Chamber and committees

The White Paper Designed to Care included a commitment to support the establishment of a Scottish Health Technology Assessment Centre to evaluate and provide advice to the NHS in Scotland on cost-effectiveness of all innovations in health care, including new drugs.

A consultation paper setting out how such a Centre might sit within the wider Scottish quality agenda was issued last December. It sought views on how the Centre might engage and involve the NHS, the public, patients and other key stakeholders in the identification, selection and assessment of topics, both new and established, and in the dissemination of advice. Some 120 well argued and generally supportive responses were received from this consultation process.

In March of this year, Dr Angus MacKay was asked to chair a small multi-disciplinary, cross-speciality working group to consider these comments and to develop a more detailed implementation plan for the proposed Centre.

The Implementation Working Group has now provided me with the report and I am today arranging for copies to be made available in the Library. Briefly, the group has recommended:

a process that the Centre might adopt for its work;

the professional and public relationships necessary for it to achieve its objectives;

how it should keep its wide constituency of interests informed and involved in its processes to encourage the acceptance and implementation of its advice.

The report concludes that the Centre should be established as a Special Health Board and endorses the consultation paper's view that the Centre must be seen to be independent of the Health Service management when assessing evidence and generating its advice.

It recommends that the Centre should draw on Scotland's best academic and clinical advice and, working with the NHS and patient representatives, make recommendations designed to encourage effective new treatments moving smoothly into mainstream practice. It also notes that the Centre should have a role in reviewing existing treatments to ensure that resources are not being spent on those that are not effective.The Centre will begin operation early in spring next year.

I am pleased to launch, today, a public consultation paper which discusses and seeks views on options how the targets laid out in the Landfill Directive for the reduction in biodegradable municipal waste sent to landfill may be achieved.

We have today issued a consultation letter to interested parties regarding casino opening hours. At present casinos must close at 4am. We propose an extension from 4am to 6am (except Sundays) for casinos in Scotland. Comments are requested by 31 January 2000.The Gaming Act 1968 imposes restrictions on the gaming hours that gaming establishments may open. Under Section 18 of the Act, casinos must close between 4am and 2pm on Sundays. The hours on other days are prescribed by regulations made by the Scottish Ministers in respect of Scotland and the Secretary of State in respect of England and Wales. Under the Gaming Clubs (Hours and Charges)(Scotland) Regulations 1984, the opening hours of casinos are currently from 2pm until 4am. The British Casino Association, which represents all casinos in Great Britain, has asked for a change in the law to allow casinos to open until 6am on Monday to Saturday mornings. Following consultation with the Gaming Board for Great Britain, we have agreed in principle to the proposed change. Casinos are places for late night entertainment and we see no objection to a later closing time. Gambling is a reserved matter but some powers to make secondary legislation have been executively devolved to the Scottish Ministers, including gaming hours. The Home Office is embarking on a similar exercise in respect of casinos in England and Wales.

As I made clear in the debate on Structural Funds on 28 October, I have decided that a Review should be conducted of the operation of the Programme Management Executives (PMEs) and their relationship with the Scottish Executive. The aim of this Review is to clarify and define roles in order to ensure the efficient and effective delivery of the new round of Structural Funds in Scotland.

The Review will be conducted by a team of Scottish Executive staff and staff from the PMEs. To provide strategic guidance to the Review I have appointed a Steering Committee. I am pleased that Lex Gold, Director of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, has agreed to chair the Steering Committee. The other members will be:

Sandy Brady, Director of Strategy, Highlands & Islands Enterprise.

Campbell Christie, Member, Economic and Social Committee and Chair of Scotland Europa.

Alistair Grimes, Chief Executive, Community Enterprise Strathclyde

Councillor Christine May, European and International Spokesperson, COSLA and Leader of Fife Council.

Sally Watson, Lecturer, Lews Castle College, Stornoway.

Steering Committee meetings will be advised by Scottish Executive officials and a Programme Management Executive Director.I look forward to receiving the results of the Review early next year so that they can be fed in to the preparations for implementing the new round of Structural Funds.

The Shortest Route to Learning - which sets out the Scottish Executive's vision for the Scottish University for Industry and describes progress made to-date - is published today. The Scottish UfI will be the hub of our plans to create a culture of lifelong learning in Scotland. Its services will be available to everyone. Through the Scottish UfI we can widen participation in learning and boost the capabilities of our workforce. I commend the document to you, copies of which are available through the Scottish Parliament Information Centre. I am also glad to announce today the appointment of Mr Frank Pignatelli as Chief Executive of the Scottish UfI. He will take up his duties shortly.

Ross Finnie and I have agreed that the Scottish Law Commission are well placed to take on this element. I have therefore sent them the following reference:"Taking account of the Land Reform Action Plan, to consider existing procedures for dispute resolution in the law on agricultural holdings, and other related matters, including appellate procedures, and to advise on possible reforms in jurisdiction and procedures with a view to improving access to justice and economy and speed and quality of justice."

I have set the National Archives of Scotland the following targets for 1999-2000:

• to reduce the unit cost of preserving and making available the Records of Scotland by 2.5% on the 1998-99 target in real terms;

• to increase the number of new catalogue entries available for public scrutiny on the electronic system by 25,000;

• to produce material for readers in 92.5% of cases in 30 minutes or less for material from the same building and in 2 days or less for material from elsewhere;

• to issue replies to 95% of correspondence within 15 days; and

to process 90% of extracts for legal customers in four working days; and to process 92.5% of rapid copies within 24 hours.

Further to my announcement to Parliament during the homelessness debate on 16 September, I am pleased to confirm that, with the Council's agreement, a Steering Group is being established to oversee the next phases of the work to develop a transfer proposal. Membership will include the Scottish Executive, Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Alliance, Scottish Homes and the housing association movement. The Steering Group met for the first time on 30 September 1999.

I have set the following targets for Fisheries Research Services for the financial year 1999-2000:Delivery of Service.

• To achieve 90% of the performance targets set in the Schedules to the Service Level Agreement.
• To achieve 80% of the milestones agreed for Research and Development projects.
• To maintain, pro rata, FRS' publication output per member of staff.
• To produce 12 information pamphlets for the industry in the course of the year.

Quality of Service

• To submit the scientific work of the Fisheries Management Programme at the Marine Laboratory to a peer review by a visiting group and for the group to report by May 2000.
• To submit by March 2000 the quality manuals and documentation which are required for the accreditation by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service, of the monitoring programmes for algal toxins, microbiological contamination of shellfish, List II viral diseases of fish, and sampling of fish for residues of veterinary medicines.

Efficiency targets

• To carry out the agreed programme for the Scottish Executive within the agreed budget.
• To recover full economic costs from external customers.
• To restrict administrative costs to a maximum of 18% of the total running costs.
• To restrict the Support Services Staff to 30% of the total staff numbers.
• To increase research vessel utilisation to 540 days per year, operating at a daily cost of £5,300 (Scotia) and £2,500 (Clupea).

These various tasks should provide a sound basis for evaluating performance by establishing a time series for certain indicators and by requiring external scrutiny by external accreditors and scientific peers.

For the financial year 1999-00 I have set the following targets:Aerial surveillance - per cent of hours flown on task 86%- cost per flying hour on task £951Marine surveillance - utilisation of available patrol days 97%- cost per effective patrol day £3501Sea Fisheries Inspectorate - cost per catch inspection £78- landing declarations checked against actual catches 46%Cases for Prosecution85% of cases for prosecution to be reported within 6 weeksof offence being detected and 96% within 8 weeksNumber of cases where court proceedings are taken as percentage of offences reported to prosecuting authorities 84%In order to ensure that the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency uses its resources efficiently, I have set it a target to achieve cash releasing efficiency gains of 1.5% during 1999-2000.The Chief Executive will be directly accountable to me for the achievement of these targets, which will be reported in the Agency's Annual Report.