Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executive supports the development of clinical drug trials within the NHS and is taking steps to enhance the capacity of NHSScotland to participate in such work.

Within Scotland, the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Executive Health Department has established a Pharmaceutical Liaison Group comprising representatives of Information and Statistical Division of NHSScotland, the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry and major pharmaceutical companies. The aim of the group is to explore shared areas of interest and concern with a view to creating an environment within which clinical trials can flourish to mutual benefit.

All resources within the health budget for 2001-02 are allocated to specific programmes. During the course of a financial year resources may become available due to savings or slippage in individual programmes and these are used to meet emerging pressures or fund new developments.

Final allocations for 2002-03 and 2003-04 are subject to Parliament's approval of the relevant Budget Bills, however all resources have been allocated for specific purposes.

The costs of the Ryder Cup bid were met from provision made in 2000-01 and 2001-02. This cannot be identified separately in the Annual Expenditure Reports. Provision for the additional programmes identified as part of the Ryder Cup bid was made each year of the spending period and forms part of the provision for sport and VisitScotland.

In the case of Euro 2008, provision for the preparation of a bid will be met from provision made for this financial year. Funding implications of further commitments which may be made within the bid have yet to be identified.

Funding for the implementation of the National Cultural Strategy is also being provided for each year of the spending period. However, allocations have been provided to a number of bodies including the Scottish Arts Council and the National Institutions and local authorities and cannot be identified specifically in the Annual Expenditure Reports.

This information is not available.

All resources within the budget for 2001-02 are allocated to specific programmes. During the financial year resources may become available due to savings or slippage in individual programmes. These are used to meet emergency pressures or fund new developments. The committee will have the chance to scrutinise any in-year changes to the allocation of resources in the autumn and spring budget revisions.

In response to question S1W-16746, we set out our revised Social Justice expenditure plans, following the Minister for Finance's budget statement on 28 June. On 20 September, the Executive published the draft budget for 2002-03, which sets out our expenditure plans down to level III for next year.

Due to the presentational conventions for setting out budget information, it is not possible to include arrangements for the carry forward of underspends from one year to the next in detail as part of this publication. As such there are differences to those figures published in response to question S1W-16746. However, to assist the Social Justice Committee's consideration of phase 2 of the budget process, I have provided the committee with the detailed Social Justice budget set out in the budget consultation document but inclusive of the effect of agreed end year flexibility.

These figures are dependent on final decisions on end year flexibility for social justice and will therefore likely be subject to further slight change. These changes will be published formally when revisions to this year's budget are put to the Parliament later in the autumn.

The Scottish Executive is actively promoting the importance of a healthy and balanced diet. Milk makes an important contribution to childrens' diets. Thus, £380,000 per annum is provided through the Health Improvement Fund as a top-up subsidy to support the provision of milk in primary schools.

I am not aware of any shortage of milk at this stage but my officials are liasing closely with the Scottish milk industry to ensure the situation is kept under regular review.

If a court finds the NHS to be negligent or in breach of statute, the NHS accepts its liability to pay damages. However, the Executive upholds the general principle of successive administrations that the NHS does not pay compensation where there is no legal basis for it being found at fault.

There are currently no plans to introduce a specific fund for befriending and mentoring projects.However, the Executive have funded Volunteer Development Scotland (VDS) to work with NHSScotland to re-energise, enhance and develop the role and contribution that volunteers bring to the delivery of health services. Health boards and NHS Trusts have responded favourably to this work and are actively seeking new opportunities to develop the role of volunteers. Work with primary care providers has demonstrated that the NHS's concept of volunteering can evolve from its traditional hospital-based service to an integrated service that can support a patient from home to hospital and back to home.In addition, and as indicated in the Scottish Health Plan, health boards are now required to develop access to independent advocacy services to support people in making decisions about their own health care.