Chamber and committees

This is an operational issue for the Scottish Qualifications Authority. I have asked the Chair to reply to you and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre.

A reply was issued on 1 December 2000.

Each health board is responsible for developing and implementing, in conjunction with other interested bodies, a policy for dealing with headlice infestation. The policies are aimed at ensuring that schools, General Medical Practitioners, Community Pharmacists and the general public have a good understanding of their roles in tackling the problem of headlice.

The Scottish Executive will be working with health boards to develop a national leaflet to provide advice to schools and parents on the treatment of headlice infestation.

The regular Liaison Group meetings involving Scottish Executive and Scottish Qualifications Authority officials discuss various matters, including their financial implications where appropriate. In addition, meetings were held in July 1999, to discuss the funding of the development of the Higher Still programme, and in October 2000, to discuss entry charges. Discussions between officials also take place as part of the annual approval by Ministers of the SQA's budget.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) is obliged to inform the Executive if it is likely that its expenditure on any individual accounts will exceed agreed estimates by more than £50,000. The SQA notified us in September of a likely deficit in this financial year due to additional work undertaken to resolve the problems with Diet 2000. The full financial implications are currently being quantified and will be discussed with SQA in detail.

Deficits were projected in the annual budget estimates exercise in December in each of the two previous financial years. The establishment of SQA in 1997 and the associated costs of merging the Scottish Examination Board and the Scottish Vocational Education Council led to a substantial deficit in the first year of operations which the organisation has since gradually reduced.

The procedures and criteria for the national audit are currently being developed on behalf of the Executive by the Scottish Museums Council. These procedures and criteria will be applied to industrial museums as the first priority.

I refer the member to the answer I gave to question S1W-11201 on 28 November 2000.

Although data was not held centrally, and could have been answered immediately to this effect, Departmental officials explored with the Scottish Arts Council what information could be identified to assist answering the member's questions. After detailed consideration it was concluded that the data could not be assembled without infringing the unreasonable costs criterion.

At present, specialist provision exists at Ladyfield East Adolescent In-Patient Psychiatric Unit in Dumfries. Services for patients from Ayrshire and Arran are commissioned from Greater Glasgow Primary Care NHS Trust at Gartnavel Royal Hospital. Those for patients from Borders and Lothian are commissioned from the facility for child and adolescent psychiatry at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital.

The first table below shows episodes of inpatient care, based on admissions to non-psychiatric hospitals, of those up to the age of 19, with a mental and behaviour disorder, where there is also a mention of drug misuse.The second table shows episodes of inpatient care, based on admissions to Mental Illness Hospitals/Psychiatric Units, of those up to the age of 19, with a mental and behaviour disorder, where there is also a mention of drug misuse.Table 1: Admissions to Non-psychiatric Hospitals (Aged under 20)

	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000
Ayrshire & Arran	66	64	66
Borders	10	8	7
Dumfries & Galloway	13	12	11
Lothian (East)	2	7	5
Total	91	91	89

Table 2: Admissions to Mental Illness Hospitals/Psychiatric Units (Aged under 20)

	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000
Ayrshire & Arran	25	25	31
Borders	8	2	6
Dumfries & Galloway	5	5	1
Lothian (East)	-	-	3
Total	38	32	41

Notes:

1. "Episodes" refers to the admission of a patient. Since the same patient may be admitted to hospital more than once during the course of one year, the number of individuals admitted may not be the same.

2: The tables are not mutually exclusive, as a patient may be admitted to an acute general hospital then, in a subsequent episode, may be admitted to a psychiatric unit. Such patients will appear as episodes in both tables.