Chamber and committees

The latest available information is as follows:

	New Joiners	Re-joiners
1995-96	2,278	1,049
1996-97	2,001	950
1997-98	1,991	1,038

These figures include both nurses and midwives.

Applications for legal aid from people with mental health difficulties are assessed against the same statutory tests as applications from any other person. In assessing whether or not an applicant satisfies the financial eligibility test, consideration is given to the applicant's disposable income and disposable capital.

Certain mental health proceedings in England and Wales can be exempted from the financial eligibility and contribution tests in relation to assistance by way of representation (ABWOR) but until recently in Scotland could not be. The Access to Justice Act 1999 now provides Scottish Ministers with the power to prescribe proceedings where the financial eligibility and contribution tests will not apply.Regulations will be laid in this Parliamentary session which will provide ABWOR without reference to the financial eligibility and contribution tests for all proceedings under Part V of the Mental health (Scotland) Act 1984. This covers proceedings in relation to "admission to and detention in hospital and guardianship" and will bring Scotland into line with England and Wales.

The role of health boards is evolving and developing in line with the wider policy agenda of the executive. That role will remain a central one in shaping and delivering the strategic agenda for the NHS in Scotland and in securing improvements to the health of the people who live in each health board area. It will however be a role increasingly carried out in partnership with NHS Trusts, with local authorities and with others who have an interest in health services - including the people who use them. The White Paper Designed to Care laid the foundation for dismantling the damaging and divisive internal market and for restructuring the NHS in Scotland on the basis of co-operation and inclusion. Our Programme for Government set out our commitments for modernising the service. Health boards in Scotland will have an important part to play in taking all of this forward.

Against total forecast income of £4,684 million this year, the 28 new NHS Trusts in Scotland reported at 31 December 1999 that their expenditure at 31 March 2000 was expected to be £4,720million.At 31 December 1998, the 47 previous NHS Trusts reported their forecast expenditure at 31 March 1999 £21 million above income. In the event, at 31 March 1999, only five Trusts failed to meet their break even financial target, and only two failed to meet all three of their financial targets.The Scottish Executive is currently working with senior management in Trusts forecasting an over-commitment, and their local health boards to ensure that recovery plans are put in place which will continue to provide high quality patient care while achieving financial balance.

I have announced my decision to offer Aberdeenshire Council further flexibility by allowing them to return their budget to guideline within two years instead one. This will go a considerable way to easing their budget problems and help them deliver the high quality services the public deserves.

Grampian Health Board and Grampian University Hospitals NHS Trust have taken steps to ensure that hearing aids will continue to be issued during the current financial year.

These steps did not require the Scottish Executive to commit extra resources to the Trust. Nor should they have. There has been record investment in the Health Service in Scotland this year. From £300 million extra allocated to health in Scotland, each health board received an increase substantially above inflation to meet the health care needs of their resident populations.It is for health boards and NHS Trusts to determine local priorities for expenditure of the monies allocated to them - but the Scottish Executive expects them to ensure that essential services are maintained. I am therefore pleased that Grampian Health Board and Grampian University Hospitals Trust have acted to reinstate the hearing aid service in full.

It is not possible to identify separately prescriptions used to treat people suffering from manic depression.

The table outlines details of residential homes operated by local authorities. Nursing homes are not operated by local authorities.At present, local authority residential homes are expected to operate to the registration standards set by that local authority. The National Care Standards Committee is preparing national standards, which the proposed Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care will use to register and inspect all provision on a consistent and person-centred basis. The proposed standards will be issued for consultation later this year. It will be for each local authority to decide how to provide or purchase care that meets the registration standards and accords with Best Value principles.Local Authority Operated Residential Care Homes as at 31 March 1998

	Number of homes
LOCAL AUTHORITY
Aberdeen City	20
Aberdeenshire	20
Angus	8
Argyll & Bute	9
Clackmannanshire	2
Dumfries & Galloway	13
Dundee City	18
East Ayrshire	6
East Dunbartonshire	2
East Lothian	4
East Renfrewshire	2
Edinburgh, City of	24
Eilean Siar	15
Falkirk	9
Fife	45
Glasgow City	28
Highland Council, The	22
Inverclyde	5
Midlothian	3
Moray Council, The	8
North Ayrshire	7
North Lanarkshire	14
Orkney Islands	3
Perth & Kinross	6
Renfrewshire	8
Scottish Borders	7
Shetland Islands	5
South Ayrshire	7
South Lanarkshire	15
Stirling	5
West Dunbartonshire	9
West Lothian	7
TOTAL	356

Source: Residential Establishment Census Return

As part of my programme for improving health services and increasing accountability, I have made it clear I want a new relationship between the Scottish Executive Health Department, the NHS and all those concerned with health in Scotland. The NHS Management Executive is an integral part of the Health Department and I expect it to work in partnership with the NHS, professional bodies, trade unions and other key stakeholders to improve health services for the people of Scotland.

Advice by means of illustrated leaflets is already available to assist beekeepers in Scotland in dealing with the varroa jacobsoni mite and the other notifiable bee diseases notably European Foul Brood and American Foul Brood. Beekeepers can also obtain free advice about these diseases from the Scottish Agricultural Science Agency. The Scottish Agricultural College is under contract to the Scottish Executive to make available training and advice in all bee health and management matters should beekeepers request it.Additionally there are a number of appointed bee officers within the Executive who respond to reports of notifiable bee diseases such as varroa.