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Cromarty Firth Port Authority is an independent statutory trust port. The Executive has no plans to initiate any inquiry concerning Cromarty Firth Port Authority, or to make representations concerning the authority to Her Majesty's Government.

Scottish Cancer Registry data for 1997 - the most recent year for which completed information is available - show that 1,781 new cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed and 708 men died from the disease.Figures for the period 1993 to 1997, including percentage changes year on year are as follows.

	Registrations by year of diagnosis		Deaths by year of registration
Year	Number	% change Annually	Number	% change annually
1993	1,716	n/a	746	n/a
1994	1,778	+2.2	740	-1.4
1995	1,852	+3.4	776	+1.6
1996	2,030	+8.3	743	-4.3
1997	1,781	-13.8	708	-6.7

Slightly inflated incidence in 1996 is due to the introduction of a standard definition of incidence date across Scotland.

Information in the form requested is not held centrally.

The Scottish Executive is committed to tackling cancer in the most effective ways possible, including screening programmes.

The current advice from the UK National Screening Committee is that a national prostate screening programme with current techniques would not give benefits and might actually do harm. This is because the current prostate specific antigen testing technique produces too many false positive or negative results and cannot distinguish accurately between cancer and other infections.

This does not exclude testing men who have symptoms or a family history of prostate cancer.

The Scottish Executive is keeping this policy under review as new techniques and evidence become available. In addition, the Scottish Cancer Group has set up a Review Group to consider the issues surrounding the management of prostate cancer and will report to the Scottish Executive Health Department early in 2001.

A copy of Sir Andrew Leggatt's annual report for 1999-2000 is being laid before Parliament today in accordance with section 107(3) of the Police Act 1997. After consultation with the Chief Commissioner and Scottish Ministers in accordance with section 107(4) of the Act, the Prime Minister has decided not to publish the confidential annex to the report because it would be prejudicial to the prevention or detection of serious crime.

This is Sir Andrew's first annual report and I am grateful to him for the work which has gone into preparing it.

The following table shows the targets which I have set the Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service for 2000-01, together with the service's performance against targets in previous years.

		1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01
The number of prisoners unlawfully at large
Category "A" prisoners	Target Outturn	0 0	0 0	0 0	0
Category "B" prisoners	Target   Outturn	1.7 per 1,000 = 11 1	1.0 per 1,000 = 6 2	0.8 per 1,000 = 5 2	0.7 per 1,000 = 4
Category "C" prisoners	Target   Outturn	2 per 1,000 = 13 0	1.6 per 1,000 = 10 0	1.3 per 1,000 = 8 3	1 per 1,000 = 6
The number of serious assaults on staff	Target   Outturn	3 per 1,000 =14 18	3 per 1,000 = 14 17	2.8 per 1,000 = 15 14	2.7 per 1,000 = 14
The number of serious assaults on prisoners	Target   Outturn	<127   108	<108   129	<129   92	<15 per 1,000 = 91
x number of prisoners complete programme to address offending behaviour	Target Outturn	7261	7971	850 890	850
% of available prisoner places with access to night sanitation	Target Outturn	70 70	71 71	76 75	76
Average annual cost per prisoner place	Target Outturn	28,317 26,170	27,904 26,912	28,761 28,3752	29,500
Number of injuries reportable to the Health and Safety Executive3	Target Outturn	124	131	112	124

Notes:

1. Total for cognitive skills and sex offending programmes.

2. Subject to audit.

3. New target, replacing target of number of staff days lost through sickness.

The European Commission's report of its visit to Scotland last year was published today. I have arranged for copies of the report to be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.

Article 35 of the Euratom Treaty gives the European Commission a right of access to facilities necessary for continuous monitoring of the level of radioactivity in the air, water and soil. The Commission's Verification Visit found the situation to be broadly satisfactory, but identified a number of areas where further action is being taken by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority.

The targets I have set for the Scottish Court Service (SCS) are shown in the table below.

Scottish Court Service Targets 2000-01

Target No	Brief Description of target	Proposed Target 2000-01
1	No case should fall as a result of statutory time limits being breached	0
2	% diets in Court of Session allocated within time limits set by the Lord President	93%
3	% criminal appeals allocated to roll within time limits set by the Lord Justice General	60%
4	weighted average waiting period for summary cases in the Sheriff Courts	12 weeks
5	weighted average waiting period for civil cases in the Sheriff Courts	12 weeks
6	weighted average summary criminal trial lack of time adjournments	5%
7	% achievement of administrative standards in the Supreme Courts	95%
8	% achievement of administrative standards in the Sheriff Courts	95%
9	% Courthouses meeting "Coming to Court" standard	87%
10	Cost of staff, accommodation etc, per sitting day	£950

The under 10 metre fleet is an important part of the fishing industry and I intend to promote a stable future for Scottish inshore fishermen. I have discussed the options for action in this area with the Scottish Inshore Fisheries Advisory Group.

Last year, in response to concerns about the scope for increased fishing effort, the Fisheries Departments invited comments on measures to improve the management of the under 10 metre fleet. More than 250 replies have been received from fishermen's organisations and individual fishermen. The majority of those commenting were opposed to further constraints being placed on this part of the industry such as a prohibition on weekend fishing, regional licensing or species specific licences.

Although we have been successful in limiting the closure of fisheries, we do need to safeguard against the consequences of further increases in fishing effort. In recent years there has been a sharp increase in the construction of highly efficient vessels between 9 and 10 metres. This trend prompted the Fisheries Departments to introduce monthly catch limits for North Sea nephrops last autumn and to extend these arrangements to Area VII and West of Scotland nephrops for the year 2000.

In our view it would be prudent to adopt further measures to constrain future growth in fishing effort within the under 10 metre fleet. Consequently from 1 January 2001, it will not be possible to aggregate licences from vessels under eight metres onto vessels between 8 and 10 metres. From the same date a limit of 70 vessel capacity units will apply to the aggregation of licences onto vessels below eight metres. Additionally the Licensing Review Working Group, comprising representatives from industry and Fisheries Departments, has been asked to consider whether any changes should be made in the capacity penalties applying to the transfer or aggregation of licences within the under 10 metre fleet.

The Fisheries Departments will continue to manage quota allocations for the under 10 metre fleet with the objective of providing fishing opportunities throughout the year. Quota allocations for the main stocks of interest to under 10 metre vessels have been underpinned for a number of years and in future any surplus that arises on these allocations will be utilised to acquire additional quota for this part of the fleet. Greater use will also be made of EU provisions on end-year flexibility enabling quota to be borrowed from the following year and for certain stocks for any surplus to be banked. Where the quota available is not sufficient to provide for year round fisheries, the Fisheries Department will take action to close fisheries for limited periods or to impose monthly catch limits. Prompt consideration will also be given to whether suitable arrangements might be possible that would enable Producer Organisations to manage quota in respect of under 10 metre vessels within their membership.

Work is underway on legislative proposals to prevent an accused person charged with a sex offence from cross-examining a victim in person and to strengthen provisions restricting cross-examination on sexual history. Three main options have been identified to prevent an accused cross-examining in person: to require the accused to be legally represented throughout the whole case; to require the accused to be represented only for the cross-examination of the victim; and to give the court discretion to require the accused to be legally represented in certain circumstances. Various options have also been identified to restrict further cross-examination on sexual history. We will be discussing these and other possible options with interested parties over the summer with a view to producing legislative proposals that are practical and consistent with the European Convention on Human Rights.

The UK Government has today launched a public consultation on the "UK Discharge Strategy for Radioactive Discharges, 2001-20". That strategy aims to implement in the UK the commitments of the OSPAR strategy with regard to radioactive substances. I have arranged for copies of the consultation document to be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre. I have also written to Mr Andy Kerr, MSP, Convenor of the Transport and Environment Committee enclosing a copy of the consultation document.