Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government published a draft version of the Electricity Generation Policy Statement to coincide with the publication of the Report on Proposals and Policies (RPP). The RPP has common proposals and was subject to a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) within the terms of the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005. This draft publication of the Policy Statement was to provide the committee with sufficient information in order to scrutinise the RPP and the analytical assumptions on which it was based.

It is therefore our intention following this process to establish what elements within Electricity Generation Policy Statement require further assessment within the terms of the 2005 act and to undertake in the coming months a meaningful assessment and consultation on those elements.

The Annex on National Developments in the second National Planning Framework is clear that developments designated as national developments will still require to secure planning permission and other consents. Section 25 of The Town Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 (as amended) provides for decisions under the Planning Acts relating to national developments to be made in accordance with national development statements of need as set out in the National Planning Framework, unless material considerations indicate otherwise.

NHS 24 received 99,407 calls over the period of severe weather between 27 November 2010 and 23 December 2010, this is in line with expected call levels for that time period. 95.17% of those calls were answered within 30 seconds.

99.97% of calls requiring a priority GP response were responded to within 20 minutes and 99.70% of calls requiring a routine GP response were responded to within 60 minutes.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-38590 on 19 January 2011. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx. to

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-38590 on 19 January 2011. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-38590 on 19 January 2011. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Scottish Government Health Delivery Directorate collected information to assess the impact of an increase in falls and fractures on services over the period 28 December 2009 to 3 January 2010. This was in response to NHS boards highlighting falls and fractures as a significant issue during this period. This information was non-routine management information. This information was provided in response to question S3O-9094 on 14 January 2010. The answer to the oral parliamentary question is available on the Parliament''s website, the official report can be viewed at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-10/sor0114-02.htm#Col22786.

According to this management information, during the period 28 December 2009 to 3 January 2010, there were approximately 50% more attendances at A&E departments across Scotland, due to falls and fractures, when compared to the same period in the previous year.

NHSScotland has not highlighted falls and fractures as a significant issue in the winter 2010-11 situation reports as yet, therefore this management information has not been requested for winter 2010-11. We continually review the need for additional management information from boards against the burdens placed on them by other additional non-routine data requests.

The routine collection of data on hospital admissions for falls and fractures is collected by Information Services Division through the Standard Morbidity Record. Although this data is not published as official statistics, it is available on request.

Scottish Government Health Delivery Directorate collected information to assess the impact of an increase in falls and fractures on services over the period 28 December 2009 to 3 January 2010. This was in response to NHS boards highlighting falls and fractures as a significant issue during this period. This information was non-routine management information. This information was provided in response to question S3O-9094 on 14 January 2010. The answer to the oral parliamentary question is available on the Parliament''s website, the official report can be viewed at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-10/sor0114-02.htm#Col22786.

According to this management information, during the period 28 December 2009 to 3 January 2010, there were approximately 50% more attendances at A&E departments across Scotland, due to falls and fractures, when compared to the same period in the previous year.

NHSScotland has not highlighted falls and fractures as a significant issue in the winter 2010-11 situation reports as yet, therefore this management information has not been requested for winter 2010-11. We continually review the need for additional management information from boards against the burdens placed on them by other additional non-routine data requests.

The routine collection of data on hospital admissions for falls and fractures is collected by Information Services Division through the Standard Morbidity Record. Although this data is not published as official statistics, it is available on request and complete data for December 2010 should be available in April 2011.

There was an administrative error in the answer to question S3W-37924 of not referring to the related answer to question S3O-9094 on 14 January 2010.

The information on the number of attendances at accident and emergency departments due to falls and fractures during the period 28 December 2009 to 3 January 2010 that was included in response to question S3O-9094 was non-routine management information.

Scottish Government Health Delivery Directorate collected this management information to assess the impact of an increase in falls and fractures on services, in response to NHS boards highlighting falls and fractures as a significant issue during this period.

The routine collection of data on hospital admissions for falls and fractures is collected by Information Services Division through the Standard Morbidity Record. Although this data is not published as official statistics, it is available on request.

The answer to the oral parliamentary question is available on the Parliament''s website, the official report can be viewed at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-10/sor0114-02.htm#Col22786.

The Scottish Ambulance Service has advised that between 26 November 2010 and 12 December 2010 they responded to 3,231 incidents where the dispatch code was recorded as falls. This compares with 1,306 over the same period in 2009, and represents an increase of 147% reflecting the earlier severe winter weather compared to last year.