Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has been consistent in our opposition to the way in which welfare reforms are being implemented by the Westminster Government and is discussing with key stakeholders how to help tenants cope with them.

We are very sympathetic to the difficulties that some tenants will find themselves in as a result of these reforms but in the interests of tenants themselves, we cannot advocate placing tenants in situations where they cannot afford to pay off debts to their landlords. We are also concerned that if tenants do not pay their rent in full, landlords will lose a significant proportion of the income they rely on to provide services to all of their tenants.

The Scottish Government has already strengthened the protection for tenants in Scotland against eviction for rent arrears. From 1 August 2012 we brought pre-action requirements for rent arrears into force to ensure that eviction is a last resort.

Scottish Government action to help mitigate housing benefit changes is set out at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/16342/hbreform/sg

This includes: work with COSLA and wider stakeholders to seek influence DWP’s policies; extensive analysis to promote understanding of the reforms and their implications; and £160,000 funding for support, training and guidance to help local authorities and social landlords prepare for the changes.

We have also invested more widely to protect households affected by welfare reforms in 2013-14. We are providing an additional £9.2 million funding for the Scottish Welfare Fund (the devolved Social Fund). We and our partners in local government will commit a total of £40 million to ensure that vulnerable people in Scotland currently receiving Council Tax Benefit are protected from the 10% cut in funding imposed by the UK Government for Council Tax successor arrangements. We are also providing a £5.4 million funding package for advice and support services which will go to directly towards helping people and families in Scotland better understand and cope with these changes.

The Minister for Housing and Welfare last met UK Government Ministers in London on 16 December 2012. Discussions centred around the direct payment of Housing Benefit to tenants and whether the discretion afforded to the Northern Ireland assembly – to continue to pay housing benefit to landlords – could be extended to Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s priorities for reducing health problems caused by alcohol misuse are set out in Changing Scotland's Relationship with Alcohol: A Framework for Action which is available on the following link

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/03/04144703/0.

This Framework details a broad approach which focuses on education, diversionary activity, support for families and communities, and preventive public health measures such as alcohol brief interventions. There are 41 measures in the Framework, including legislative measures such as minimum unit pricing. We believe this wider package will help to create the cultural shift required to change our relationship with alcohol.

In February 2012 we published a progress report on our Framework for Action. This outlines the progress that we have made against each of these measures and outlines some of our future programmes of work and the next steps that we are taking in our fight against alcohol misuse in Scotland. This is available at

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0038/00388540.pdf.

The Societal Cost of Alcohol Misuse in Scotland for 2007, which was published in January 2010, can be found on the Scottish Government’s website via the following link:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/12/29122804/0. This is the most recent publication on estimating the annual cost of alcohol misuse in Scotland and uses a cost of illness approach.

The study includes estimates of the relevant direct, indirect and intangible costs associated with alcohol misuse, and covers the following categories: health care, social care, crime, productive capacity of the Scottish economy, wider social costs.

The total societal cost of alcohol misuse in Scotland for 2007 is estimated to be in the range of £2,476.6 million to £4,635.4 million annually with a midpoint estimate of £3,555.7 million.

<>The Societal Cost of Alcohol Misuse in Scotland for 2007, which was published in January 2010, can be found on the Scottish Government’s website via the following link http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/12/29122804/0. This is the most recent publication on estimating the annual cost of alcohol misuse in Scotland and uses a cost of illness approach. The study includes estimates of the relevant direct, indirect and intangible costs associated with alcohol misuse, and covers the following categories: health care, social care, crime, productive capacity of the Scottish economy, wider social costs.

The total cost to the health service in Scotland for 2007 is estimated to be in the range of £143.6 million to £392.8 million annually with a midpoint estimate of £267.8 million.

Section 5 in the study provides further detail on the costs to healthcare services.

The Department for Work and Pensions reports the following amounts of housing benefit were paid to Scottish landlords during 2011-12:

Local Authorities: £674 million

Housing Associations: £608 million

Private Landlords: £446 million

The source for this information can be found at the following website address:

http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd4/h_tables_budget_2012_300812.xls.

No, the Scottish Government has not advised NHS Forth Valley to amend how it recorded periods of social unavailability.

All NHS boards were advised last year through new guidance that as of 1 October 2012 ‘social unavailability’ was being scrapped and replaced with “patient advised unavailability”, bringing the system into line with the Patient Rights (Scotland) Act. It is for boards to ensure they apply Scottish Government guidance accurately.

The internal audits on the management of waiting times at Forth Valley published on 20 December 2012 stated that it found no instances of inappropriate behaviour or pressure on staff to hide breached or manipulate data. Overall, patient records reviewed were accurate; however, improvements were identified surrounding some aspects of system operation and control, particularly in relation to the usage of different patient administrations systems for in-patients and out-patients.

The information on the number of patients with a period of social unavailability on 30 June 2011 and 30 June 2012 (latest available published data) by NHS Board is provided in the following table. Official waiting times statistics for 31 December 2012 is due to be published by ISD Scotland on 26 February 2013.

Monthly Social Unavailability as at Census date

NHS Board	June 2011	June 2012
Ayrshire and Arran	703	775
Borders	308	236
Dumfries and Galloway	493	321
Fife	543	402
Forth Valley	1,915	511
Grampian	7,128	6,949
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	12,244	5,492
Highland	814	761
Lanarkshire	2,148	1,466
Lothian	12,585	1,790
Orkney	82	52
Shetland	275	109
Tayside	2,175	1,652
Western Isles	74	58
GJNH	148	81
Scotland	42,149	20,883

Source: ISD Scotland.