Chamber and committees

The study states that mortality from breast cancer was three times that of the general population suggesting poorer detection or treatment.

In Scotland there is already a well established breast cancer screening programme for all women aged 50 to 64. The extension of routine invitation for screening to 70 years is currently being phased in across Scotland.

Our cancer strategy Cancer in Scotland seeks to ensure more rapid access to diagnosis and treatment for all cancer patients including those affected by breast cancer. More than £5 million has been invested specifically in breast services during 2001-04.

In Scotland five-year survival from breast cancer has increased substantially from 60% in 1977–81 to 77% in 1997–2001.

In delivering the Respect and Responsibility strategy, the expertise of the speech and language therapist can be used to assist adults and children with disabilities to acquire and maintain the knowledge necessary for good sexual health and wellbeing.

Health boards are responsible for leading improvements in sexual health and are adopting locally appropriate structures and arrangements to do so. Therefore, the extent to which speech and language therapists and other communication expertise are involved in the delivery of the sexual health strategy will vary between NHS boards.

Progress with participation in clinical trials is monitored through the Scottish Cancer Research Network (SCRN) who have only recently established up-to-date monitoring systems to collect and report information. Information is available from April 2004 and is provided in the following table.

Tumour Type	No. of Patients Entered Into Trials 2001 (baseline)1	Percentage of All Registrations for 2001	No. of Patients Entered Into Trials (April – Sep 2004)2	Percentage of All Registrations (based on 2001)3
(a) Breast	435	12.1	537	30.0
(b) Colorectal	83	2.4	146	8.3
(c) Lung	78	1.8	155	7.1
(d) Gynaecological4	70	1.6	120	5.5
(e) Prostate	15	0.7	27	2.5

Notes:

1. Source - Scottish Cancer Registry, ISD. Represents a 12 month period in 2001. This figure is used as a baseline against which to measure progress.

2. Source - Scottish Cancer Research Network (SCRN).

3. Cancer registrations for 2004 are not yet available so 50% of the registrations for 2001 (the most recent year available) have been used to provide an approximation.

4. Gynaecological cancers consists of seven categories: carcinoma in situ of the cervix uteri, cervix uteri, corpus uteri, ovary, uterus, vagina, and vulva.

The Scottish Cancer Research Network (SCRN) was fully established by December 2003 with designated clinical leads, managers, research nurses and other support staff in place in each of the three regional cancer network areas.

Latest figures based on April –to September 2004 show that the network has achieved the target to at least double patient recruitment to clinical trials.

Scotland	No. of Patients Entered into Trials 2001 (baseline)1	No of Patients Entered into Trials (April – September 2004)2
Total	954	1,415

Notes:

1. Information from Scottish Cancer Registry, ISD. Represents a 12 month period in 2001. This figure is used as a baseline against which measure progress. Information is not yet published by ISD for 2002, 2003.

2. Information directly from the Scottish Cancer Research Network (SCRN). Represents a six month period April to September 2004.

It is for NHS boards and local authorities to determine levels of service provision based on local needs. Currently, there is no national waiting time target for speech and language therapy.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-16122 on 3 May 2005. 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.

We are making excellent progress. Our Scottish Community and Householder Renewables Initiative has allocated grant funding to over 600 small-scale renewable energy projects since 2002, and applications to the scheme continue to increase.

This information is not held centrally.

Information on the number of people who use guide communicators is not held centrally.

Deafblind Scotland receives funds from the Scottish Executive to enable it to train guide communicators and deafblind support workers for deafblind people. Local authorities can purchase this service from Deafblind Scotland for those people assessed as requiring it.

The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 is expected to be commenced towards the end of this year, at which time the tribunal system will become operational. The Executive intends to review the operation of the tribunals, as part of a wider review of the implementation of the 2004 act, in early 2007. The outcome of that review will inform whether or not the UK Government should be approached for provision to give the tribunals jurisdiction over disability discrimination cases in Scottish school education.