Chamber and committees

The Scottish Governmentis committed to tackling domestic abuse and ensuring that those affected by itare given the support they need and those perpetrating it are dealt witheffectively. It will continue to look at how it can improve what it does toaddress domestic abuse.

The increase in the number of domestic abuseincidents involving anex-spouse or ex-partner mirror the overall increase in reporting. This increase may be attributed to morepeople recognising that all forms of domestic abuse are wrong and reportingsuch incidents to the police.

The rise in the number of reported incidents may alsobe attributed to the highly successful publicity campaign, which runs annuallyfrom 26 December until the end of January, evaluation of which has shown thatover 78% of the population have seen or heard of the campaign. The campaignwill run again this year.

When an initialevaluation of the Protectionfrom Abuse (Scotland) Act 2001 wascarried out in 2003, it was found that the act hadbeen successful in increasing access to powers of arrest. In 2005 thethen Executive wrote to over 180 organisations to remind them of the variouslegal provisions in Scotland designed to protect against abuse. Inaddition to this, during the engagement with key stakeholders during thepassage of the Family Law (Scotland) Bill it was identified that solicitorswere familiar with the 2001 Act. The Law Society of Scotland said in itswritten evidence to the Justice 1 Committee that the 2001 Act “is the principalpiece of legislation containing powers of arrest and is most widely used”.

The new airambulance contract began on 1 April 2006. Since then,Orkney Islands Council have written to and met with the previous Minister forHealth and Community Care to discuss air ambulance services. The Convenor ofOrkney Islands Council has also written to the Scottish Government about thisand has discussed the issue with me when I was in Kirkwall for the NHS Orkney annual review in September. There have been norepresentations from the other Councils about air ambulance services.

This informationis not collected. The vast majority of missions carried out by the ScottishAmbulance Service’s air ambulance service are planned missions and are not timecritical. For such missions, shift changes can be worked into the schedule ofjourneys to be undertaken within the timeframe for the response agreed with theclinician making the request.

The duty hours offlight crew are regulated in law by the Civil Aviation Authority. The ScottishAmbulance Service has to ensure that its crews strictly adhere to theregulations in the interests of safety - of the patient, the aircraft and thecrew. Some leeway does however exist where the condition of the patient isassessed by a clinician as “life or limb threatening”. In such circumstancesthe duty hours of the flight crew may be extended where that is required forthe mission to be carried out within the timeframe requested by the clinician.

The AmbulanceService will use the services of the Ministry of Defence or HM Coastguard forincidents where the weather is below the minimum safe operating limits, asgoverned by the Civil Aviation Authority, and the patient’s condition has thepotential to be life or limb threatening.

There is growingevidence to suggest that hydrotherapy pools are beneficial to people witharthritis, who often report perceived benefit and improved quality of life. Asthere is still limited evidence around the cost-effectiveness and quantitativeoutcomes of this intervention when compared with other therapies, there is alack of clear evidence that hydrotherapy should be preferred over othertherapeutic interventions.

It is for NHS boardsand their local planning partners to determine the levels of services which areprovided for people with arthritis, including the provision of hydrotherapy.

The ScottishAmbulance Service and its constituent operating divisions, which includes theair ambulance service, are the subject of continuous performance management bythe Scottish Government.

NHS boards andtheir local planning partners are expected to provide facilities such as thesefrom the budgets available to them, based on their assessment of local needs.

This informationis not collected. However, where there is likely to be a delay due to weatherconditions, the Scottish Ambulance Service will discuss this with the clinicianwho is requesting transport. In circumstances where the clinician decides thatthe patient’s condition is life or limb threatening then the Ambulance Servicewill follow its contingency which is to task the Ministry of Defence (MOD) orHM Coastguard to carry out the mission. In 2005-06, MOD/Coastguard were used on115 occasions, in 2006-07, they were used 118 times and in the seven months tothe end of October 2007 this has occurred on 51 occasions.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-6505 on 29 November 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Local authoritieshave discretionary powers to make payments to kinship carers of children who arenot looked after. These are:

1. Section 22 of theChildren (Scotland) Act 1995

2. Section 50 of theChildren Act 1975.

In addition, whena child becomes orphaned, the kinship carer of the child can apply for a Guardian’sAllowance paid for by the Department of Work and Pensions.