Chamber and committees

Right. Are figures being produced on that?

Paragraph 111 on page 37 of the report highlights the Scottish Government’s short to medium-term strategy to mitigate the domestic supply of staff through international recruitment, and that £1 million is being provided to each board to help to identify international staff who can complete the training. You mention three boards that have recruited internationally. However, the report also notes that

“NHS Highland found the process time-consuming and expensive”.

Does that strategy represent a suitable option for future NHS workforce growth?

Waiting times for planned care vary significantly by specialty across and within boards. Is that being investigated? Is there any scope for more collaborative working across and within health boards to reduce those waiting times? Is it possible that the health boards could co-operate if there is a longer waiting list for certain treatments in one area than in another?

That is very helpful, because it gives us an indication of the levels of work that we should anticipate over that period. Obviously, it is not something that you can give an exact figure on.

Following your previous session with the committee, minister, in correspondence with us you committed to undertake a strategic review of the process by which the Scottish Government already provides data and information to the committee. We appreciate that the review might be at the early planning stages, but can you provide an update on that work?

It is an important aspect.

The committee considers packages—if I can put it that way—of SSIs that relate to a specific policy area, such as the package of 10 instruments concerning the transfer of functions to the First-tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal for Scotland, or the package on reform of the non-domestic rates system. As you know, it is useful for this committee as well as the relevant subject committees to be given as much advance notice as possible of packages of instruments. Do you have any idea whether such sets of instruments are in the pipeline, and will you be able to keep us updated on their progress that we can expect on them?

Great. As you know, that is very useful for this committee in particular, because we are frequently the first stage that instruments go through before they can go forward. That will be extremely useful, and thank you very much for that.

That would be very helpful.

We are not finished with technicalities, because I am just gonnae ask you a wee bit more about the relationship between the committee and the ministerial side. Your officials provide the committee and subject committees with a helpful weekly update of instruments that are expected to be laid in the following two weeks. Can you provide an indication of the anticipated volume of SSIs that are likely to be laid between now and the summer?

Okay, but you are working on that.

Under agenda item 2, we are considering three instruments, on which no points have been raised.