Chamber and committees

We currently have the highest medical staffing levels ever in NHSScotland. Under this government, the number of consultant medical staff working in NHSScotland has increased by a record 38.2%. A&E has seen an unprecedented increase in consultant staff of 171.7%, from 75.8 whole time equivalent (WTE) to 205.8 WTE. Overall there are 570.9 WTE medical staff of all grades working in A&E in NHSScotland.

Published information on the number of consultants in emergency medicine can be found at ISD Scotland’s workforce statistics web site:

https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2015-09-01/HCHS_by_specialty_J2015.xls

The Scottish Government is also working with doctors and nurses to design the new emergency workload planning tool to be rolled out later in 2015. This will help NHS boards to ensure they have appropriate staffing levels in place to meet variable workload demands.

This investment in emergency medical staff was recognised in March 2015 by Dr Martin McKechnie, Vice President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Scotland, who stated: “The College welcomes the support the Scottish Government has given to increasing staffing and tackling crowding in our A&Es.” (Royal College of Emergency Medicine release, 24 March 2015).

Introduced in 2015-2016 Scottish Government provided £100,000 NES for this year to fund the GP Returner scheme. This is the first year and therefore there is no historical data. It is NHS Education for Scotland (NES) which has operational responsibility for both programmes; the Enhanced Induction programme only commenced in 2015. Regarding the Returners programme, until this year NES had no earmarked fund for returners and, on average in recent years between five to six GPs applied to return with NES funding their educational placements from its general medical budget. The Scottish Government has provided NES with £100,000 from 2015 to ensure both programmes are financially stable, and these were relaunched earlier this year.

Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) activities are funded through a combination of grant in aid support and charging to recover economic costs of its regulatory actions. These support SEPA’s delivery of its statutory obligations with regard to the delivery of the relevant regulatory requirements such as invasive species. Through the Water Environment Fund (WEF) it is working in partnership with the Rivers and Fisheries Trust of Scotland to implement a strategic national programme of invasives plant control across Scotland. This is funded with up to £100,000 from the Scottish Government per year since 2011. Other public bodies that take action to control non-native plants are mainly Scottish Natural Heritage, who are the overall lead agency for non-native species, and local authorities. The majority of local authority funding, including any funding which councils may wish to allocate for the control of non-native species, is provided by means of a revenue block grant. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including any locally raised funding. They do this on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The Scottish Government allocates a budget annually to SNH, in accordance with published spending plans approved by the Scottish Parliament, which they are responsible for managing to fulfil their statutory functions and deliver priorities directly supporting the Scottish Government’s commitments with respect to protecting and improving the natural environment. This includes advice and strategies aimed at addressing non-native species, in their role as lead agency on the issue. Strategic control of invasive non-native plants in the Scottish Borders is delivered through the Tweed Forum. In addition to this, control of some non-native species is directly supported by a number of options in Scotland’s Rural Development Programme. A breakdown of relevant funding is given in the following table:

Funding is given for financial years.

SRDP funding is given for calendar years and broken down by plant:

JK = Japanese knotweed, GH = giant hogweed, no awards for Himalayan balsam or rhododendron.

At a national level, changes in distribution of plants are monitored by the Botanical Society of the British Isles. The Society periodically publishes a complete Atlas of plant distributions, based on 10km square records gathered by volunteers. Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) ecologists record non-native bankside plant species at all their programmed monitoring sites, which on the River Tweed catchment includes approximately 75 sites per year. In addition, more detailed river corridor surveys are carried out on priority catchments. In the Scottish Borders the Eye Water has been surveyed, with more planned for future years.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) monitors Himalayan balsam along the River Tweed and its tributaries as part of a wider Site Condition Monitoring programme. The River Tweed Special Area for Conservation is the only protected nature site in the Scottish Borders where Himalayan balsam has been reported as a pressure on the features of interest. A river habitat survey was carried out in 2004 and 2013, and is due to be repeated in 2019. Of some 200 points sampled, 10% failed because of high densities of Himalayan balsam in 2004 compared with only 5% in 2013. The fluctuation was not linked to any coordinated control programmes and probably reflects the transient nature of high density stands of Himalayan balsam on river banks.

Himalayan balsam is already widespread throughout much of the Scottish Borders but there are some areas where it is rare or absent. The priority is to understand how non-native species invade and take steps to prevent their establishment and spread. To this end SNH and SEPA promote best practice advice to the construction industry and planners through the NetRegs website and work with infrastructure managers such as Network Rail and Scottish Water to help them avoid facilitating the spread of invasive species via their networks. SEPA works with partners such as the Tweed Forum in promoting biosecurity to prevent spread of non-native species. A trial of a rust fungus as a biological control agent for Himalayan balsam is underway, with funding from Defra and the Scottish Government. One of the sites for field trials for the rust fungus is on the on the River Till in the Tweed catchment, on the English side of the border.

Investigations into the circumstances at the Jim Clark Rally in May 2014 are currently ongoing by the health and safety division (HSD) at Crown Office. These investigations are to determine whether there will be any criminal proceedings arising out of the events and thereafter to decide whether there should be an inquiry. An interim report by HSD has been considered by Crown Counsel and further investigations including expert reports have been instructed. Once the further enquiries have been completed the matter will be reported back to Crown Counsel to take a final decision. Although the decision in relation to criminal proceedings or an inquiry will be made public, reports from investigating agencies and procurators fiscal are confidential and are not published.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-27262 on 10 September 2015. 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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The Scottish Government is committed to working with local road authorities to improve the condition of all of Scotland’s roads. The Road Collaboration Programme, established in 2014 following a key recommendation from the National Road Maintenance Review, is working with road authorities, including Scottish Borders Council, to plan and deliver shared service initiatives which will result in more efficient, sustainable and resilient roads services.

The maintenance and improvement of local roads in the Scottish Borders, including the A72, is ultimately the responsibility of Scottish Borders Council. The Scottish Government is providing the council with £245 million through the 2015-16 local government finance settlement.

We want to ensure that people at risk of Type 2 diabetes are identified and supported appropriately to help minimise the risk of health complications. This aim is reflected in our Diabetes Improvement Plan, published in November 2014, which includes the prevention and early detection of diabetes as one of its main priorities. The plan contains a specific action to develop and implement an appropriate framework for assessing the risk of diabetes for people currently undiagnosed to support early identification, diagnosis and treatment of diabetes. We are committed to working with our wider health strategy to address the underlying risk factors associated with diabetes by reducing obesity, encouraging healthy eating and promote healthier living across Scotland.

The Scottish Government has received the following amounts from 2014 Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme payments, as defined by the scheme, relating to the following quarters:

 January to March 2014 £7,194,507.98

April to June 2014 £7,053,634.24

July to September 2014 £7,232,222.23

October to December 2014 £7,525,932.98

January to March 2015 £19,583,325.70

 As explained in my answer to S4W-26771 on 7 August 2015, then as set out in the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme agreement between the Department of Health and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, payment percentages are adjusted annually. The annual payment percentages for future years are not yet available. 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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Information on the number of people receiving the nine care processes is published annually within the Scottish Diabetes Survey, the most recent of which was published in June 2015 and covers data from 2014. All of the Scottish Diabetes Survey reports, which began in 2002, can be accessed at: http://www.diabetesinscotland.org.uk/Publications.aspx?catId=3.