Chamber and committees

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.

The information requested isnot held centrally. This is a matter for NHS boards.

NICE is currentlyconsidering appeals against their Final Appraisal Determination beforepublishing firm advice for Pemetrexed (Alimta®) disodium for the treatment ofmalignant pleura mesothelioma.

Once published this will beconsidered by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland.

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

The Scottish Medicines Consortium(SMC) provides advice to NHS boards and their Area Drug and Therapeutics Committees(ADTCs) across Scotland about the status of all newly licenced medicines, all newformulations of existing medicines and any major new indications for establishedproducts (licenced from January 2002).

After careful consideration andevaluation of the evidence provided by the companies for bevacizumab and cetuximabrespectively SMC advised that,

Bevacizumab (Avastin®) is notrecommended for use within NHS Scotland in combination with intravenous fluorouracil/folinicacid or intravenous fluorouracil/folinic acid/irinotecan for first line treatmentof patients with metastatic carcinoma of the colon or rectum.

Cetuximab (Erbitux®) is not recommendedfor use within NHS Scotland in combination with irinotecan for the treatment ofpatients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) – expressing metastatic colorectalcancer after failure of irinotecan-including cytotoxic therapy.

SMC’s recommendations do notoverride the clinical judgment of an individual doctor who must make appropriatedecisions on treatment in the circumstances of the individual patient.

All internal IT projects thatrequire funding are subject to approval by the Executive’s Information Systems SteeringGroup (SEISSG), or by the ICT Senior Managers to whom authority to approve fundingfor smaller projects is delegated. All internal IT projects are managed in accordancewith Prince 2 Project Management methodology, except where the project is too smallin scale to merit this. Prince 2 requires estimated costs and funding sources tobe identified prior to formal Project Initiation. No ICT projects currently underwaywithin the Executive that are subject to SEISSG approval processes have progressedbeyond scoping stage without a cost estimate and a committed source of funding.

Business areas within the ScottishExecutive may be involved in the funding or oversight of IT projects or Programmesexternal to the Executive itself. Best practice guidance advises that projects shouldbe managed in accordance with approved Project Management approaches, and incorporateadvice that costs and funding sources should be identified prior to Project Initiation.Larger projects – generally those with budgets of over £5 million – and that arecategorised as high risk, are subject to the Gateway Review process. Projects requiringlevels of funding that cannot be met from business areas’ delegated staffing andadministration budgets would be required to make a case for funding from an appropriatesource, usually the relevant Programme Budget.

No Executive sponsoredICT projects that are currently underway– other than the criminal history system replacement project – have been initiatedand started without a separate budget having been defined.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-27685 on 7 September 2006. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website the search facilityfor which can be at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The available information isgiven in the following table which shows total capital expenditure on local authorityhousing in each year since local government reorganisation in 1996-97. Informationon housing association expenditure, broken down by local authority area, is notheld centrally.

Housing Revenue Account CapitalExpenditure £000

Local Authority	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06 Est
	HRA	HRA	HRA	HRA	HRA	HRA	HRA	HRA	Prudential	Prudential
Aberdeen City Council	13,873	15,384	23,268	24,263	22,991	20,547	19,026	20,340	30,765	33,557
Aberdeenshire Council	9,996	9,896	9,171	11,511	11,756	12,112	7,487	9,957	6,401	8,367
Angus Council	6,546	8,293	6,683	6,322	7,475	7,222	6,851	6,969	9,828	9,086
Argyll and Bute Council	3,001	4,658	3,839	4,148	3,196	3,282	3,500	3,547	3,629	3,747
Clackmannanshire Council	3,621	2,729	3,010	3,802	3,492	3,419	3,247	3,425	6,074	5,795
Dumfries and Galloway	9,456	8,539	10,762	9,959	11,359	8,725	6,820	n/a	n/a	n/a
Dundee City Council	14,249	11,949	12,423	12,704	13,331	11,822	11,097	10,705	15,080	14,924
East Ayrshire Council	8,908	7,023	11,405	8,303	9,443	9,630	9,850	9,898	11,793	9,976
East Dunbartonshire Council	4,273	3,213	3,437	4,516	4,735	4,157	4,014	5,336	5,193	6,755
East Lothian Council	7,329	7,537	6,918	6,917	6,105	5,225	8,720	7,978	12,611	17,028
East Renfrewshire	2,956	2,191	1,544	1,675	2,066	1,992	2,212	1,637	2,550	5,163
Edinburgh Council, City of	25,068	22,474	27,021	29,471	25,517	24,891	23,691	26,056	30,189	35,275
Eilean Siar, Comhairle nan	2,728	2,082	2,240	2,263	2,387	2,355	2,691	2,629	2,156	2,823
Falkirk Council	10,138	8,779	10,533	12,389	13,282	12,381	14,162	12,404	16,653	13,098
Fife Council	15,638	13,478	25,473	23,110	20,598	24,992	23,719	25,037	31,432	34,378
Glasgow City Council	72,140	52,981	55,895	54,409	57,761	77,720	75,609	n/a	n/a	n/a
Highland Council	15,100	10,003	10,583	9,991	11,825	14,643	12,339	15,440	13,458	14,176
Inverclyde Council	4,007	6,326	5,425	6,419	5,601	5,861	5,530	4,879	4,584	5,721
Midlothian Council	4,840	4,555	5,072	4,500	4,700	5,837	5,149	7,476	4,484	8,749
Moray Council	3,337	4,156	3,707	2,865	4,103	3,460	3,266	3,672	2,924	3,253
North Ayrshire Council	27,355	8,170	7,316	6,506	7,709	7,379	7,556	8,015	8,017	18,719
North Lanarkshire Council	39,603	32,589	24,827	25,247	24,675	22,964	24,487	24,572	39,302	40,550
Orkney Islands Council	270	504	524	668	595	760	770	686	652	795
Perth and Kinross Council	4,577	4,316	4,242	3,817	6,189	3,393	5,959	4,470	4,065	5,860
Renfrewshire Council	11,691	13,275	13,521	13,584	12,971	12,582	13,016	11,059	14,383	16,244
Scottish Borders Council	5,451	3,679	4,435	3,621	3,971	3,530	2,344	n/a	n/a	n/a
Shetland Islands Council	3,186	2,314	2,467	2,206	2,560	3,349	2,000	2,891	1,715	1,172
South Ayrshire Council	8,321	6,353	7,562	7,507	6,533	7,720	7,546	9,995	6,097	8,602
South Lanarkshire Council	17,133	16,000	20,696	18,055	16,750	18,160	21,876	23,511	32,443	49,092
Stirling Council	5,383	5,292	5,263	4,706	6,457	6,311	5,984	6,448	9,337	9,635
West Dunbartonshire	7,293	8,544	8,882	8,233	8,132	7,170	6,830	8,752	12,049	15,147
West Lothian Council	40,291	13,049	13,979	11,744	12,756	13,762	23,168	34,193	23,904	27,763
Scotland	407,758	320,330	352,122	345,431	351,021	367,353	370,516	311,976	361,768	425,450

Notes:

Information provided by councilsin the housing income and expenditure statistical return.

Includes capital expenditurefunded from revenue accounts in addition to expenditure funded from borrowing andfrom capital receipts. The figures for 2004-5 and 2005-06 are extracted from localauthorities prudential regime returns.

 Capital expenditure includesexpenditure on new building and the acquisition of land. In the period the majorityof local authority housing revenue account capital expenditure was for the renovationof local authority properties.

This information is not heldcentrally.

Local authorities and housingassociations will consider a range of factors in deciding which properties are tobe improved. These will include the current condition of the housing, legislativerequirements including Health and Safety, Tolerable Standard or Building Regulationsand also take into account the timing of any work which requires to be completedto enable all properties to meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS).