The Scottish Government has no plans to conduct a national needs-based analysis focused on Gypsy/Traveller communities

Assessment of housing need by local authorities is carried out through a Housing Need and Demand Assessment (HNDA). Scottish Government Guidance on this was issued in March 2008 and refers local authorities to UK Government Guidance Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Needs Assessment Guidance Communities and Local Government, October 2007.

Many Scottish local authorities have commissioned additional research into the accommodation needs of Gypsies/Travellers within their areas, as part of preparing their Local Housing Strategies.

Guidance on preparing Local Housing Strategies, issued by the Scottish Government in June 2008, includes advice on how to assess the needs of all minority ethnic communities.

NHS boards are responsible for providing primary medical services and for ensuring that these services recognise cultural diversity and respond to the healthcare needs of all ethnic groups and communities.

There should be no barriers to Gypsy/Travellers accessing or receiving health services and the GP registration regulations apply equally to members of the travelling and settled populations.

A GP practice can only refuse an application if it has reasonable grounds for doing so which do not relate to the applicant’s race, gender, social class, age, religion, sexual orientation, appearance, disability or medical condition. A patient does not need to be resident in a practice area to be accepted and the regulations specifically provide for applications from temporary residents who are moving from place to place. The regulations also provide for health boards to assign a patient to a GP practice as necessary.

The Scottish Government has funded and been involved in a number of programmes and initiatives to engage with the Gypsy/Traveller communities to improve access and to tackle their health inequalities. These include the introduction of a patient hand held record to improve their access to healthcare; an action research project in Lothian on mental health and wellbeing; a strategy in West Dunbartonshire to improve access to health services, and a multi agency action plan in Highland.

NHS Health Scotland works with health boards to advise and support in delivering equality and diversity, eliminating discrimination and reducing health inequalities. The Gypsy/Traveller group has now been specified within the standard ethnicity classifications for Scotland and the results of the 2011 census and increased ethnic monitoring in NHSScotland will further enhance understanding of Gypsy/Travellers’ health needs and experiences, and inform boards’ future service developments and outreach initiatives for this group.

The existing site management guidance was published in January 1998 by the then Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Scotland’s Travelling People. We are presently considering a review of the guidance on site management. An exact date of publication cannot be confirmed at the current time.

I have been clear that following the tragic incidents at both Tomintoul and Crieff, current arrangements for handling rest breaks in the Scottish Ambulance Service cannot remain in place as they are not in the interests of the public or of our hardworking and dedicated ambulance staff.

Urgent talks are currently ongoing between management and staff within the Scottish Ambulance Service with a view to preventing any further incidents where rest breaks are seen as affecting response times in emergencies. I am being kept fully informed of progress with these talks and have urged both management and the trades unions involved to resolve this untenable situation as quickly as possible.

The Scottish Government guidelines on managing unauthorised camping aim to help the police and local authorities to develop their own strategies for managing encampments.

The guidelines discuss the importance of suitable site provision for Gypsies/Travellers as an alternative option to unauthorised camping. The guidelines also set out the relevant legislation and powers available to local authorities and the police. Please find the following link to the guidelines for your information:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/publications/2004/12/20417/48825.

Further, the Police role in the management of unauthorised encampments is clearly specified within the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS) guidance on the issue.

The Scottish Government is presently considering review of the guidance on site management. An exact date of publication cannot be confirmed at the current time.

The Scottish Government does not record information for the same time periods specified in this question and so that information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The Scottish Government records and publishes statistics on our performance in meeting the 20 working days target, set by the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, in our FOI Annual Reports and Quarterly Statistics Bulletins on the Scottish Government website at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/FOI/Reporting. These contain details of the number and percentage of requests answered within each calendar year, regardless of when they were received, where we did not provide a substantive response within 20 working days. This information is set out in the following table:

Response After 20 Working Days

Between 5 May 2011 and 4 July, when this question was tabled, the Scottish Government received 227 freedom of information requests. As at 4 July, 130 of these requests had been answered and of the 97 remaining only five were past the 20 working day deadline set by the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. So in this period only 2% of the government’s requests were not answered on time, which compares very favourably with other public authorities.

The Scottish Government is already committed to a formal annual review of the overall performance and management of the Scottish Ambulance Service, as well as the delivery of targets agreed for the organisation. The next of these regular review meetings, which are held in public, will take place on 10 October 2011.

At that review I will also be meeting with management and staff side representatives to discuss issues including the quality of clinical care and partnership matters in relation to how the Scottish Ambulance Service performs and operates.

The performance and management accountability arrangements for the Scottish Ambulance Service are set-out in a broad framework which can be found at:

http://www.scottishambulance.com/AboutUs/Default.aspx.

The Scottish Government acknowledges that Gypsy/Traveller communities are amongst the most disenfranchised and discriminated against in Scotland. Our Race Equality Statement identified Gypsies/Travellers as a priority group, who are ethnically distinct and we encourage others to do the same.

Through our Race, Religion and Refugee Integration funding stream, we have allocated funding to voluntary organisations to develop projects specifically targeting the Gypsy/Traveller Community.

The previous Minister for Housing & Communities, Alex Neil MSP also chaired a Working Party which brought forward an interim strategy designed to improve and sustain relationships between gypsies/travellers and the settled community in the north east of Scotland. The strategy was published in March this year and can be found at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/16342/management/gt/wpstrategy.