Chamber and committees

Scottish ministers became responsible for the rail franchise in Scotland on 17 October 2004, and no details are held by Transport Scotland prior to that date. Since then, the net subsidy payments made by Transport Scotland to First ScotRail under the Franchise Agreement have been:

2004-05 (Part Year)	£103.1 million
2005-06	£201.0 million
2006-07	£281.5 million
2007-08	£294.3 million

 

First ScotRail provide a detailed breakdown of their operating costs to Transport Scotland under the confidentiality terms of the franchise agreement, and we are not at liberty to disclose these. High-level operating cost information on ScotRail''s operating costs is disclosed within their published annual report and accounts, and this information is available to members through the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.

As with any other modern, open economy, Scotland is not immune from global economic developments, such as the current turbulence in financial markets. The adverse developments in international financial markets will doubtless impact Scotland as they will in the rest of the UK and elsewhere. However, we are confident that the sector in Scotland is internationally competitive and can respond to these challenges.

Specialist investigations, such as skin testing and the investigation of specialist antibodies and immune cell function are carried out at consultant-led immunology and allergy services in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow which also take referrals from across Scotland.

This information is not held centrally.

Information from across NHS boards indicates that food allergies and intolerances are dealt with by many specialists including consultant dermatologists, immunologists, psychiatrists, gastroenterologists, dieticians, paediatricians with special interests and general practitioners with special interests. In addition there are also nurse specialists in place.

Information on the costs of health services treating specific conditions or diseases is not available centrally. Information on the costs of delivering other services such as social care or housing is not held centrally.

People with autism spectrum disorder are most likely to be diagnosed in an out-patient clinic and managed in the community or general practice. Diagnostic information for patients attending out-patient clinics is not available centrally.

Estimated prevalence figures are detailed in the recent guidance for commissioners of services for people with autism spectrum disorder, published by the Scottish Government at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/03/27085247/0.

These figures are based on the prevalence rate of 0.9% from the Office of National Statistics survey of the mental health of children and young people in Britain (Green et al, 2005).

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-12379 on 13 May 2008. 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.

The Scottish Government has not estimated the average lifetime cost of delivering services to any particular client group, including autism spectrum disorder. UK research has estimated that the lifetime cost to society for someone with autism to be between £2.9 million for someone with high-functioning autism and £4.7 million for someone with low-functioning autism. These costs are not limited to the delivery of services funded by the state.

All regulated services, including those delivered to people on the autistic spectrum are monitored and inspected by regulatory bodies such as the Care Commission, the Social Work Inspection Agency, NHS Quality Improvement Scotland and Her Majesty''s Inspectorate of Education.