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The Scottish Government is supporting NHS boards to take forward a change programme to address the health inequalities facing people with a learning disability and/or autism spectrum disorder. A learning network of NHS boards will give them a forum to share learning and good practice. The first meeting of the full learning network is scheduled for February.

More generally, the Fair for All agenda looks to ensure that whatever the individuals circumstances, they have access to the right health services for their needs.

Guidance entitled Achieving Fair Access was issued to the NHS in April 2007 and is available at http://www.healthscotland.com/documents/2033.aspx.

The number of laboratory confirmed cases of norovirus infection are presented in the following table.

These data are based on voluntary reporting by clinical laboratories in Scotland to HPS on a weekly basis and include cases originating in both healthcare and community settings.

Laboratory confirmed cases do not include those infected with norovirus, who did not seek medical attention or have a stool sample submitted. Thus, the figures below may underestimate the absolute number of people infected with norovirus.

Laboratory Confirmed Cases of Norovirus Reported to HPS, by Four-week Reporting Period 2007-09

Four-week Reporting Period	2007	2008	2009*
1	129	641	144
2	132	363	305
3	133	269	219
4	253	200	153
5	134	182	98
6	161	121	74
7	62	49	50
8	28	23	13
9	19	26	6
10	90	22	27
11	205	47	133
12	211	95	288
13	486	133	532
Total	2,043	2,171	2,042

Source: Health Protection Scotland.

Note: * Data for 2009 are provisional.

Phase two of the vaccination programme to offer vaccination to children aged over six months and under five years has now commenced and will continue over the next few weeks. We anticipate that this will be completed by the end of January with some mop up activity into mid-February.

There is no single estimate of the cost to a retailer of complying with the tobacco display ban, as the Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Bill and the relevant draft regulations do not stipulate how tobacco should be stored to comply with the display ban. The financial memorandum sets out estimated costs provided by retailers to comply with the legislation. The Scottish Government makes clear in the financial memorandum that these figures were supplied by industry representatives based on the assumption that refitting would require under the counter units and have not been adjusted to account for more innovative, cost effective solutions for concealing displays.

In line with the commitment made to the Finance Committee, officials have been working with retailers to minimise the cost to them of complying with the display ban. Draft regulations allow retailers to modify their gantries rather than having to refit their shop, significantly reducing the cost to comply with the legislation. The least expensive option offered by the National Federation of Retail Newsagents would involve installing a white plastic fronting to each row on the gantry. It has been estimated that such a solution could cost as little as £20 for the materials for each fronting with minimal installation costs. If they so wished, retailers of all sizes could install such a solution in order to comply with the legislation.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with retailers of all sizes to support them in complying with this legislation.

NHS Scotland has now received 100% of the vaccine supply required to vaccinate all those in the initial priority groups and all children aged over six months and under five years. This means that 1,716,500 doses of pandemrix and 167,800 doses of celvapan have been delivered to health boards and GP practices across Scotland.

The Scottish Government announced at the introduction of the Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Bill that the display ban of tobacco products in shops will be introduced for small shops in 2013 and larger retailers in 2011. The Scottish Government intend to consult on draft regulations as soon as practicable after Royal Assent of the Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Bill. As is current best practice, three months has been allowed for the consultation process on the regulations.

Draft regulations were shared with the Health and Sport Committee in advance of its stage 2 consideration of the Bill and can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/hs/TGPBill/documents/2009.11.03TPMSBill-Draftregulations.pdf.

The Fair for All agenda looks to ensure that whatever the individuals'' circumstances, they have access to the right health services for their needs.

Guidance entitled Achieving Fair Access was issued to the NHS in April 2007 and is available at http://www.healthscotland.com/documents/2033.aspx.

The Scottish Government does not routinely respond to reports produced by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, although we remain interested in and take account of their findings. This report overlapped with work that the Scottish Government took forward in respect of the PHIS Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Needs Assessment Report, which was completed in August 2008.

The Autistic Spectrum Disorder Reference Group worked to improve the consistency of diagnosis across Scotland by training professionals in the use of agreed diagnostic tools and issued a quality standard for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnostic services. It also published guidance to local agencies on commissioning services to ensure that these are appropriate and accessible for people with ASD.

The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network then published extensive guidelines on assessment, diagnosis and clinical interventions for children and young people with ASD to help doctors better diagnose and manage the condition.

Health boards have indicated that vaccination has been offered to all those in the initial priority groups, including health and social care workers. A mop up exercise continues to take place to the end of January however, to ensure that everyone in the initial priority groups has been invited for vaccination.

To date, 50.8% of eligible frontline health care staff have received the vaccination and 32.1% of eligible frontline social care staff have been vaccinated.

Health boards have indicated that vaccination has been offered to all those in the initial priority groups. Data for patients in the clinical priority groups estimate that the uptake rate for vaccination to date equates to 45.6% for all clinical at risk groups.