Chamber and committees

The review will commence in early October 2004 and will consist of a research project followed by a full public consultation. The research will take four to five months and will include an international literature review to examine prescription charging regimes in other countries. In addition, researchers will examine and assess the effectiveness of different arrangements for publicising prescription charge exemptions in the countries selected for review.

The outcomes of the research will be used in the preparation of a wide ranging public consultation document. We expect the public consultation phase of the review to begin by May 2005. The consultation process will enable all interested persons and organisations to contribute their views. Responses to the consultation will be published and all the views expressed will be taken into account.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

I refer the member to the answer to S2O-3007 on 21 September 2004 which is available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/sch/search.

This information is not available centrally. Many of the NHS board models for out-of-hours service reprovision, currently being developed, involve a combination of new salaried GPs and independent contractors covering shifts at sessional rates.

This information is not available centrally.

Information and take up of the incentive schemes introduced by the Executive in each of the last three years is provided in the following tables.

(1) A remote area allowance was introduced on 1 April 2002 for those dentists classed as remote dentists¹.

NHS Board Area	No of Claims 2002-03	No of Claims 2003-04	No of Claims 2004-052
Argyll and Clyde	12	13	14
Dumfries and Galloway	4	24	23
Grampian	0	5	4
Highland	16	9	11
Orkney	3	0	1
Shetland	3	3	0
Western Isles	4	0	3
Total	42	54	56

Source: Practitioner Services of NHS National Services Scotland.

Notes:

1. A remote dentist is defined as a dentist who has to travel 90 minutes or more, as determined by the Microsoft Auto-Route 2002 package (using default settings), by car from the address included in respect of him in the dental list to his local postgraduate education resource centre in Scotland.

2. Not full year outturn. Claims received up to August 2004.

 

(2) An allowance for vocational trainees entering their vocational training year in a designated area¹ was introduced on 1 August 2002. On 1 April 2004 an allowance for vocational trainees entering their vocational training year in non-designated areas was introduced.

NHS Board Area	No of Claims 2002-03.	No of Claims 2003-04	No of Claims2 2004-05
Argyll and Clyde	3	4	10
Ayrshire and Arran	-	-	5
Borders	5	4	5
Dumfries and Galloway	2	3	3
Fife	-	-	8
Forth Valley	-	-	8
Grampian	8	8	12
Greater Glasgow	-	-	15
Highland	3	3	2
Lanarkshire	-	-	12
Lothian	-	-	24
Orkney	0	1	1
Shetland	0	0	0
Tayside	-	-	12
Western Isles	1	1	2
Total	22	24	119

Source: Practitioner Services of NHS National Services Scotland.

Notes:

1. A designated area is defined as the areas of Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, Grampian, Highland, Orkney, Shetland and Western Isles Health Boards and, within the area of Argyll and Clyde Health Board, Campbeltown, Dunoon, Lochgilphead, Lochgoilhead, Oban, Rothsay, Tarbert and the Isles of Mull, Iona, Colonsay, Tiree, Islay and Jura.

2. Not full year outturn. Claims received to August 2004.

(3) An allowance for dentists having their name included in a dental list within three months of completion of training was introduced on 1 August 2002. An allowance for dentists having their name included in a dental list for the first time or on having their name re-included after a break of five years was introduced on 1 April 2004.

NHS Board Area	No of Claims 2002-03	No of Claims 2003-04	No of Claims 2004-051
Argyll and Clyde	3	8	2
Ayrshire and Arran	0	0	5
Borders	0	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway	2	1	2
Fife	4	6	2
Forth Valley	0	3	4
Grampian	7	1	4
Greater Glasgow	8	16	13
Highland	0	0	3
Lanarkshire	6	13	8
Lothian	9	3	17
Orkney	0	0	0
Shetland	0	0	0
Tayside	5	4	4
Western Isles	0	0	0
Total	44	55	64

Source: Practitioner Services of NHS National Services Scotland.

Note:

1. Not full year outturn. Claims received up to August 2004.

(4) Grant for dentists establishing new vocational training practices and for existing vocational training practices which require to be upgraded to meet or continue to meet vocational training standards were introduced on 1 August 2002.

NHS Board Area	No of Claims 2002-03	No of Claims 2003-04	No of Claims 2004-051
Argyll and Clyde	1	4	6
Ayrshire and Arran	1	1	2
Borders	0	6	7
Dumfries and Galloway	0	1	1
Fife	0	8	8
Forth Valley	1	4	5
Grampian	0	7	8
Greater Glasgow	1	15	18
Highland	0	0	1
Lanarkshire	0	6	5
Lothian	0	14	16
Orkney	0	0	0
Shetland	0	0	0
Tayside	0	12	16
Western Isles	0	0	0
Total	4	78	93

Source: Practitioner Services of NHS National Services Scotland.

Note:

1. Not full year out turn. Claims received up to August 2004.

In addition, we introduced on 1 April 2004 an allowance for salaried dentists being employed by NHS Boards within three months of completion of training and for those dentists being employed as salaried dentists, who are not already employed in the salaried service, by NHS boards. Information of the uptake of these allowances is not yet available.

The EU Directive on the Recognition of Professional Qualifications requires that each member state takes account of qualifications obtained in other member states, while providing for the discretion to refuse acknowledgement of a qualification below its regulatory minimum. In the United Kingdom this is a matter for the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), with whom the Scottish Executive works on these matters.

Funding for roads is provided, primarily, through the local government finance settlement. The total roads maintenance allocation for 2004-05 is some £152 million and for 2005-06 some £158 million. In addition, the Executive provided extra revenue funding to councils over 2002 and 2003, totalling £62.5 million, to help address the backlog of repairs and improvements on local roads and bridges as follows:

Local Authority	February 2002	June 2002	January 2003	Total
Aberdeen City	£590,000	£750,000	£442,462	£1,782,462
Aberdeenshire	£1,504,000	£573,000	£1,128,250	£3,205,250
Angus	£516,000	£522,000	£387,169	£1,425,169
Argyll and Bute	£717,000	£1,207,000	£537,816	£2,461,816
Clackmannanshire	£158,000	£75,000	£118,705	£351,705
Dumfries and Galloway	£1,051,000		£788,308	£1,839,308
Dundee City	£329,000		£246,487	£575,487
East Ayrshire	£414,000	£402,000	£310,281	£1,126,281
East Dunbartonshire	£338,000	£940,000	£253,156	£1,531,156
East Lothian	£333,000	£844,000	£249,440	£1,426,440
East Renfrewshire	£277,000	£729,000	£207,812	£1,213,812
Edinburgh, City Of	£1,300,000	£1,900,000	£974,694	£4,174,694
Eilean Siar	£366,000		£274,551	£640,551
Falkirk	£455,000	£70,000	£341,296	£866,296
Fife	£1,159,000	£750,000	£869,255	£2,778,255
Glasgow City	£1,255,000	£8,300,000	£941,510	£10,496,510
Highland	£1,790,000	£1,210,700	£1,342,964	£4,343,664
Inverclyde	£193,000	£408,000	£145,061	£746,061
Midlothian	£291,000	£470,000	£218,189	£979,189
Moray	£466,000	£552,000	£349,251	£1,367,251
North Ayrshire	£422,000	£524,000	£316,457	£1,262,457
North Lanarkshire	£799,000	£2,420,000	£599,269	£3,818,269
Orkney Islands	£235,000		£176,079	£411,079
Perth and Kinross	£739,000	£725,000	£554,317	£2,018,317
Renfrewshire	£476,000	£978,440	£357,148	£1,811,588
Scottish Borders	£760,000	£70,000	£570,324	£1,400,324
Shetland Islands	£239,000	£600,000	£178,893	£1,017,893
South Ayrshire	£431,000	£2,230,000	£323,296	£2,984,296
South Lanarkshire	£959,000	£207,000	£719,380	£1,885,380
Stirling	£656,000		£492,076	£1,148,076
West Dunbartonshire	£221,000	£100,000	£165,463	£486,463
West Lothian	£561,000		£420,641	£981,641
Total	£20,000,000	£27,557,140	£15,000,000	£62,557,140

 

Future allocations will be announced following our decisions on Spending Review 2004.

Local authorities have a general duty to deal with emergencies such as flooding, and there is no automatic entitlement to special assistance. In exceptional circumstances authorities can apply under the Bellwin Scheme for emergency assistance to meet any undue financial burden.

Following representation from both Perth and Kinross council and Stirling council, I can confirm that the Bellwin Scheme has been activated by ministers today. Claims for eligible expenditure, under the terms of the scheme, will be considered by the Executive when they are received from the councils.

Treatment for cancer can take place in either an out-patient or in-patient setting. Information is not held centrally on waiting times for treatment which starts in an out-patient setting – for example, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Information on the time between a patient being placed on the in-patient and day case waiting list and their admission to hospital is collected centrally. However, this dataset would not provide an accurate picture of the longest waiting times for patients placed on the waiting list with a diagnosis of cancer, because it will include patients who were admitted for treatment for conditions other than cancer and whose cancer was discovered in the course of that admission.

The proposals which NHS boards are currently developing focus on clinical safety and governance. Both locally and nationally, service plans have been developed in consultation with all appropriate agencies to ensure that patients needs are accommodated. The new arrangements must also meet the mandatory accreditation standards set to ensure a safe and quality service for patients.

As part of the new contract implementation process, a national working group has been set up to look at the issues around out-of-hours across Scotland. The group includes representation from NHS systems, the Scottish Ambulance Service, NHS24 and patient representatives. The aim of the group is to identify alternative schemes and produce models of best practice which are available for use by NHS boards.