Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-32641 on 20 April 2010. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

There were 132 and 211 persons proceeded against for offences by licensed persons in the financial years 2007-08 and 2008-09 respectively, of these 72 and 122 persons were convicted of these offences where this was the main offence. These may include a small number of persons employed by licensees or their agents.

Information about the capacity in which an accused is prosecuted is not available and it is therefore not possible to identify the number of licence holders who have been reported to procurators fiscal.

In 2007-08, 1,858 charges under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976 were reported to procurators fiscal and no action was taken in respect of 312 of those charges.

In 2008-09, 1,924 charges were reported and no action was taken in respect of 317.

Procurators fiscal will take no action for a variety of reasons, including insufficient admissible evidence, mitigating circumstances and lack of jurisdiction or where it would be disproportionate, in the public interest, to take action. Full details of the considerations taken into account by prosecutors when considering whether to take action are available in the COPFS Prosecution Code which is available on the COPFS website, www.copfs.gov.uk.

Continuous registration was part of the Dental Action Plan agreed by the previous administration.

We are currently working with Information Services Division of NHS National Services Scotland on the detail of patient participation information.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-32640 on 16 April 2010. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

This information is not held centrally.

However, we are working closely with NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and NHS boards to develop a range of initiatives to support the development around our commitment to expand and increase access to psychological therapies to meet patient''s needs better and sooner.

We have established a Psychological Therapies Group to oversee the implementation of the advice in The Matrix, a tool for NHS boards to use in reviewing available evidence and in considering which psychological interventions might best be used to meet local need and demand, its continuous updating, and to expand its coverage to other key priority areas in mental health.

In collaboration with Skills for Health, NES has also produced psychological therapy competence frameworks to ensure that training equips staff to delivery therapy safely and effectively. We have also funded NES to support the training of a range of staff in a number of evidenced based therapeutic approaches.

During 2010-11 the Scottish Government will work with NHS boards to develop an access target for psychological therapies for inclusion in HEAT in 2011-12. There was no such target under the previous administration.

I welcome Audit Scotland''s Review of orthopaedic services and the Scottish Government Health Directorates have already begun to implement several of the recommendations. We have established an Efficiency & Productivity programme, closely linked to our Quality Strategy, to improve productivity and the efficiency of services. Progress is already being made by shifting the balance of care to more community and team based services, improving benchmarking information and supporting boards to further increase rates of same day surgery.

The increasing demand on orthopaedic services for joint replacements has been significant. From 2000 to 2008, the number of knee replacements increased by 106% and hip replacements increased by 43%. The Scottish Government has continued to increase investment in orthopaedic services with £370 million dedicated towards this area last year alone and this report recognises that considerable improvements have been made. An area of significant improvement is in waiting times. NHS boards have exceeded their waiting time targets by effectively meeting the March 2010 targets in March 2009. This is a substantial achievement by NHS staff.

Service improvements related to orthopaedic services are being taken forward by the national and local NHS board 18 Weeks Improvement Teams and the focus of this activity will be targeted at the key areas within this report.

This information is not held centrally.

Guidance to licensing boards concerning operation of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, including overprovision, was agreed by Parliament under the affirmative resolution procedure and published by the previous administration

The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 introduced a duty for licensing boards to assess whether there is overprovision of licensed premises or licensed premises of a particular description in any locality within the board''s area. By virtue of the act, it is for licensing boards to determine what constitutes overprovision in any given area.