Chamber and committees

The cannabinoid trials have been carried out by GW Pharmaceuticals. We do not hold information on locations or individuals involved in the trials.

Advanced clinical trials into the development of a medicinal form of a cannabis-based drug have been completed by GW Pharmaceuticals. The findings have been submitted to the Medicines and Health Care Products Regulatory Agency, who will report to the Home Office, in due course, on the safety, quality and effectiveness of the product.

The trials have been completed by GW Pharmaceuticals and the results are currently being considered by The Medicines and Health Care Products Regulatory Agency. The Home Secretary has said that the UK Government will do whatever is needed to amend the law quickly to permit the prescribing of a cannabis-based medicine, in the event that the agency approves the product.

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 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 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.

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.

Information provided by NHS Education for Scotland is that there were 57 specialist registrars in post in trauma and orthopaedic surgery at 31 March 2003. There has been an increase of seven posts over the past two years with the intention to increase by a further four in the current year bringing the expansion to 11 posts over the three year period.In addition there are a small number of academic posts which are also training for a future consultant role.Planned expansion in the trauma and orthopedic surgery training posts has been in response to service pressures including waiting times.