Chamber and committees

Under Section 25 of the Water Industry (Scotland) Act 2002, Scottish Water can engage in any activity which it considers is not inconsistent with the economic, efficient and effective exercise of its core functions. Scottish Water can therefore write off debt and it does so in accordance with the debt write off policies of local authorities.

The total cost of billing and collection of unmeasured household charges via the 32 local authorities across Scotland was £14.06 million in 2008-09. Each local authority is paid a set amount for the billing and collection of water charges for every domestic property in their area, irrespective of its property valuation band.

The Scottish Government has already responded to Waterwatch Scotland about this report on 10 September 2008. Following consultation in 2008 the Scottish Government''s policy on water and sewerage charges for the 2010-15 period was set out in its Principles of Charging Statement which was published on 27 October 2009.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-30648 on 26 January 2010 for further details of that policy. 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/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Scottish Water accrued £17 million for household bad debt in 2008-09. This is not broken down across property valuation bands.

The Scottish Government''s policy on water and sewerage charges for the 2010-15 period was set out in its Principles of Charging Statement which was published on 27 October 2009.

The Statement sets out the Scottish Government''s policy of charge caps that are affordable and do not rise above inflation across the period. It explicitly requires the bandings for household water and sewerage charges to replicate council tax bandings, with reductions on water and sewerage charges also mirroring the discounts that apply to council tax. It also provides for those in receipt of council tax benefit to receive up to 25% discount on their charges if they receive no other reduction or discount.

 These measures to secure the affordability of water for low income households in Scotland can be compared positively to the rest of Great Britain where average household charges are greater than in Scotland, where charges are increasing at a greater rate over the next five years, where there is no mirroring of council tax reductions and where those on council tax benefit are not eligible for a discount.

The full details of the statement can be viewed at:

www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/917/0088612.pdf.

The Scottish Government is providing an extra £4.19 million to local authorities on top of the overall settlement to enable local authorities to deliver in full by 2010-11 the commitment in the concordat to progress towards delivering 10,000 extra respite weeks. This additional funding is being provided to local authorities in 2009-10 and 2010-11.

The whole 2010-11 local government finance settlement is provisional until the Parliament approves both the overall 2010-11 Scottish Budget Bill and the Local Government Finance Order 2010.

The allocations for 2009-10 and 2010-11, broken down by authority, are provided in the following table:

Additional Allocation to Deliver 10,000 Additional Respite Weeks (additional to Concordat Funding for this Commitment) (£ Million)

Local Authority	2009-10	2010-11
Aberdeen City	0.053	0.109
Aberdeenshire	0.056	0.116
Angus	0.031	0.065
Argyll and Bute	0.027	0.055
Clackmannanshire	0.012	0.026
Dumfries and Galloway	0.044	0.092
Dundee City	0.044	0.089
East Ayrshire	0.033	0.069
East Dunbartonshire	0.025	0.051
East Lothian	0.026	0.053
East Renfrewshire	0.021	0.044
Edinburgh (City of)	0.118	0.242
Eilean Siar	0.009	0.018
Falkirk	0.039	0.080
Fife	0.098	0.203
Glasgow City	0.165	0.332
Highland	0.057	0.118
Inverclyde	0.024	0.049
Midlothian	0.020	0.041
Moray	0.023	0.047
North Ayrshire	0.038	0.079
North Lanarkshire	0.082	0.168
Orkney Islands	0.006	0.012
Perth and Kinross	0.040	0.083
Renfrewshire	0.045	0.092
Scottish Borders	0.032	0.065
Shetland Islands	0.006	0.012
South Ayrshire	0.034	0.070
South Lanarkshire	0.081	0.168
Stirling	0.022	0.045
West Dunbartonshire	0.026	0.053
West Lothian	0.035	0.074
Scotland	1.370	2.820

 

The implementation of Better Cancer Care: An Action Plan is overseen by the Scottish Cancer Taskforce. A number of sub groups have been established to take forward specific elements of the plan, including the Chemotherapy Advisory Group, the Scottish Radiotherapy Advisory Group, the Living with Cancer Group and the National Cancer Quality Steering Group. Each sub group provides an update of its progress at each Scottish Cancer Taskforce meeting and to date the taskforce has met five times.

A detailed work plan has been developed by the Scottish Cancer Taskforce to monitor implementation of the commitments set out in Better Cancer Care. The four sub groups also have individual detailed work plans to outline the activities they are undertaking to deliver their specific work streams.

More information on the work of the Scottish Cancer Taskforce and its constituent groups is available on the Scottish Government website at www.scotland.gov.uk/bettercancercare.

It is not possible to undertake such an assessment as funding of services for individuals is primarily the responsibility of NHS boards to plan, in light of the needs of their resident population. NHS boards allocate funding to services based on these needs from the unified budgets which are made available to them from the Scottish Executive.

It is not within the remit of the Scottish Chemotherapy Advisory Group to assess geographical variations in the use of Scottish Medicines Consortium approved drugs. The remit of the group is to ensure that cancer medicines are delivered within a safe and quality assured framework.

A chief executive letter is currently being drafted which outlines how NHS boards should approach the introduction of newly licensed medicines into NHS Scotland and it will be the responsibility of boards to ensure this new guidance is implemented.

There are currently no plans to publish a specific annual report on the implementation of Better Cancer Care: An Action Plan. The NHSScotland Chief Executive''s Annual Report, last published on 4 December 2009, sets out the key areas of progress on implementing the national programmes of work across NHSScotland, including Better Cancer Care.

A detailed work plan has been developed by the Scottish Cancer Taskforce to monitor implementation of the commitments set out in Better Cancer Care. The four sub groups, including Chemotherapy Advisory Group, Scottish Radiotherapy Advisory Group, Living with Cancer Group and National Cancer Quality Steering Group, have drawn up individual work plans to take forward specific elements of this workplan.

Significant progress has already been made in the areas of prevention, screening, early detection of cancer, referral and diagnosis, treatment, living with cancer, improving the quality of cancer care and delivery.

Updates on the work of the Scottish Cancer Taskforce and its constituent sub groups is published on a regular basis on the Scottish Government website, available at:

www.scotland.gov.uk/bettercancercare.