Chamber and committees

Under the terms of the NationalHealth Service (General Medical Services Contracts) (Scotland) Regulations 2004,immediately necessary treatment must be provided on request to any person as a resultof an accident or emergency at any place within the practice area, within core hours.

Where the general practitioneris providing treatment within a contract where responsibility for out of hours serviceshas been retained, the requirement to provide immediately necessary treatment alsoapplies to that period.

Where the GP practice opts totransfer its out of hours responsibility, then the health board will be requiredto have in place alternative arrangements which must meet national accreditationstandards, currently under development. These standards will be used to providethe assurance that suitable and safe arrangements are in place to provide primarymedical services out-of-hours for people across Scotland.

NHS boards are in the processof developing their plans for the re-provision of out-of-hours services and at thisstage we do not yet have final details on the content of these individual plans.

It is for local authorities,in the first instance, to ensure that such arrangements secure Best Value. Thisbecame a statutory obligation on commencement of relevant sections of the LocalGovernment in Scotland Act 2003, and is now backed by an audit and enforcementframework in which the Accounts Commission for Scotland takes a key role.

In addition, the managementof funding agreements is one of the issues covered in the Code of Guidance onFunding External Bodies and Following the Public Pound (the Code)published by COSLA and the Accounts Commission. The Scottish Executive welcomes the decision to review adherence to the code in light of theLocal Government in Scotland Act 2003, and to revise it as necessary. TheAccounts Commission’s recent report, Following the Public Pound, is partof this review process.

Once this review has beencompleted Scottish ministers intend to use powers provided by Section 51 of theLocal Government in Scotland Act 2003 to require compliance with the Code.

Following the reportsfindings, the Accounts Commission has now asked Audit Scotland to carry outfurther work to establish in more detail how the Code of Guidance on FundingExternal Bodies (the Code) and Following the Public Pound is beingapplied by local authorities.

The Accounts Commission willalso consider if the Code itself needs revision. Once this review has beencompleted Scottish ministers intend to use powers provided by Section 51 of theLocal Government in Scotland Act 2003 to require compliance with the Code.

All hydroelectric output in Scotland isclassified as renewable. Established stations with a capacity of up to 20MW andwhich have been refurbished since 1990 are also eligible for support under theRenewables Obligation (Scotland). Established stations with a capacity in excess of20 megawatts are not eligible for support, while new schemes of any size areeligible. This ensures that support is targeted at new generating plant.

Arrangementsfor the early release of prisoners are prescribed in the Prisoners and CriminalProceedings (Scotland) Act 1993 as amended. There are no plans in place to amendthose provisions. The Sentencing Commission for Scotland will as one of its first tasks be considering and makingrecommendations on the arrangements for early release.

Our policyis that the Care Commission will be self-funding through feesby 2006-07. Fees for the regulation of childminders and children’s day careservices will however continue to be subsidised.

We intend to use thebuilding regulations to introduce a requirement to install sprinkler systems inthe following categories of new or converted buildings:

·high rise flats

·residential care units

sheltered housing.

Local government grant methodologyhas been agreed with COSLA and local authorities following extensive andcollective consultation over a number of years. It takes account of a widerange of factors influencing local authority spend to ensure a fairdistribution of grant. For these islands authorities it also takes account of the additional costs of delivering services in the islands, giving the threewholly island councils significantly higher allocations per head of population thanany of the mainland councils, through the distribution of the Special IslandsNeeds Allowance.

Since 2002 the Executive hasallocated £3 million per annum to local authorities to increase the provisionof money advice services in Scotland. This is complemented by Executive funding of £0.5 millionper annum for Citizens Advice Scotland and Money Advice Scotland to provide support andtraining for the money advice field and ensure that a quality service isdelivered to their clients.

Mary Mulligan announced on26 January 2004 additional funding of £4 million to help meet increasing demandfor front-line money advice services, as well as to support specific vulnerablegroups of people for whom money advice is difficult to access.

The Executive’s funding willbe kept under review based on information provided by local authorities andother providers of money advice services, who are able to identify demands onservices, including demand arising from the impending Debt Arrangement Schemewhich will be available later this year.

Mary Mulligan announced on 3 September 2003that the Scottish Executive is allocating £400,000 to support credit unions in2003-2004, and £500,000 per annum in each of 2004-05 and 2005-06. This funding isbeing targeted towards those credit unions best placed to impact financialexclusion and serve low-income households by supporting them to increase theircapacity to grow membership, and to provide affordable savings and loansservices to those members.