Chamber and committees

On all three occasions the Scottish minister formed the UK ministerial delegation and was supported by officials as appropriate.

In this context, "led the UK delegation" means that the minister concerned was the primary spokesperson for the UK at the meeting in question.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-25154 on 1 May 2002, which detailed allocated resources to each NHS board for drug treatment services for 1998-99 to 2002-03, in cash terms and per capita. The current position is that allocations for 2003-04 will remain the same as for 2002-03, and NHS boards have been notified accordingly. The Arbuthnott Substance Misuse Formula was used to determine allocations for 2001-02 to 2003-04.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-25469 today. Scottish participation in the Murcia Gathering shows collaborative working with all the devolved administrations and the UK departments in action.

A final decision about the composition of the UK delegation to the Youth Convention has not yet been taken. I shall write to the member when this information is available.

As at 15 April, the number of vessels which are being, or have been scrapped at each of the locations listed in the answer provided to question S1W-24417, is as follows:

Location	Number of Vessels
Arbroath	2
Carradale	1
Dunbar	1
Esbjerg, Denmark	11
Grenaa, Denmark	36
Kilkeel	5
Macduff	6
Newcastle	5
Orkney	2
Port Bannatyne	1
Portavogie	3
Sandhaven	3
Stornoway	5
Stranraer	2
Vigo, Spain	1

As previously explained, the Fisheries Departments in the UK operate a restrictive licensing system, whereby anyone wishing to replace an existing vessel, or introduce a new vessel into the fleet, has to acquire an existing licence, or licences for aggregation, of an appropriate type and capacity to cover the incoming vessel. No new licences, other than to replace existing licences used in this way, have therefore been issued since the decommissioning scheme began. Indeed, as at 1 May, 46 licences have been surrendered and cancelled, as a result of operation of the scheme to date; and the number of licences within the system in the UK will have further reduced, as a result of transactions involving the aggregation of existing licences.

The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Bill is not yet in force. As all requests for information made under the bill would be considered on a case-by-case basis, with regard to the exemptions in the bill and the public interest, it is not possible to provide a definitive answer. However, under the current Code of Practice on Access to Scottish Executive Information (which will in due course be superseded by the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act), this correspondence is exempt from release as it is information whose disclosure would harm the frankness and candour of internal discussion (Exemption 2 in Part II of the Code) and whose disclosure would be contrary to the public interest.

General dental practitioners in both areas will benefit from elements of the Executive's "Golden Hello" package directly and indirectly. Grampian is included in the designated areas targeted for additional resources as agreed with the British Dental Association Scotland. Consequently, dentists who have completed their vocational training and enter substantive general dental practice in Grampian will receive a £10,000 allowance over two years and dental graduates taking up their training year in this area will receive an allowance of £3,000. In Tayside, dentists who have completed their vocational training and enter substantive general dental practice will receive a £5,000 allowance over two years.The package is aimed at general dental practice and not at the acute sector.

Changes to the tax system are entirely reserved to the UK Government, but Scottish ministers work closely with the oil and gas industry, to maximise their contribution to the Scottish economy, and we will continue to do so.