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We are aware that subsidised access to leisure facilities, including gyms for particular groups including the over 60s is provided locally across Scotland. For example Edinburgh have a leisure card for the over 60s which for a one off cost of £15 allows the holder to access at a reduced cost, a range of activities. as

This question was answered in the Chamber. The answer can be viewed in the Official Report using the following link:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor0423-01.htm

This question was answered in the Chamber. The answer can be viewed in the Official Report using the following link:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor0326-01.htm

It is understood that there are three such parking facilities, as noted below:

Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh - officials in NHS Lothian are in discussion with their PFI contractor about how the reduction to the standard rate of VAT can be implemented;

Glasgow Royal Infirmary “ officials in NHS Greater Glasgow are in discussion with their PFI contractor about how the reduction to the standard rate of VAT can be implemented, and

Ninewells Hospital, Dundee “ as the car parking charge is rounded to the nearest 10p, the reduction to the standard rate of VAT did not change the level of car parking charge.

In accordance with the Directive, an assessment of the energy performance of the Parliament building has been completed. An energy rating of B has been calculated and is displayed on a certificate in the main hall. The certificate states that a building of this type built to current building regulations standards would have a rating of B. The SPCB is pleased that, although the Parliament was designed and built prior to the introduction of the 2007 Building Regulations, the energy performance of the building has been assessed as achieving current good practice. This clearly demonstrates the efforts which were made to design and construct an energy-efficient building.

Scottish ministers have full discretion over the spending priorities of the Scottish Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) budgets as agreed with HM Treasury and detailed in Paragraph 2.7(1) of Funding the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales and Northern Ireland Assembly: Statement of Funding Policy.

Policy relating to the protection of VIPs is reserved to the UK Government. It is an operational decision for the police to determine the level and type of protection provided to individual VIPs.

The safety of medicines available on the UK market is reserved and is the responsibility of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The MHRA report that between 14 April 2008 and 5 November 2008 there have been 83 suspected Adverse Drug/Vaccine Reaction (ADR) reports received for Cervarix vaccine from Scotland. This is in line with what we would expect to see for a mass vaccination programme. The information is given on a national basis in order not to disclose information that may relate to an individual patient.

The vast majority of suspected adverse reactions reported to MHRA in association with Cervarix vaccine have related either to the signs and symptoms of recognised side effects listed in the product information or were due to the injection process and not the vaccine itself. For the isolated cases of other medical conditions reported, the available evidence does not suggest the vaccine caused the condition.

Procurement of the vaccine was undertaken on a UK wide basis by the Department of Health, as part of a formal EU procurement process. Both vaccines were scored against a number of pre-set scientific and cost effectiveness criteria. These criteria were shared with the manufacturers during the process so that they were fully informed of the criteria against which their bids would be evaluated.

No. Licensing processes are completely independent of one another. In the UK we only use products that have received a European licence.