Chamber and committees

Local authorities and housingassociations will consider a range of factors in deciding which properties are tobe improved. These will include the current condition of the housing, legislativerequirements including Health and Safety, Tolerable Standard or Building Regulationsand also take into account the timing of any work which requires to be completedto enable all properties to meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS).

The Scottish Police InformationStrategy intends to deliver the new criminal history system to the Scottish CriminalRecord Office by the end of December 2006. A period of user acceptance testing willthen be required and, subject to the satisfactory completion of that work, it isexpected that the new system will be ready for operational use in June 2007.

The information requested isgiven in tables 1 to 8 of Emergency admissions within 7, 14, 21 and 28 daysof discharge by NHS Board of Treatment for financial years 2000-01 to 2004-05a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre(Bib. number 40209).

Medical and surgicalspecialty groupings have been presented separately, as the readmission ratescan differ quite markedly between these two groups. It should be noted that therates presented have not been adjusted for case-mix and therefore provide apoor basis for comparing NHS boards.

Emergency admissions willinclude cases that are readmissions for complications resulting from theoriginal hospital stay but will also encompass cases completely unrelated tothe previous discharge from hospital.

The owners of privatelyowned properties are responsible for their maintenance. Where lack ofmaintenance affects neighbouring properties, the owners of those properties mayrequire maintenance to be carried out, either in terms of title obligations orunder common law. Where parts of the premises are held in common with otherowners, those owners will be able to enforce the responsibilities specified inthe title deeds. Where the deeds are silent or ambiguous aboutresponsibilities, the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004 defines those responsibilities if theproperty is in a tenement in terms of the act.

If lack of maintenance leadsto the property falling below the Tolerable Standard or falling into seriousdisrepair, the local authority may serve an improvement order or repairs noticerequiring work to be done, in terms of section 88 or section 108 of the Housing(Scotland) Act 1987. In a Housing Action Area it may serve a notice to similareffect. If the authority serves such an order or notice it must make availablegrant of 50% of the approved cost of eligible works, or more if the owner’sfinancial circumstances indicate a higher grant in terms of the standard test. Ifthe owner fails to carry out required works the authority can do the works andrecover the cost from the owner.

When the relevant parts of theHousing (Scotland) Act 2006 come into effect, which is expected to be betweenmid-2007 and early 2008, improvement orders and repairs notices will bereplaced by work notices. Work notices will also be the means of enforcement inHousing Renewal Areas, which will replace Housing Action Areas. Where a noticeis served the local authority will require to provide assistance but this willnot necessarily be in the form of grant. In addition, local authorities will beable to make a maintenance order where a house has not been, or is unlikely tobe, maintained to a reasonable standard. A maintenance order will require theowner to submit and implement a maintenance plan. The authority will be able toimpose a plan if necessary. Authorities will be able to carry out works thathave not been implemented in terms of a work notice or maintenance plan andrecover the cost from the owner.

The same requirements applyto owners of property that is let to others. A private landlord also has alegal responsibility to the tenant to maintain the house to the repairingstandard defined in schedule 10 of the 1987 act, in addition to any maintenanceobligations that the landlord may have agreed with the tenant in terms of thelease. It is for the tenant to enforce the landlord’s obligation through thecourts.

From early 2007, the privatesector repairing standard will be enhanced in terms of section 13 of the 2006Act, and a tenant will be able to enforce the standard by application to thePrivate Rented Housing Panel. If the panel finds that the standard has beenbreached it will be able to serve a repairing standard enforcement orderrequiring the landlord to carry out works to comply with the standard. Thelocal authority will also be able to carry out necessary works and recover thecost from the landlord.

Tenants of local authoritiesor registered social landlords with a Scottish Secure Tenancy or a ShortScottish Secure Tenancy are able to use the landlord’s formal complaints systemand if that does not resolve the matter, to complain to the Scottish PublicServices Ombudsman if they feel that the landlord has not complied with therepairing obligations for such landlords contained in schedule 4 of the Housing(Scotland) Act 2001.

Tenants are held responsibleby their landlord for matters that they have agreed should be the tenant’sresponsibility in terms of the lease and for breaches of the common law duty touse the house in a proper manner, not to damage it and to repair any damagethat occupants or visitors cause.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-27789 on 4 September 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions areavailable on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can befound at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The staffing of NHS hospitalwards and departments is a matter for NHS boards to manage in the light of clinicalneeds in their area. The Scottish Executive Health Department is currently takingforward a project for nursing and midwifery which will make recommendations abouteffective workload measurement tools. NHS boards will be able to use these in workforceplanning and for benchmarking with other boards. I expect the measurement toolsto be available in 2007.

Information on the number ofnursing hours worked per ward across NHS Scotland is not held centrally. NHS employersare responsible for the planning and appropriate deployment of their staff.

Following the Scottish ExecutiveHealth Department’s directive to NHS boards that the use of non-contracted PremiumRate Labour Agencies should cease with immediate effect, it is estimated that NHSScotlandwill save over £5.1 million per annum on agency labour costs.

The following table providesestimated savings for each NHS board:

Health Board	Estimated Savings (£)
Ayrshire and Arran	241,735
Borders	247,641
Dumfries and Galloway	30,000
Fife	753,431
Forth Valley	503,307
Grampian	34,866
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	1,062,881
Highland	32,267
Lanarkshire	73,916
Lothian	1,358,753
Orkney	0
Shetland	0
Tayside	825,303
Western Isles	0
Total Estimated Savings	5,164,100

 

The estimated savings providedhave been calculated using the differential between contract rates and off-contractrates against spend data taken from NHS boards’ accounts payable systems for 2005-06.The differential between contract and non-contract Premium Rate Agencies is a 30%to 50% saving.

Information on the use and associatedcosts of bank nurses for individual NHS boards in Scotland canbe accessed on table E16 of the following link:http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/info3.jsp?pContentID=1350&p_applic=CCC&p_service=Content.show&

Further statistical informationon NHS Scotland’s workforce is publishedon the Scottish Health Statistics website under Workforce Statistics, at www.isdscotland.org/workforce.

Information on the use and associatedcosts of agency nurses for individual NHS boards in Scotland canbe accessed on table E13 of the following link:http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/info3.jsp?pContentID=1350&p_applic=CCC&p_service=Content.show&.

Information prior to 2001 isnot available.

Further statistical informationon NHS Scotland’s workforce is publishedon the Scottish Health Statistics website under Workforce Statistics, at www.isdscotland.org/workforce.