Chamber and committees

From 2007 to date the Scottish Government has committed £3.9 million to fund projects aimed at tackling the gender pay gap and occupational segregation.

Under the public sector equality duty in the Equality Act 2010, the Scottish Government introduced a specific duty to place a requirement on relevant public authorities to publish gender pay gap information and statements on equal pay.

The devolution of equality and employment law, as set out in our proposals to the Smith Commission, would enable us to introduce further measures to reduce the gender pay gap.

The Scottish Government has prepared a ‘Frequently asked Questions’ document which has been published on the NHS Inform website.

http://www.nhsinform.co.uk/behind-the-headlines/special-reports/2014/06/~/media/NHSinform/BehindTheHeadlines/VaginalMesh_June2014_PDF.ashx

Advice to women who already have implants is as follows.

For the majority of women, tapes and meshes result in a successful treatment of stress urinary incontinence and prolapses respectively. However, if a woman has adverse symptoms or problems that she thinks might be due to her surgery, it is important that she should talk to her GP for onward referral to an appropriate specialist who has experience with tape or mesh complications.

Information is available on the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) website or from the relevant professional bodies (British Association of Urological Surgeons and British Society of Urogynaecology).

Women experiencing problems should go back to their implanting surgeon or see their GP for onward referral to an appropriate clinician. They should also report their problems to the MHRA, with as much detail as possible about the device involved. The patient should be referred to a centre that specialises in operating on complex cases.

The Chief Medical Officer has written to all GPs, through Medical Directors, on 11 July 2013, 20 December 2013 and on 2 June 2014 regarding the investigation and management of patients with vaginal mesh and tape products.

An expert group, chaired by the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, is developing new pathways of care for women experiencing complications and may require complex surgery.

The Task and Finish Group report provided to me and published by the Health and Sport Committee covered the issue of timescales for the new approach. The report set out that where the Patient and Clinician Engagement (PACE) step is invoked it would require a ‘pause’ in the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) process of less than three months, which the Task and Finish Group noted was quicker than the resubmission process following ‘not recommended’ advice. I asked Healthcare Improvement Scotland to implement this new approach as recommended in the report and this is therefore the timescale SMC are working to with regard to the PACE step. The first decisions from this new process are expected in autumn 2014.

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) does not operate on the basis of having a waiting list for submissions. The Task and Finish Group report provided to me and published by the Health and Sport Committee noted that the SMC should engage with health boards and Area Drug and Therapeutics Committees to determine which medicines should have priority on resubmission according to patient needs. The SMC has agreed their approach with pharmaceutical industry representatives.

As set out in the Task and Finish Group report provided to me and published by the Health and Sport Committee, the Patient and Clinician Engagement (PACE) step is an option where the New Drugs Committee’s draft advice for an eligible medicine is not recommended. The pharmaceutical company will then be offered the opportunity to request a PACE meeting. At this point the pharmaceutical company will also have the option to submit a new or revised Patient Access Scheme (PAS) aimed at improving the cost-effectiveness of the medicine. A company may decide to offer a new or revised PAS and proceed to the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) meeting for a decision without invoking the PACE step. Submissions from pharmaceutical companies received after noon on 7 April 2014 are eligible for this approach with the first decisions from this new process expected in autumn 2014. As set out in the Task and Finish Group report, whether the PACE process is invoked for a particular medicine is therefore not at the point of submission to the SMC but following consideration by the New Drugs Committee.

Details of all submissions made to the SMC can be accessed on the website as follows: http://www.scottishmedicines.org.uk/Home

The information requested is not collected and held centrally.

Employers are responsible for the training and continuous learning of their employees.

There is guidance and tools available to all employers in the social services sector which supports the identification, level and quality of training required for their employees. This includes the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) Code of Practice, National Occupational Standards (NOS), Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF); and the Continuous Learning Framework (CLF).

Bodies such as the SSSC, Skills for Care and Development, the sector skills council for the social services sector, Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (Care Inspectorate) and the Scottish Qualifications Authority amongst others, support employers in training their workforce.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-21953 on 21 July 2014. 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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

There are several different funding streams available to people undertaking education and training.

The Scottish Social Services Council has produced guidance on funding and support for training. The guidance provides information on sources of funding available to assist with the cost of undertaking qualifications.

If eligible, students can apply for a part-time fee grant from the Student Awards Agency for Scotland. The level of the tuition fee will be pro-rata on the number of Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework credits the student takes. To qualify for this funding, the student should have an individual income of £25,000 a year or less.

A new simplified higher education student support package as part of the Post 16 Education Reform Programme was introduced in 2013-14 for full time students undertaking a course of higher education.

Section 6 of the Scottish Government’s draft Scottish Independence Bill, which was published for consultation on 16 June 2014, provides that the territory of Scotland, in the event of independence, would continue to consist of all the land, islands, internal waters and territorial sea that form the territory of Scotland at present. This is in accordance with widely-accepted principles of international law.