Chamber and committees

The need for faster production of influenza vaccines is recognised. The World Health Organisation, academic researchers and vaccine manufacturers are all engaged in assessing new technologies for the production of vaccines against influenza viruses.

The results of any significant developments are shared with Scottish Government at meetings of the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) who provide expert advice on vaccination and immunisation policy and in academic output available internationally.

The Scottish Government is represented on the JCVI by one of its Senior Medical Officers, who has responsibility for vaccination and immunisation issues.

The Expert Infertility Group, set up in 2010 to ensure equity of access to IVF treatment across Scotland, recommended moving to a guaranteed maximum of 2 fresh cycles of IVF, and unlimited, where available, frozen IVF transfers for all eligible patients up to their 40^th birthday. Patients over 40 were not previously offered treatment, but will, if they meet specific criteria, now receive one full cycle of treatment.

The government has a commitment for a 12 month waiting time for IVF to be in place across Scotland by March 2015, and £12 million is being invested to support the commitment. This funding has already significantly reduced waiting times in some areas, and will along with consistent access criteria, guarantee equitable provision of IVF treatment across Scotland.

The recent GP pay uplift means an increase in funding of around £8 million for all GP practices across Scotland in 2013-14. Scotland also has more GPs per head of population than the rest of the UK. The average earnings of a GP in Scotland before tax in 2010-11 was £89,300 per annum, plus expenses of over £100,000 to run their practice (staffing etc). The recent pay settlement is in line with the Scottish Government Public Pay Policy.

GPs do not receive a straight forward salary. Instead, they receive practice income through a system of fees and allowances, which are then distributed according to internal partnership arrangements. This will include payments based on the number of patients registered in each practice. As the average list size of a general practice in England is 23% larger than in Scotland, and payments are calculated per practice, as well as GP, it would be misleading to make simple comparisons between the countries.

The child protection data published annually by the Scottish Government, as part of the Children's Social Work Statistics, collates returns from local authorities.

The data currently collected and due to be published in 2014 will be the first year for which the data will be sourced entirely from local authorities’ own systems, securely uploaded, rather than requiring additional forms to be completed. This development reduces duplication of effort by local authorities.

The data are shared digitally in that the findings are made publically available on the Scottish Government website:

www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Children/PubChildProtection

The Scottish Government does not collect this information centrally.

The Scottish Government expects older people’s health or personal care needs to be clearly detailed within their care plans and, for them to be supported by appropriately trained staff, irrespective of whether they are at home or in a care home. The National Care Standards for Care at Home and Care Homes for Older People clearly set out the responsibilities of care providers and their duty to ensure that they have suitably qualified and appropriate numbers of staff to meet the health and welfare needs of their residents/clients.

Free Personal and Nursing Care was introduced in Scotland in July 2002. Schedule 1 of the Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002 sets out that “where a person is fitted with a catheter or stoma, providing such assistance as is requisite to ensure cleanliness and that the skin is kept in a favourable hygiene condition, will not be charged for”.

The Scottish Government does not collect this information centrally.

The review body recommendation was for an uplift of 2.29% in relation to General Medical Practitioners. The 1.25% uplift awarded in Scotland is designed to give an increase of 1% to net taxable income in line with Scottish public sector pay policy. I also refer the member to the answer to question S4W-15334 on 10 June 2013.

We accepted the review body’s recommendation of a 1% pay uplift in the salary scales of consultants and junior doctors for 2013-14.

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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The Office of Manpower Economics which provides a secretariat for all six pay review bodies (including the NHS pay review body and the Doctors’ and Dentists’ review body) is funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which is in turn funded through tax revenue.

The independent Doctors’ and Dentists’ Pay Review Body make recommendations to Scottish Ministers on pay levels who then decide whether or not to accept these recommendations and in the context of the public sector pay policy.

Both the Scottish Government and the British Medical Association (BMA) submit written, oral and supplementary evidence on pay to the review body and no negotiations were undertaken with BMA Scotland about doctors’ pay for 2013-14.