Chamber and committees

The Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 (the Act) is the statutory framework for charities operating in Scotland. The Act is reviewed regularly as part of the Scottish Government’s formal and informal engagement with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR). OSCR submits an annual report to Scottish Ministers and the recommendations in the report have consistently been of a minor technical nature and in the main were addressed in the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 (part 9). Where necessary, secondary legislation has been enacted to address other matters and update the legislation. The Act provides OSCR with wide ranging and powers to make enquiries into charities and charity trustees in cases of apparent misconduct and to take remedial or protective action in relation to such misconduct.

The Scottish Government wants to ensure the existing legislation and framework for self-regulation of fundraising practices is sufficient to protect public confidence and trust in charities on Scotland. We want to make sure no-one can prey on the most vulnerable people in our society and that we can continue to place our trust in our charitable sector. That is why we have asked Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, working with OSCR and others, to carry out an informal review to establish whether the legislation relating to fundraising in Scotland, is effectively protecting the vulnerable.

The findings of the review will be reported to Scottish Ministers by the early autumn for consideration and any changes to the existing fundraising controls will be tailored to suit the needs of the people of Scotland.

As I announced in March 2015, the Scottish Government is committing a further £2 million to complement the fundraising efforts of Prostate Scotland. This will be offered to NHS boards to help purchase two further robots, which will facilitate the introduction of robot assisted prostate cancer surgery in the east and west of Scotland within the next two years.

This significant investment will be offered to NHS boards from April 2016, to complement the funds being raised by Prostate Scotland through their Blue Horizon appeal. We continue to work in partnership with NHS boards and Prostate Scotland to develop our plans.

This funding commitment follows on from the Scottish Government’s contribution of £1 million to support UCAN, the urological cancer charity in the north east, to help NHS Grampian purchase a robot to be located in Aberdeen. This robot is expected to be operational by October 2015.

Unscheduled care is a key priority for the Scottish Government and we want all acute sites across Scotland, including the South Glasgow University Hospital (SGUH), to sustainably achieve 95% of all patients attending A&E to been seen, treated and discharged or admitted with four hours.

The transfer of services across to the new SGUH has been one of the largest and most complex ever undertaken anywhere in the UK, and while planned and scheduled services have continued to operate well throughout the migration period it was agreed between NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and the Scottish Government that national additional support would be provided. The Scottish Government support team started on site on 15 June 2015 and have worked closely with local teams during the two week period to 26 June 2015 embedding and developing working practices for the new site quickly and effectively, supporting improvements -performance in the week ending 21 June 2015 was 89.6%, an improvement of over 11 percentage points since week ending 14 June 2015.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has also appointed a local unscheduled care team to progress the unscheduled care six essential actions, which I launched in May 2015. The national team will work with the local team to help accelerate implementation of the new six essential actions approach to sustainably improving unscheduled care and ensuring best practice is installed throughout the hospital system. These actions, which aim to minimise long waits in A&E and assessment units, by improving patient flow throughout all areas of the hospital and in the community, have already underpinned improvements in other sites, for example the Royal Alexandria Hospital, which saw performance reach 94.7% in the week ending 21 June 2015.

The expert support group started on site at the new South Glasgow University Hospital on 15 June 2015 for two weeks. The formal support ended on 26 June 2015, the team will however maintain a high level surveillance approach over the next few weeks.

The support team has worked in mutual partnership with local staff in the South Glasgow University Hospital over the last two weeks embedding and developing working practices for the new site quickly and effectively, supporting improvements. The local management team have driven forward changes and worked in collaboration with the support team, promoting ownership and sustainability at a clinical level. Performance against the four hour target has improved by 11 percentage points since week ending 14 June 2015 to 89.6% in the week ending 21 June 2015.

The information requested is a matter for Police Scotland. I have alerted the chief constable to your question and I have asked him to write to you.

Where and when to conduct searches is an operational matter for Police Scotland.

The information requested is a matter for Police Scotland. I have alerted the chief constable to your question and I have asked him to write to you.

The information requested is a matter for Police Scotland. I have alerted the chief constable to your question and I have asked him to write to you.

Where and when to conduct searches is an operational matter for Police Scotland. I have alerted the chief constable to your question and I have asked him to write to you.

The information requested is a matter for Police Scotland. I have alerted the chief constable to your question and I have asked him to write to you.