Chamber and committees

The word Sexmas was used in one image as part of last year''s digital public health information drive to reduce rates of sexually transmitted diseases in Scotland, and absolutely no offence was intended. The word is not used in any of this year''s material.

None. The Scottish Government works with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) on an ongoing basis on the development of legislation affecting the environment. A good number of environmental regulations are introduced to implement European legislation. We also have regular discussions with SEPA on its Better Environmental Regulation programme that focuses on options to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of environmental regulation and to reduce the regulatory impact on businesses. SEPA has recently issued a consultation paper on options for moving from separate environmental regulations for air, water, waste and radioactive substances to a simpler, integrated model.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-38225 on 16 December 2010. 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.

At present, all childhood vaccinations are procured by the Department of Health on behalf of the four UK administrations. To date this process has always worked well and Scotland benefits significantly from this arrangement. While the possibility of a separate Scottish procurement process is something that we would always keep under review, there are currently no plans to adopt such an approach for the next HPV vaccine procurement exercise.

The Scottish Government meets the cost of all HPV vaccine used in Scotland as part of the national programme. The Department of Health currently procures the HPV vaccine on behalf of the UK administrations. NHS boards in Scotland ordered HPV vaccine stock from the central supply procured and held by the Department of Health. The Scottish Government is invoiced for the vaccines orders and reimburses the Department of Health accordingly.

Scottish Government officials are in regular contact with counterparts within the Department of Health on all vaccination policy matters, including the retendering process for the HPV vaccine.

The Department of Health has commissioned an update to the cost-effective modelling for the HPV vaccine. This model is taking into account new data on the potential protection provided by HPV vaccine against cancer and non-cancer diseases. This model will support the next procurement exercise for the HPV immunisation programme.

There will be no sexual health campaign of that name. It is important, however, that young people get the right advice on sexual health issues at this time of year, when we know high risk behaviour takes place. We will, therefore, be refreshing and enhancing existing online sexual health information and advice over the festive period.

The provision of ambulance services in specific localities across Scotland is the responsibility of the Scottish Ambulance Service.

The Healthcare Environment Inspectorate (HEI) inspection report on the Queen Margaret Hospital raised some serious issues and also identified some important areas of good practice. NHS Fife accepted the findings of the report and identified a series of actions to be taken which were outlined in its improvement plan, which also detailed timescales for action. Unannounced follow up inspections will ensure improvements are made.