Chamber and committees

This information to (a), (b)and (c) is not held centrally. There areno specific Scottish Standards, but all equipment is CE marked and both Britishand European standards are applied in accordance with procurement policies andprocedures.

Information on the actualhours worked by consultants employed in NHSScotland is not available centrally.

NHS boards must havealternative arrangements in place by December 2004 which must meet mandatoryaccreditation standards to ensure a safe, quality service. Under suchalternative arrangements anyone who needs access to primary medical serviceswill get it, whether it be telephone advice, a home visit or seen at a GPsurgery or primary care emergency centre.

A national out-of-hoursworking group is established to assist boards. This group is comprised of keystakeholders from across the service and includes members from NHS24, the Scottish Ambulance Service and patient representatives. In addition, three keysenior appointments have been made to the pay modernisation team of NHSScotland to focus on the new models of out-of-hours care across Scotland.

The Town and Country Planning(Scotland) Act 1997 requires that planning decisions are made in accordance withthe development plan for the area unless material considerations indicateotherwise. Each planning application must be considered on its individualplanning merits within this legislative requirement. The Landfill (Scotland)Regulations 2003 require that planning permission may only be granted forlandfill if the location of the site to residential areas has been taken intoconsideration.

In view of Ministers’ rolewithin the planning system, it would not be appropriate for me to comment onthe merits of any potential plans or proposals for a specific area.

The Executive co-funds the SmallAreas Health Statistics Unit which investigates the incidence ofdisease around sources of environmental pollution. In 2001 the unit publishedan in-depth report into the health outcomes of populations living close tolandfill sites. In addition the Executive co-operates with the UK Departmentfor Environment Food and Rural Affairs in promoting research into potentialhealth effects of waste management facilities.

As a matter of course, priorto issuing a permit for any landfill instillation, the Scottish EnvironmentProtection Agency is obliged by the Landfill (Scotland) Regulations 2003 toensure that acceptance of waste at that instillation would not compromiseprotection against human health hazards.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-6575. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website , the search facility forwhich can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/searchwa.

As part of a continuing programmeof modernisation of our planning system, we have carried out publicconsultations on wide-reaching reviews of strategic planning and public involvementin the planning system. We also regularly review our thematic planningpolicies, such as the recently published policy document Planning andFlooding and our consultation draft policy on Planning for RuralDevelopment.

We will shortly embark onfurther public consultations on rights of appeal in the planning system andproposals to modernise development planning. We also expect to publish ourfirst National Planning Framework for Scotland in the near future.

We will consider the outcomeof all strands of the modernisation agenda and consider any necessary changeswhich require primary or secondary legislation or policy guidance.  Subject toother legislative priorities, we expect that a Planning Bill will be introducedduring the current session of the Parliament.

The Town and CountryPlanning (Scotland) Act 1997 requires that planning decisions are madein accordance with the development plan for the area unless material considerationsindicate otherwise. The cumulative impact of particular developments in an areais a matter for consideration when development plans are being prepared and indecisions on individual planning applications.

The appropriate numbers ofGPs necessary in the new models of out-of-hours care will be considered as NHSboards develop their plans for out-of-hours service re-provision under theterms of the new General Medical Services (GMS) contract.

NHS boards must havealternative arrangements in place by December 2004 which must meet mandatoryaccreditation standards to ensure a safe, quality service. Under suchalternative arrangements anyone who needs access to primary medical serviceswill get it, whether it be telephone advice, a home visit or seen at a GP surgeryor primary care emergency centre.

A national out-of-hoursworking group is established to assist boards. This group is comprised of keystakeholders from across the service and includes members from NHS24, the Scottish Ambulance Service and patient representatives. In addition, three keysenior appointments have been made to the pay modernisation team of NHSScotland to focus on the new models of out-of-hours care across Scotland.

As the First Ministertold the Parliament at First Minister’s Questions on 12 February, the Scottish Executiveis currently looking at the potential for an environmental justice fund thatwould allow resources to be targeted at a number of communities that have beenexceptionally ravaged by the cumulative effects of quarrying, mining andlandfill operations.