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A range of policies and procedures is in place to prevent and control outbreaks of MRSA in hospitals. Our National Health: A Plan for Action, a Plan for Change set out our commitment to take steps to strengthen and monitor infection control procedures in hospitals

Infection Control teams are responsible for all infection in hospitals. In particular, Infection Control Nurses have a remit to survey and react to infection, including potential outbreaks of MRSA. The role of the Infection Control Team is set out clearly in the Scottish Infection Manual which was published in October 1998.

In the same year, the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health issued guidance on the control of MRSA which reinforced established practice on environmental cleaning in the areas where the problem of MRSA exists.

The Clinical Standards Board for Scotland has included infection control as one of its generic standards, and will be monitoring compliance. This is an essential part of our strategy for making infection control a key element in the clinical governance process.

Data on the number of cases of Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are not available centrally, because the International Classification of Diseases code does not make a distinction between MRSA and other forms of Staphylococcus aureus. Work is in hand, however, to record and monitor the incidence of MRSA more accurately through the development of a system of automatic electronic reporting to the Scottish Centre for Environmental Health.

In addition, a scheme is being developed under which selected laboratories will, for a specified period each year, send all their samples from newly-recognised MRSA patients to the MRSA Reference Laboratory for analysis. This will provide a snapshot of the true incidence of of different types of MRSA within any particular hospital, as well as a basis for year-on-year comparisons in future.

A new unit will be established within the Executive to co-ordinate older people's issues. Part of their remit will be to establish arrangements for participation and engagement of older people and external organisations.

A policy was introduced on 1 April 1998, whereby individual health boards and NHS Trusts in Scotland were given the opportunity to benefit directly from capital receipts resulting from the disposal of surplus assets.

The policy introduced the general principle that health boards and NHS Trusts retain capital receipts as follows:

• For receipts up to £500,000, the full value;
• For receipts over £500,000 but less than £1 million - £500,000;
• For receipts over £1 million but less than £8 million - 50% of the value;
• For receipts over £8 million - £4 million

The retention of a greater share of a capital receipt, up to the full value, may be permitted following the approval of a business case by the Scottish Executive Health Department. The Health Department is currently examining how further improvement can be achieved in the disposal of surplus NHS land or other assets.

In the current financial year the Greater Glasgow Health Board and the NHS Trusts in its area are forecasting receipts from the sale of hospital sites of £8.66 million. Under the established arrangements for the retention of capital receipts the Health Services in Greater Glasgow will retain a minimum of £4,350,000. More may be approved for retention subject to submission of detailed business cases.

The Executive has no plans to conduct an epidemiological survey. There is at present no independently validated diagnostic test for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and, without such a test, the value of an epidemiological survey would be doubtful.

Executive NDPBs have to operate the Code of Practice on Access to Scottish Executive Information which came into force on 1 July 1999. NHS organisations, including health boards, must subscribe to the Code of Practice on Openness in the NHS in Scotland and also the Code of Practice on the Confidentiality of Personal Health Information.

There has been no significant increase in recent years in the numbers of new tuberculosis infections notified by doctors, among the population generally or among the elderly. Revised comprehensive guidelines on the prevention, surveillance, diagnosis and management of tuberculosis were issued to health boards and NHS Trusts in October 1998.

The Scottish Executive has allocated £15,000 for this joint DETR/Scottish Executive/Shadow Strategic Rail Authority funded study into the options for rail access to Scottish airports. This study is ongoing but we expect the total cost not to exceed £40,000.

The Scottish Executive's integrated transport policy is being delivered through action across a wide front, in particular:

• The Transport (Scotland) Bill will equip the Executive and local authorities with the powers to promote integration, address problems in Scotland's bus services, tackle congestion and deliver free local bus travel to our pensioners and disabled people by October 2002.
• The Executive has increased its spending on transport, with an additional £500 million being made available by 2003-04, a 45% increase in real terms.
• The Public Transport Fund is delivering better public transport right across Scotland. I recently announced £33 million worth of expenditure, which will fund 19 new public transport projects, including measures to improve bus, rail and air services, and four specific cycling and walking projects.
• We need to improve the quality, reliability, frequency and accessibility of Scotland's rail services and I will therefore be consulting shortly on our priorities for Scotland's passenger railway.

I also propose to publish a Transport Delivery Plan next spring.