0.60	2.84	4.83	4.27	6.11
Tot HP9	0	0	0.11	0.14	0.23	0.87	2.55	3.32	4.09	3.82	3.99	5.52	4.86	6.63
Tot FIX	2.33	2.08	2.32	2.63	3.03	2.89	3.22	4.09	4.85	4.67	5.00	6.37	5.60	7.47

Notes:DEFIX Prothrombin complex concentrate containing factors II, IX and X manufactured by the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service at the Protein Fractionation Centre.HIPFIX High purity factor IX manufactured by the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service at the Protein Fractionation Centre.Com HP9 High purity factor IX purchased from a commercial manufacturer. These figures do not include recombinant factor IX.r FIX Recombinant factor IX.Tot HP9 Total high purity factor IX. These figures do not include DEFIX usage.Tot FIX Total factor IX usage including DEFIX.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-01547 today, which can be found on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

The Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department funds the provision ofeducation at the Scottish Agricultural College by a block grant-in-aid. Funds are not allocatedspecifically for widening access to further and higher education but the collegeis expected to respond to the Scottish Executive’s policies and priorities forfurther and higher education within the grant-in-aid figure.

The Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department funds the provision ofeducation at the Scottish Agricultural College by grant-in-aid. Funds are not allocatedspecifically to recognise the size of the college or the distribution of itscampuses. However the funding of education at SAC, expressed in terms offunding per student, is currently significantly higher than at other educationinstitutions.

The college does not receivespecific funding from the Executive for the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

It is for the college toprioritise its expenditure requirements and allocate the funding that itreceives from the Executive and other funders accordingly.

We are in the process of reviewing guidance on the retention, storage and destruction aspects of medical record keeping practice and revised guidance will issue in due course.

Reducing waiting is a priority for the Executive. This was set out in the health white paper, Partnership for Care. On Friday 13 June the Minister for Health and Community Care launched the Outpatient Action Plan which will help Scotland achieve the maximum wait of 26 weeks for outpatient appointments by 2005.The Executive made a commitment to modernise audiology services in response to the Public Health Institute Report , NHS Audiology Services in Scotland.We have asked NHS boards to develop modernisation action plans for hearing aid services, and an additional £1.5 million was made available earlier this year for the purchase of new audiology equipment. Seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds was made available during 2002-03 to reduce waiting times.In 2003-04 boards will receive an average increase of 7.8% in their budget allocations. We expect boards to use some of this funding to help implement these plans. In addition the Executive is making £8 million of central funding available over the next four years to support the modernisation process, and will appoint a project manager to facilitate and co-ordinate modernisation over the next two years.

The Outpatient Action Plan, launched on 13 June 2003, will help NHSScotland achieve the national maximum waiting time target of six months for a first outpatient appointment following GP referral, by 2005. The Centre for Change and Innovation will drive the implementation of the plan through a co-ordinated programme of service redesign, piloting and rolling out good practice across NHSScotland.In the past year the National Workforce Unit and the National Workforce Committee have been established as part of the Scottish Executive's workforce development strategy. These bodies are now working with NHSScotland to develop new approaches to the way NHSScotland plans, develops and utilises its workforce at a national, regional and local level. The Partnership Agreement makes a commitment which aims to increase the number of consultants across the specialties by 600 by 2006.

The provision of formal training in support of the recommendations on staffing contained in the Public Health Institute of Scotland report NHS Audiology Services in Scotland is currently under review and no decision has yet been made on how this will be progressed.