Chamber and committees

As I stated in my answer to S4W-14763, the Scottish Government values the independent scrutiny and recommendations of the pay review bodies and we will maintain independent pay advice in the future.

The UK Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy was published in 2011 on behalf of the four UK countries.

The Scottish Government and the other Devolved Administrations worked with the UK Government to produce operational pandemic influenza guidance, which was made available to stakeholders in Scotland in 2012. A Scotland-specific version is currently being developed.

Whilst there is no current requirement for NHS boards to report on the provision of stoma care services as part of the Annual Review process, it is possible that this could be discussed at a board review; especially if it is a particular area of strength or challenge for the relevant board.

The Scottish Government plans to exercise pandemic influenza arrangements in 2014-15. NHS boards have updated their pandemic influenza plans following the last pandemic, taking account of the lessons learned locally and the updated national guidance published subsequently. Such exercising will provide an opportunity to test the updated arrangements.

The pandemic influenza strategy and operational guidance set out an overarching approach to managing a pandemic and will not be directly affected by the changes to the police and fire service structures.

The updated pandemic influenza strategy and operational guidance focus on ensuring that the response to a pandemic is proportionate to meet the differing demands of pandemic influenza viruses, with further information to assist planners in considering the local response according to the stage and severity of any new pandemic.

Under a Crop Health Advisory Activity, Scottish Government fund staff at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) to maintain an on-going campaign to promote the sustainable use of pesticides and alternative treatments in the husbandry of major arable crops. This advice aims to reduce the unnecessary use of pesticides with benefits for the environment and wildlife.

In practice, this means SRUC staff monitor representative commercial crops for pests and publish results in grower reports, inform arable consultants, update farmers at grower meetings and open days and on-line. Staff, then promote the use of alternative treatments and the use of pest thresholds before treatments are applied, and also coordinate information on pesticide resistance so that potentially ineffective sprays are avoided.

Only one diamide insecticide is currently approved for use on a limited number of crops in the UK. The future availability of other diamide compounds will be dependent on whether their use is authorised under the EU and UK pesticide approval process.

Further to the answer for question S4W-12436, three NHS boards were offered and accepted a programme of support for generic cancer waiting times performance.

All NHS boards were recently offered a share of £3.7 million specifically to increase short and medium term capacity for endoscopy (colonoscopy) services across Scotland and a total of twelve NHS boards requested and accepted this additional funding support.

Since Parliamentary Question S4W-12436 received a written answer on 6 February, ISD Scotland has published cancer waiting times performance for Q4 2012. During this period (October-December 2012), 95.8% of patients started treatment within 62 days of urgent referral with suspicion of cancer (improved from 94.0% in the previous quarter). Within the same period, 98.1% of patients started treatment within 31 days of decision to treat (regardless of the route of referral), up from 97.6% in Q3. For colorectal cancer specifically, Q4 performance was 94% for the 62-day standard and 97.2% for the 31-day standard.

No.

The NHS pay review bodies provide valuable independent advice to Scottish Ministers on pay for NHSScotland staff. With independence we will maintain such independent pay advice.