Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2F-184 which is available on the Parliament’swebsite, the search facility for which can be found at:http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

Numerous meetings are heldbetween the United Kingdom Government and Scottish Executive ministers and officials eachyear on a wide range of subjects and at many different levels. No centralrecord is kept of these meetings.

The reply to question S2W-3405records the meetings of the Joint Ministerial Committee that Scottish Executive ministers have attended since 1999. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for whichcan be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

Scottish ministers haveattended the following number of EU Councils in each year since 1999

Year	Number of Councils Attended
1999*	6
2000	9
2001	12
2002	10
2003**	8
Total	45

Notes:

*July–December

**January–October

The Executive is committedto reforming the voting arrangements to increase participation at localgovernment elections, including further investigation of postal and electronicvoting, and is holding a joint seminar with the Electoral Commission and COSLAin November to discuss election pilots. The Electoral Commission’s remitincludes raising awareness of electoral and democratic systems in the UK andthey have undertaken campaigns targeted specifically at raising awareness amongst16 to-24-year olds. We are also providing support for the Scottish YouthParliament to develop its role in stimulating debate amongst and presenting theviews of young people in Scotland.

There is no accepteddefinition for severe alcohol intoxication. The following information relatesto acute intoxication.

Discharges from Acute Hospitalswith an Explicit Diagnosis of Acute Intoxication by NHS Board Area in 1998–2002

Board Area	Discharge Period Age
	1998		1999		2000		2001		2002
	Under 18	% of all discharges	Under 18	% of all discharges	Under 18	% of all discharges	Under 18	% of all discharges	Under 18	% of all discharges
Argyll and Clyde	72	7.7%	103	9.1%	98	9.0%	83	8.8%	82	8.4%
Ayrshire and Arran	142	11.7%	143	10.8%	132	11.1%	150	11.0%	171	10.4%
Borders	28	19.0%	36	19.0%	32	20.8%	32	19.4%	55	23.1%
Dumfries and Galloway	32	16.6%	35	18.3%	21	11.9%	18	12.6%	11	8.2%
Fife	59	10.9%	45	11.4%	65	15.3%	47	13.0%	38	11.1%
Forth Valley	32	11.8%	26	11.9%	41	16.4%	38	10.9%	37	8.8%
Grampian	154	12.2%	128	10.1%	126	12.1%	109	10.2%	81	7.8%
Greater Glasgow	134	6.4%	167	8.2%	134	8.2%	153	9.1%	95	6.6%
Highland	54	7.1%	63	6.6%	66	6.6%	62	6.0%	79	7.7%
Lanarkshire	62	7.9%	88	9.2%	63	7.0%	83	9.2%	74	7.1%
Lothian	70	7.4%	87	9.4%	83	9.1%	82	9.2%	55	9.3%
Orkney	11	17.7%	8	17.4%	10	12.7%	14	19.2%	7	11.5%
Shetland	12	21.8%	13	32.5%	12	20.7%	5	18.5%	9	14.8%
Tayside	69	12.1%	92	10.1%	89	10.8%	90	10.3%	56	7.4%
Western Isles	10	21.3%	5	10.0	6	16.2%	17	13.7%	17	11.6%
Scotland	941	9.5%	1039	9.8%	978	10.0%	983	9.8%	867	8.7%

Source: Scottish MorbidityRecord, SMR01.

Notes:

Alcohol-related conditionsare defined using the World Health Organisation's International Classificationof Diseases 10th Revision (ICD10).

Figures given are fordischarges from acute hospitals and do not include discharges from maternityhospitals, mental illness hospitals and psychiatric units.

Information on hospitaldischarges relates to episodes of in-patient or day case care rather thanindividual patients. The same patient may account for several hospitaladmissions during the course of a year (or across years) and will be countedeach time in the figures given.

Like any major organisation,NHSScotland sees the management of risk as an important issue. Within the NHSthere are a number of types of risk, such as clinical, non-clinical, financial,systems, business and project and these risks are assessed and managed indifferent ways. For example, clinical and non-clinical risks are managedthrough the Healthcare Risk Management Standards established by the ClinicalNegligence and Other Risks Indemnity Scheme (CNORIS) and, to a lesser extent bythe Generic Clinical Governance Standards introduced by NHS Quality ImprovementScotland (NHS QIS). Work is currently under way for these standards to be integratedinto a single set to be managed by NHS QIS.

Regular appraisal of riskand assessment of NHS bodies against the CNORIS/NHS QIS risk managementstandards is an important aspect for NHSScotland mitigating its exposure torisk. However, as risk falls into differing categories, no register of the top 20 risks in NHSScotland is maintainedcentrally.

Scottish Executive ministers have not led any further UKdelegations to EU Councils.

Promotion, development andmodernisation of the National Archives of Scotland is a continuing process,supported by the Scottish Executive.

At present, the Scottish Executive is providing £10 million to fund the refurbishment of HM GeneralRegister House, which is now at an advanced stage.

Additionally, the Scottish Executive is providing £1.6 million to theScotlandsPeople project, which will provide a single, new, integratedfacility where the main sources for family history research can be accessed, and£38,000 over two years for the ScottishArchives for Schools project.

The Scottish Executive remains concerned about the scale of industrial fishing and itspotential impact on the marine ecosystem and has been active in discussingfuture management options.

In the course ofthis year, we have sought progress on two fronts.

As a result ofbilateral discussions with Denmark, representations have been made to theCommission to extend the sandeel fishery closure in the “Wee Bankie” area for afurther three years. The Commission is, we understand, minded to agree.

More generally,the UK Fisheries Conservation Group (which brings together relevantadministrations, and industry and other representatives) held a seminar in Mayon all issues relating to industrial fishing. Following this seminar a paperwas produced for the European Commission.

For the future,we now await the Commission’s specific proposals for the relevant TotalAllowable Catches (TACs) for agreement at the December council. It isnoteworthy that the International Council for the Exploration of the Seaappears to be implying that TACs in certain industrial fisheries (such as thatfor sandeels) should be reduced significantly.

I refer the member to theanswers given to questions S1W-29052 on 9 September 2002 and S2W-2904 on 25 September 2003. These answers set out details of alloverseas engagements carried out by Scottish Executive ministers from July 1999 toMarch 2003. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

The Scottish Executive does not hold records of ministerial visits within the United Kingdom.