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The Minister for Housing and Communities wrote to the UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change on 14 January 2011 regarding the proposal to introduce the Warm Home Discount Scheme replacing social tariffs. In that letter he broadly welcomed proposals to extend the requirement on Energy companies to assist vulnerable households, provide consistency over eligibility and to put this on a mandatory footing. However, concern was raised that the proposed flat rate discount rather than a discounted tariff disadvantaged vulnerable households in Scotland given the more severe climate and longer heating season. Also, the significant proportion of households in Scotland without access to mains gas.

The Scottish Government publishes a wide range of guidance on procurement, including guidance on financial appraisal and for businesses on tendering for public contracts. (). We are also developing a new simple guide to public sector procurement for all types of suppliers, the Procurement Journey for Suppliers which will be published later this year.

The Scottish Government has also implemented a national contract advertising portal, “Public Contracts Scotland” which provides information to suppliers wishing to participate in public sector procurement processes (). Over 50,000 suppliers have registered (84% are SMEs) and 74% of the contracts awarded through PCS go to SMEs.

Working in consortia and in other supply chain partnerships can help small, medium and social enterprises to compete effectively for larger public sector contracts. The Government has produced guidance () to support businesses who are interested in consortia and supply chain partnerships.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-01333 on 21 July 2011. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at .

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-01230 on 21 July 2011. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at .

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-01336 on 20 July 2011. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at .

During 2009-10, 22 local authorities approved 292 grants totalling £187,285 to assist home owners with lead plumbing repairs. The most recent data available on grants for lead plumbing repairs is shown in the following table.

2009-10

These statistics are published online at .

Minimum timescales allowed for suppliers to prepare their bids for competitions are set out in the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2006, as directed by European Law. The timescales set out in the Regulations are the minimum permissible and public sector bodies should take account of all the circumstances, especially the complexity of the requirement and the time required to prepare a tender, when fixing time limits in a tender process.

The Regulations form part of the Procurement Journey which sets out procurement best practice guidance for the public sector and is published on the Scottish Government’s website at:

All Scottish public bodies, including Scottish Government agencies are encouraged to use the Procurement Journey.

Sportscotland, as the national agency for sport and the lead agency for the development of sport in Scotland, provides financial assistance to local communities in order to deliver Ministerial priorities and delivering the objectives of “Reaching Higher,” the national strategy for sport.

I have therefore asked the Chief Executive of sportscotland to write to you separately with details of the investment that the organisation has made in the Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley constituency for the years in question.

The total drug costs and fees for dispensing methadone mixture and solution (1mg/ml) to the NHS in the last year (2010-11), broken down by NHS Board, are presented in the following table.

Total drug costs and fees for dispensing methadone mixture^1. Items dispensed in Scotland by NHS Board - Financial year: 2010-11

Notes:

1) Data relate to methadone mixture and solution (1mg/ml), which are recognised as being the standard products for methadone programmes;

2) Total drug cost is the paid Gross Ingredient Cost (GIC).

3) Methadone fees (cost applied to dispensing methadone);

4) Fees paid for the supervision of methadone (data are incomplete as some NHS Health Boards may pay elements of methadone supervision directly to pharmacists locally and where this is the case, no central data will be held)

5) Total cost (the summation of the Gross Ingredient Cost, methadone fees and supervision fees)

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Source: Information Services Division (IR2011-01468)

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Further information on the prescribing costs of methadone is available on the NHS Scotland Information Services Division Scotland website, using the following link: .

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The increased number of dispensed items and associated costs may be due to the increased numbers of individuals coming into treatment of which methadone may be a component of a package of care, treatment and recovery. The increase may also be due to increased pharmacy supervision in line with good practice and the Drug Misuse and dependence UK guidelines on clinical management.

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SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE

Information on the number of individuals in Scotland, who have been helped by methadone treatment is currently not centrally available.

The development of a follow-up reporting system for the Scottish Drug Misuse Database (SDMD), which is currently being rolled-out across specialist drug treatment services in Scotland, will allow patients to be tracked through the treatment system and will give us more information on the numbers of people engaging with treatment provision at any given time, what interventions have been delivered and what treatment outcomes have been achieved. This will include information on the numbers of people receiving specialist prescribing interventions related to the treatment of their drug use. Data will be collected from individuals at a three month follow-up session and subsequently annually thereafter. NHS Information Services Division Scotland anticipates that follow-up data for 2011-12 (the first full year’s worth of data) will be reported from December 2012, but plans to release interim reports in 2011.

The Drug Treatment Waiting Times Information Framework (NHS Information Services Division Scotland) collects data on the range of drug treatments and support which are offered to individuals accessing specialist drug treatment services in Scotland. For the last quarter (January – March 2011), the following offers of appointments for treatment were made:

Structured preparatory and motivational interventions – 1,936

Community based support and/or rehabilitation – 1,795

Prescribed drug treatment – 1,055

Residential Detoxification and rehabilitation – 108

These figures indicate that services are offering a wide-range of drug treatment interventions and support, and that prescribed drug treatment (including methadone) is not the most commonly offered service.