Equal Opportunities Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Official Report 359KB pdf

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Budget Strategy Phase 2011-12

The fourth item on the agenda is the Scottish Government’s response to the committee’s budget strategy phase report. Do members have any comments to make on that response?

I was quite surprised that the Government did not respond to a large number of points that we made. The first point was quite general, but I do not know whether there was a particular reason for its not responding to others. It seems that many points that we made have not really been addressed.

One of the points was about clarity on the movement of services in the Scottish Prison Service.

The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth has certainly underlined his support for equal opportunities in the budget review, but we must remain vigilant.

The Scottish Government responded to paragraph 152 of our report, which asked about

“the timetable ... involved in the transfer of healthcare responsibilities from the SPS to the NHS.”

I was particularly interested that the Scottish Government mentioned not just prisoners in prison and following their release, but people in police custody. I would like more details about that. We know that there has been a really successful pilot in Tayside, where NHS nursing staff work in police cells. I am interested in whether the timetable to October 2011 will be the same for people in police custody and people in prison.

The Government has stated:

“There are complex issues which have to be resolved such as legal issues”.

We still need a little bit of clarity about the timetable for legislation—if there has to be legislation.

Okay. We can write to the minister about those issues and seek clarification. As Malcolm Chisholm said, a host of points was made. The Scottish Government has given many details on a particular aspect, in respect of which we thought that the timetable was uncertain. Given everything that has to be done within the timetable, it looks ambitious. There are major issues. We can certainly write to the minister about the custody aspect and the other aspect that Marlyn Glen mentioned.

We will have a thorough look at the whole budget process. Indeed, the next item on the agenda is consideration of a paper from our adviser. In view of that, are members happy to note the Scottish Government’s response?

Members indicated agreement.

11:30 Meeting continued in private until 12:11.