Chamber and committees

The National Chronic Pain Steering Group was formed as an expert advisory group to inform policy development. It is not a public body and therefore not required to be regulated by the Public Appointments Commissioner for Scotland.

As advised in my response of 29 January 2013, the National Chronic Pain Steering Group is a multidisciplinary expert group convened by the Scottish Government. Membership for the group was invited from healthcare professionals and relevant stakeholders with an interest in informing policy to improve services for people living with chronic pain in Scotland.

As noted in my response of 29 January 2013, the Scottish Chronic Pain Steering Group was convened by the Scottish Government to inform and develop policy and oversee the work programme to support NHS boards in developing chronic pain services. The group comprises a range of clinicians from across NHSScotland with appropriate patient and voluntary sector representation. The Scottish Government is represented on the membership. The group is supported by Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

The Scottish Government has been consistent in our opposition to the way in which welfare reforms are being implemented by the Westminster Government and is discussing with key stakeholders how to help tenants cope with them.

We are very sympathetic to the difficulties that some tenants will find themselves in as a result of these reforms but in the interests of tenants themselves, we cannot advocate placing tenants in situations where they cannot afford to pay off debts to their landlords. We are also concerned that if tenants do not pay their rent in full, landlords will lose a significant proportion of the income they rely on to provide services to all of their tenants.

The Scottish Government has already strengthened the protection for tenants in Scotland against eviction for rent arrears. From 1 August 2012 we brought pre-action requirements for rent arrears into force to ensure that eviction is a last resort.

<>The Societal Cost of Alcohol Misuse in Scotland for 2007, which was published in January 2010, can be found on the Scottish Government’s website via the following link http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/12/29122804/0. This is the most recent publication on estimating the annual cost of alcohol misuse in Scotland and uses a cost of illness approach. The study includes estimates of the relevant direct, indirect and intangible costs associated with alcohol misuse, and covers the following categories: health care, social care, crime, productive capacity of the Scottish economy, wider social costs.

The total cost to the health service in Scotland for 2007 is estimated to be in the range of £143.6 million to £392.8 million annually with a midpoint estimate of £267.8 million.

Section 5 in the study provides further detail on the costs to healthcare services.

The Societal Cost of Alcohol Misuse in Scotland for 2007, which was published in January 2010, can be found on the Scottish Government’s website via the following link:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/12/29122804/0. This is the most recent publication on estimating the annual cost of alcohol misuse in Scotland and uses a cost of illness approach.

The study includes estimates of the relevant direct, indirect and intangible costs associated with alcohol misuse, and covers the following categories: health care, social care, crime, productive capacity of the Scottish economy, wider social costs.

The total societal cost of alcohol misuse in Scotland for 2007 is estimated to be in the range of £2,476.6 million to £4,635.4 million annually with a midpoint estimate of £3,555.7 million.

The Scottish Government’s priorities for reducing health problems caused by alcohol misuse are set out in Changing Scotland's Relationship with Alcohol: A Framework for Action which is available on the following link

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/03/04144703/0.

This Framework details a broad approach which focuses on education, diversionary activity, support for families and communities, and preventive public health measures such as alcohol brief interventions. There are 41 measures in the Framework, including legislative measures such as minimum unit pricing. We believe this wider package will help to create the cultural shift required to change our relationship with alcohol.

In February 2012 we published a progress report on our Framework for Action. This outlines the progress that we have made against each of these measures and outlines some of our future programmes of work and the next steps that we are taking in our fight against alcohol misuse in Scotland. This is available at

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0038/00388540.pdf.

Scottish Government action to help mitigate housing benefit changes is set out at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/16342/hbreform/sg

This includes: work with COSLA and wider stakeholders to seek influence DWP’s policies; extensive analysis to promote understanding of the reforms and their implications; and £160,000 funding for support, training and guidance to help local authorities and social landlords prepare for the changes.

We have also invested more widely to protect households affected by welfare reforms in 2013-14. We are providing an additional £9.2 million funding for the Scottish Welfare Fund (the devolved Social Fund). We and our partners in local government will commit a total of £40 million to ensure that vulnerable people in Scotland currently receiving Council Tax Benefit are protected from the 10% cut in funding imposed by the UK Government for Council Tax successor arrangements. We are also providing a £5.4 million funding package for advice and support services which will go to directly towards helping people and families in Scotland better understand and cope with these changes.

The Minister for Housing and Welfare last met UK Government Ministers in London on 16 December 2012. Discussions centred around the direct payment of Housing Benefit to tenants and whether the discretion afforded to the Northern Ireland assembly – to continue to pay housing benefit to landlords – could be extended to Scotland.

The Department for Work and Pensions reports the following amounts of housing benefit were paid to Scottish landlords during 2011-12:

Local Authorities: £674 million

Housing Associations: £608 million

Private Landlords: £446 million

The source for this information can be found at the following website address:

http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd4/h_tables_budget_2012_300812.xls.