Seòmar agus comataidhean

Local authorities have to comply with procurement legislation and, for lower value contracts, their own procurement policies. When selecting which potential suppliers should be invited to tender for public sector contracts, public procurement legislation only allows selection criteria to be used which addresses candidates'' economic and financial standing and their technical or professional ability, provided that the supplier has been assessed as meeting certain standards in regard to business probity “ for example, payment of taxes, and not having committed an act of grave misconduct in the course of its business.

When evaluating the tenders received, ethical issues may be taken into account provided that tenderers have been advised of this before submitting their bids, that the ethical issues are directly related to the performance of the contract in question and that such issues are consistent with the principles of equality, transparency and proportionality.

We are currently reviewing our policy on the provision of potable water.

The following table details for each of the last four years both the number of laboratory confirmed cases of tuberculosis and the number of clinical diagnoses of tuberculosis (without microbiological confirmation). The combination of these two figures provides the total number of suspected cases of tuberculosis that have been recorded for Scotland by the surveillance scheme co-ordinated by Health Protection Scotland (HPS) “ The Enhanced Surveillance of Mycobacterial Infection (ESMI).

Tuberculosis Surveillance Information: 2003-06

	2003		2004
	Lab Confirmed Case	Clinical Diagnosis Only	Lab Confirmed Case	Clinical Diagnosis Only
Argyll and Clyde	21	10	12	11
Ayrshire and Arran	2	6	6	5
Borders	3	0	3	2
Dumfries and Galloway	0	0	4	1
Fife	2	12	6	3
Forth Valley	5	6	4	2
Grampian	13	5	19	1
Greater Glasgow	123	47	118	51
Highland	6	1	7	1
Lanarkshire	21	7	29	6
Lothian	43	8	64	19
Shetland	0	0	0	2
Tayside	10	3	12	3
Western Isles	1	1	1	0
Total cases	250	106	285	107

 

	2005		2006*
	Lab Confirmed Case	Clinical Diagnosis Only	Lab Confirmed Case	Clinical Diagnosis Only
Argyll and Clyde	23	10	2	14
Ayrshire and Arran	0	0	8	1
Borders	0	1	4	4
Dumfries and Galloway	0	0	11	0
Fife	15	5	10	3
Forth Valley	4	0	2	1
Grampian	12	13	23	10
Greater Glasgow	113	36	121	50
Highland	11	0	7	2
Lanarkshire	22	4	42	7
Lothian	49	24	41	11
Shetland	0	1	0	1
Tayside	5	0	12	2
Western Isles	1	0	0	0
Total cases	255	94	283	106

Source: HPS.

Notes:

*Data for 2006 is provisional and may be subject to change.

Health board is the NHS board that submitted ESMI Form A, the initial notification form.

A laboratory confirmed case is one with microbiological evidence of mycobacterial infection.

The following table details the number of laboratory confirmed cases of TB in Scotland in 2003-06. The figures shown is that reported for all laboratories “ almost all of these cases are reported by the reference laboratory but in a small number of cases (e.g. in which the local laboratory culture material has died), the local laboratory alone is reporting the case.

Laboratory Confirmation of TB: 2003-06

	2003	2004	2005	2006*
Argyll and Clyde	21	12	23	2
Ayrshire and Arran	2	6	0	8
Borders	3	3	0	4
Dumfries and Galloway	0	4	0	11
Fife	2	6	15	10
Forth Valley	5	4	4	2
Grampian	13	19	12	23
Greater Glasgow	123	118	113	121
Highland	6	7	11	7
Lanarkshire	21	29	22	42
Lothian	43	64	49	41
Shetland	0	0	0	0
Tayside	10	12	5	12
Western Isles	1	1	1	0
Total cases	250	285	255	283

Source: HPS.

Notes:

*Data for 2006 is provisional and may be subject to change.

Health Board is the NHS board that submitted ESMI Form A, the initial notification form.

A laboratory confirmed case is one with microbiological evidence of mycobacterial infection.

NHS Health Protection Scotland are currently in the final stages of producing Scottish guidelines on the management of tuberculosis, based on the NICE guidelines. We plan to publish the document by the summer.

The number of unconfirmed cases is given by those cases which are recorded as those with a clinical diagnosis alone. This is detailed in the following table for each of the last four years.

Clinical Diagnosis of Tuberculosis: 2003-06

	2003	2004	2005	2006*
Argyll and Clyde	10	11	10	14
Ayrshire and Arran	6	5	0	1
Borders	0	2	1	4
Dumfries and Galloway	0	1	0	0
Fife	12	3	5	3
Forth Valley	6	2	0	1
Grampian	5	1	13	10
Greater Glasgow	47	51	36	50
Highland	1	1	0	2
Lanarkshire	7	6	4	7
Lothian	8	19	24	11
Shetland	0	2	1	1
Tayside	3	3	0	2
Western Isles	1	0	0	0
Total cases	106	107	94	106

Source: HPS.

Notes:

*Data for 2006 is provisional and may be subject to change.

Health board is the NHS board that submitted ESMI Form A, the initial notification form.

The requirements on local authorities to enter into partnership agreements are generally set down in statute. In practice, local authorities are involved in a wide range of statutory as well as non-statutory partnerships with, for example, the NHS, other public agencies and third sector bodies. Partnerships established under statutory provisions include Community Planning Partnerships, Regional Transport Partnerships and Community Health Partnerships. Partnership arrangements are also integral to a range of bodies set up under statute such as Adult Protection Committees and Community Justice Authorities. A significant number of partnerships have been established under non-statutory provisions. These include child care partnerships, adult literacy and numeracy partnerships, delayed discharge partnerships, community safety partnerships, local rural partnerships, the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care and safety camera partnerships. The list given above is not exhaustive.

I am today launchingthe development of a framework for delivering on the aspects of the Government EconomicStrategy to do with tackling poverty, inequality and deprivation. To support thisprocess I am issuing a discussion paper designed to initiate discussion and debateamong stakeholders across Scotland and generate a dialogue to inform the way forward.This framework will replace the Closing the Opportunity Gap approach, on which weare today making available an evaluation report.

Copies of both documentsare available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib numbers 44579 and44581).

We would strongly encourage householdsand other users of energy-saving light bulbs to use the arrangements put in placefor recycling and recovery of waste electrical and electronic equipment. These requireproducers and distributors to arrange for the take-back of relevant types of wastefor recycling either through recycling centres or retail outlets.

In practice, the more robustconstruction of low-energy light bulbs means they are less likely to break thantraditional bulbs.

The Health ProfessionsCouncil (HPC) was established in July 2003. Since that time, 29 cases have beenreferred to the HPC from employers in Scotland.