Chamber and committees

There must be sufficient evidence in law before a prosecutor can decide whether or not it is in the public interest to prosecute. If there is sufficient evidence that a crime has been committed, the accused was the perpetrator and had the requisite mens rea (intention) the prosecutor will require to decide that prosecution is in the public interest. Every case is decided on the basis of its own particular facts and circumstances. No specific guidance is issued to Procurators Fiscal regarding assisted suicide. The Prosecution Code published by COPFS sets out the factors which can be taken in to account by procurators fiscal when deciding whether to prosecute. These considerations include the factors listed below at (i) to (xiii).

(i) The nature and gravity of the offence

(ii) The impact of the offence on the victim and other witnesses

(iii) The age, background and personal circumstances of the accused

(iv) The age and personal circumstances of the victim and other witnesses

(v) The attitude of the victim

(vi) The motive for the crime

(vii) The age of the offence

(viii) Mitigating circumstances

(ix) The effect of prosecution on the accused

(x) The risk of further offending

(xi) The availability of a more appropriate civil remedy

(xii) Powers of the court

(xiii) Public concern.

GP practices in Scotland now offer a variety of extended hours to registered patients on their list. These include earlier appointment times, evening sessions, concurrent working patterns and occasional Saturday morning clinics.

The following table details the number of GP practices which are providing extended opening hours in Scotland. Uptake position as at November 2009.

NHS Board	Category
	1	2	3	4	Total
Ayrshire and Arran	47	0	12	0	59
Borders	11	0	12	2	25
Dumfries and Galloway	33	0	2	0	35
Fife	28	0	29	0	57
Forth Valley	50	1	6	0	57
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	186	0	84	0	270
Grampian	51	1	32	0	84
Highland	69	1	29	3	102
Lanarkshire	58	1	29	10	98
Lothian	79	1	45	0	125
Orkney	9	0	5	0	14
Shetland	4	3	0	3	10
Tayside	39	0	22	8	69
Western Isles	10	0	2	0	12
Totals	674	8	309	26	1,017

Notes:

Category 1: The number of practices that have contractually signed-up to provide extended hours to their patient list.

Category 2: The number of practices that have expressed a willingness to provide extended hours.

Category 3: The number of practices that are not providing extended hours.

Category 4: The number of practices that are currently undecided whether or not to provide extended hours.

Suicide has not, in modern times, been considered a criminal offence in Scotland and therefore, unlike in England and Wales, there is no criminal offence of assisted suicide. Any question of responsibility for causing the death of another could amount to homicide and would be investigated as such.

A decision to prosecute would be taken by Crown Counsel on the facts and circumstances of the particular case and the Law Officers do not regard it as appropriate to prepare and publish detailed prosecution policy guidance in this area as the Director of Public Prosecutions has recently done in England and Wales.

The information requested is not held centrally.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-31018 on 2 February 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.

As outlined in the answer to S3W-28278 on 19 November 2009, the Scottish Government intends to review the implementation of the policy framework following a period of operation.

In addition, active consideration is being given to monitoring arrangements which will underpin this guidance.

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.

The Scottish Government has been working with NHS boards to review local processes and is preparing guidance for NHS boards which sets out the policy framework with regard to the introduction and availability of new medicines in the NHS in Scotland. A key requirement within the guidance is the need for NHS boards to have written policies describing the systems and processes for the managed entry of new medicines and that these should be publicly available. It will be for NHS boards to ensure that this is delivered.

Further to the Area Drug and Therapeutics Committees and Exceptional Prescribing Leads event facilitated by the Scottish Medicines Consortium on 12 May 2009, the Scottish Government has asked the Scottish Medicines Consortium to facilitate another event in the spring 2010. This will provide an opportunity to bring these groups together to consider issues related to the managed introduction of new medicines within NHSScotland, particularly around how best to achieve consistency of approach in relation to individual patient treatment requests.

As outlined in the answer to S3W-27698 on 5 October 2009, work is progressing on the information leaflet for patients as commissioned by the Scottish Government from Health Rights Information Scotland. The draft leaflet has been tested with patients and the public and will be published in due course.

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.

Prescribing information derived from prescriptions dispensed in the community by community pharmacists and dispensing doctors is available at www.isdscotland.org/prescribing. These data can be used for monitoring trends and utilisation. Detailed prescribing information is available to NHS boards through PRISMS “ the Prescribing Information SysteM for Scotland which is a web-based information system on all prescriptions dispensed in the community over the previous five years. NHS boards have prescribing advisors who monitor the use of medicines by GP practices using PRISMS information and who can provide expert interpretation of the data and assess the clinical appropriateness of prescribing.

Variations in prescribing practice across Scotland can be influenced by a number of different local factors, for example, population size, patient demographics and deprivation and it is therefore important not to draw definitive conclusions from national data alone.