Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Childhood Cancer Research Group is funded by the Scottish Executive and the Department of Health and carries out epidemiological research in this area.

The Scottish Executive also funds the Scottish Cancer Registry which carries out work on trends in childhood cancer and has contributed data to various international epidemiological studies.

Research will also be carried out at the new leukaemia research laboratory to be built at Gartnavel Hospital which is jointly funded by NHS Greater Glasgow, the University of Glasgow and the Leukaemia Research Fund.

Concerns about the increased incidence of cancer and the needs of those who suffer from it make cancer one of the top priorities for the Scottish Executive and for NHSScotland. Cancer in Scotland, the Scottish cancer strategy, was put in place to tackle the issues raised across a broad front, through primary prevention, earlier detection and more rapid diagnosis and treatment.

There are some 120 children diagnosed with cancer each year which accounts for less than 1% of all cancers in Scotland. This figure remained fairly constant from 1975–99.

Deaths from cancers in children have decreased such that between 1975 and 1999 five year survival increased from 50% to 76%.

Full information on current research into childhood cancer incidence in Scotland is not held centrally.

Information on some current and recently completed research projects can be found on the National Research Register (NRR) at http://www.nrr.nhs.uk/ The International Cancer Research Portfolio (ICRP) database of international cancer research can be accessed at:

http://www.ncri.org.uk/includes/icrp.htm.

The Executive currently has no plans to develop a national strategy specifically for play.

The Executive has no plans to implement the recommendations of Getting Serious About Play A Review of Childrens Play, which apply to England only.

There are many Scottish Executive funding streams which are able to support play facilities, including funding allocated to local authorities through revenue support grant via the Grant Aided Expenditure mechanism.

More specific funding streams include: the Quality of Life funding which supports increased opportunities for children and young people including the development of play provision and play areas; Active Schools funding which includes support for active play; the Children, Young People and Families Unified Voluntary Sector Fund which core funds a number of organisations to take forward play in Scotland, and Health Department’s Physical Activity Strategy which supports play.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-16583 on 26 May 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search. For the specific funding streams mentioned, the allocations are shown in the following table. No information is available on how much was actually spent on providing and improving play space.

	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Quality of Life Fund					£1.749million	£1.898million	£2.720million
Active Schools					£2million	£10million	£12million
Children Young People and Families Unified Voluntary Sector Fund	£405,000	£388,000	£396,000	£406,000	£447,000	£474,000	£474,000
National Physical Activity Strategy					£59,000	£22,000

 

I issued a Report and Action Plan on Nationally Co-ordinated Nurse Bank Arrangements on 7 March. The report contains a number of recommendations to improve the efficiency of nurse banks and cut the cost of agency nursing which are being taken forward by NHSScotland, monitored by the Scottish  Executive Health Department. Funding of £500,000 has been released to NHS boards to assist in the delivery of the recommendations.

The report of the PFMR of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) was published by the Scottish Executive today. The report recognises the RBGE as a world class Scottish institution that holds a remarkable international reputation for its size. The RBGE is held in high esteem by the people of Scotland and is numbered amongst the most popular visitor attractions in Scotland.

The report recommends greater prioritisation of the RBGE’s activities, improved performance management, better communication between the Executive and the RBGE and a need for additional funding.

The recommendations have been accepted by the RBGE and the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department. A key component of their implementation will be the development of a sustainable corporate plan for the RBGE. To assist with that process the Executive has confirmed its priorities to the RBGE and is increasing the garden’s grant-in aid by £0.5 million to £7.088 million in 2005-06, by a further £0.6 million to £7.688 million in 2006-07 and by a further £0.6 million to £8.288 million in 2007-08 for the development of those priorities.

Copies of the report are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 35705).

The Executive commissions regular independent evaluations of the Do a Little Change a Lot Campaign. The third such evaluation was published in June 2004 and is available on the Executive’s website. I am also arranging that a copy of the report is placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre. The campaign has been effective in both in raising public awareness of environmental and sustainable development issues and also in changing behaviour.  We have noted that the most recent research showed that there was more that we could achieve in changing behaviour and we have taken appropriate action in our most recent campaign which has concentrated on energy efficiency issues.