Chamber and committees

Data on the number of new cases of cervical cancer, diagnosed in each year since 2007, are shown in the following table.

The latest year for which cancer registration data are complete is 2008.

The special advisers appointed to date are:

The current special adviser pay ranges are:

The estimated salary cost of the current team of 11 special advisers in post (including ERNIC and employer pension contributions) is £822,000. The cost of the team of 12 special advisers under the previous Labour administration in 2006-07 was £854,000.

On this occasion it was Scottish Care, the representative body for independent care home providers and care providers in Scotland, who informed the Scottish Government about the situation at Elsie Inglis Nursing Home.

I met with the Scottish Power (UK) Retail Director on 14 June 2011 to discuss their recent price increases and the implications for consumers in Scotland. I expressed my serious concerns at their recent price rises and the impacts of these on consumers in Scotland. I secured Scottish Power's commitment to work with the Scottish Government and local authorities on a targeted £10 million programme to deliver more of their regulatory obligations to help the most vulnerable communities in Scotland.

I understand from Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland that it received nine complaints after 9 November 2010 broken down as follows:

I further understand that consideration of the three complaints marked as “in progress” is pended as a consequence of the ongoing police investigation.

If the price increases announced by Scottish Power were replicated by the other suppliers, up to 169,000 more households would be placed into fuel poverty.

The Scottish Government is aware of the briefing sheets produced by the Scottish Assembly for Tackling Poverty 2011 and we note the points raised within them.

All midwifery students undertake placements within NHS boards during each year of their training programme. The pre-registration midwifery programme consists of 50% theory at university and 50% placement within NHSScotland.

Pre-registration midwifery students are not recruited to NHS board areas but to the universities providing the training programme. Information on the number of placement opportunities by NHS boards is therefore not held centrally.

The total number of pre-registration midwifery students receiving bursaries, (including allowances and placement expenses), the average bursary and the total cost of bursaries from 1999-2000 to 2009-10 in the following table:

This data has been supplied by the Students Awards Agency for Scotland and is the most up to date available.

The Scottish Government remains committed to eradicating fuel poverty in Scotland by 2016 as far as practicably possible. The number of people in fuel poverty at any given time is determined by income levels, energy prices and the energy efficiency of their homes. We have seen fuel price rises recently by Scottish Power that have clearly impacted on the number of people affected by fuel poverty.

Energy prices are dictated by markets and regulation of the energy companies is reserved to Westminster. The Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth has written to OfGEM seeking discussions with them and urging that they build on their Retail Market Review to deliver a radical simplification of tariff structures including considering possible compulsory tariffs for the fuel poor. OfGEM subsequently announced, on 22 June 2011, that it would press ahead with a radical overhaul of the retail energy market, including looking at sweeping away complex tariffs.