Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-17593 on 29 October 2013. 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.

We published our communication plan for the Scottish Welfare Fund on our webpages on 8 March 2013. It can be found from this link:

http://scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/welfarereform/socialfund/scottishwelfarefundcommsplan.

The Scottish Government entered into a partnership with Bauer Media to promote the Scottish Welfare Fund to both people who may need to use the fund, and to others who work with people who may need to use it. This was a week of activity in November 2013 across the network's 11 stations which reached an average 1.2 million people living in Scotland. The cost was about 0.1% of the funding that we gave to local authorities to administer the Scottish Welfare Fund.

Nicola Sturgeon wrote to the Convenor of the Welfare Reform Committee on 13 October 2013 to advise about changes to the official guidance for the Scottish Welfare Fund. You can find the letter from this link;

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/S4_Welfare_Reform_Committee/20131013_NS-MM_changes_to_SWF_guidance.pdf.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-17591 on 29 October 2013. 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 6 March 2014 the Department for Work and Pensions announced their intention to continue with the closure of the Independent Living Fund (ILF) by the end of June 2015.

To date, we have not received formal notification and further information, including a revised financial settlement. This will be considered along with the analysis of the recent Scottish Government ILF consultation. This will form the decision of Scottish Ministers on the ILF and an announcement will be made in due course.

<>There are no current plans to increase the number of patients self testing/self managing as part of a stroke prevention programme. Individual clinicians working with people on anticoagulants will decide on a case by case basis on the most appropriate approach in line with current evidence which can be found at: http://www.sign.ac.uk/guidelines/fulltext/129/index.html

and: http://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.org/our_work/technologies_and_medicines/shtg_-_evidence_notes/evidence_note_50.aspx

There are no plans to introduce a national service delivery model.

<>The Vale of Leven Hospital Inquiry is an independent inquiry. The procedure and the conduct of an inquiry, including the timing of the report, is determined by the inquiry’s chairperson in accordance with his or her duties under the Inquiries Act 2005. For further information please contact the secretary of the Vale of Leven Hospital Inquiry team at: [email protected]

<>I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-20127 on 21 March 2014. 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.