Chamber and committees

The Commission has sought and secured a delay in the production of a report into the effectiveness of access restrictions, which was originally intended to be made available by 31 December 2003. During 2003 and 2004, the Commission secured agreement on the scope of the review, established a scientific expert group to agree its terms of reference and established scientific expert sub-groups to conduct reviews and draft reports for evaluation of each access rule. The Commission’s scientific expert groups first met in April 2004 and the sub-groups are now preparing their reports. No revised timescale for the Article 19 review has been agreed, but the Commission’s final report and corresponding proposalsare expected before the end of 2004.

The information requested is shown in the following tables 1 and 2:

Table 1

NHS – Patients Ready for Discharge – Numbers by Local Authority Area¹; as at April 2004

Local Authority	Total2	Number of Patients Outwith the Six Week Discharge Planning Period3
Scotland	1,785	1,036
Argyll and Bute	48	34
West Dunbartonshire	45	29
Inverclyde	71	47
Renfrewshire	62	51
Scottish Borders	38	30
East Ayrshire	51	35
North Ayrshire	42	25
South Ayrshire	50	21
Dumfries and Galloway	8	3
Fife	122	70
Clackmannanshire	4	-
Falkirk	77	59
Stirling	16	13
Aberdeen City	127	70
Aberdeenshire	64	26
Moray	28	21
East Dunbartonshire	22	10
Glasgow City	216	106
East Renfrewshire	19	11
Highland	54	43
North Lanarkshire	57	24
South Lanarkshire	89	42
Edinburgh, City of	228	129
East Lothian	40	25
Midlothian	21	14
West Lothian	26	9
Orkney	3	-
Shetland	1	1
Angus	19	5
Dundee City	68	38
Perth and Kinross	46	28
Eilean Siar	11	8
Local Authority not identified	12	9

Notes:

1. Local authority is based on those patients resident in each local authority area. This will include patients who were not considered to have social work involvement in their discharge planning process or in their post‑hospital care arrangements. A patient ready for discharge is not considered to have social work involvement in their discharge planning process if the principal reason for delay is in the Healthcare groups; or principal reason for delay is the Patient/ Carer/ Family – related categories and a date of referral for Social Care Assessment has not been recorded.

2. Number of patients ready for discharge, in all specialties, reported as at April 2004 census.

3. Number of Patients ready for discharge with a duration over six weeks (43 days or more), i.e. the common period for local discharge planning agreement timescale across Scotland.

Table 2

NHS – Patients Ready for Discharge – Numbers by NHS Board Area of Treatment; as at April 2004 Census

NHS Board Area of Treatment	Total1	Number of Patients Outwith the Six Week Discharge Planning Period2
Scotland	1785	1036
Argyll and Clyde	218	162
Ayrshire and Arran	143	81
Borders	38	30
Dumfries and Galloway	8	3
Fife	121	69
Forth Valley	98	72
Grampian	221	118
Greater Glasgow	293	139
Highland	54	43
Lanarkshire	122	55
Lothian	321	184
Orkney	3	-
Shetland	-	-
Tayside	134	72
Western Isles	11	8

Notes:

1. Number of patients ready for discharge, in all specialties, reported as at April 2004 census.

2. Number of patients ready for discharge with a duration over six weeks (43 days or more), i.e. the common period for local discharge planning agreement timescales across Scotland.

The Defence Agency was not mentioned in the letter of 7 June 2004 from the Minister for Finance and Public Services, as that letter was a response to a letter dated 31 March from the Committee, which asked for “further information on agencies not yet established and for whom the issue of location has not yet been agreed”.

The establishment of a Defence Agency was agreed in principle at the June 2003 European Council; this was given final political agreement at the General Affairs and External Relations Council on 14 June 2004. As stated in the reply to parliamentary questions S2W-9073 on 7 July 2004, it was agreed at an early stage that the Defence Agency should be established in Brussels. Therefore there was no opportunity for the agency to be located in Scotland.

No. It was agreed at an early stage in the planning of the agency that it should be located in Brussels, for the practical reason of its need to work closely with EU structures, military staff and NATO.

Findings from the recent consultation and research on Scotland’s international image, commissioned by the Executive, are being published today. Copies have been placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 33112). I have also arranged for a copy to be sent to you.

The Project Galore research was carried out on behalf of Scottish Enterprise. I will ask Scottish Enterprise to contact you.

Executive ministers and officials have regular discussions on a wide range of issues with colleagues in the UK government. The specific content of these discussions is confidential.

The procedures for handling suchmatters are under constant review.

I refer to the answers to questionsS1W-29052 given on 9 September 2002 and S2W-2904 given on 29 September 2003 forinformation regarding the dates, locations and costs of overseas travel by the FirstMinister, Minister for Finance and Public Services and Deputy Minister for Finance,Public Services and Parliamentary Business for the period 1 July 1999 to 31 March2003.

Information on the costs of overseastravel by these ministers for the period 1 April 2003 to31 March 2004 is provided today in the answer to S2W-9345, theannual parliamentary question on costs of ministerial visits overseas.

The information is provided inthe following tables. Dental practices that ceased providing NHS general dentalservices for a temporary period only may be included in these figures. For comparisonthe number of practices in Scotland that have commenced providing NHS general dentalservices in the same period are also provided.

Number of Dental Practices inScotland that have Ceased Providing NHS General Dental Services^1,2

Year	No. of Practices
1999	13
2000	13
2001	17
2002	19
2003p	20

 

Number of Dental Practices inScotland that have Commenced Providing NHS General Dental Services^1,2

Year	No. of Practices
1999	23
2000	13
2001	20
2002	21
2003P	23

^PProvisional.

Notes:

1.Source - MIDAS (Management Information & Dental Accounting System).

2. Some NHS general dental practicesmay cease providing NHS services permanently, while some may do so only temporarily.

The Police GAE Working Group decided to delay submitting the report in order that their recommendations could be informed by additional data which became available in May. As I said in answer to question S2O-2646 on 17 June 2004, I expect to receive the report in the next few weeks.