Chamber and committees

Creative Scotland, likeits predecessors, the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen will form part of the responsibilities of the Tourism, Culture and Sport portfolio.

I refer the member to the answerto question S2W-28313 on 26 September 2006. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliaments website, the search facility forwhich can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

At that time the CriminalHistory System Replacement Project Board was responsible for the management of the Criminal History Replacement Project under the oversight of the ScottishPolice Information Strategy (SPIS) Programme Board.

When the Scottish Executivebecame aware that the replacement system would not be delivered by March 2004 anumber of steps were taken to improve management of the project.

Firstly, Scottish Police InformationStrategy (SPIS) was brought within the governance arrangements that were put inplace by the establishment of the Common Police Services (CPS) Programme Boardin April 2004. This was followed by the appointment to Real Time EngineeringLtd to assess the state of the project. Their report in April 2005, highlightedthe poor state of the project management and the unreliability of financialinformation on the project and made proposals about the steps that would needto be taken to deliver the replacement system.

In April 2005, a seniorcivil servant was appointed as the interim director of SPIS. In May 2005 morerobust reporting arrangements about the progress of the project and itsfinancial management were put in place. In addition, regular reports wereprovided to Justice Department officials and the CPS Programme Board.

In October 2005, the CPSProgramme Board was satisfied with the progress made during the previous five monthsand endorsed the continuation of the CHS project. A four stage approach wasadopted by SPIS, which meant that delivery would be on a slightly longertimescale but with a more robust approach to project management and delivery of the various stages of the project.

The project is on track tomeet the revised delivery date from SPIS to the Scottish Criminal Record Officewhich is scheduled for 22 December 2006. Thereafter there will be a period of useracceptance testing with the intention that the new system will in use by June2007.

Details of Scottish Enterprise’sexpenditure on Skills and Training are published annually in their accounts. Theaccounts provide information on both gross (total operating income) and net (Grantin Aid) expenditure. The figures in the table below show gross expenditure and includethe cost of delivering Careers Scotland services. Additionally, an amount is paideach year from the Department for Work and Pensions to Scottish Enterprise for thecost of training allowances paid to participants in some schemes, and that amountis shown separately.

	Gross Expenditure (£ Million)	Skills and Learning (£ Million)	%	From DWP (£ Million)
2001-02	482.661	114.091	23.6%	15.441
2002-03	503.603	132.468	26.3%	15.747
2003-04	496.123	120.121	24.2%	11.893
2004-05	489.654	133.025	27.2%	6.451
2005-06	519.214	134.582	25.9%	2.393

 

The information asked for isnot held centrally as it is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise.

The information is publishedon the Scottish Health Statistics website under:http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/files/cancer_mesothelioma_inc.xls.

Source: ISD Scotland.

Ref: IR 2006-02465.

The following table contains the number of patients discharged with a main diagnosis of mesothelioma from hospitals in Scotland by health board of residence for the five financial years (ending 31 March) to 2004-05:

Local Authority Area	2000-2001	2001-2002	2002-2003	2003-2004	2004-2005
Argyll and Clyde	28	30	39	39	31
Ayrshire and Arran	18	11	15	23	14
Borders	5	2	3	2	2
Dumfries and Galloway	6	3	2	2	6
Fife	14	13	14	18	27
Forth Valley	15	9	12	15	11
Grampian	24	16	20	19	21
Greater Glasgow	52	36	50	48	60
Highland	3	6	13	15	9
Lanarkshire	15	21	27	29	20
Lothian	23	38	35	47	45
Orkney Islands	1	1	1	1	1
Tayside	14	19	17	11	12
Western Isles	0	1	2	0	2
Scotland	218	206	250	268	259

Notes:

Source: Scottish MorbidityRecord SMR01 linked database – in-patient/day case discharge summaries fromnon-obstetric/non-psychiatric specialties.

1. Main diagnosis ofmesothelioma identified using International Classification of Diseases 10th revision (ICD10)code C45.

2. Patientswith more than one discharge in a year are only counted once per NHS boardarea.

3. Figuresfor Scotland may not equal the sum of theindividual NHS boards due to migration between board areas of residence.

On 8 July 2005 the ScottishMedicines Consortium accepted Pemetrexed (Alimta®) in combination withcisplatin for restricted use within NHS Scotland for the treatment ofchemotherapy-naïve patients with stage II/IV unresectable malignant pleuralmesothelioma.

I refer the member to the answerto question S2W-27982 on 13 September 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

It is the responsibility ofan individual clinician to make appropriate decisions on treatment in thecircumstances of the individual patient. Patients who are currently receivingthe drug should continue on their existing course of treatment until theirclinician directs otherwise.