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People with mental health and learning difficulties qualify for legal aid in the same way as any other person - by satisfying a number of statutory tests, one of which is financial eligibility. Regulations will be laid in this parliamentary session to enable those involved in certain mental health proceedings to be exempted from the financial eligibility and contributions tests in relation to assistance by way of representation.

The Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Bill will make provision for legal aid to be available to adults with incapacity and anyone else who wishes to use the measures provided for in the Bill, subject to the usual statutory tests being met.In addition, the Central Research Unit is undertaking a number of studies which look specifically at access to legal advice and services for people with mental health and learning difficulties and the results of these studies will be carefully assessed by the Scottish Executive Justice and Health Departments in the context of policy development on Adults with Incapacity and on mental health.

Arrangements for charging for car parking are currently in place at Yorkhill NHS Trust, the Victoria Infirmary, which is part of South Glasgow University Hospitals NHS Trust, and Glasgow Royal Infirmary which is part of the North Glasgow University Hospitals NHS Trust. GGPCT has advised that there are no plans to extend these current arrangements nor to introduce charges at hospitals forming the Greater Glasgow Primary Care NHS Trust.

Grant-Aided Expenditure (GAE) allowances are not intended to be spending targets or limits for individual services, but contribute towards the assessment of councils' relative total expenditure needs within the distribution system.The information requested is not available centrally. The allocations to each authority are contained in Grant-Aided Expenditure 2000-01. It is available in SPICe.

Lorna Naismith was given early retirement on grounds of organisational change due to trust reconfiguration. She did not receive the sum mentioned, the major part of that figure - £268k - represents the capitalisation costs for the pension which the employer is obliged to set aside to cover future payment of the pension until normal retiral age. The Trust reconfiguration process was a managed one which has been audited and shown to provide value for money to the NHS in Scotland. The process is expected to save £100 million for investment in patient care.

Local authority capital expenditure in 1990-91, including water and sewerage and housing, was £1.7 billion at current prices. Total capital spending by local authorities in 2000-01 will not be known until the end of that financial year, therefore, a comparison is not possible. I have, however announced the provisional non-housing allocations which also no longer include water and sewerage for 2000-01: question S1W-2651 refers. In practice, the Government only limits the part of local authority capital expenditure which it supports through capital allocations. Further information on capital expenditure by local authorities is given in my letter of 9 September sent in response to questions S1W-743 and S1W-744. A copy is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.

The continuing care and support of patients discharged from Lennox Castle Hospital is key to the success of the initiative. Greater Glasgow Health Board, Greater Glasgow Primary Care Trust and the Local Authorities involved have jointly planned the alternative care so that it specifically meets the ongoing needs of the patients, with the aim that no patient is discharged until an appropriate care package is in place.

It is not the case that children's health needs have not been addressed in the Arbuthnott Review. First, the proposed resource allocation formula includes a set of age and sex cost weights based on evidence about the use made of services by different age and sex groups. These show, for example, that children under 5 make more intensive use of services than children in older age groups. Second, the proposed formula also involves an assessment of the influence of morbidity and life circumstances on the relative healthcare needs of the total population of each Health Board area. This assessment is based on an analysis of the use of services by people from different areas in Scotland, including the relative use of health services by children from affluent and deprived areas. The Yorkhill NHS Trust submitted comments on the Arbuthnott Report during the consultation period. As you know, I asked Sir John Arbuthnott to reconvene the Steering Group to consider the comments made on the report and to provide me with revised recommendations. The concerns raised by Professor Cockburn will be considered as part of this further work.

I welcome any contribution to the store of knowledge about malnutrition.

Malnutrition in hospitals has been the subject of research over a number of years and the complex nature of the effect of illness on indicators of nutritional status is a factor that has to be taken into account. It is important to make a distinction between malnutrition due to lack of nutritious food and that caused by the metabolic response to illness and injury.We are however taking steps to tackle malnutrition on a number of fronts. The Scottish Executive Health Department has asked Health Boards to apply nutritional standards in all NHS facilities and a multi-disciplinary advisory group is taking forward further work on this. In the wider context, the Scottish Diet Action Plan, with the help of Scottish Executive funding, provides the framework for a range of initiatives. These include promoting healthy diet in local communities and schools; assessing and managing nutritional status in the community through district nursing and health visiting services; and applying rigorous standards to dietary needs in nursing homes. Nutrition of elderly people also features in our Clinical Effectiveness Programme.

Lothian Health Board receives an annual general revenue allocation. It is for the Board to determine within the funds available how to manage and deliver local healthcare services that meet the healthcare needs of their resident population, including oncology and renal services. For 2000-01 Lothian Health Board has been allocated a unified budget of £571.5m, an increase of 5.4% over that for 1999-2000.

The table below shows the average length of time, in days, spent in hospital after the birth of the first child and subsequent children in the years 1990-91, 1994-95 and 1998-99.There has been a gradual reduction in the length of time spent in hospital by post- natal mothers, which reflects changed practices. This has also responded to the wishes of mothers to leave hospitals earlier and to the change of policy in providing more post- natal care by midwives in the community. However the provision of care is based on a flexible approach and mothers who feel they would benefit from a longer stay can do so.Length of post-natal stay (days)

	1990-91	1994-5	1998-99
All maternities	3.9	3.3	2.9
First maternities	4.6	4.1	3.6
Other maternities	3.2	2.7	2.4

Notes:

1. Maternities are defined as pregnancies which result in a live or stillbirth, multiple pregnancies counting only as one.

2. Excludes maternities delivered at home or at non-NHS hospitals.3. The figures for 1998-99 are as yet provisional.