Berriedale Braes (Improvement Scheme)
To ask the Scottish Government whether a public local inquiry will be held following the publication of the draft road order material for the A9 Berriedale braes improvement scheme. (S4O-04538)
Currently, one statutory objector remains. Consequently, it has been necessary for Transport Scotland to approach the directorate for planning and environmental appeals to arrange a public local inquiry. We understand that an inquiry will proceed unless the objection in question is withdrawn.
The minister will be aware that, in July, Caithness Chamber of Commerce criticised the Scottish Government for dragging its heels on the issue. In light of his answer, will he commit funding to the far north rail line to ensure that people in Caithness and businesses in the far north are not disadvantaged by this further delay in road improvements?
I want to correct Rhoda Grant. Caithness Chamber of Commerce did not criticise the Scottish Government; it criticised politicians collectively for the length of time that it takes for reporters to consider such schemes. I agree with those who want the Berriedale braes scheme to proceed. This Government has done more to progress that scheme than any other Government. We will continue to make progress. We are committed to the scheme, but we must follow due process. The case will have to go through the process of the DPEA, which is performing better and processing cases more quickly than it was under the previous Administration.
We are committed to the Berriedale braes scheme as a priority in a massive infrastructure investment programme. We will also look at rail investment, which is at a record high under this Government. We are ensuring that we touch every part of the country. I hope that the objection to the Berriedale braes scheme, which is so necessary, can be withdrawn so that we can get on with it. If the objection is not withdrawn, we must comply with the law and the regulations and undertake the public local inquiry, after which we will proceed as quickly as we can. Unlike Labour, which continues to make demands, this Government makes progress.
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill (Consultation)
To ask the Scottish Government what further consultation is planned with regard to the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill. (S4O-04539)
The Scottish Government welcomes all voices to the debate on land reform. The Scottish Government’s Land Reform (Scotland) Bill, which represents an important next step in our wider programme of land reform, was introduced to this Parliament on 22 June. The Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee’s call for written evidence closed on 14 August and the majority of responses are now available on the Parliament’s website. This week, the committee started to take oral evidence on the bill.
We have a great opportunity to ensure that all views and ideas on the bill’s proposals are explored further as the bill goes through the Parliament. Scottish ministers look forward to continuing to work closely with the committee, members, stakeholder organisations and people across Scotland on the future of land reform in Scotland.
I would be grateful if the minister would meet me to discuss some specific suggestions that I have with regard to the agricultural holdings aspects of the bill, in particular the potential that exists for putting the code of conduct for land agents on a statutory footing, for enabling tenant farmers to better secure the full value of their farm when they surrender a lease, for levels of compensation to be agreed before a farmer agrees in principle to quit and for enabling tenant farmers to more fully benefit from any diversification activity that they undertake.
The Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Food and Environment and I will be happy to meet Mr Crawford to discuss the agricultural holdings provisions in the bill. We will also consult stakeholders on the detail of the regulations that are to be developed in connection with the bill’s provisions and any other issues that it would be helpful to explore with industry experts. Some of that work has already begun—for example, the work in relation to defining the approach to productive capacity to ensure that we achieve the best results for the sector.
Haddington Community Hospital (Completion)
To ask the Scottish Government whether the new Haddington community hospital will be completed by 2019. (S4O-04540)
I refer the member to previous answers, in particular my written answer to the member on 7 August and Mr Swinney’s answer on 31 July.
As stated in those answers, the Scottish Government is considering whether further changes are required to the hub model in the light of the recent opinion by the Office for National Statistics on the Aberdeen western peripheral route, which is another project that is using funding on the non-profit distribution model. Scottish ministers remain committed to supporting the East Lothian community hospital project. NHS Lothian continues to develop its plans for a replacement hospital and those plans are progressing on schedule.
East Lothian’s new hospital was due to open in 2009. This Government switched the project to its private finance programme, which has caused a 10-year delay. Any new problems with that programme cannot be allowed to further delay the hospital. I ask again that the cabinet secretary give my constituents the firm promise that they need that the hospital will be completed by 2019.
Of course, it was Iain Gray’s Government that was the lover of private finance initiative programmes, and the health budget is now suffering the consequences of that.
The NPD model has delivered numerous new-build facilities, including schools, hospitals and other important parts of infrastructure. The Scottish Futures Trust is engaging closely with project partners to discuss the implications for them of the ONS’s comments and considerations. The Deputy First Minister will provide a further report to Parliament in due course. In the meantime, all appropriate action is being taken to protect vital capital investment in Scotland, including in the new Haddington community hospital.
We will manage the implications of the latest guidance on classification for the NPD programme and the Scottish budget. This Government has invested huge amounts of resource in new hospitals and schools, and we will continue to do so.
Aberdeen City Region Deal
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire councils on progressing the bid for the Aberdeen city region deal. (S4O-04541)
Scottish ministers are fully supportive of a city region deal for Aberdeen. There have been a number of official-level discussions with both local authorities to explore the opportunity that such a deal would offer, and we look forward to continuing constructive discussions in the coming weeks and months.
Can the cabinet secretary assure me that, in addition to working closely with both local authorities and the United Kingdom Government to progress the bid, which will be submitted formally tomorrow, ministers will provide resources to the deal, as they did in the case of Glasgow and the Clyde valley? Further, does he agree that, given the current significant challenges for the oil and gas industry, the bid’s success is crucial for the wider Scottish and UK economies?
I reassure Mr Baker that the Government attaches the greatest of importance to working constructively with Aberdeen City Council and Aberdeenshire Council on the city region deal for Aberdeen. The deal will help to deal with some of the issues and challenges that prevail in the oil and gas sector. What will also help is the significant infrastructure investment that the Scottish Government is already making in the north-east of Scotland through, for example, the £745 million-worth of investment in the Aberdeen western peripheral route, the work that is under way to expand health infrastructure in the north-east and the £187 million investment in transport infrastructure. We will willingly consider the bid from Aberdeen City Council and Aberdeenshire Council and will discuss it with both authorities and with the United Kingdom Government.
Can the cabinet secretary indicate what consultation Aberdeen City Council and Aberdeenshire Council have undertaken with business and communities in the north-east to garner their thoughts on what should be in a city deal investment plan?
I am not familiar with the formulation of the bid, which is a matter entirely for the two bodies concerned. The Government will judge the issues that emerge from it.
It would be beneficial and advantageous for extensive dialogue to have been undertaken with the business community and local communities to ensure that the bid commands widespread support and that it addresses the needs and aspirations of people in the north-east of Scotland.
General Practitioners (Remote and Rural Areas)
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure availability of general practitioners in remote and rural areas. (S4O-04542)
Ministers are fully committed to supporting primary care, including GPs, and to ensuring that all communities in Scotland, including those that are remote and rural, receive safe, reliable and sustainable health care services.
Over the next three years, the Scottish Government will invest £60 million, as part of the primary care fund. That will help to address immediate workload and recruitment issues and will enable long-term sustainable change to support GPs and improve access to services for patients.
As part of that, £2.5 million will be invested in work with key stakeholders to explore the issues surrounding GP recruitment and retention, which can be particularly challenging in remote and rural areas.
The cabinet secretary will be familiar with the Royal College of Nursing’s report, “Going the Extra Mile”, which rightly advocates the role of advanced nurse practitioners. For example, advanced nurse practitioners deliver immediate care in Shetland and provide vital primary care services on non-doctor islands. Will the cabinet secretary encourage the roll-out of that model?
John Finnie makes a very important point about the role of advanced nurse practitioners who have demonstrated their value in the acute setting and in primary care. I am very keen that we look at how we can encourage and facilitate the training of advanced nurse practitioners, which at the moment is down to the initiative of the local health board. I would like to develop more systematic training of advanced nurse practitioners because the health service will in the future, in both primary care and acute services, require more of them. I am actively considering that and would be happy to keep John Finnie informed of progress.
I thank the cabinet secretary for her support for advanced nurse practitioners. However, we now have a situation in which 18 general practices in the Highlands are being directly run by the health board. Dispensing practices, which are also largely in the Highlands, are down by 40 per cent under the SNP Government.
Will the Government institute an independent review of remote and rural practices and will it follow the Wilson report’s suggestion of an immediate moratorium on new community pharmacies until that independent review is conducted?
Across Scotland, there are nine general practices that require to be supported by boards because of the difficulties that they are facing. Richard Simpson has conflated salaried practices with those that currently require additional support from health boards. I think that the salaried practices service for GPs is a good thing and I am surprised that the Labour Party does not agree. It is a particularly good thing for more remote and rural areas, as well as for more deprived communities. We have established that model and supported it for quite some time. It is just a pity that the Labour Party seems not to support it, too.
The cabinet secretary will be aware that there are insufficient doctors available to provide an out-of-hours service in Ayrshire and that in the future that work is to be undertaken by nurse practitioners. Is she content that that will not represent a diminution or dilution of the service that was previously provided by GPs? Has she—or have her officials—discussed that with NHS Ayrshire and Arran?
As John Scott will be aware, Lewis Ritchie is undertaking a review of out-of-hours services and has been going around all parts of the country, including Ayrshire and Arran, to discuss with local health professionals, the public and others the needs of their areas. We await his recommendations, which should be coming soon.
It is fair to say that the future of out-of-hours sustainability will be closely aligned with the future of in-hours primary care. It is not about just the GP delivering services; rather, they must be delivered by a multi-disciplinary team of professionals including the advanced nurse practitioners to whom John Finnie referred. Those people will be fully trained, with the skill levels and ability to do the job.
When Lewis Ritchie has reported, I will be happy to come back to John Scott—and, indeed, Parliament—with more information on how we will take the recommendations forward.
NHS Highland (Staffing)
To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with NHS Highland regarding staff shortages and hard-to-fill posts. (S4O-04543)
Government officials maintain on-going contact with NHS Highland around a number of matters, including staff recruitment and retention. I will be holding NHS Highland’s annual review in Wick on 7 September, at which a wide range of issues will be discussed with the board.
Will the cabinet secretary ensure that, in the public interest of my constituents and many others, placements are created for trainee doctors in rural and urban Scotland, rather than doctors just being trained in one or two large urban centres? That will offer trainees insights into working in smaller and more remote centres as part of their potential career choices for future work.
Yes. I agree with that. A number of initiatives are already in place to ensure that doctors get to experience rural as well as urban settings. NHS Education for Scotland has developed post certificate of completion of training rural fellowships for general practitioners who have completed speciality training. We are working with boards to develop networks between rural and urban hospitals, which in some areas involve the rotation of staff between rural and urban hospitals, and we are exploring, through the being here programme, a range of approaches to develop sustainable healthcare in rural areas.
I am happy to keep Rob Gibson informed of the discussions that we have at the NHS Highland review about those matters.
Patient Costs (Hospitals)
To ask the Scottish Government what the average cost is to keep a patient in hospital for one week. (S4O-04544)
The average cost of an in-patient week at an NHS Scotland hospital in 2013-14 was £3,817.
One in seven beds in Lothian hospitals is occupied by a patient who is well enough to be at home. Why is the Government wasting almost £4,000 a week each keeping people in hospital who do not want or need to be there? Would not it be better to fully finance our councils to provide good quality social care for people in their own homes?
Far from wasting money, we are investing £100 million over the next three years in tackling delayed discharge. West Lothian will receive £11.4 million from the integrated care and delayed discharge funding over the next three years: £8.5 million from the integrated care fund and £2.85 million in relation to delayed discharge.
I have made it clear that the issue is a top priority for us to tackle. If Neil Findlay looked at the recent statistics, he would recognise that we are making progress; there is far more to be done, but we are making progress. I would have thought that Neil Findlay might welcome that.
Landfill Tax (Contaminated Soil)
To ask the Scottish Government what rate of landfill tax will apply to the disposal of contaminated soil. (S4O-04545)
Subsoils qualify at the lower rate of tax unless they are contaminated to such an extent as to render them hazardous. That recognises that a relatively low level of environmental impact is associated with landfilling subsoils. Permissible levels of contamination are decided by Revenue Scotland under powers that are granted to it in the Landfill Tax (Scotland) Act 2014. It has recently consulted on the issue and will shortly publish updated guidance.
Does the cabinet secretary agree that it would be more environmentally friendly to encourage the remediation and recycling of contaminated soil rather than sending it all for landfill disposal? Would it not be better to impose a higher rate of landfill tax for such soil than a lower rate, which will kill off the soil-remediation industry?
Mr Chisholm has raised those issues with me in correspondence and I have looked carefully at them. There is a balance to be struck between providing opportunities for the reuse of soil as part of regeneration schemes and ensuring that there is an effective means of disposing of soils in a fashion that does not create environmental damage.
Revenue Scotland is considering that point within the consultation exercise, and its judgment and its views will form the basis of the guidance, which the board has looked at and which will be published shortly. However, I assure Mr Chisholm that the issues that he has raised with me have been at the heart of Revenue Scotland’s consideration. I will, of course, be happy to answer on any further thoughts that Mr Chisholm has on behalf of his constituents once the Revenue Scotland guidance has been published.