Chamber and committees

Medical research in the UK and overseas shows clearly that treatment with thrombolytic (clot-dissolving) drugs is an effective way of reducing or avoiding long-term damage from heart attack, and that effectiveness is greatest when the drugs are administered very quickly after a heart attack has occurred. Consequently there is considerable clinical interest in the potential role of ambulance paramedic staff in providing thrombolytic drugs before a patient is transferred to hospital.With support from the Remote and Rural Areas Resource Initiative, the Scottish Ambulance Service is undertaking a pilot project on pre-hospital thrombolysis in rural areas. The project is looking at joint working between the ambulance service and general practice and will provide research evidence on the effectiveness of pre-hospital thrombolysis. Pilot projects may have been undertaken elsewhere in the UK and overseas.

The impact would depend on how any new arrangements compared with the various different agreements and collection arrangements that individual local authorities have in place now.

We will seek local authorities' views on the kind of data from their second progress reports under the Home Energy Conservation Act, which might be published at local authority level by the Executive. The second progress reports will cover the two years from April 1999 to March 2001 and are due to be submitted to the Executive at the end of January 2002. Authorities themselves must publish their reports in their entirety.

Scheme guidance material makes clear that vessel owners should investigate the practicalities and costs of decommissioning, which will need to be covered by any decommissioning grant payable, before submitting a grant bid. Costs involved are likely to depend on the circumstances of the individual vessel concerned. Grant payments are subject to maxima set out in EC legislation.

Scheme legislation and guidance material provides that vessels may be decommissioned by means of:

• scrapping, or
• permanent re-assignment to a purpose other than fishing e.g. placed in a museum, converted to a pleasure craft etc, or
• permanent transfer to a third country.

No particular methods of disposal are recommended, but the owners of vessels to be scrapped are required to ensure that the disposal meets regulatory, including environmental, requirements.Costs involved are likely to depend on individual vessel circumstances and are a matter for the vessels' owners.

No.

The Executive has orchestrated, or been involved in, a number of initiatives aimed at raising public and professional awareness of antimicrobial resistance and the appropriate use of antibiotics. These include:

a high profile public awareness campaign, including distribution of posters and leaflets and media briefings;

the development of an Action Plan on antimicrobial resistance for Scotland;

several large professional conferences and symposia during the last 12 months, including one at the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh;

an approach by Deputy Chief Medical Officer to the Scottish Medical Schools to encourage adequate coverage of the issue in the medical curriculum;

regular reviews by Prescribing Advisers of antibiotic prescribing by GPs, feedback on GP prescribing of antibiotics and computer system facilities to allow GPs to develop their own prescribing protocols for these drugs;

a number of clinical guidelines, including Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) guidelines, to help doctors and dentists prescribe appropriately, and

an undertaking (as part of the Scottish Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance) to work with Drug and Therapeutics Committees to ensure that policies are in place for the appropriate use of antibiotics, and that mechanisms are established to monitor them.

similar initiatives are also being taken forward to encourage better use of antibiotics in veterinary practice and animal husbandry.

The Executive is currently consulting on proposals to increase the recovery and recycling targets for packaging waste materials for 2002 from the existing targets of 56% recovery and 18% material-specific recycling to 61% and 20%, respectively. The consultation document has been posted on the Executive's website at www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations/environment/pwc-00.asp. This will encourage the recycling of all packaging waste including beverage containers.

There are no targets for beverage containers as such. There are, however, recovery and recycling targets for the materials from which beverage containers are made. These are currently 56% recovery and 18% for material-specific recycling. The Executive is currently consulting industry on proposals to increase the targets for 2002 to 61% and 20%, respectively. The consultation document has been posted on the Executive's website at:

www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations/environment/pwc-00.asp.

It is planned to incorporate the matrix into revised regulations in early 2002.