Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has been informed of no finalised settlement agreements since the requirement to consult was introduced on 1 April 2014. We have undertaken to report annually to Parliament on settlement agreements reached.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4O-02994 on 12 March 2014. The answer to the oral parliamentary question is available on the Parliaments website, the Official Report can be viewed at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28862.aspx?r=9016

I welcome the draft European Tobacco Products Directive, which was adopted by the Council of Ministers on 14 March 2014. This sets out a number of measures for the regulation of electronic cigarettes, such as subjecting non-medical devices to the same advertising restrictions as tobacco products. Member states will have to implement the provisions by May 2016. We are also committed to considering what additional measures may be required in Scotland to further protect public health, such as restricting age of sale for electronic cigarettes.

There are currently no plans to amend the Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) Act 2005 to cover e-cigarettes.

An expert working group, chaired by the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, has been set up to address the issues affecting women who have undergone transvaginal mesh surgery. The group is developing:

A revised patient information and consent booklet that will then go into use in NHSScotland, to be given to women considering undergoing a vaginal mesh tape procedure for stress urinary incontinence.

New care pathways for those women who decide to go ahead with a mesh procedure and for those who have suffered complications.

A strengthened process for adverse incident reporting.

The Scottish Government has no plans to directly notify patients.

The Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Chief Medical Officer wrote to all NHS boards and Medical Directors on 10 April 2013, 11 July 2013 and 20 December 2013 regarding the investigation and management of patients being treated for urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse, including the management of patients with vaginal mesh and tape products.

Although there are some broadly comparable features in the Swedish and Scottish labour markets, it should be noted that female participation is affected by a range of matters and not just the nature of the labour market.

However, we are clear that there is consistent and robust evidence across a range of international comparators that supports the argument for a significant link between affordable childcare and higher maternal employment rates.

The Scottish Government has already committed to significant spend on childcare. Through the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act, we have committed more than a quarter of a billion pounds (£280m) to expand funded, quality childcare from 12.5 hours to almost 16 hours a week for three and four year olds and around 15% of two year olds from August 2014, rising to around 27% of 2 year olds from August 2015.

In addition, in Scotland’s Future we set out our plans for the first Parliament after independence. In our first budget after independence we will commit £100 million to extend 600 hours of childcare a year to nearly half of Scotland’s two year olds. By the end of the first Parliament these two years olds and all three and four year olds will be entitled to 1,140 hours of childcare a year, with a further investment of £600 million.

The SPICe figure of £1.2 billion to deliver our childcare policy in full is a high level estimate and is not based on a detailed assessment of the service model or detailed figures for costs.

The Scottish Government has assessed the evidence base setting out the links between childcare and female labour force participation. In a recent report from the European Commission, among mothers in the UK citing childcare as a barrier to working full-time, over 70% say it is because of the costs.

In Scotland’s Future we set out our plans for the first Parliament after independence. In our first budget after independence we will commit £100 million to extend 600 hours of childcare a year to nearly half of Scotland’s two year olds. By the end of the first Parliament these two years olds and all three and four year olds will be entitled to 1,140 hours of childcare a year, with a further investment of £600 million.

By providing access to both sides of the balance sheet, independence also provides the opportunity to reinvest higher revenues from improved economic activity back into expanding childcare provision.

As set out on page 195 of Scotland’s Future, we will undertake a review of our cost structure, based on international examples, to ensure that our future investment in early learning and childcare achieves the best possible outcomes.

The Scottish Government publishes long-term trend data on key fire statistics on an annual basis. The latest figures, containing trend data on the number of fatal casualties in primary fires by location for the financial years 1999-00 to 2012-13, were published as an additional dataset to the Fire Statistics Scotland 2012-13 publication (published 8 October 2013). The additional dataset can be found at the following link:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/Datasets/FireStatCas .

The data provides the number of fire fatalities by building type. Whilst the recording category ‘residential premises’ does not exist within the Fire and Rescue Service’s Incident Recording System, the data reports the number of fatalities which occurred at ‘dwelling’ and ‘other building’ fires. These will include fire fatalities at residential premises. Whilst ‘dwelling’ fires are exclusively residential, ‘other building’ fires will include some fires at non-residential buildings. As such, it cannot be assumed that all fatalities in ‘other building’ fires occurred in residential premises.