Chamber and committees

That is a matter for the private healthcare provider and patient to agree.

As the number of patients who fall into this category are small, there are no plans to recover costs from private healthcare providers at present. This will, however, be kept under review and recovery of costs considered if required.

No information is held on the number of patients resident in Scotland whose PIP silicone breast implants were implanted in either England or abroad.

As stated in my answer to question S4W-05591 the Scottish Government has held back around £20 million of Resource DEL consequentials available in 2012-13 in view of risks presented by the current economic and financial climate including, in particular, those presented by UK welfare reform and the unpredictability surrounding the eurozone.

As the full extent of the implications of the UK Welfare Reform Bill is still unknown I cannot confirm, at this stage, how much of the available consequentials will be allocated in response to the impact of the bill.

Where a proposal made by the Scottish Government requires it, the Member State notifies the European Commission of its terms.

On current evidence, the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) considers women with Poly Implant Prothese (PiP) silicone breast implants to be eligible to donate blood, provided that they meet all of SNBTS’s donor selection criteria.

The European Commission has confirmed that it is for Member States to decide if and at what stage to notify their proposals. We are clear that the bill itself does not require to be notified, and we are currently considering whether the subordinate legislation that sets the minimum price per unit of alcohol requires to be notified.

The total amount spent by NHSScotland on clinical negligence claims since 2007-08 is detailed in the following table:

Fluctuations in the sums paid from year to year are due to the number of high value settlements occurring in any one year. These tend to relate to birth cases where the sums paid can be substantial. In 2010-11 there were 25 claims paid that were in excess of £1m compared to 16 in 2009-10.

The amount spent for 2011-12 as at 31 January totalled £22.5 million.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-05564 on 6 March 2012. 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.