Chamber and committees

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.

The key consideration here is to prevent any further incidents where rest breaks are seen as affecting response times in emergencies. Negotiations in this respect are being taken forward urgently and until the outcome is known it is not possible to quantify any additional costs which may be involved.

The National Records of Scotland has always made charges for certain of its services. For example, the charge for a replacement birth certificate goes back to 1855, and the ScotlandsPeople website has involved a charge per view since it was started in the late 1990s. There has been no recent change in the charging policy although some charges were increased earlier in the year in accordance with The Registration Services (Fees) Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2010 (SSI 2010 No 427). Charges are generally set in Statutory Instruments, on which consultation has taken place. If the member has a specific charge in mind, I would be happy to provide further information.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-00138 on 6 June 2011. 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.

Occupational pensions policy is reserved. It is not yet clear which of the range of potential longer-term reforms to the NHS Superannuation scheme the UK Government is currently considering will become policy. The Scottish Government understands that the UK Government is currently engaged in high-level negotiations with Trade Unions and does not intend to announce the detail of potential longer-term reforms until autumn 2011.

In relation to the UK Government’s short-term policy of increasing employee contribution rates by an average of 3.2% of pay, the Scottish Government has set out its opposition to this approach. However, HM Treasury has made it clear that it expects the Scottish Government to apply this policy to the NHS Superannuation Scheme (Scotland). The UK Government has yet to announce the formal details of how that policy will be applied to the NHS Superannuation Scheme.

Though Scottish Ministers have some devolved powers, HM Treasury is able to exercise a significant degree of financial and legal control over the design and operation of NHS Superannuation Scheme (Scotland). That level of control places severe limitations on Scottish Ministers’ ability to design a different NHS scheme from that implemented by the UK Government.

The Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth set out the Scottish Government’s position in relation to the UK Government’s short and long term proposals for reform to parliament on 22 June. He reinforced the Scottish Government’s commitment to public service pensions that are affordable, sustainable and fair and set out the Scottish Government’s opposition to the approach the UK Government has taken to short-term increases in employee contributions as the wrong course of action at this time.

He urged the UK Government to accept that pension reform requires consensus to be built and take a different approach to handling reform. While the Scottish Government accepts that a case has been made for longer-term reform of public service pensions, the Scottish Government is committed to consider that case in consultation with stakeholders and in order to facilitate this consultation has called on the UK Government to support a more appropriate timetable for reform in Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-01152 on 18 July 2011. 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/Apps2/MAQASearch/QAndMSearch.aspx.

The Scottish Government is not currently considering decreasing the age range of the Scottish Breast Screening Programme.

NHS Boards currently meet the costs associated with the Scottish Cervical Screening Programme, therefore this information is not held centrally.

Information on the number of women, aged 20 to 25 years, who have been offered cervical cancer screening, is not held centrally.

A review of the age range and frequency of the Scottish Cervical Screening Programme is currently taking place. The Expert Review Group undertaking this work is expected to report to the Breast and Cervical Screening National Advisory Group in the Autumn.

Information on the number of women, aged 20 to 25 years, who have taken up cervical cancer screening, is not held centrally.

The percentage of women who have a record of a previous screening test taken within the last 3.5 years is available on the ISD website at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Cancer/Cervical-Screening/.