Chamber and committees

Between the completion of the Scott Wilson impact study and the provision of noise mitigation, no information was given to households along the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine railway line to advise that there might be noise pollution.

At the time the Scott Wilson impact study was completed in 2003, there were no coal freight trains operating in Scotland during the night. Neither the Scottish Government nor Network Rail has legal powers to deny access to the railway by any railway company which meets the required standards. However, in 2008 when it became clear that freight trains would commence on the SAK route at night, an assessment of night time noise was completed in accordance with the Environmental Statement.

The World Health Organisation Guidelines on Community Noise advised noise levels which exceeded recommended thresholds should not occur more than 10-15 times per night. To avoid the situation where all 10-15 occurrences happen within the same hour, it was advisable to assume not more than two events in any one hour during the night time duration. This was applied to the Stirling Alloa Kincardine project in assessment of night time noise mitigation.

In addition, the mitigation criteria of 82dB max, was adopted to provide consistency with Parliamentary Acts for other Railway projects, including the Edinburgh Tram (Line One) Act 2006 and Edinburgh Airport Rail Link Act 2007.

The information requested is not centrally held.

The universities are responsible for managing the recruitment of nursing and midwifery students to their pre-registration programmes.

The advertising and promotion of medicines in the UK, as well as medicine safety issues, are subject matters of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 and are currently reserved issues.

The promotion of a medicine for use outside the terms of its marketing authorisation is prohibited. Details are available in the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) guidance, The Blue Guide which is available at: http://www.mhra.gov.uk/home/groups/pl-a/documents/publication/con2022589.pdf

The MHRA is also the UK wide licensing authority responsible for ensuring the safety, quality and efficacy of all UK licensed medicines. Side effects to medicines, including those relating to off-licence use, are monitored by the MHRA via the yellow card scheme.

Decisions on whether or not to prescribe a licensed medicinal product for use outside the terms of the marketing authorisation are for the clinical judgement of the prescriber concerned involving full consultation with the patient. There are currently no plans to introduce the routine collection and collation of data related to off licence prescribing.

The Cochrane Collaboration concluded that the evidence reviewed suggested that general health checks did not reduce morbidity or mortality, neither overall nor for cardiovascular or cancer causes.

The Scottish Government will continue to support interventions which are targeted, aimed at identifying and engaging those at increased risk of poorer health outcomes, including individuals living in socio-economically deprived areas.

To ensure there is a sufficient supply of registered nurses and midwives to meet NHS board’s future workforce requirements, trend information on the number of leavers over the last six years and the age profile of the nursing and midwifery establishment is factored into national modelling.

That model takes into account the workforce characteristics of the current nursing and midwifery supply and factors in the age profile, with a particular focus on the aged 55 years plus, and other trends in respect of currently employed staff.

NHS Scotland - Nursing and Midwifery Net Turnover Rates¹

Source: ISD Scotland National Statistics.

1. Net turnover is a measure of the rate at which staff are leaving NHS Scotland.

NHS Scotland – Nursing and Midwifery Staff percentage by age group as at 30 June 2012

Nursing and midwifery student intake numbers are informed by workforce projections provided by NHS boards and the views of a number of stakeholders, including those universities from whom we commission nursing and midwifery education.

The criteria used to determine which institutions should provide pre-registration midwifery education were agreed by all those involved, including the relevant universities.

A total of 26 public health nurses/health visitors, from generic caseload holding posts have transferred into Family Nurse Partnership posts since the programme began in Scotland. This equates to around 55% of the overall family nurses in Scotland. Based on this level of trend continuing, and the current expansion plans being met we would anticipate around 140 public health nurses/health visitors will have transferred to the Family Nurse Partnership programme in the next three years. All public health nurse/health visitor posts which were vacated have either been filled or are in the process of being filled with no posts left vacant beyond the recruitment period. This ensured that there was no impact in terms of the level of service provided.

When night time freight operations commenced in December 2008, the Stirling Alloa Kincardine project adopted the noise principles set by other projects approved by Parliament and set a night time noise mitigation criteria at 82dB, twice per hour. The application of these principles on SAK did not result in any properties qualifying for noise mitigation.

There has not been any action undertaken specifically to mitigate overnight noise along the Stirling Alloa Kincardine route.

Noise testing, both day and night, was undertaken at eleven sample properties, considered to be representative of other properties along the Stirling Alloa Kincardine route.

Four properties in total were tested for vibration levels.