Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has not conducted an assessment of equity of access to innovative treatments for patients with rare diseases. There are longstanding commissioning arrangements to ensure patients are able to benefit from specialised services required for the treatment of rare and ultra-rare conditions. Access to this national resource is managed by the National Services Division (NSD) of NHS National Services Scotland, which commissions relevant treatment within NHSScotland or from highly specialised services across the UK or further afield in Europe, as and when it is required.

Our aim for NHSScotland, as set out in our Healthcare Quality Strategy, is that it provides the best quality healthcare services to the people of Scotland through the delivery of person-centred, safe and effective care.

Our ambition to deliver effective care includes providing the most appropriate treatments, interventions, support and services at the right time to every patient and eradicating wasteful and harmful variation in clinical practice. In undertaking their responsibility for the planning and provision of NHS services in their area, we expect NHS boards to focus on the quality of service they provide.

Scotland has robust, equitable and transparent arrangements for the introduction of newly licensed clinically and cost-effective medicines to treat all conditions, including those to treat rare cancers. The arrangements include opportunities at local level for clinically led consideration of medicines for individual patients in certain circumstances.

The Scottish Government will give due consideration to the Department of Health cancer drugs fund consultation findings once they are published.

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) may, in addition to the standard assessment of clinical and cost-effectiveness, apply modifiers which consider other additional factors. Subject to meeting certain criteria, this can facilitate acceptance of a medicine notwithstanding the economic evidence provided. Full details on SMC policies can be found on the SMC website:

http://www.scottishmedicines.org.uk/smc/3863.21.24.html.

Accreditation of wind turbines is carried out by independent bodies certified under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme and overseen by the UK Accreditation Service. As this is outwith the remit of Ofgem, the Scottish Government will not make representations to Ofgem on this matter.

Ofgem however, is responsible for the accreditation of installations of small scale wind turbines to ensure that they meet with the criteria of incentives such as the Feed-In Tariff (FIT) and the Scottish Government has made a number of representations on this issue to help ensure the guidance provided to applicants is clear.

With the recent introduction of the Feed-In Tariff (FIT), we would have expected to see a rise in demand for accredited microrenewables products given that it is a statutory requirement of the FIT.

However, the wind turbine testing station in East Kilbride is a privately owned enterprise and therefore the Scottish Government cannot give a reason as to why it has not accredited any turbines in 2010.

The Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) is an independent scheme that certifies microgeneration products and installers in accordance with consistent standards. It is designed to evaluate microgeneration products and installers against robust criteria providing greater protection for consumers.

However, the MCS is voluntary and the choice of whether or not to participate is for each installer and manufacturer to make. As mentioned in my answer to question S3W-37215 on 11 November 2010, it is a statutory requirement of the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) that products and installers must be accredited under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme in order to qualify for the FIT. It would seem therefore that there is now a clear incentive for these businesses to consider pursuing accreditation.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-37196 on 11 November 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Small-scale and domestic wind turbine installation projects that have not completed their transition from Clear Skies to the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) by the 31 December 2010 deadline may not be eligible for support under UK Government ˜Clean Energy Cashback'' schemes such as the Feed-In Tariff and the forthcoming Renewable Heat Incentive. We would therefore urge any installer or product manufacturer who may fall into that category to contact the MCS licensee, Gemserve as a matter of urgency.

Further information is available on the MCS website at:

http://www.microgenerationcertification.org/ or directly from Gemserve at:

10 Fenchurch Street

London

EC3M 3BE

Email: [email protected]

MCS Helpdesk: +44 (0) 20 7090 1082.

I am aware of concerns about the potential for offshore renewable developments to impact on migratory fish stocks. Environmental assessments of proposed developments will provide an opportunity to consider the likelihood and scale of particular developments using information on migratory routes and behaviour, characteristics of the location under consideration, project design and the technologies deployed.

Marine Scotland and Scottish Natural Heritage have also been working closely to research the potential impacts of marine renewable energy on fish species that migrate between the freshwater and marine environments. Scottish Natural Heritage has commissioned research into the effects of electromagnetic fields and noise, arising from marine renewable energy developments, on these fish species. Marine Scotland Science has undertaken research into the migratory routes and behaviour of these species. Both research reports will be published shortly.

The Scottish Government recognises the great potential of the Feed-In Tariff (FIT) to significantly stimulate uptake of micro renewables in Scotland which, given our abundant natural energy resources, could make a considerable contribution to our ambitious renewable electricity and climate change targets.

A statutory requirement of the FIT is that wind turbines that have not been accredited under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme will not qualify for the FIT. 

However, the FIT is a UK Government initiative which is administered by the industry regulator Ofgem. Therefore, absolute questions of eligibility should be directed there. Further information is available on the Ofgem website at:

http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sustainability/environment/fits/Pages/fits.aspx.

The Scottish Government recognises the great potential of micro renewables as, given Scotland''s abundant natural energy resources, they could make a considerable contribution to our ambitious renewable energy and climate change targets.

We are also committed to maximising Scottish uptake of UK Government schemes such as the Feed-In Tariff, which offers financial incentives to those who install small turbines on their land.

We have therefore made a number of representations to the UK Government to ensure Scottish interests were taken into account during the development of this scheme and subsequently.