Chamber and committees

As the then Minister for Transport, Enterprise and Lifelong Learning, Iain Gray announced on 19 March, the target date for construction of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route to begin is 2007, subject to the satisfactory completion of statutory procedures, with a view to the road opening by the end of 2010.

There is much to be done before the tender for the western peripheral route can be let and my officials, with colleagues at Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Councils, have this work in hand. The key milestones ahead of us, with their estimated timings follow:Appoint consultant - October 2003Complete main ground investigation - July 2004Publish draft road and compulsory purchase orders for public consultation (showing proposed line of the road and necessary land purchase) - spring 2005Hold a public local inquiry - winter 2005Make orders (confirming the final route of the road and acquiring land) - autumn 2006.

The proposed route of the western peripheral route between the A90 (South) at Charleston and the A96 has been the subject of public consultation and the proposed corridor has been endorsed by both Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Councils. The Scottish Executive, as trunk roads authority, intends to promote draft orders based on that corridor following a detailed engineering investigation.

Scottish Enterprise expects that the Energy Intermediary Technology Institute in Aberdeen will commence activity later this year. A number of locations in Aberdeen are currently under active consideration.

The Forum for Renewable Energy Development in Scotland, which I will chair, will work with the industry and the new Energy Intermediary Technology Institute to produce a development plan for the marine energy industry in Scotland. Particular attention will be given to the potential to build on synergies between Scotland's existing offshore expertise from the UK Continental Shelf and new offshore renewables technologies. We have also provided £2.125 million to help establish a Marine Energy Test Centre off Orkney.

Using the UK Broadband Fund, the Executive is currently supporting trials of a variety of different broadband delivery models suitable for remote and small communities. Additionally, we will shortly be bringing forward measures under the Executive's £24 million Broadband Initiative to stimulate demand for broadband services generally and to subsidise the purchase by businesses of appropriate technologies. In certain circumstances, most notably remote and rural areas, these subsidies may be used to support the purchase of community-based solutions, such as wireless.

The Scottish Executive is taking action to build capacity in NHSScotland. There are currently return-to-practice initiatives in place for nurses, pharmacists, doctors, dentists and professions allied to medicine. Biochemists are health care scientists and we are currently assisting this group to establish an effective forum which will provide an opportunity to identify their needs in relation to future service development, including recruitment and retention.

GPs, general dental practitioners and community pharmacists are independent contractors to NHS Scotland and it is their responsibility as service providers to comply with all relevant legislation relating to access by disabled people. NHS boards are currently conducting comprehensive access audits of all health care premises, including services provided through independent contractors, and the results will be shared with the contractors concerned.NHS boards are able to support, at their discretion, GPs seeking to improve their premises or to relocate, through an improvement grant scheme and rent and rates schemes.General dental practitioners have access to funding through a practice improvement allowance, whilst community pharmacists have access to a specific premises improvement fund that is administered through health boards.

Whilst acknowledging that there are problems with access to NHS dental services in some parts of Scotland, the Executive has in place a number of measures aimed at improving access. These include:

• the availability of grants under the Scottish Dental Access Initiative for dentists willing to set up or expand NHS practices in areas of poor access or high oral health need;
• the approval of salaried dentists, where an NHS Board or Primary Care NHS Trust considers that the existing provision is insufficient to meet the demands of the local population, and no independent general dental practitioner is available to fill the gap;
• a £1 million "golden hello" package, which includes payments to vocational trainees taking up vocational training in designated areas and payments to dentists who enter substantive general dental service practice within three months of completion of training, and
• a £3 million package of recruitment and retention measures, which includes the introduction of commitment payments for assistants and the raising of the earnings ceiling for seniority payments, both of which reward dentists for undertaking more NHS treatment.

Discussions will continue with the dental profession on further recruitment and retention measures.

The Executive frequently meets with representatives of the fish processing industry and I intend to meet with the Scottish Fishmerchants' Federation Ltd in the near future.