Chamber and committees

The Detect Cancer Early Programme has an associated HEAT target to increase the proportion of people with stage 1 disease at diagnosis by 25% (as a proxy indictor of survival outcome) for the three most common cancers in Scotland, lung, breast and colorectal cancer and is due to be met by end December 2015.

The social marketing campaigns are continually being reviewed and are evaluated through an independent research agency. In addition the impact on the uptake of the national bowel and breast screening programme is being assessed. The initial evaluations of the social marketing campaigns have been encouraging however the direct impact of public awareness campaigns and other components of the Detect Cancer Early Programme will not be fully apparent until the cancer staging data for 2013-2014 is available.

Professor Henry Dargie completed an audit of heart failure services in Scotland in 2008-09.

This was undertaken as part of NHS QIS (HIS) Heart Disease Improvement Programme, the report of which was published in September 2011.

This work helped to inform the development and subsequent implementation of a Heart Failure Care Bundle which is an integral part of the current Acute care workstream of the Scottish Patient Safety Programme.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland published the Heart Disease Services: Take Heart – A National Overview in September 2011. This publication covers heart failure and the development and subsequent implementation of a Heart Failure Care Bundle. This is an integral part of the current acute care work stream of the Scottish Patient Safety Programme.

This information is not held by the Scottish Government.

Information on numbers of qualified nurses, which increased in this government by 4%, or by 1654.4 whole-time equivalent (WTE) to 42,680.6 WTE, is available via ISD Scotland.

Due to the multidisciplinary nature of the role, a qualified nurse may work in more than one specific specialty, only one of which is recorded by ISD Scotland for each nurse.

The Deputy First Minister met with the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Scotland on 8 May 2014 to agree the plan for the Section 63 order that will transfer the power to vary the cap on Discretionary Housing Payments. They have subsequently discussed progress on a number of occasions. Scottish Government officials are engaged on an on-going basis with representatives of COSLA and the Scotland Office.

A letter to all local authorities was issued jointly from the UK and Scottish Governments on 25 June 2014. A copy of that letter was shared with the Welfare Reform Committee and can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/CurrentCommittees/67206.aspx.

The draft timetable for the Section 63 order which will transfer the cap-setting power to Scottish Ministers has been shared with the Welfare Reform Committee, and is available on the Scottish Parliament website at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/CurrentCommittees/63916.aspx

The administration of discretionary housing payments (DHPs) is the responsibility of individual local authorities. The Scottish Government expects everyone who is affected by the bedroom tax and who applies for a DHP, to receive one. Local authorities have been allocated sufficient funds for full bedroom tax mitigation in 2014-15, and the UK Government has confirmed that local authorities are able to incur expenditure in excess of the current cap in anticipation of the transfer of powers and the subsequent lifting of the cap by Scottish Ministers.

A report on the Early Lung Cancer Detection Study will be published on completion of clinical trials. Those leading the study are currently recruiting volunteers and estimate that clinical trials will be complete in 2016-17.