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Although there were shortages of generic drugs during 1999-2000, contingency arrangements already in place ensured both that patients continued to receive their medicines and that community pharmacists were appropriately reimbursed. Scottish Executive Health Department officials are in regular contact with the Scottish Pharmaceutical General Council to ensure that these arrangements continue to achieve these twin objectives in cases of shortages.

I also support the steps taken by the Department of Health to commission a fundamental review of the way the generics market serves the needs of Primary Care. I will be looking carefully at the department's conclusions and the implications for Scotland.

The information is shown in the table below.

Number of Children and Adults in Scotland Registered with the General Dental Service (GDS)

Financial Year	Child Registrations	Adult Registrations
1990-91	423,104	1,065,303
1991-92	620,696	1,864,835
1992-93	626,645	1,901,623
1993-94	632,720	1,861,265
1994-95	623,874	1,849,884
1995-96	635,945	1,942,469
1996-97	637,743	2,027,245
1997-98	710,064	2,034,688
1998-99	726,124	1,891,328
1999-2000	754,545	1,972,310

Notes:

1. Registering of patients with dentists was first introduced when a new dental contract came into force in October 1990. During 1990-91 registrations were under-counted as patients were only added to the dentists registered list when they visited a dentist after this date.

2. Prior to 1 September 1996 adult registrations lapsed after 24 months and child registrations lapsed at the end of the following calendar year unless the patients returned to the practice. This contributed to the fall in adult numbers between 1997-98 and 1998-99.

3. A new payment system for dentists was introduced in April 1999. Prior to this, records for new patients, patients registering after a period of being lapsed and patients whose information had been written or captured incorrectly were excluded from the registration figures and so some under-counting occurred.

As explained in the answer to S1W-5152, there are two main reasons for the variance between capital provision and recorded capital expenditure in any one year. These are: slippage of particular schemes where expenditure planned to be met in one year falls to be made in the following year; and the transfer of capital resources to revenue budgets to pay for minor works of a capital nature that do not add capital value to the NHS estate.

Currently, the level of resources allocated for capital investment in the NHS in Scotland during 2000-01 and 2001-02 total £179 million and £194 million respectively. In addition, capital resources of £30 million were made available during 2000-01 for investment in medical equipment and other areas of the NHS.

Any resources carried forward from the previous year due to capital slippage will be added to future year totals.

The level of capital slippage in any year is determined by a range of factors, including the characteristics and spending profile of particular projects. It will therefore vary from year to year.

The Scottish Executive monitors spending on particular projects against expenditure profiles provided by individual Health Boards and NHS Trusts, and has emphasised to them the need for profiles to be updated regularly so that any potential slippage is identified as early as possible and any resources underspent on a particular project in one year can be carried forward to the next. Prudent financial and project management means that it is not always appropriate for the whole of the capital allocation made available for a particular year to be spent in that year.

Any underspending against profile on a specific capital project in one year is carried forward to the next year. The Scottish Executive can adjust each Health Board's and NHS Trust's capital allocation during any financial year, which could have the effect of transferring an underspent capital allocation from one NHS body to another. However, where underspending arises from slippage on a specific project, it will normally be more prudent to enable the underspend to be carried forward to the following financial year.

Yes. The Scottish Executive discusses these and other matters with Health Boards and NHS Trusts regularly and in particular in the context of Health Improvement Programmes and Trust Implementation Plans.

I would refer the member to the joint CoSLA/Scottish Executive report It Pays to Pay and to my answer to question S1W-4296 to Des McNulty of 23 February.

We have made regulations that will allow councils to commence billing and collecting council taxes from 1 April 2001, rather than 1 May as at present. Furthermore, from 1 April 2001, councils will be able to issue a combined reminder and final notice rather than two separate notices.

Telemedicine remains a rapidly developing field with great potential to improve access to high quality care irrespective of distance. The Scottish Executive is investing £5 million to promote telemedicine schemes across Scotland and has established a Scottish Telemedicine Action Forum to co-ordinate this work. Evaluation of these projects will provide evidence about which telemedicine applications are sufficiently effective, efficient and robust to deserve wider implementation.

The Scottish Executive is determined to address the challenges presented by cancer in all forms. We have pledged to tackle the root causes of ill health and will work over the next 10 years to promote healthier living and reduce mortality from cancer by 20% in the under 75's.

Targeted health promotion programmes and a pilot colorectal cancer screening programme are already underway.

The Health Education Board for Scotland "Big 3" campaign has been successful in raising adults' awareness of the small changes to lifestyle (including diet) that can be easily achieved to help prevent cancer occurring.

The place of aspirin in prevention of bowel cancer is still being evaluated.