Chamber and committees

The administration of discretionary housing payments (DHPs) is the responsibility of individual local authorities. The Scottish Government expects everyone who is affected by the bedroom tax and who applies for a DHP, to receive one. Local authorities have been allocated sufficient funds for full bedroom tax mitigation in 2014-15, and the UK Government has confirmed that local authorities are able to incur expenditure in excess of the current cap in anticipation of the transfer of powers and the subsequent lifting of the cap by Scottish Ministers.

A letter to all local authorities was issued jointly from the UK and Scottish Governments on 25 June 2014. A copy of that letter was shared with the Welfare Reform Committee and can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/CurrentCommittees/67206.aspx.

This information is not held by the Scottish Government.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland published the Heart Disease Services: Take Heart – A National Overview in September 2011. This publication covers heart failure and the development and subsequent implementation of a Heart Failure Care Bundle. This is an integral part of the current acute care work stream of the Scottish Patient Safety Programme.

Information on numbers of qualified nurses, which increased in this government by 4%, or by 1654.4 whole-time equivalent (WTE) to 42,680.6 WTE, is available via ISD Scotland.

Due to the multidisciplinary nature of the role, a qualified nurse may work in more than one specific specialty, only one of which is recorded by ISD Scotland for each nurse.

The Heart Failure Hub has been established as a subgroup of the National Advisory Committee on Heart Disease in order to take forward a national programme of work in relation to heart failure. The group brings together clinicians, managers, the voluntary sector and patients to ensure a co-ordinated approach to tackling the many challenges facing heart failure teams in NHS Boards across Scotland. The Heart Failure Hub has recently commissioned work on a Heart Failure Pathway.

A report on the Early Lung Cancer Detection Study will be published on completion of clinical trials. Those leading the study are currently recruiting volunteers and estimate that clinical trials will be complete in 2016-17.

The scope of the Public Boards and Corporate Diversity Programme Board encompasses diversity in its wider sense, including all under-represented groups. However, in the early part of the programme, the primary focus will be on women (as the largest under-represented group) and this acknowledges their diversity. The learning from improving the gender balance of boards will be used to increase participation of other under-represented groups.

Appointments to the boards of public bodies are the responsibility of Scottish Ministers and each minister will appoint the person he or she considers to be best qualified for the position, based on specific published criteria. In making this decision, the minister adheres to the Code of Practice for Ministerial Appointments to Public Bodies in Scotland, issued by the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland. The code sets out the principles on which all appointments are made: merit, integrity and diversity and equality. In addition, for many of those appointments regulated by the commissioner, a public appointments adviser, appointed by him, undertakes contemporaneous scrutiny of the appointment process to ensure these principles are upheld. Where the principles of the code are not upheld, the commissioner has the power to intervene. Depending on the circumstances, the commissioner may advise the appointing minister so that action can be taken to address the issue, or to report directly to the Scottish Parliament.

Practical changes undertaken to date include improvements to the online application system for applicants; the production of a public appointments toolkit for Scottish Government staff and selection panel members; the launch of a Twitter account to raise awareness of public appointments opportunities and a simplified and more inclusive application process. These were the original pieces of work and the Scottish Government, in conjunction with the Public Boards and Corporate Diversity Programme Board and stakeholders as part of its ongoing improvement programme are ensuring that action taken will form a meaningful and sustainable change.