Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to addressing the unfair and unjust health differences which disproportionately affect those living in Scotland’s most deprived communities. That is why the Keep Well anticipatory health checks are targeted at people over 40, living in Scotland’s poorest communities and most at risk of poor health.

Our approach to tackling health inequalities was set out in Equally Well, the report of the Ministerial Task Force on Health Inequalities. A key feature being the shift in emphasis from dealing with the consequences of health inequalities to tackling the underlying causes such as poverty, employment, support for families and improving physical and social environments.

This has included the promotion of an assets-based approach, engaging with communities, to build on the resources that they have at their disposal, to promote self-esteem and the coping abilities of individuals and their communities. Examples of this work include the Equally Well test sites, which sought to promote collaboration amongst local public service providers with the aim of reducing inequalities in health and wellbeing. The Ministerial Task Force will meet on 29 November to examine progress.

The Scottish Government is not aware of any staffing shortages impacting on cancer screening in Scotland.

The official measure of unemployment based on the ILO (International Labour Organisation) definition is not reliable for these disaggregations at local authority level. However, an alternative measure of unemployment is the claimant count. This gives the number of people claiming unemployment-related benefits, and as it is based on administrative records collected by the Department of Work and Pensions, it is available for small areas. The latest claimant count data is for August 2012.

The claimant count level and rate (as a proportion of the resident population aged 16 to 64) in each local authority, broken down by those claiming for over (a) six months and (b) 12 months, is shown in the following table.

Claimant Counts Levels and Rates by Duration of Claim for Scottish Local Authority Areas, August 2012

Source: Claimant count, not seasonally adjusted, Office for National Statistics

Notes:

1. Levels rounded to nearest five.

2. Rates (percentages) based on resident population aged 16 to 64 using mid-2010 population estimates.

The official measure of unemployment based on the ILO (International Labour Organisation) definition is not reliable for these disaggregations at local authority level. However, an alternative measure of unemployment is the claimant count. This gives the number of people claiming unemployment-related benefits, and as it is based on administrative records collected by the Department of Work and Pensions, it is available for small areas and various disaggregations within these areas. The latest claimant count data is for August 2012.

The claimant count level and rate for 16 to 24-year-olds (as a proportion of the resident population aged 16 to 24) in each local authority, broken down by those claiming for more than (a) six and (b) twelve months, is shown in the following table.

Claimant Counts Levels and Rates for Young People (aged 16 to 24) by Duration of Claim for Scottish Local Authority Areas, August 2012

Source: Claimant count, not seasonally adjusted, Office for National Statistics.

Notes:

1. Levels rounded to nearest

2. Rates (percentages) based on resident population aged 16 to 24 using mid-2010 population estimates.

Seventy-nine people attended the West of Scotland Action Forum on Youth Employment, 13 of whom were private sector employers.

The Scottish Government is opposed to the basing of nuclear weapons in Scotland. It is our clear position that an independent Scottish Government would work with the rest of the UK to secure the earliest safe withdrawal of Trident from Scotland.

We continue to work with our stakeholders to pursue a distinctive approach to preventative spend, an approach recently reinforced in the draft budget for 2013-14 which I presented to the Parliament on 20 September.

Lord MacLean, Chairman of the Vale of Leven Hospital Inquiry has been unwell and is improving. The inquiry team continues to make good progress whilst Lord MacLean recuperates and to date has not formally requested an extension. If there is a change of date to the publishing of the final report I will inform the members.

The information requested is not held centrally.

However, the latest annual national NHS complaints statistics (covering the period 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012) were published last month by the Information Services Division (ISD) of NHS National Services Scotland, and are available at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Quality-Improvement/Publications/2012-09-25/2012-09-25-Complaints-Report.pdf.

ISD published statistics show that for the second year in succession there has been a reduction in the number of complaints to the Scottish Ambulance Service.

The figures show that 214 complaints were recorded between 1 April 2011 and 31 March 2012 compared to 374 recorded between 1 April 2010 and 31 March 2011. This represents a 43% reduction in complaints.