Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-25880 on 11 June 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.

On 31 March 2015, 98% of patients on the waiting list had waited less than six weeks for a CT scan. However we are not complacent and to ensure that NHS Scotland continues to deliver swift treatment for CT scans the Scottish Government invested £300,000 last year to create a new diagnostic hub at Queen Margaret Hospital in Fife to support diagnostic performance in NHS Fife, Lothian and Forth Valley. Also under this government the number of consultant clinical radiologists has increased by 36.2% from 223.5 whole time equivalent (WTE) at September 2006 to 304.5 WTE at March 2015. In the last year alone the number of consultant clinical radiologists has increased by 16.2 WTE an increase of 5.6%.

We are aware that three boards, Lothian, Grampian and Highland have experienced significant capacity issues. To address this we provided Lothian with £3 million and Highland with nearly £6 million from our performance fund to address capacity by recruiting more consultants and support staff as well as weekend working. In relation to NHS Grampian the Scottish Government has significantly increased the board's budget by 6.3% to £830.1 million, an increase of £49.1 million which is the largest percentage uplift of any other board.

Although the current level of delayed discharges is unacceptably high, significant progress has been made under this administration. Since April 2005 the number of delays over two weeks has reduced by over 60%. At the last census in April 2015, 12 local authorities recorded no delays over two weeks, and another 11 were in single figures. However, we need to do more, and we have invested an additional £100 million funding to help address delays, over the next three years. The following table provides the number of delays over two weeks and over three days for April 2005, 2007 and 2015.

Census	Delays over two weeks	Delays over three days
April 2005	1,040	1,332
April 2007	624	755
April 2015	357	646

The information requested is not centrally held.

The Scottish Government sets national direction of policy on mental health and provides funding to agencies, including NHS boards and local authorities, to support implementation of policy. The management of local actions in implementing national policy, and decisions on local service provision and spending priorities are the responsibility of relevant local agencies.

NHS Scotland and its partners provide a range of person centred, safe and effective interventions to respond to the assessed needs of people living with an eating disorder across community, hospital and specialist settings. NHS Education for Scotland have also published the psychological therapies matrix guide to planning and delivering evidence-based psychological therapies within NHS boards in Scotland. This provides a summary of the information on the current evidence base for various therapeutic approaches, including for eating disorders in children and young people. It also provides a template to aid in the identification of key gaps in service, and advice on important governance issues.

This information is not held centrally.

Enable Scotland’s campaign aims to make it easier for the people with learning disabilities to access concessionary travel under the national concessionary bus travel scheme.

The Scottish Government has no plans to extend the scheme to recipients of the lower rate of the mobility component of Disability Living Allowance, as requested by Enable Scotland. People with disabilities, including learning disabilities, may however be eligible for the scheme under other criteria which are not dependent on benefits. My officials are in discussion with Enable Scotland and with local authorities, which handle applications, to see how processes could be clarified for applications based on these criteria.

(a) The Scottish Government does not gather data centrally on spend for non-statutory organisations that work with children.

(b) The PlayTalkRead campaign has received £3.9 million in funding since 2011.

(c) The Scottish Government provides local government a block revenue grant which includes funding for early learning and childcare. The money is not ring-fenced and local authorities are free to spend it in line with local priorities and agreed national priorities. The Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics published annually set out actual gross revenue spending by local authorities on early learning and childcare. Data is now available up to and including financial year 2013-14. This records the following spending by local government (revenue and capital):

Financial Year	Gross Revenue Spend	Capital Expenditure
2011-12	£318.3 million	£5.7 million
2012-13	£314.4 million	£4.9 million
2013-14	£320.2 million	£3.9 million

Note: Capital spend represents spend in pre-school settings catering for any age pre-school children and not just three and four year olds.

Additional funding was allocated to local government to fully fund the provisions in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 around early learning and childcare. In 2014-15 and 2015-16 the Scottish Government allocated the following funding associated with the provisions of early learning and childcare for three and four year olds:

In 2014-15 gross revenue of £48.579 million and £30 million capital

In 2015-16 gross revenue of £70.625 million and £30 million capital

<>At the Members Debate on Tied Pubs (Motion S4M-12348) I indicated that that the Scottish Government will commission a study to look at the various pub models operating in Scotland to see whether the tied ‘wet’ sector are being treated more unfairly than other parts of the industry. The conclusions of that study will help place Scottish Ministers in a better position to consider whether legislation should be introduced and who it should apply to – which may be different to that identified in England and Wales where the make-up of the sector is very different to Scotland.

This work is designed to enable us to form an evidenced based view on the issue of the statutory code of practice.

The Scottish Government is already supporting NHS boards, local authorities and the new Integration Joint boards delivery through a range of supportive measures. Specific actions including investing £100 million over three years to deliver improvements on delayed discharge and preventing admissions; investing £10 million from the performance fund to increase NHS board capacity to improve elective waiting times; improving the quality and frequency of performance information; and facilitating access to expert advice.

Over 750,000 patients have benefitted from the 12 week treatment time guarantee since it was introduced in October 2012. Earlier in the year we announced £10 million from the performance fund to help boards increase capacity, employ additional consultants and allow for weekend working. I also announced in May 2015 a further £1.5 million to increase orthopaedic and ophthalmology at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital which benefits patients from across Scotland. I expect this investment to be reflected in waiting time performance during 2015.

Addressing delayed discharges is a top priority of this government, and we recognise more needs to be done to address this issue. That is why we are investing an additional £100 million funding in tackling delay, over the next three years. This funding will be used by integration joint boards to develop a range of community services aimed at reducing delays in discharging, and providing alternatives to acute hospital admission.