Health and Community Care Committee, 10 Jun 2002

Meeting date: Monday, June 10, 2002

Official Report 303KB pdf

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Subordinate Legislation

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Community Care (Assessment of Needs) (Scotland) Regulations 2002 (draft)<br />Community Care (Personal Care and Nursing Care) (Scotland) Regulations 2002 (draft)

Welcome to this afternoon's meeting of the Health and Community Care Committee in Glasgow. I welcome the Minister for Health and Community Care and our witnesses.

Item 1 concerns subordinate legislation. We must consider two affirmative instruments and two negative instruments. The first affirmative instrument is the draft Community Care (Assessment of Needs) (Scotland) Regulations 2002, the motion on which the minister will move. The Subordinate Legislation Committee has nothing to report on the instrument and no members' comments have been received. Do members wish to debate the instrument?

No.

No debate will take place and no points of clarification have been raised. I ask the minister not only to make any points on the instrument in question, but to give us an update on where we are on the personal care agenda and to let us know whether we are on track for 1 July.

There are two instruments on personal care. The draft Community Care (Personal Care and Nursing Care) (Scotland) Regulations 2002 exempts the first £145 of personal care and the first £65 of nursing care. There have been concerns about what will happen to people who are in care homes at present. Under the draft Community Care (Assessment of Needs) (Scotland) Regulations 2002, people who are in a care home at present will automatically get the money. The assessment applies only to new entrants to care homes. That is the effect of the two affirmative instruments.

A lot of work has been done on implementation during the past few weeks. I thank the implementation steering group for that, in particular, Alexis Jay, who spearheaded the work. From the reports that I have received, all local authorities are on track to deliver free personal care and free nursing care from 1 July. There is an issue about councils making payments in arrears to care homes, so care homes might not receive payments until two or three weeks into July. Obviously, those payments will be backdated. Everything should start on 1 July. There might be some hiccups here and there, but I am not aware of problems at the moment and we do not envisage any difficulties with the starting date.

I am sure that we are all pleased to hear that. I ask the minister to move the motion on the draft Community Care (Assessment of Needs) (Scotland) Regulations 2002.

Motion moved,

That the Health and Community Care Committee, in consideration of the draft Community Care (Assessment of Needs) (Scotland) Regulations 2002, recommends that the Regulations be approved.—[Malcolm Chisholm.]

Motion agreed to.

On the draft Community Care (Personal Care and Nursing Care) (Scotland) Regulations 2002, the Subordinate Legislation Committee has nothing to report and no members' comments have been received.

Motion moved,

That the Health and Community Care Committee, in consideration of the draft Community Care (Personal Care and Nursing Care) (Scotland) Regulations 2002, recommends that the Regulations be approved.—[Malcolm Chisholm.]

Motion agreed to.

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Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002 (Consequential Amendment)<br />Order 2002 (SSI 2002/233)

We move to the negative instruments. No members' comments have been received on the Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002 (Consequential Amendment) Order 2002. The Subordinate Legislation Committee will relay its comments to the Executive. No motion to annul the order has been lodged and the recommendation is that the committee should make no recommendation in relation to the order. Is it agreed to make no recommendation?

Members indicated agreement.

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Meat (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) (Scotland) Regulations 2002<br />(SSI 2002/234)

No members' comments have been received on the Meat (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) (Scotland) Regulations 2002 and the Subordinate Legislation Committee has no comments. No motion to annul the regulations has been lodged and the recommendation is that the committee should make no recommendation in relation to the regulations. Is it agreed to make no recommendation?

Members indicated agreement.