Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executive has no plans of this nature which are related to any changes in staffing to acute services. There are, however, a number of initiatives which are underway or planned which will improve information available to patients. Work is underway to make corporately available information accessible to all, including patients. Work is also being done to ensure that such information is shared across health board boundaries through ICT. We are exploring through the e-Health project how NHS 24 and others may expand online services.  NHS Education for Scotland continues to support ICT and library services within the NHS.

It is for health boards to set the levels of spend on ICT in support of health board eHealth strategies. Central funds are used for national systems such as the national screening and child health systems and generally in support of the national eHealth Strategy. Decisions about future years spend have yet to be made but any increases will seek to obtain benefits such as improvements in clinical decision support, patient safety, patient involvement and time taken to exchange information.

The Scottish Executive has taken a number of steps to ensure that even stronger action is taken against those who commit environmental crime.

In February 2004 the Lord Advocate announced the establishment of a national network of 17 specialist environmental prosecutors (COPFS Press Release NRCO191HH “Special Prosecutors for Crimes against Environment” on 9 February 2004). This will ensure that prosecutors with expertise in environmentallaw are available throughout the country and will enhance the robust approach toits enforcement. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency is also considering methods by which courts can be made more aware of the impact and severity of environmental crimes

From 28 October 2004 the Anti‑Social Behaviour (Scotland) Act 2004 will doublethe maximum fine, in summary proceedings, for a number of pollution offences, including polluting water or sewerage systems, fly-tipping, landfilling offences and operating industrial plant in an environmentally inappropriate manner, from £20,000 to £40,000. It also provides for fines to be accompanied by prison sentences in some cases, and for fixed penalty fines for litter and fly-tipping.

The Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 raises the maximum penalty for conservation‑related offences, such as damage to Sites of Special Scientific Interest, to £40,000 on summary conviction. The Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003, and the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 provide for custodial sentences of up to six months for those convicted of the most serious of offences, and fines of up to £5,000 for each offence.

In addition to the above, work is currently underway on the Partnership Agreement commitment to consider the establishment of environmental courts.

The Scottish Executive will take account of a range of research, with both a domestic and an international scope, on environmental courts and other methods of dispute resolution in its work on this Partnership Agreement commitment. This research includes, but is not limited to:

Modernising Environmental Justice: regulation and the role of an environmental tribunal

Professor Richard Macrory CBE and Michael Woods LLM

Centre for Law and the Environment, Faculty of Laws UCL, 2003

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/environment/tribunals/docs/full_report.pdf

Trends in Environmental Sentencing in England and Wales

Claire Dupont and Dr Paul Zakkour

Environmental Resources Management (ERM) 2003

http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/justice/pdf/erm-sentencing.pdf

Using the Law: access to environmental justice; barriers and opportunities

Maria Adebowale (Capacity Global)

http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/justice/pdf/ejureport.pdf

Environmental and Civil Penalties; a more proportionate response to regulatory breach

Professor Richard Macrory CBE and Michael Woods LLM

Centre for Law and the Environment, Faculty of Laws UCL

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/environment/civil-penalty/docs/ECPreport.pdf

Civil Law Aspects of Environmental Justice

Paul Stookes (Environmental Law Foundation)

The Environmental Justice Project, 2004

http://www.wwf.org.uk/filelibrary/pdf/envirojustice.pdf.

The Scottish Executive is considering the legal implications of the judgment in the Van de Walle case.

The Scottish Executive is currently considering the potential roles that environmental courts and other methods of dispute resolution might play in Scotland. Decisions on the timing and nature of any consultation will be taken in due course.

We have awarded £535,000 to Glasgow City Council to carry out a Clyde Corridor Transport Study, which includes investigation of the potential for a fixed tram link between Glasgow and the Braehead shopping centre. The final report has only recently been submitted to the Executive. Its findings and recommendations will be given detailed consideration. New infrastructure proposals will be assessed in due course as part of the Strategic Projects Review.

No such costs have been estimated.

A health impact assessment of air quality impacts of the construction and operation of the M74 Completion scheme has been carried out.  The M74 completion scheme is not assessed to have any detectable effect on the health of local residents.

Vehicle emissions will be monitored following completion of the M74 to measure the impact of the new motorway on air quality.