Chamber and committees

I have asked Willie Pretswell, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-30114 on 14 January 2010. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

I have asked Willie Pretswell, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

The Scottish Prison Service does not currently record data specifically regarding the number of ex-service personnel with or who may have post-traumatic stress disorder.

This information is not held centrally. However, the Scottish Government has been advised that the majority of NHS boards do not routinely fund the reversal of male or female sterilisation and would only consider this surgery in very exceptional circumstances, such as the death of an only child or the death of all the children in a family.

This question was answered in the Chamber. The answer can be viewed in the Official Report using the following link:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor1001-01.htm

Under the terms of Agenda for Change it is the job description, not the job title, which is matched to a pay band. The Agenda for Change job evaluation system matches a job description, in most cases, to a generic job profile and it is the job weight of that profile which determines the relevant pay band. The work undertaken by staff known as recruitment assistants could vary considerably from board to board and result in different banding outcomes. Information on what banding a given job title matches to in each NHS board is not collected by the Scottish Government.

I would certainly join you in congratulating our competitors, their families, employers and training providers for this outstanding result. Scotland achieved two Golds, one Bronze and a Medallion of Excellence out of a UK total of three Golds, six Bronzes and 14 Medallions of Excellence. This is the highest medal tally of any Scottish contingent within Team UK at WorldSkills and played a considerable part in the overall UK tally.

The Scottish winners were:

Mark Nevin - Gold - Painting and Decorating

Richard Sagar - Gold - Electrical Installation

Katie Watson - Bronze - Restaurant Service

Martin Eusebi - Medal of Excellence - Mechanical Engineering - (for achieving the international benchmark).

I have had the great pleasure in meeting the young people involved personally and would like to add my own congratulations on their achievements.

Specifically I would like to mention Mark Nevin who was Best of Nation for achieving the overall best score of any of the 26 UK team competitors.

WorldSkills will next be held in 2011 in London. This is another excellent opportunity to showcase the exceptional talent within Scotland and I hope our young people will try to get involved through heats at their local college or through their employer. In Calgary Scotland had our largest ever representation in a UK team than in any other skills competition and I would like to see us improve on this again for London 2011.

This question was answered in the Chamber. The answer can be viewed in the Official Report using the following link:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor0910-01.htm

As Zometa® (Zoledronic Acid) is not recommended for use in the treatment of prostate cancer by the Scottish Medicines Consortium, it is not routinely prescribed to Scottish patients. As such, information regarding the prescription of Zometa to Scottish prostate cancer patients is not collected centrally.

The prescribing of particular medicines is however a matter for NHS boards. All NHS boards and their Area Drugs and Therapeutics Committees (ADTCs) have processes for the consideration of SMC and NHS QIS not recommended medicines in accordance with clinical judgement, based on clinical skills and knowledge, the circumstances of the patient, national advice and local priorities''. Evidence suggests that Zometa is being prescribed to individual patients, for secondary conditions relating to their initial prostate cancer diagnosis.

Better Cancer Care, An Action Plan was published in October 2008 and outlined the Scottish Government''s commitment to implementing an ambitious set of actions to help improve services for all cancer patients, this will include those with prostate cancer. The Scottish Cancer Taskforce (SCT) has been established to oversee the commitments within the plan.

The plan focuses on measures to take around cancer prevention, screening, early detection, referral and diagnosis, treatment, living with cancer, improving the quality of cancer care and delivery of cancer services.

The Scottish Government remains focused on delivering our core purpose of increasing sustainable economic growth across Scotland, including Livingston.

Through our Government Economic Strategy and our Programme for Economic Recovery, we are using all the levers at our disposal to lead Scotland out of this downturn and position our economy to take early advantage of the recovery.

This includes the acceleration of nearly £293 million in capital expenditure into 2009-10, on top of £30 million in 2008-09, supporting around 6,350 jobs across Scotland. Many of these employment opportunities will be in West Lothian.