I refer you to my reply to questionS2W-15461 on 18 April 2005, and the Executives Health Department’s White Paper Partnershipfor Care sets out our commitment to the training and development of qualifiedstaff to Continued Professional Development (CPD) and the entitlement for trainingfor all other health service staff in Scotland.Each NHSScotland boards holdswithin their annual funding allocation a budget for nursing and midwifery post-registrationeducation, and therefore they will be working in partnership with their nursingstaff to ensure that they are supported and encouraged to develop and maintain theirskills.Once NHS boards, as employersof NHSScotland staff, have determined that nurse prescribing is a requirement of the nurse’s role and that patient care would benefit from this extension to thenurse’s role, the nurse in question would make an application to undertake an academiccourse which appropriately meets...