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Standard 1 of the NHS Quality Improvement Scotland clinical standards for neurological health services highlights the importance of consistent and ongoing data collection to allow NHS boards to monitor and review service provision on an ongoing basis for the purpose of service improvement. To promote consistency, a Neurological Services Data and Audit Group has been set up to identify and agree a common dataset for all neurological services.

An early priority for NHS QIS is to develop the measures that will demonstrate the extent to which the standards are being achieved. This is likely to involve both the use of local tracking systems and existing national data sources, identifying new ones where required.

In addition, NHS QIS will work with the Information Services Division of NHS National Services Scotland and the Neurological Alliance of Scotland to review the information available in the Multiple Sclerosis Register, set up with government provided funding of £70,000, for its use as a potential data source.

Precise figures are not available.

NHS Quality Improvement Scotland in the introduction to its clinical standards for neurological health services refers to estimates that 10 million people in the UK live with some form of neurological condition that has an impact on their lives. The Neurological Alliance of Scotland estimates that the figure for Scotland would be around 1 million people.

In Scotland, there are around 40,000 people with epilepsy, 300 people with Motor Neurone Disease and 10,000 people with Parkinson''s Disease at any one time.

Data on the range of treatments for heart disease are provided in the Coronary Heart Disease section of the Information Services Division Website:

http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/5780.html.

The website includes data on:

prescriptions for cardiovascular diseases;

operations;

hospital admissions, and

consultations relating to heart disease with either a GP or a practice nurse.

In addition to the salary costs associated with the NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (NHS QIS) staff supporting the implementation of the clinical standards for neurological health services, NHS QIS has identified a budget of just over £142,000 for the first year of its Implementation and Improvement Support Plan.

NHS QIS clinical standards for chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) are due for publication in April 2010. Discussions are currently under way with a range of stakeholders on the further work is needed. The outcome will enable NHS QIS to make decisions about the scale of the investment required to implement an improvement programme for its COPD standards.

In addition to its earlier work on the CHD clinical standards, NHS QIS is also investing some £165,000 in the first year of supporting implementation of its Coronary Heart Disease improvement programme.

This information is not held centrally.

The introduction to the NHS Quality Improvement Scotland clinical standards for neurological health services notes that neurological conditions currently account for one in five emergency hospital admissions and a high proportion of severe and progressive disability in the population.

The Neurological Services Task and Finish Group, the outputs of which were issued as CEL 3 (2010) on 4 February, considers it likely that an annual growth in demand of at least 5% a year will be seen over the next five years or so. Consideration is being given to commissioning a piece of public health work to gain a better understanding of the likely rise in future demand.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-31998 on 10 March 2010. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

As indicated in the Financial Memorandum accompanying the Alcohol etc. (Scotland) Bill, the cost of the modelling work undertaken by the University of Sheffield was £63,876.75 (inclusive of VAT).

The University of Sheffield''s minimum price research proposal provided an option to attempt to model the impact of minimum pricing on low income groups. The Sheffield proposal acknowledged that the small Scottish sample sizes meant that Scottish consumption and purchasing data may have been supplemented with UK-wide information, or the definition of low income relaxed. The proposal further noted that it was unlikely that price elasticity matrices for low income groups would be Scotland-specific, again due to sample size issues. The value of deriving estimates of the potential impact on low income groups in Scotland based on largely non-Scottish data was considered weak. In addition, the decision not to extend the study to low income groups was informed by the findings from the minimum price research carried out by the University Sheffield study for the Department of Health in England. That research suggested the impact of minimum pricing on moderate drinkers was likely to be limited, at around an extra £6 per year (based on a 40p minimum price).

The cost of updating the University of Sheffield minimum price model is £36,272.25 (inclusive of VAT). The cost reflects the considerable amount of work required to integrate consumption data from the Scottish Health Survey 2008 and the Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey 2008, data from the 2008-09 Scottish Crime and Justice Survey, mortality figures and alcohol sales data into the model. These data were not available to the University of Sheffield researchers at the time of the original minimum pricing research.

Commitments set out in Better Cancer Care, An Action Plan are funded directly and indirectly through a number of different Scottish Government channels.

Better Cancer Care included a commitment to support the ongoing development of MacMillan Cancer Support''s Scotland Service Network through the award of a £500,000 investment over two years (2008-10) to extend the range and quality of benefits and financial advice given through network partnerships.

Funding is made available for the replacement of radiotherapy equipment, which in 2009-10 amounted to £20.6 million. Funding for the coming financial year is still to be determined.

A total of £4.54 million has been committed to deliver the breast, bowel and cervical cancer screening programmes in 2010-11.

For the cancer waiting times commitments, a total of £519,558 was provided
2008-09, and £711,000 in 2009-10 on a non-recurring basis to NHS boards. The budgets for 2010-11 have not yet been finalised.

In 2009-10, a total of £65,000 of Section 16B grant funding was made available to Maggie''s Centres, Marie Curie Cancer Care and Breast Cancer Care, for specific project work to support people living with cancer, in line with commitments in Better Cancer Care. It is expected that a number of Scottish cancer charities will benefit from Section 16B grant funding in 2010-11, in recognition of their invaluable contribution to the delivery of cancer care.

The Scottish Government Chief Scientist''s Office is currently funding 33 cancer research projects at a cost of £6.1 million. In addition, the Chief Scientist Office spends approximately £11.8 million per annum supporting the cost of cancer research carried out in the NHS.

In addition, the Scottish Government is funding a range of healthy lifestyle campaigns around alcohol, smoking, sun/UV exposure, and obesity, which will all help to lower the number of cancer diagnoses in Scotland, as set out in Better Cancer Care.