Item 6 is to consider matters arising from the away day. As I was not at the away day, I will not make any input into the discussion, other than to direct members' attention to various matters. There is a clear recommendation that we agree to adopt options A to F, which are outlined in the paper that was sent out with the agenda, and to consider decisions on individual petitions at our meeting on 28 September. Is everybody happy with that?
Members indicated agreement.
Various recommendations were made on the work-force planning inquiry, which was also discussed at the away day. The committee is asked to agree to focus the inquiry on service delivery, and in particular on the service requirement, the resources that are available, how resources are deployed and how they should be deployed. Does everyone agree with those four areas of focus?
Members indicated agreement.
We are also asked to agree to focus on the following professions in relation to recruitment and retention: consultants, general practitioners, allied health professionals, and nurses and midwives. Is everybody happy with that recommendation?
Members indicated agreement.
Do we agree to complete the report by December 2004?
I have a point of clarification. I think that it was mentioned that we would produce an interim report by the end of the year. It might be worth clarifying that, in case we do not quite finish the full report.
The paper asks the committee to agree
I want to pick up on a matter that you raised earlier, which I am sure that we have discussed: whether the training of doctors is reserved. Is it reserved and, if it is, how do we deal with that?
Perhaps in the short term we could ask the Scottish Parliament information centre to produce a paper for us on the specifics of what is reserved and what is not. Depending on that paper, we can move on to other issues.
Leading on from that is the fact that we discussed with our colleagues on the Westminster Health Committee—who are also taking evidence from the royal colleges—how we can dovetail with them. That might be useful if the issue is reserved and we want to create flexibility to allow the professions to adapt to Scotland's geography, rather than to the major conurbations of England.
One issue is the role of the European Parliament, which is beginning to interfere—I would say meddle—in many ways with regulations on the registration of staff, their qualifications and where they were taught, which relates to clinical safety.
I think that we are all agreed that we should get input from SPICe on the interfaces between this Parliament, Westminster and the European Parliament on the various training issues, and perhaps on working issues, because this is not just to do with training. Once we have seen that information—I presume that SPICe will be able to do it quickly; I am getting a nod from the corner—we can consider whether we want to proceed.
Meeting continued in private until 16:24.