Chamber and committees

Appendix D of the Final Report contains the table from the Interim Report's Chapter 6, and Annex A contains the evidence tables referenced in the Interim Report's chapter 5. The evidence from the Interim Report was built upon by new evidence to provide the Independent Review with its final conclusions. For transparency, all the evidence has been published.

Members were asked to complete standard Scottish Government declarations of interests, which cover a 12 month period.

The Chief Medical Officer has accepted the conclusions made by the Independent Review in its Final Report, Health Boards have been asked to take them forward, an Oversight Group is being established to work with Health Boards in doing so, and an expert will be appointed to examine the process of the Independent Review. Furthermore, arrangements are presently being made for my appearance at the Public Petitions Committee on 18 May. I have also agreed to meet with the opposition spokespeople on health to discuss these matters further.

When I met with Ms McIlroy and Ms Holmes they requested that their minority report be removed from the Independent Review's Final Report. I relayed this to the Chair of the Review and she acceded to this request. Subsequently, Ms McIlroy and Ms Holmes asked that further material be removed and this request was, again, relayed to the Chair. However, the Chair confirmed that, by that point, the Final Report had been submitted to the Chief Medical Officer, and no further changes could therefore be made. Any changes to the Report were a matter for the Chair to decide upon, not Scottish Government Ministers or officials.

Questions asked in the Chamber are the responsibility of the Member. Scottish Government officials serve the Scottish Ministers and provide no support to Members appointed as Parliamentary Liaison Officers.

The Final Report builds upon the findings of the Interim Report, taking into account additional evidence and experiences that were not yet available at the time the Interim Report was produced.

The Independent Review’s Final Report made clear that, at the time of writing, it was anticipated that the new EU Medical Device Regulations would include a change to the classification of surgical mesh devices intended for long-term or permanent use.

It is now confirmed that the new EU Regulations, subject to their formal adoption, will up-classify surgical meshes to Class III. The new Regulations can be viewed here: http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-10728-2016-REV-4/EN/pdf.

In coming to the conclusions noted in its Final Report, the Independent Review considered a range of evidence, including the patient survey, all of which is summarised within the Report. The conclusions are based upon the totality of that evidence.

The Independent Review members considered it appropriate that all evidence considered by the Review be grouped together in chapters 4 and 5, whilst chapter 6 includes commentary on that evidence. The table that was included in chapter 6 of the Interim Report is, however, included in the Final Report as an annex. The tables developed by a single clinician are included in chapter 5 where agreed by the Independent Review, and for transparency the tables are published in totality on the website.

Chapter 5 reviews evidence relating to risk. The evidence on risk was considered together with the patient survey (chapter 3), the evidence from the routine data sources (chapter 4) and the clinicians views (chapter 6), in order that the Independent Review could reach its final conclusions. All the evidence considered is included in the Final Report.