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The licensing of medicines is reserved and is the responsibility of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).The MHRA has advised that, according to their licensing records, nine products with new active substances were granted marketing authorisations for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in the period 1 January 1999 to 31 December 2002. These are Remicade, Enbrel, Arcoxia, Auxib, Exxiv, Turox, Seractil, Celebrix and Solexa. Also, in this period 284 marketing authorisations were granted for medicines indicated for rheumatoid arthritis. However, these drugs may also be used for other indications.The information requested on how many patients are being treated with each drug is not available centrally. The use of some of these treatments depends on the clinical judgement of specialists experienced in the management of rheumatoid arthritis. Data on drugs dispensed in hospitals is not held centrally. Centrally collected data relates to items dispensed in the community by community pharmacists and dispensing doctors and is not patient specific.

At 3 June 2003, 11 patients in the Forth Valley NHS Board area had received hip and knee surgery at a private sector hospital in Scotland under the second stage of the orthopaedic initiative, which started on 1 April 2003. It is planned that a further 57 residents of the NHS Forth Valley area will receive hip and knee surgery under the initiative by 30 September 2003.The Executive will continue to review with the NHS ways of treating patients, including use of the private sector, to ensure patients receive high quality treatment as swiftly as possible.

Under the Police Regulations 1976, no person may be appointed as a constable unless he or she has been certified to be "in good health, of sound constitution and fitted both physically and mentally to perform the duties of constable". All police forces in Scotland have fitness tests for entry and these vary to some extent from force to force. As part of an on-going review being carried out by the Association of Police Officers in Scotland, consideration is being given to introducing a single national fitness test which all forces in Scotland would adopt.

The information requested is not held centrally, partly because there is no accepted definition of what is a "social enterprise".

As part of the Executive's Social Economy Review, published in January 2003, a new funding stream of £2 million per annum is being provided over the next three years in order to develop the social economy. Information on this type of investment has not previously been collected.

The urban regeneration company is a structure designed to enable a group of organisations to deliver a complex regeneration project that will support their individual and shared objectives. The organisations that jointly create the new company provide the resources necessary to fund the company and so the nature and source of investment will vary from project to project depending on its objectives and the organisations involved.

The information requested is given in the following table. As is conventional with such data, the average age at first marriage is given separately for males and females and the "average" length of marriage at divorce is expressed as a median.

	2000	2001	2002*
Births	53,076	52,527	51,272
Births Outside Marriage	22,625	22,760	22,534
Births to Teenage Mothers	4,599	4,444	4,195
Marriages	30,367	29,621	29,827
Civil Marriages	12,079	11,487	11,449
Divorces	11,143	10,631	10,725
Deaths - Males	27,511	27,324	27,743
Deaths - Females	30,288	30,058	30,361
Average age at First Marriage - Males	30.5	30.7	31.0
Average age at First Marriage - Females	28.6	28.8	29.1
Median Duration of Marriage at Divorce (Years)	13	13	14

Note:*Data for 2002 are provisional.

The provision of chiropody services in both urban and rural areas is the responsibility of local NHS systems, who will consider the needs of the community and service delivery when planning and developing local services.

These items can take the form of standard circulars, letters, leaflets, booklets, reports and the like.

Trunking of local roads, or detrunking of parts of the existing network, is effected by means of an order made under section 5(2) of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984. Significant changes were last made in 1996 following a major review and extensive consultation, associated with local government reorganisation.