Chamber and committees

Research has shown that the presence of ranunculus may be detrimental to freshwater pearl mussels, particularly where the roots of the plant lead to a build-up of sediment which can smother the mussel beds. However, this is not well understood and other factors may be involved. A working group, involving the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Scottish Natural Heritage and representatives from the Dee, Don and Spey District Salmon Fishery Boards, are in the process of commissioning a good practice guide for river managers. In addition to this, the Spey Fishery Board has commissioned a review of the literature on the use of herbicides for the control of ranunculus.

The Scottish Government is determined to maximise tourism growth and draw more visitors to Scotland. A strategy of delivering themed years aims to support and drive Scotland’s tourism and events industries by appealing to both domestic and international markets.

There are opportunities for the whisky industry and distillery visitor centres to engage in these years. Next year is our second Year of Homecoming and food and drink is one of the five key themes underpinning the year. Whisky Month will be a month-long, country-wide celebration taking place throughout May 2014.

In 2015 the year will be designated the Year of Scotland’s Food and Drink and there are also opportunities in 2016 with the Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design and in 2017, the Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology.

In addition to this VisitScotland already work extensively with whisky attractions and retailers to help promote whisky tourism across Scotland, both as attractions in their own right and as an asset for further marketing of Scotland.

VisitScotland and the enterprise agencies, working in partnership with The Scotch Whisky Association and The Scotch Whisky Experience, supported the establishment of Scotlandwhisky.com, a dedicated site exploring where tourism and whisky can work together. This is addition to the dedicated whisky section on the VisitScotland website available using the url:

http://www.visitscotland.com/about/food-drink/whisky. Whisky content unique to each region is covered in articles within relevant regional sections of the site.

The Scottish Government welcomes the report by the Centre for Educational Sociology as it reinforces some of the key recommendations of the Careers IAG Strategy.

Given the timing of changes to the careers service however, this survey was carried out very early in the process, as highlighted by the Wood Commission’s interim report, for it to be able show the true impact of careers modernisation.

This will be fully assessed as part of the Education Scotland external reviews which will be taking place starting from April 2014 to quality assure the careers service and assess the impact it is having on building pupils career management skills.

While it is the business of each individual producer to decide what crops to grow, the Scottish Government (SG) supports the cultivation of Scottish cereal crops through the provision of a range of services, knowledge, training and advice to growers.

Industry research on wheat and barley is funded at a range of institutes and universities through our Rural Affairs and Environment research portfolio. In addition, the Scottish Government science and inspection divisions ensure that any seed used for planting cereal crops in Scotland is of high quality and that crops are free from quarantine pests. The Scottish Government also funds staff at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) to monitor commercially representative crops for pests, weeds and diseases.

The Scottish Government also funds demonstration farms and grower events to ensure effective knowledge exchange by all organisations involved in cereal crop research and monitoring. This includes SRUC publishing its results in grower reports, informing arable consultants, and updating farmers at grower meetings, open days and online. SRUC staff also support farmers by advising on the use and timing of appropriate cereal crop treatments with the aim to safe guard both yield and quality and building more resilience into the crop.

As the demand for Scotch whisky increases, it is important Scottish farmers recognise the opportunities this could bring them. By being market focussed, and providing the right quality of grain that whisky producers need, our farmers should be well placed to take advantage.

This administration was elected on a manifesto commitment to do more to widen access. In making this commitment, the government recognised that while there had been progress around bringing students from non-traditional backgrounds into higher education, the rate of increase was too slow.

The government has now included statutory widening access agreements in the Post-16 Education Act. This will place a statutory duty on our universities to do more to widen access, a duty that we have supported through our announcement in December 2012 to fund an extra 2089 places this year, including 727 places specifically for widening access students and 1020 for students articulating from college to university (a traditional widening access route).

The regulation of doctors in the UK is a reserved matter and is the statutory responsibility of the General Medical Council (GMC). The following data was provided by the GMC and is based on enquiries and cases between 2007 and 2012, where a Scottish territorial board area is recorded as the incident location. Data is not available against the requested criteria prior to 2007.

GMC fitness to practise procedures have a number of stages. Every concern raised with the GMC is initially assessed to decide if they need to carry out an investigation. This initial assessment is referred to as triage.

If the matter on the face of it, if proven, would require the GMC to take action then they would conduct a full investigation. This is referred to as stream 1.

If the matter on the face of it, if proven, would not in and of itself require the GMC to take action but might do so if part of a wider pattern of conduct or performance, the GMC write to the doctor’s employer and ask if there are any other concerns about the doctor. This is referred to as stream 2. 

Any case that does not fall into either of these categories is closed at the triage stage. At the end of a stream 1 investigation, two decision makers, one medical and one lay, referred to as case examiners, decide if the case needs to be referred to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) for a fitness to practise panel hearing. 

A significant proportion of cases are closed without further action at the triage stage, depending on the nature of the concerns raised.

A further proportion of cases are closed by the case examiners without further action following a full investigation. Case examiners can also issue a warning, agree undertakings (restrictions on a doctor’s registration) with a doctor or refer the case to the MPTS for a hearing.

 All sanctions on a doctor’s registration and warnings are published on the doctor’s record on the List of Registered Medical Practitioners on the GMC’s website.

(A glossary of terms is provided below.) 

Triage

In the period from 2007 to 2012 (inclusive), the GMC received 1426 enquiries relating to doctors in Scotland. An enquiry may relate to multiple doctors and a doctor may be the subject of multiple enquiries. The 1426 enquiries received related to 1661 doctors working in NHS Scotland territorial Health Board areas. These enquiries resulted in 2149 triages:

NB:

The large increase in 2012 for triages in Ayrshire and Arran, Fife and Greater Glasgow and Clyde is due to a larger than usual number of names being removed from local performers lists for administrative purposes. When NHS Scotland Boards remove doctors from their performers lists, the GMC is automatically notified and a triage created, but this does not require further action and is closed.

In Orkney in 2012, three enquiries led to 16 triages. One of those three enquiries led to the creation of 10 triages, all of which were subsequently closed without action.

Triage outcomes:

Fitness To Practise Panel hearings (FTP)

Annual FTP outcome totals by Board area

Annual FTP outcomes by Board area

Glossary of Terms

Sanction: A decision by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) fitness to practise panel that either restricts or removes a doctor’s registration.

Erasure: A sanction imposed by an MPTS fitness to practise panel to remove the name of the doctor from the List of Registered Medical Practitioners. This means the doctor cannot continue to practise medicine in the UK.

Suspension: A sanction imposed by an MPTS fitness to practise panel that removes a doctors right to practise for a specified period of time.

Condition: A sanction imposed by an MPTS fitness to practise panel that restricts a doctor’s registration.

Undertaking: A commitment given by the doctor to the MPTS fitness to practise panel to restrict their practise.

Warning: A warning may be issued to a doctor if the MPTS fitness to practise panel decides that the doctor’s fitness to practise is not impaired but there has been a significant departure from the principles set out in the GMC’s guidance for doctors, Good Medical Practice.

Findings of fact: The MPTS fitness to practise panel, once it has heard all the evidence, will decide whether the allegations have been found proved. Finding of impairment - when the MPTS fitness to practise panel has made findings of fact, they will then consider whether the doctor’s fitness to practise is impaired.

Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS); The MPTS is responsible for interim orders panel and fitness to practise panel hearings that make impartial decisions about doctors' fitness to practise. It is part of the GMC but is operationally separate from the GMC’s other functions.

The National Fraud Initiative (NFI) in Scotland is a counter-fraud exercise led by Audit Scotland and undertaken every two years. Audit Scotland assists the Auditor General in helping to ensure that public money is spent properly, efficiently and effectively. This role is independent of the Scottish Government and includes reporting in public and to the Scottish Parliament’s Public Audit Committee.

While the Scottish Government has a high degree of commitment to the National Fraud Initiative, as noted in the most recent published report available on the Audit Scotland website: http://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/work/nfi.php, it is not directly involved in the monitoring or reporting of its results.

The estimated outcomes from the National Fraud Initiative to the public purse since 2008, is valued at £50.6 million; detailed analysis is provided in each report. As highlighted in the 2012 report, “National Fraud Initiative overpayments are usually subject to the same recovery processes that apply to other debt. Most bodies do not keep separate records of NFI recoveries. Indeed, Audit Scotland would prefer that bodies devoted their resources to investigation work, rather than require them to record NFI amounts that are often recovered by frequent small payments over long periods of time.”

Audit Scotland therefore do not know how much money recorded as an overpayment (a) has been recovered and (b) is still to be paid back.

The information requested is not held centrally.

In the last year, two services from Edinburgh to Inverness have reduced journey times of 16 minutes by comparing the December 2011 timetable with the December 2012 timetable. Further journey time improvements are linked to future projects on the Highland Main Line.