Chamber and committees

The EU Council Recommendation on An Action in the field of Rare Diseases was published on 8 June 2009, and contains a number of recommendations for EU member states to take forward between now and 2013, including “plans and strategies in the field of rare diseases”. Led by the Department of Health all four UK Health Departments are working together to prepare a national (UK) plan for rare diseases and are taking into account Rare Disease UK’s (RDUK) Improving Lives, Optimising Resources: A Vision for the UK Rare Disease Strategy report, designed to inform the UK plan.

The draft plan is in its very early stages. However, it is understood that officials from the Department of Health intend to meet with representatives from RDUK in August, to provide them with an update of the progress that has been made.

The Scottish Government is also committed to taking forward the strategic vision in Scotland in discussion with RDUK and we have offered to meet them as the plan develops.

NHS boards’ workforce plans focus on their own staffing needs to provide high quality care in response to local circumstances and demand.

Information on the number of allied health professional staff by profession, including podiatry, broken down by NHS board, is published on the NHS National Services Scotland, Information Services Division (ISD) website at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/publications/2011-0628/AHP.xls.

The National Records of Scotland, like its predecessor bodies, has always charged the same prices to MSPs as to members of the public.

In general terms, the Scottish Ambulance Service carries out periodic reviews of shifts operated by accident and emergency resources to determine the need for any adjustments to shift rosters or resource skill mix.

The Scottish Ambulance Service advise that their shift review policy, developed in Partnership, ensures the process is carried out for valid reasons, can demonstrate a case for change, and is designed to enhance the provision of services and improve the response to calls. A shift review may be considered necessary for one or more of the following reasons:

An evidence based change in demand exists.

Evidence based change in resources are becoming available to the station or work place (increase or decrease in staff).

Staff wanting a shift pattern which better supports work life balance.

External development requiring a different working pattern/ arrangement.

Non achievement of performance targets e.g. operational or clinical.

Health and Safety or other statutory issue.

The Scottish Ambulance Service have recently procured a new demand modelling software package and this is currently being put in place to support future shift reviews. Consideration will thereafter be given to conducting shift reviews in the area covered by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and this is an operational matter for the Scottish Ambulance Service.

In advance of a shift review being carried out, it is not possible to predict whether there would be any changes to shift patterns of levels of resource in a particular area.

I have been clear that following the tragic incidents at both Tomintoul and Crieff, current arrangements for handling rest breaks in the Scottish Ambulance Service cannot remain in place as they are not in the interests of the public or of our hardworking and dedicated ambulance staff.

The key consideration here is to prevent any further incidents where rest breaks are seen as affecting response times in emergencies. Negotiations in this respect are being taken forward urgently and until the outcome is known it is not possible to quantify any additional costs which may be involved.

Scottish Ambulance Service staff are employed under the terms of Agenda for Change which grants staff an uninterrupted break of at least 20 minutes in any shift longer than six hours. How this is then managed is an operational matter for the employer concerned.

I have been clear that following the tragic incidents at both Tomintoul and Crieff, current arrangements for handling rest breaks in the Scottish Ambulance Service cannot remain in place as they are not in the interests of the public or of our hardworking and dedicated ambulance staff.

Urgent talks are currently ongoing between management and staff within the Scottish Ambulance Service with a view to preventing any further incidents where rest breaks are seen as affecting response times in emergencies. I am being kept fully informed of progress with these talks and have urged both management and the trades unions involved to resolve this untenable situation as quickly as possible.

The National Records of Scotland has always made charges for certain of its services. For example, the charge for a replacement birth certificate goes back to 1855, and the ScotlandsPeople website has involved a charge per view since it was started in the late 1990s. There has been no recent change in the charging policy although some charges were increased earlier in the year in accordance with The Registration Services (Fees) Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2010 (SSI 2010 No 427). Charges are generally set in Statutory Instruments, on which consultation has taken place. If the member has a specific charge in mind, I would be happy to provide further information.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-00138 on 6 June 2011. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Occupational pensions policy is reserved. It is not yet clear which of the range of potential longer-term reforms to the NHS Superannuation scheme the UK Government is currently considering will become policy. The Scottish Government understands that the UK Government is currently engaged in high-level negotiations with Trade Unions and does not intend to announce the detail of potential longer-term reforms until autumn 2011.

In relation to the UK Government’s short-term policy of increasing employee contribution rates by an average of 3.2% of pay, the Scottish Government has set out its opposition to this approach. However, HM Treasury has made it clear that it expects the Scottish Government to apply this policy to the NHS Superannuation Scheme (Scotland). The UK Government has yet to announce the formal details of how that policy will be applied to the NHS Superannuation Scheme.

Though Scottish Ministers have some devolved powers, HM Treasury is able to exercise a significant degree of financial and legal control over the design and operation of NHS Superannuation Scheme (Scotland). That level of control places severe limitations on Scottish Ministers’ ability to design a different NHS scheme from that implemented by the UK Government.

The Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth set out the Scottish Government’s position in relation to the UK Government’s short and long term proposals for reform to parliament on 22 June. He reinforced the Scottish Government’s commitment to public service pensions that are affordable, sustainable and fair and set out the Scottish Government’s opposition to the approach the UK Government has taken to short-term increases in employee contributions as the wrong course of action at this time.

He urged the UK Government to accept that pension reform requires consensus to be built and take a different approach to handling reform. While the Scottish Government accepts that a case has been made for longer-term reform of public service pensions, the Scottish Government is committed to consider that case in consultation with stakeholders and in order to facilitate this consultation has called on the UK Government to support a more appropriate timetable for reform in Scotland.