Chamber and committees

I am pleased to announce that today the Scottish Government is publishing its summary report on the responses to Strengthening for the Future: consultation on the reform of the Children''s Hearings system. The document is available on the Scottish Government website at:

www.scotland.gov.uk/childrens-hearings-bill.

Copies of the report have been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 47908).

We are grateful to everyone who responded to the Strengthening for the Future consultation. We have carefully listened to the responses and taken the time to adapt our policy to more closely address the concerns and issues raised.

A locally delivered, nationally supported children''s hearing system that provides streamlined and strengthened support for Scotland''s most vulnerable children is our aim. The key proposals which we are bringing forward are:

Panel Members will benefit from more consistent support and training in order to make the important decisions that can have such a positive effect on children''s lives.

A new body, the Scottish Children''s Hearings Tribunal, will be responsible for all functions associated with the Children''s Panel, including recruitment, selection and training of panel members. The Tribunal will be led by a president who will have the power to work with volunteers to exercise its key functions.

People who wish to volunteer to become panel members will continue to be recruited, selected, trained and sit on hearings on a local basis.

The Scottish Children''s Reporter Administration will continue to deliver the Children''s Reporters service.

The management and provision of Safeguarders will remain with local authorities.

The procedural changes proposed in the consultation, such as providing an option to speed up the process for establishing grounds where child is too young or incapable of understanding them, will be taken forward.

We intend to introduce the Children''s Hearing Bill to the Scottish Parliament in the autumn.

The timing of the conclusion of the European Commission''s investigation on support for ferry services in Scotland is a matter for the commission. However, I understand from recent discussions that the commission anticipates making a final decision on this investigation by September 2009.

The NHS General Medical Services Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2004 provide that health boards shall require or authorise a GP practice to dispense prescribed items to a patient where the health board are satisfied that the patient will have serious difficulty in obtaining such items from a pharmacist.

Where a health board subsequently decides to approve the opening of a pharmacy in an area served by such a GP practice, they will require to consider the issue again, in line with these regulations. The regulations do not require that the practice must cease dispensing.

Scottish ministers have heard representations from Farming industry representatives seeking support for the collection and disposal of fallen sheep in Scotland at lambing time next year. Ministers are currently considering their response.

No estimate has been made by Scottish ministers of the cost of maintaining a national scheme for dealing with fallen stock. A variety of commercial disposal routes are available to farmers in most parts of Scotland, such as rendering or incineration, or collection by a knackery or hunt kennel. Farmers can also join the National Fallen Stock Company, which operates through existing collectors throughout mainland Scotland. Where a commercial collection service is not available, such as on most Scottish islands, flexibilities exist within the regulations to permit on farm disposal by burial or open burning.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-22259 on 9 April 2009. Support offered through the Scottish Community and Householder Renewable Initiative (SCHRI) will not cease, but will run under two distinct programmes from April 2009.

The householder stream will continue to operate as it does at the moment but under the new banner of Energy Saving Scotland “ home renewables, while the community stream will operate under the new name of the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES). The decision to separate support through SCHRI reflects the distinct needs of the different customer groups, and allows the individual delivery bodies to focus on the areas where they have the greatest expertise.

Household grant support through the Energy Saving Scotland “ home renewables will continue to be managed on our behalf by the Energy Saving Trust (EST) in Scotland. EST already report to my officials quarterly on the performance of the household grant scheme and this will not change as a result of the re-branding. These reports will be reviewed quarterly against current demand for the scheme, and against the formal annual evaluation of the EST programmes, to see if there has been an impact as a result of the changes to permitted development rights. Should significant changes in demand be experienced, further evaluation would be carried out to ascertain the cause.

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.

No representations have been received by the Scottish Government from veterinary surgeons or agricultural bodies regarding the Scottish Agricultural College''s Thurso Disease Surveillance Centre. Correspondence was received from two MSPs.

The Thurso Disease Surveillance Centre is not a Scottish Government facility but is part of the Scottish Agricultural College''s (SAC) network of veterinary laboratories. SAC are a private company limited by guarantee.

Due to the specialist nature of this post, in a remote part of Scotland, recruitment of a suitably trained and experienced veterinary surgeon is difficult. Recognising this challenge SAC moved rapidly to secure the services of two local veterinary practitioners who have been contracted to provide an uninterrupted service. An agreement has been reached with the local veterinary practice, DS McGregor and Partners, to ensure that appropriately trained vets will continue to provide a post mortem service from SAC''s existing Janetstown premises, laboratory samples will also be sent to Thurso from other parts of Scotland to supplement this work.

Veterinary officials are satisfied that these arrangements will meet the requirements of the Scottish Government''s surveillance programme and will continue to monitor the situation.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-22259 on 9 April 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.

The Scottish Government is managing a smooth transition from the Communities support in the Scottish Community and Householder Renewables Initiative (SCHRI) to the new Communities and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) to prevent disruption to applications or projects in the pipeline. There will be no closure or cessation of support. The CARES contract is due to be awarded on 14 April and CARES will take effect from that date.