Chamber and committees

Portable oxygen equipment is not currently available on GP prescription. However, the Minister for Health and Community Care made a policy commitment in October 2002 that small oxygen cylinders would be added to the Scottish Drug Tariff. We are currently working on the details of implementation, and intend to make small oxygen cylinders available on GP prescription by the end of the summer.

In granting bail, the court or the Lord Advocate is required by law to impose on the accused the standard conditions, and such further conditions as the court or Lord Advocate considers necessary, to secure that the standard conditions are observed and that the accused makes himself available for participating in an identification parade or for the taking of any print, impression or sample.The standard conditions are that the accused appears at the appointed time at every diet relating to the offence with which he is charged of which he is given due notice; does not commit an offence while on bail; does not interfere with witnesses or otherwise obstruct the course of justice whether in relation to himself or any other person, and makes himself available for the purpose of enabling enquiries or a report to be made to assist the court in dealing with him for the offence with which he is charged.No changes were necessary to the standard conditions of bail on account of the incorporation of certain rights and fundamental freedoms contained in the European Convention of Human Rights into domestic law. In exercising their discretion to impose any such further conditions of bail as they consider necessary, the courts and the Lord Advocate must not act in any way which is incompatible with an accused person's Convention rights.

The Office for National Statistics publishes data from the New Earnings Survey on an annual basis. The survey takes place in April each year. The following table provides gross weekly earnings of full-time adults for local authorities in Scotland.Average Gross Weekly Earnings of Full-Time Employees in Local Authority Areas

Classification: Public Domain (£)
Local Authority		1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
Aberdeen City		438.4	423.2	445.4	476.8	504.5
Aberdeenshire		350.2	342.9	371.2	370.1	414.1
Angus		..	332.5	342.1	356.4	380.6
Argyll and Bute		327.1	353.0	378.8	390.5	390.3
Clackmannanshire		..	..	..	..	..
Dumfries and Galloway		312.7	335.4	330.4	369.3	386.7
Dundee City		336.7	354.2	362.2	391.6	411.4
East Ayrshire		324.4	328.6	365.1	375.3	..
East Dunbartonshire		..	..	..	364.7	..
East Lothian		301.6	338.7	361.9	373.0	399.6
East Renfrewshire		..	..	..	..	..
Edinburgh, City of		371.2	396.1	404.6	445.1	480.6
Eilean Siar		..	..	..	..	..
Falkirk		337.1	358.0	379.2	384.0	391.7
Fife		336.2	337.6	344.8	367.0	390.1
Glasgow City		357.4	373.1	391.8	418.8	421.4
Highland		318.9	335.9	351.7	374.5	411.8
InverclydeMidlothian		333.7	349.5	356.9	352.8	354.7
		..	360.2	375.6	378.9	397.5
Moray		299.2	324.9	..	327.8	346.1
North Ayrshire		337.3	354.8	346.7	395.0	372.8
North Lanarkshire		342.5	343.7	373.1	393.0	413.2
Orkney Islands		..	..	..	..	..
Perth and Kinross		323.6	325.4	332.8	354.9	369.4
Renfrewshire		343.1	373.1	396.3	412.5	447.7
Scottish Borders		304.4	315.7	326.3	345.2	346.2
Shetland Islands		..	..	..	..	..
South Ayrshire		343.1	387.0	386.2	400.6	421.1
South Lanarkshire		325.6	365.6	385.4	412.5	434.2
Stirling		343.5	332.8	337.5	414.6	..
West Dunbartonshire		..	..	..	355.6	376.5
West Lothian		341.2	354.6	384.0	404.1	430.1

Providers of all the services defined at sections 2 and 8 of the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001, including voluntary sector providers, will, through time, be required to register them with the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care. The commission has been regulating all the services regulated under the previous local authority and health board registration and inspection regime since 1 April 2002. Some services which were new to regulation have been regulated since October 2002, and others from April 2003. Regulation of the rest of the services defined in the act is being phased in.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-492 on 11 June 2003. 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/search_wa.

The median waiting times for orthopaedic surgery, by NHS board area of residence, for the years ended 31 March 2002 and 31 March 2003 are given in the following table. The increase in the Scotland median wait reflects our focus on reducing the number of patients waiting longest for treatment. On 31 March 2003, the number of patients with a guarantee waiting more than nine months for orthopaedic surgery was 275, compared with 1,282 on 31 March 2002.

NHS Board	Year Ended31 March 2002	Year Ended31 March 2003P
Argyll and Clyde	112	118
Ayrshire and Arran	79	78
Borders	73	80
Dumfries and Galloway	69	92
Fife	105	132
Forth Valley	121	143
Grampian	50	59
Greater Glasgow	81	93
Highland	72	92
Lanarkshire	90	93
Lothian	96	138
Orkney	47	61
Shetland	69	115
Tayside	76	91
Western Isles	44	30
Scotland	80	94

Source: ISD Scotland, SMR01.^PProvisional.

Information on average weekly household income in Scotland is available at national level only. The following table shows median household income in Scotland as a whole in each year since 1996-97.The data sources which the Executive uses for household income analysis are the Family Resources Survey (FRS) and the Households Below Average Income Analysis, which is derived from the FRS. The sample sizes are not large enough to allow analysis below the all-Scotland level. Weekly Net Household Income in Scotland

	Median (£)
1996-97	228
1997-98	236
1998-99	238
1999-2000	250
2000-01	250
2001-02	272

Notes:1. All amounts are in 2001-02 prices.2. Income is after housing costs and is equivalised to take account of the size and composition of the household.3. Year-on-year changes should be interpreted with caution, since the data is derived from a sample survey and the figures are subject to sampling variability.

Tenants who transfer retain their previous right to buy entitlement as long as they retain the tenancy they had at the point of transfer. If they change their tenancy, for example, as a result of a voluntary move to another house owned by the same landlord, or if there is a succession to the tenancy by another qualified person, then their right to buy entitlement will depend upon the status of the landlord, the property the tenant moves to, and any conditions which were agreed under the transfer process.

Responsibility for administering the right to buy scheme rests with the landlord. If there are delays in the right to buy process, then under the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 tenants may be able to seek a reduction in the purchase price.

(i) Consultation documents to farmersWe issue these to representative bodies with an interest, and not as a rule to farmers, although all the documents can be accessed by individuals through the Executive's website. We do not keep a record of the costs of these consultation documents since in the main they do not involve external printing and dissemination. The costs, mainly in photocopying and postage are met from the general running costs of the department.(ii) Guidance documents to farmersOn guidance documents, primarily subsidy scheme literature and claim forms, the costs are as follows:

	Printing and Production	Postage	Total
1998-99	£218,600	£43,500	£262,100
1999-2000	£355,300	£57,100	£412,400
2000-01	£344,900	£45,600	£390,500
2001-02	£497,300	£126,600	£623,900
2002-03	£380,100	£117,200	£497,300