Chamber and committees

Figures for (a) health improvement in general and (b) smoking cessation, broken down by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation zone are not available centrally.

The Scottish Executive will spend (a)(i) £3 million on smoking cessation services in 2004-05.

(a) (ii) Table showing breakdown by NHS board area 2004-05

Health Board	Smoking Cessation Allocation 2004–05 (000)
Argyll and Clyde	171
Ayrshire and Arran	150
Borders	51
Dumfries and Galloway	68
Fife	132
Forth Valley	106
Grampian	182
Greater Glasgow	360
Highland	92
Lanarkshire	203
Lothian	265
Orkney	17
Shetland	19
Tayside	159
Western Isles	25
Totals	£2 million

 

Funding for smoking prevention and cessation was identified as a priority for investment under the Health Improvement Fund (HIF). HIF is now incorporated in health boards’ unified budgets. On the basis of information supplied by health boards in previous years, it is estimated that an additional £1 million will be allocated to smoking cessation services by health boards in 2004-05. A breakdown of the sums spent by health boards during 2004-05 from this funding stream is not available. In addition, the Executive has allocated in the region of £280,000 to the smoking cessation pilots delivered through Partnership Action on Tobacco and Health in 2004-05.

The Scottish Executive will spend (b)(i) £7 million on smoking cessation services in 2005-06.

(b) (ii) Table showing breakdown by NHS board area 2005-06

Health Board	Smoking Cessation Allocation 2005–06 (000)
Argyll and Clyde	526
Ayrshire and Arran	461
Borders	140
Dumfries and Galloway	191
Fife	391
Forth Valley	315
Grampian	513
Greater Glasgow	1147
Highland	267
Lanarkshire	639
Lothian	788
Orkney	39
Shetland	46
Tayside	471
Western Isles	66
Total	£6 million

 

It is estimated that the continuation of health improvement funding for smoking prevention and cessation (now absorbed into unified NHS board budgets) will mean that health boards will spend over £1 million on cessation services in 2005-06. In addition, the Executive will spend about £225,000 on smoking cessation pilots delivered through the Partnership Action on Tobacco and Health in 2005-06.

The Scottish Executive allocated £3 million for smoking cessation services in 2003-04. In addition, the Executive supported the Partnership on Action on Tobacco and Health within the region of £300,000 in 2003-04 in order to run 11 pilots to identify best practice approaches for smoking cessation support in a range of settings.

TheExecutive is providing a range of support to ensure that individuals are awareof their rights–but also their responsibilities–under the Antisocial BehaviourAct. This will include a website and public leaflets distributed through localauthorities. We are also exploring the potential for using awareness-raisinginitiatives at both a local and national level–working in partnership with theagencies charged with delivering support for local communities.

I have received no direct approach from the BMA regarding the motion.

The Scottish Health Workforce Plan 2004 Baseline makes clear that responsibilities lie with NHS boards and regional structures to produce integrated workforce plans in March each year with key stakeholders in local authorities, education providers and others. The plan also refers to the need to address staffing consequences of the New Deal for Junior Doctors and the Working Time Directive by forging new roles for multi-disciplinary teams, in a climatewhere the Modernising Medical Careers reforms will introduce more structured training pathways for the medical workforce.  Numbers of NHS staff increased by over 5,000 in the year to September 2003 and they will continue to do so as we work to build capacity and tackle pressures on the workforce.

Securing Future Practice, the Temple Report on the medical workforce published this month, also makes a number of recommendations about the need to secure the future medical workforce as service redesign work is taken forward. The Executive has accepted the report’s recommendations in full and is currently seeking comments from interested parties on both the report and its response.

The National Workforce Committee is providing leadership on the workforce development agenda and has made it possible for the first time to take a comprehensive overview of the health workforce. The committee will be assisted by the new Workforce Numbers Group (WoNuG), which will advise on workforce numbers and modelling across all staff groups and make recommendations on the future size and shape of the workforce in a sensible and pragmatic way.

Securing Future Practice - The Response of the Scottish Executive waspublished alongside Sir John Temple’s report on 9 June 2004. It contains the Executive’s response to each of the report’s recommendations and sets out work already underway to respond to the challenges identified. It can be found at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/health/sfpser.pdf.

Disclosure Scotland’s performance target is to process 90% of applications in 10 working (or 14 calendar) days. Performance is measured on a weekly basis. Additional staff have been recruited to help improve performance in meeting targets.

The processing target applies to correctly completed applications with the appropriate payment and which do not require to be referred to a police force for non-conviction information. In the case of enhanced and standard disclosures, the processing time does not include handling by registered bodies through which applications are routed.

A group chaired by the Scottish Executive has been established with several partners to develop a strategy whichwill help us to maximise the opportunities for tourism and the promotion of Scotlandthat the iconic status of Robert Burns could provide. Plans to commemorate the250th anniversary of his birth in 2009 are still at a very early stage but itis hoped that the programme for the Year of Homecoming will include a range ofevents and activities which will engage people as widely as possible.

As part of our plans for dealingwith bioterrorism, the Scottish Executive has today published a smallpox plan. Theplan “Guidelines for Smallpox Response and Management in Scotland in thePost-Eradication Era” is a revision of the interim document published for discussionand comments in December 2002 and reflects views expressed in that process. Theplan sets out the arrangements to be followed in responding to a smallpox incident.Vaccination against smallpox is being offered to a number of specialist healthcareand laboratory staff, who would be the first responders in investigating any suspectedor confirmed cases of smallpox, and therefore need to be protected against the threatof disease. So far 40 staff have been vaccinated, with more awaiting vaccination.

Whilethere is no evidence of a specific threat of smallpox attacks on the United Kingdom,it is sensible and prudent to ensure that the National Health Service can deal effectivelywith any potential threat. This plan, which will be kept under review, will contributeto that end.

Copies of the plan have beenplaced in Scottish Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 32712). It will alsobe available on both the Scottish Executive website and SHOW.

The Executive intends toremove the liable relatives rule from Scottish residential care charging at thefirst appropriate legislative opportunity.