Chamber and committees

I understand that FETA is convening a working group to discuss the issue of crossings by high-sided vehicles and other unusual loads during high winds. That group will include representatives from the City of Edinburgh and Fife Councils, Lothian and Borders and Fife Constabularies, and Transport Scotland.

There are a variety of factors that can impact on traffic flows on the Forth Road Bridge, including school half-term, and other seasonal factors.

While it would be premature to come to conclusions about changes in traffic flows due to the abolition of bridge tolls, initial analysis shows that overall average weekday traffic flows across the bridge have increased by around 1% from pre toll levels. Indications are that northbound only traffic flows increased by almost 3%, with southbound traffic flows showing a slight decrease over the same period.

However, the wheelchair and seating services project team will look at the way in which wheelchair waiting times information is gathered throughout Scotland, and will work with the service managers to introduce a unified approach to the collection of meaningful and transparent data.

Following the Scottish Orthotic Services Review, a short-life working group, the Scottish Orthotic Review Recommendations Implementation Group has been established and a national project manager has been appointed. The project manager will work closely with NHS boards to introduce a unified approach to the collection of meaningful and transparent data.

I will shortly meet with the Royal College of Speech Language Therapists to discuss their Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) in Scotland campaign, when the future delivery of AAC services will be discussed.

This is under the heading: National Group Information and Minutes.

The project team are reviewing the national eligibility criteria in developing an action plan by December 2008, for my approval, for the modernisation and redesign of NHS wheelchairs and seating services.

I have established a project board and have appointed a project manager to drive forward the modernisation and re-design of wheelchair and seating services. The project team will produce an action plan by December 2008, for my approval, identifying the recommendations of the review that best meet the needs of users and carers. Wheelchair provision that meets the particular needs of children, young people and adults, will be considered as part of that process.

Wheelchair service providers have been active in encouraging wheelchair manufacturers to develop lightweight models of wheelchairs at a reasonable cost to NHS Scotland. Those models are being used in wheelchair fleets throughout Scotland.