Chamber and committees

We will publish a Framework to Tackle Poverty, Inequality and Deprivation in Scotland in November of this year.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-12751 on 15 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.

In Scotland the delivery of the targeted vaccination programme has relied on individual NHS boards developing a mechanism for the best local delivery of their vaccination programme based on the existing vaccination infrastructure and the target population.

NHS boards will follow the advice in the Department of Health''s Immunisation Against Infectious Disease guidance which sets out those groups of people at increased risk of developing severe disease and/or of exposure to tuberculosis (TB). Such groups would include all infants living in areas of the UK with higher levels of the disease (40 cases per 100,000 people); all infants with a parent or grandparent who was born in a country with high incidence; previously unvaccinated contact cases of respiratory TB, and previously unvaccinated tuberculin-negative new entrants under 16 years of age who were born in or who have lived for a prolonged period in a country with a high incidence.

This information is not held centrally. NHS boards will be in receipt of information on the total number of vaccines used by age group, but it is difficult to determine the total number of people currently eligible for the BCG vaccination. In the context of the current risk-based programme the types of people most at risk from the disease, and therefore eligible for vaccination, have been identified, but currently there is only limited data available on the number of people within these groups. Therefore data on the number of vaccines administered cannot currently be matched against a denominator figure and cannot be used to provide an accurate indicator of level of uptake.

The Scottish Government is responsible for the ScotRail franchise. The budget for franchise payments in financial year 2008-09 is £306.2 million. In addition, a small payment is made annually to the cross country franchise for the provision of additional services at Dunbar. Because this has been negotiated commercially, disclosure of the exact sum could prejudice future negotiations.

All patients registered with a GP will receive information about relevant screening services at the appropriate time. Information leaflets on the screening programmes are produced in a number of languages to encourage uptake.

In addition, many health boards have local initiatives in place to encourage uptake amongst excluded groups including ethnic minorities.

Transport Scotland began making grant payments to Network Rail on 1 April 2006. Between 1 April 2006 and 31 March 2008 Transport Scotland has paid Network Rail £457,226,180.

No decision has been made so far.

There have been no specific discussions with Network Rail on the feasibility of a high-speed rail link between Scotland and England. Our focus has been on improving journey times generally. The Department for Transport (DfT) have lead responsibility for cross border rail services and we will continue to work with the DfT to achieve faster journeys between Scotland and England.

We are, of course, keen for the feasibility of high-speed rail on the cross border services to be assessed and have written to the UK Government to request a meeting to discuss this issue.

The Scottish Government has not carried out an appraisal to estimate the economic benefits to Scotland of a high-speed rail link between Scotland and England.