Chamber and committees

The NHS Care Environment Inspectorate will provide robust, external inspection of NHS facilities, including unannounced visits. This is intended to enhance safety, assurance and public confidence.

Following a period of consultation which closed on 12 December 2008, the NHS Care Environment Inspectorate is now being established with the intent that it will be operational from April 2009. Accordingly, there have been no inspections since November 2008.

The information requested is set out in the following table. Part (a) shows the latest estimate of working age population (males aged 16 to 64 and females aged 16 to 59) by local authority. Part (b) shows the latest statistics on the number of staff employed by each local authority. This includes both full-time and part-time staff.

Care should be taken when comparing local authority staff levels to the working age population as some members of local authority staff may work beyond standard working age.

Table 1: Working Age Population, Local Authority Staff and Ratio of Staff to Working Age Population by Local Authority

Local Authority	(a) Size of Working Age Population (2007)	(b) Staff Employed Local Authority (Head Count) 2008 (Q3)	(c) Ratio of Staff to Working Age Population
Aberdeen City	138,793	11,492	1 in 12
Aberdeenshire	148,042	13,831	1 in 11
Angus	64,938	5,765	1 in 11
Argyll and Bute	54,002	5,271	1 in 10
Clackmannanshire	31,176	2,869	1 in 11
Dumfries and Galloway	86,138	8,214	1 in 10
Dundee City	88,929	8,267	1 in 11
East Ayrshire	73,746	6,789	1 in 11
East Dunbartonshire	63,129	4,935	1 in 13
East Lothian	56,129	4,902	1 in 11
East Renfrewshire	53,078	4,796	1 in 11
Edinburgh, City of	318,108	20,116	1 in 16
Eilean Siar	15,354	2,559	1 in 6
Falkirk	94,225	8,010	1 in 12
Fife	222,954	22,454	1 in 10
Glasgow City	388,537	31,841	1 in 12
Highland	132,067	12,726	1 in 10
Inverclyde	49,996	4,760	1 in 11
Midlothian	48,666	4,734	1 in 10
Moray	52,615	5,121	1 in 10
North Ayrshire	82,188	7,454	1 in 11
North Lanarkshire	204,418	17,884	1 in 11
Orkney Islands	11,937	2,137	1 in 6
Perth and Kinross	84,773	6,084	1 in 14
Renfrewshire	106,034	8,844	1 in 12
Scottish Borders	65,745	5,774	1 in 11
Shetland Islands	13,425	3,825	1 in 4
South Ayrshire	66,165	5,654	1 in 12
South Lanarkshire	192,773	15,795	1 in 12
Stirling	54,367	4,440	1 in 12
West Dunbartonshire	57,287	6,266	1 in 9
West Lothian	106,858	8,419	1 in 13

Source:(a) General Register Office for Scotland “ Mid Year Population Estimates (June 2007).

(b) Scottish Government “ Joint Staffing Watch Survey “ Quarter 3 2008 (September 2008).

From 1 October 2008 to 31 December 2008 (the last three full months for which data is available), Health Protection Scotland is provisionally aware of 14 cases of Meningitis B infection. This compares to 16 cases of meningitis B from 1 October 2007 to 31 December 2007.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-20355 on 5 February 2009. 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.

For information relating to outsourced cleaning and catering contracts, I refer the member to answers to questions S3W-17133 and S3W-17134 on 5 November 2008.

Information on other contracted out services is not held centrally. NHS boards are responsible for the tendering of contracts for services and the information broken down by hospital can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

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.

The number of meningitis B cases reported to Health Protection Scotland (HPS) each year from 1999 is set out in the following table. Figures reflect the number of reported cases of meningitis B to the end of December each year.

Number of Meningitis B cases reported to HPS

Year
1999	105
2000	117
2001	106
2002	62
2003	86
2004	68
2005	66
2006	63
2007	73
2008*	57

Note: *2008 data is still provisional and may be subject to change.

The basis of the decision acknowledges the key role that cleaning and other services play in the delivery of clinical services. The Scottish Government therefore believes that NHS Scotland staff should be responsible for the direct delivery of these services thus removing or reducing scope for complexity at the interface between contractor and the NHS.

It is clear that when cleaning services are provided by NHS staff, it is easier to manage them and they can be better integrated. That means better patient care, a more seamless joining up of services and the ability to vary such services within hospitals, particularly cleaning services, when required.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-17133 on 5 November 2008. 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.

All other NHS hospitals are cleaned by in-house teams.

The basis of the decision was to ensure better patient care, a more seamless joining up of services and the ability to vary cleaning and other services within hospitals when required. Our health boards are responsible for demonstrating value for money through sharing best practice, benchmarking with others and delivering on performance targets. The main cost element in the provision of cleaning services is staff and for some time now the rates of pay and other terms and conditions whether provided in house are broadly comparable.

I refer the member to answer to question S3W-16361 on 25 September 2008, for more detailed information. 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.

Cost has therefore not been a key driver behind this development.

As I made clear in my statement to the Parliament on 21 May 2008 when I launched the Smoking Prevention Action Plan Scotland''s Future is Smoke-free which is based on the recommendations of the Smoking Prevention Working Group, the Scottish Government proposes to establish a research and evaluation framework to assess the impact the measures proposed within the action plan. This will form part of the wider tobacco control research and evaluation programme which is being developed by the standing sub-group of the Scottish Ministerial Working Group on Tobacco Control, which is being set up under the chairmanship of Dr Laurence Gruer, Director of Public Health Science, NHS Health Scotland. The primary purposes of this sub-group will be to review and make full use of existing research, identify gaps in research knowledge and evaluation practice in Scotland, and to make recommendations for a programme of activity to fill these gaps. The need for further research relating to the extent of use by young people of smuggled or personally-imported tobacco will be considered as part of that process.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/05/19144342/0.