Chamber and committees

The Scottish Governmenthas, however, provided funding in recent years to Combat Stress in respect of itsHollybush House facility in Ayrshire. Moreover, the Scottish Government continuesto liaise closely with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Scotland’s veterans organisationsto establish how best the many needs faced by Scotland’s veterans can be met.

Consider whether theperformance aims of the agency can be achieved effectively through refurbishmentof one or both of the two existing older vessels;

Consider whether thereis a case for an increase in the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency’s (SFPA) fleetfrom four to five vessels, and

Consider procurementoptions.

The review will beled by the Chief Executive of the SFPA who will utilise internal professional expertiseand call on specialist support of Naval Architects, economists and others as required.The Chief Executive will report to me by the end of the summer, which will enabledecisions to be taken as part of the spending review.

I will place a copyof the review in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 43082),and make a copy available to the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee.

The Scottish ParliamentsHealth Committee Care Inquiry Report, which was published on 13 June 2006, recommended that the results of enquiries into complaints which the CareCommission upholds, should be more widely publicised. The Executives responseto the report noted that the Independent Review of Regulation, Audit,Inspection and Complaints being conducted by Professor Lorne Crerar on behalf ofScottish ministers is considering, amongst other things, how public servicecomplaints are accessed. The review is expected to report in the summer.

In response to the Health Committees Report, the CareCommission undertook to consider how it could publicise complaintsinvestigations without compromising the anonymity of a complainant or breachingdata protection legislation. In January this year the commission launched anenhanced care service list on its website. This puts into the public domain awide range of information about each registered service, including summary dataon complaints and a record of enforcement notices.

All the issues in relationto this matter are under consideration and an announcement will be made as soonas is appropriate.

As recognised in therecently published Report on Civil Justice in Scotland, there is a needto look closely at how relatively low value, straightforward cases should behandled and consideration of the issues requires us to balance competingissues. These include issues around access to a simplified court procedure butone in which legal aid is not available and freedom for pursuers to litigate inthe court of their choice against the costs for defenders in being forced to defendcases in the Court of Session as opposed to the more local sheriff court.