Seòmar agus comataidhean

Patient satisfaction depends primarily on the quality of care they receive. The Executive has introduced a system of standards, including those for cleaning services and hospital food, designed to ensure that patients receive a high quality service throughout the NHS in Scotland. The Clinical Standards Board for Scotland will monitor the achievement of these standards, but surveys of patient or user views will continue to be important.The Patient Focus and Public Involvement framework, which I launched in December, indicated that the Executive will shortly be publishing guidance to the NHS on the use of surveys. This guidance will provide information on current practice identify key features of effective surveys and suggest ways the NHS can improve the value of surveys.

We are tackling these issues on a number of fronts, though not exclusively for people over 75.Last year we provided new resources, starting with £24 million in 2001-02 and rising to £48 million in 2003-04, to enable local authorities and their partners locally to develop more responsive home care services that would prevent older people being inappropriately admitted to hospital and support them better on discharge. In January, we published the report of the Chief Medical Officer's Expert Group on the Healthcare of Older People, entitled Adding Life to Years. We have since set up an implementation group to drive forward its recommendations and to monitor progress.On 5 March, we launched our Delayed Discharge Action Plan requiring local partners to deliver specific, targeted reductions in delayed discharges, underpinned by further new resources of £20 million in 2002-03.

We have no such targets at present.

Our second Programme for Government, Working Together for Scotland, promised that the Scottish Executive would have the capacity to conduct 90% of its low value, high volume procurement transactions electronically by the end of 2001. Since the introduction of a new finance system at the end of 2001, the Executive has had that capacity. The Executive, working in partnership with a range of other Scottish public sector bodies, is introducing an e-procurement service which will offer a single interface between public sector purchasers and their suppliers. The first transaction through the system was made by the First Minister at the Convention of the Highlands and Islands at Portree on 25 March 2002 at the launch of the service in The Highland Council. The Executive is currently in discussion with its major suppliers regarding their early adoption onto the system.The Executive's progress in the delivery of its services electronically is detailed in the Electronic Service Delivery Progress Report which was published on 16 November 2001 and is available on the Scottish Executive website and on the OpenScotland website at www.openscotland.gov.uk. The second Electronic Service Delivery Progress Report is currently being prepared and will be published shortly.

The Scottish Executive has made 1,294 Scottish Statutory Instruments (SSIs) since July 1999. Statistics are not compiled on how many of these amended existing statutory instruments.Where it is considered that a particular instrument could have an impact on business, whether requiring the completion of a form or not, a Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) is completed. Of the 1,294 total SSIs, over 70 have been subjected to this review and the resulting Final RIAs have been placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre.

The Scottish Executive has agreed to continue funding the Edinburgh Sheriff Court In-court Advice Project, including the mediation element of the project, for the next three years at a total cost of £213,000. I know this decision will be warmly welcomed by all those involved with the project and will bring stability and continuity. The project has proved to be an effective means of providing additional support to court users, helping them to understand the issues that brought them to court. It has also contributed to a more efficient use of court time and resources.I can also announce that the Phase 2 research report on the In-court Advice Project is published today.

In the Programme for Government, published in September 1999, the Scottish Executive gave a commitment to tackle damp and cold houses by improving 100,000 houses suffering from dampness and condensation under the Warm Deal by 2003. More than 130,000 houses have already been improved.

National planning policies encourage the re-use of previously developed or underused land. Such sites can make an important contribution to the supply of land for housing. However, the amount of previously developed land varies greatly across Scotland. The Executive has therefore not set targets for the use of such land, as what might constitute a meaningful and challenging target in one planning authority area may be wholly unreasonable or unachievable in another.

The Executive works to ensure that all regulations are necessary and proportionate, in particular for regulations which impact upon business, charities and the voluntary sector. The use of the Regulatory Impact Assessment and the Review Regulatory Impact Assessment should guarantee that regulations are proportionate, necessary and fit for purpose when they are introduced and remain so over time. To date, comments made to the Scottish Executive regarding regulations affecting business, charities and the voluntary sector seldom refer to any individual regulation for which the Executive has responsibility.

Agricultural producers in Scotland have received the following total payments from Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) schemes in recent years:1998 - £437,907,5051999 - £380,338,3032000 - £392,014,5262001 - £298,877,944 (part figure - payments for the 2001 schemes still being made)The above figures cover the main agricultural schemes in the Integrated Administration and Control System. They do not include payments made under the agri-environment and forestry grant schemes or the effects of indirect market support measures under the CAP.