Chamber and committees

Details and timescalesfor our major and important planned road projects can be found on the TransportScotland website at:http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/uploads/documents/Scottish-Motorways-Trunk-Road-Programme-June2007-final.pdf.

In 2007-08, £4 millionis available under the CommunitySafety Partnership Award Programme to local authority-ledCommunity Safety Partnerships to assist them in identifying and addressing localcommunity safety priorities, including CCTV. Other funding streams, such as qualityof life funding, can also be used to fund local CCTV systems.

We are currently conductinga survey of public space CCTV in Scotland to ascertain the role that CCTV playsin helping to reduce crime and antisocial behaviour.

We share the concernsof those worried about the level of returns being made by some milk producers. Althoughwe cannot intervene in the market, we are pleased to note that many dairy farmersare now receiving increased prices as a result of changing market conditions.

Since 2000, the dairysector has received assistance totalling almost £7 million from the Processing andMarketing Grant Scheme administered by the Scottish Executive.

Dairy producers benefitfrom support from the Single Farm Payment which was introduced following CommonAgricultural Policy reform in 2003.

We want to supportbeef producers by helping them compete successfully in the market. In the last fiveyears, the beef processing sector has received grants of almost £6.7 million underthe Processing and Marketing Scheme and around £2.5 million under the MarketingDevelopment Scheme.

Quality MeatScotland has a key role to play in developing and promoting the red meat industry.Beef producers may also receive Single Farm Payment, Less Favoured Area SupportScheme funding and payments under the Scottish Beef Calf Scheme (which has paidover £37 million to specialist beef producers in its first two years).

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-257 on 20 June 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Formal statisticsof participation in higher education are not available for the whole of this period.Nevertheless, the history of Scotland is of a country that has been a world leaderin educational innovation and participation over many centuries and it is the ambitionof this Government to build upon that strong foundation.

Information collatedcentrally by NHS National Services Scotland on prescribed doses of drugs is measuredusing the average maintenance dose of a drug as used in adults. This unit of measurementis based on advice from the World Health Organization. It is not possible to extractfrom that data the number of doses of Ritalin (methylphenidate hydrochloride) prescribedexclusively for children.NHS National Services Scotland website carries generalinformation about drugs used in the treatment of Attention Deficit HyperactivityDisorder (ADHD). This information can be found at www.isdscotland.org.

More generally, inrelation to the management of ADHD, NHS Quality Improvement Scotland is currentlyundertaking a national audit of the care and treatment provided throughout Scotland for children with ADHD, including the use of drug therapy.The report of this exercise is due to be published in March 2008.

Risperdal is not licensedfor use in children. However, clinicians can use drugs off-license i.e. outsidetheir licensed indications, if they consider that treatment to be the most appropriatefor an individual patient. In these circumstances the clinician takes personal responsibilityfor the use of the drug.

The firstRisperdal preparations (Risperdal 1, 2, 3 and 4mg tablets) were authorised in the UK on 8 December 1992.