Chamber and committees

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-8741 on 6 February 2008. 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.

The Scottish Governmentis committed to constantly improving care provision. The Framework for MaternityServices in Scotland and the report of the Expert Group on Acute MaternityServices (EGAMS), set out a number of principles, guidelines and localactions, to ensure that women are cared for using clinically effective,  evidence-basedmodels of care, before during and after childbirth.

NHS QIS has producedmaternity care standards against which all NHS maternity services in Scotland are audited. The most recent audit published in January2007 suggested high-quality maternity care across Scotland.

The Chief ScientistOffice (CSO), of the Scottish Government’s Health Directorates, has responsibilityfor encouraging and supporting research into health and health care needs in Scotland. The CSO primarily responds to requests for funding researchproposals initiated by the research community in Scotland.

The CSO is currentlyfunding seven research projects on issues concerning premature births at a costof £1,155,233. These projects are due to complete within the next two years. TheCSO would welcome further research proposals in this area which would be subjectto the usual peer and committee review.

The Department OfHealth in England, funds the National Perinatal EpidemiologyUnit at Oxford University which has an on-going research programme on preterm births. Further detailscan be obtained from the unit’s website at www.npeu.ox.ac.ukIn addition, the National Research Register (NRR), a UK-wide database from  1997-2007of research projects funded by, or of relevance to, the NHS records at least 10on going projects on premature births. Details of these projects are available fromthe NRR archive at https://portal.nihr.ac.uk/Pages/NRRArchiveSearch.aspx.

The First Minister will makea statement to Parliament later this month on the simplification of public services.Meanwhile, work continues on the development of an integrated delivery service forthe shared land management customers of nine environmental and rural public bodies.

Sections 9(a) and9(b) of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 state that conduct excluded from accessrights includes: being on or crossing land in breach of an interdict or other orderof a court, and being on or crossing land for the purpose of doing anything whichis an offence or a breach of an interdict or other order of a court.

The review is nowcomplete and the report is being published today. The Mental Welfare Commissionfor Scotland have seen the report and in general acceptthe recommendations. The commission is implementing its own action plan for changefollowing the review.Copies of the reviewand the commission’s response have been placed in the Scottish ParliamentInformation Centre (Bib. numbers 44307 and 44308 ) and are available on the ScottishGovernment and Mental Welfare Commission websites.www.scotland.gov.uk/ www.mwcscot.org.uk/home/.

Yes it is lawful forinterdicts to be made without limit of time. Interdicts may be permanent (withoutlimit of time) or interim. An interim interdict is awarded at the court’s discretionand is an immediate remedy which may be applied for during the process of obtaininga permanent interdict. It is valid until recalled by the courts. In general interdictis only awarded where there is a legitimate prospect of future wrongs. It is notcompetent in respect of an activity which is unlikely to be repeated. The ScottishGovernment has no plans to change the law in this area.

I have already confirmedthat the fuel poverty programmes would be reviewed and this is currently underway.We have in the meantime put in hand arrangements to accelerate installations thiswinter for the most vulnerable eligible applicants who are without heating and hotwater while waiting for their installations. We will provide resources of up to£7 million in this financial year to increase capacity in the programme so thatother existing applicants are not disadvantaged.

I have asked JamesHynd, Acting Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. His response isas follows:

Up to a further £7million has been made available this financial year to accelerate installationsfor the most vulnerable who are eligible for the scheme, and are without heatingand hot water this winter. This is in addition to the extra resources that weremade available earlier this financial year to install an additional 1,500 heatingsystems.

I have asked JamesHynd, Acting Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. His response isas follows:

Over 7,000 centralheating systems have been installed since April 2007 and additional resources toinstall around 1,500 extra systems has been provided on top of the 12,000 installationsprogrammed for this financial year. In order to improve performance, particularlyin view of the number of installations undertaken in island and rural areas, CommunitiesScotland holds regular performance monitoring meetings with Scottish Gas aimed atimproving this performance and other aspects of programme delivery.