Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executivenormal retirement age is 60, although staff can be retained on a yearly basisup to age 65 provided their performance, conduct and attendance aresatisfactory and there is a post available. This policy extends to all ScottishExecutive core departments, agencies and associated departments, which amountsto around ,7500 staff.

NDPBs are responsible fordetermining their own staff terms and conditions of employment and we do nothold information centrally on this.

No. The Scottish Executivewill, however, aim to maximise the potential business, tourism, sporting andcultural benefits to Scotland which will arise from London hosting the Olympics;and will monitor and evaluate the economic impacts on Scotland ofsuch an important event.

I have asked Tony Cameron,Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

The SPS does not collectthis information routinely. However, a specific reception testing study duringMay 2003 indicated that around two-thirds of prisoners had drugs in theirsystem upon entry to Scotland’s prisons. More detailed information of this studywas given in reply to a previous question and I refer the member to the questionS2W-15576 answered on 14 April 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions areavailable on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can befound at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Liberation testing in December 2004 suggested that about 30%were drug users on release, and the SPS random test of drug use in prisonindicates that less than 20% test positive while in prison.

The numbers of households onwaiting lists for each local authority are published on an annual basis for2000-01 onwards in the quarterly Scottish Executive Statistical Bulletin(Housing Series) Housing Trends in Scotland. This is available on-line in the publicationssection of the housing statistics branch reference site http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/housing/hsbref.

The most recent figures arefor 2003-04 (HSG/2004/4) and the 2004-05 figures will be published at the endof August 2005.

This data collection beganin 2001 and data are not centrally available prior to that date. The numbersreported to the Scottish Executive refer to applicant households and do notspecify the number of people within each household.

The Accounts Commissioncollected information for 2002-03 on the total number of households placed intemporary accommodation during the year by local authorities carrying out theirduties under the homelessness legislation, and the average length of stay. Thisinformation has been used for Key Performance Indicator 6 for housing and ispublished on the Audit Scotland website at:http://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/pi2003/compendium/service/index.htm.Indicator 6 was changed for 2003-04 and data on average length of stay intemporary accommodation are no longer collected centrally.The Scottish Executive alsopublishes data on the number of households in temporary accommodation as at theend of each quarter. The most recent figures are available on-line in thepublications section of the housing statistics branch reference site http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/housing/hsbref.This provides a snapshot at a particular point in time, unlike the AccountsCommission performance indicator which represents numbers placed in temporaryaccommodation over a period of time.

Temporary accommodationprovided under Section 29 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 is that which is used by local authoritieswhen carrying out their duty to provide accommodation to people who apply ashomeless while their applications are being assessed, until a final decisionhas been made on their application. This duty to provide accommodationcontinues during the process of review if one is requested. Where theauthority’s decision is that it has a duty to provide permanent accommodation,the duty to provide temporary accommodation continues until the duty to providepermanent accommodation is discharged.

Temporary accommodation mayalso be provided under section 31 of the 1987 Act, where a household withchildren is assessed as being intentionally homeless.  In these cases temporaryaccommodation must be provided for a period which gives the household areasonable opportunity to secure their own accommodation.

Local authorities usedifferent types of housing in order to provide temporary accommodation; such asfurnished and unfurnished flats, hostels and B&Bs.

The following table showsthe National Health Service Prescription charges levied from patients since1979 and the average net ingredient cost of a prescription item since 1979.

Information on the averagecost of private prescriptions is not held centrally. The level of fees that the pharmacist charges fordispensing private prescriptions is not regulated by any body or organisation;it is a private transaction between the pharmacist and their customer. Therefore, the costs incurred are set by the individualpharmacy or pharmacy chain.

NationalHealth Service Prescription charges and Average Net Ingredient cost per dispensed prescription¹

Year ending 31 March	Cost of NHS Prescription £	Average Net2 Ingredient Cost (£)	Year ending 31 March	Cost of NHS Prescription £	Average Net2 Ingredient Cost (£)
1979	0.45	2.11	1993	4.25	6.76
1980	0.70	2.53	1994	4.75	7.09
1981	1.00	2.91	1995	5.25	7.55
1982	1.30	3.22	1996	5.50	7.98
1983	1.40	3.55	1997	5.65	8.42
1984	1.60	3.75	1998	5.80	8.91
1985	2.00	3.94	1999	5.90	9.26
1986	2.20	4.22	2000	6.00	10.11
1987	2.40	4.49	2001	6.10	10.13
1988	2.60	4.60	2002	6.20	10.60
1989	2.80	5.05	2003	6.30	11.12
1990	3.05	5.39	2004	6.40	11.62
1991	3.40	5.79	2005	6.50	11.50
1992	3.75	6.21

Notes:

1.Data for 1978-79 to 1995-96 are taken from Table 7.4 of Scottish HealthStatistics, published by ISD Scotland; data from 1996 on are from ScottishHealth Statistics, published on the ISD website.

2. Net ingredient cost is the gross cost of medicines minusany discount obtained by dispensing contractors from their suppliers.

3. Thefigures exclude the dispensing fee paid to the dispensing contractor.

In 2003, the NHS 24Blueprint figure was reviewed and the projected call volume set at 2 million asa planning assumption.

Based on experience anddata, NHS 24 revised its Resource Planning Model in February of this year andadjusted the planned call capacity to 1.65 million.

Dueto the level of redesign work and partnership developments currently underwaybetween NHS 24 and a number of other NHS boards, forward capacity planning to2010 will be progressed once further definition of the new models is achieved.This next review will also factor in the potential impact of the development of the additional satellite centres. This planning work will be taken forward withthe various NHS boards involved through their normal five-year planning cycle.

Due to the call handler recruitmenttargets within NHS 24 being reached, the service is now in a position to answerall calls offered and, if call volumes were to increase to the previouslyforecasted levels, access into NHS 24 should be fully available.

The service continues to striveto achieve its nurse recruitment targets. This and the other measures NHS 24 istaking under its transformation programme are all designed to improve theresponsiveness of the service to patients in particular for those who requirenurse advice and access to out-of-hours services.

NHS 24’s Clinical DecisionSupport Software algorithms were originally developed by an external supplier, “ClinicalSolutions”. In advance of launching NHS24, the algorithms were further developed and extensively peer reviewed by arange of clinicians working within the NHS in Scotland, including primary caredoctors, Accident and Emergency consultants, nurses from both primary care andhospital settings, midwives, acute medicine specialists, pharmacists,paediatricians, A&E consultants, mental health specialists and a number ofallied health professionals.

Thisprocess ensured that the algorithms were fully suitable to provide soundclinical decision-support within the Scottish health service environment andthat they were consistent with clinical guidelines from both NICE (NationalInstitute for Health and Clinical Excellence) and, in Scotland,SIGN (Scottish Inter Collegiate Guidelines Network). The algorithms, therefore,provide an up-to-date clinically-evidenced decision-support tool for the NHS 24nurses who are experienced clinicians in their own right.

Since the initial peerreview, there has been further review and development of the algorithms inresponse to feedback from patients, professionals, new clinical guidelines,newly-evidenced best practice and NHS 24 management information, as well as NHS24’s Core Clinical Group (CCG) which is comprised of multi-disciplinaryclinicians, internal and external to NHS 24.

NHS24’s Healthcare Governance Committee, which is a statutory committee, meetsquarterly to ensure that NHS 24’s services, people, processes and technologyoperate not just within clinically safe parameters but exceed those parametersin order to provide the best possible patient care.

The NHS 24 Clinical Forum isan additional review mechanism with membership drawn from both within NHS 24and from a wide range of clinical peers across the health service to support on-goingengagement and direction.

The information requested isnot available centrally.

The resources that have beenmade available to VisitScotland in each year since its creation during 2000-01are shown in the table below:

Year	£(‘000)
2000-01	25,609
2001-02*	40,659
2002-03	33,189
2003-04	36,450
2004-05	41,850
2005-06	48,850

Note: *Includes additionalresources of £11.9 million made available to combat the effects of Foot andMouth disease.

The resources made availablein 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06 include funds totalling £2 million, £3 millionand £5 million respectively that are specifically ring-fenced forEventScotland.