Chamber and committees

Researchers can apply to the Chief Scientist Office for funding. The CSO's Translational Clinical Studies Committee and the Health Improvement, Protection and Services Research Committees each meet twice per year to consider funding applications. Details of the application process are published on the CSO website.

http://www.cso.scot.nhs.uk/funding-2/

Applications looking at the underlying causes, diagnosis and treatment of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) are welcomed. In common with all other applications, these would go through the CSO's standard independent peer review process.

The requested information is not held centrally.

Any violence or aggression against NHSScotland staff is unacceptable and we have policies in place to provide and continuously improve a safe working environment. Details can be found at the following link:-http://www.staffgovernance.scot.nhs.uk/media/1399/gender-based-violence-employee-pin-policy.pdf

This information is not held centrally.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-08980 on 10 May 2017. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Data detailing spending on additional support for learning is collected from local authorities via the Local Financial Returns (LFR). There are four years of data available on spending for additional support for learning, from 2012-13 to 2015-16.

As highlighted in the answer to question S5W-08627, there are issues around the quality of this data. Work is on-going to improve the consistency of the data that is returned. However, the lack of consistency in how local authorities have broken down the information to primary, secondary and special categories means that this data does not consistently represent the levels of spending in different categories of schools in local authorities.

Table 1 - which should not be used to make comparisons between years and between local authorities - shows the reported gross revenue expenditure on additional support for learning education (Primary) from 2012-13 to 2015-16

Source: Local Financial Returns – Education (LFR 1) statistical return provided by local authorities to the Scottish Government.

Table 2 - which should not be used to make comparisons between years and between local authorities - shows the reported gross revenue expenditure on additional support for learning education (Secondary) from 2012-13 to 2015-16

Source: Local Financial Returns – Education (LFR 1) statistical return provided by local authorities to the Scottish Government.

Table 3 - which should not be used to make comparisons between years and between local authorities - shows the reported gross revenue expenditure on additional support for learning education (Special) from 2012-13 to 2015-16

Source: Local Financial Returns – Education (LFR 1) statistical return provided by local authorities to the Scottish Government.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-08980 on 10 May 2017. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The Scottish Government was aware of the issues impacting on performance at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE) on Thursday 20 April, which was due to a surge in demand following the Easter holidays. In terms of planning for peak periods and holiday weekends we would expect all parts of the hospital, in collaboration with social, primary and secondary care partners, to take action to ensure sufficient capacity is available in order to provide an optimal service for patients.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving performance on a sustainable basis and unnecessary long waits in A&E are not acceptable. NHS Lothian Health Board offered its assurance that the RIE quickly recovered its A&E performance following higher than average attendances at the RIE. Performance against the four hour target at the RIE in the week ending 23 April was 93.9%.

NHS Lothian is working closely with the National Unscheduled Care Team to implement and enhance working practices to support meeting its A&E waiting times target, minimising delays for patients. The National Unscheduled Care Team was on site at the RIE at the end of April to discuss this continuous improvement approach under the Six Essential Actions programme. We have been supporting the RIE to roll out ‘Daily Dynamic Discharge’ across its wards, which is aimed at improving the timeliness and quality of patient care from arrival to discharge from the hospital.

In terms of expanding the capacity of A&E services we would expect NHS Lothian to keep capacity of A&E services at the RIE under review.

The work that has been undertaken to date has been carried out by existing members of staff as part of their normal duties. In line with usual practice, no record has been taken of the number staff who have been involved in this work or the number of hours spent on individual tasks, as there is no business need to do this.

The Scottish Government does not hold official statistics on the number of, or reason for, suspensions within NHSScotland. Specific local information will be available from individual NHSScotland Health Boards.

Since the Scottish Medicine Consortium’s establishment in 2002 the usual assessment time between receipt of the pharmaceutical company’s submission and the release of advice to NHS Scotland for the majority of medicines has been 14 weeks.

Where a pharmaceutical company requests a Patient and Clinical Engagement (PACE) meeting, offers a complex patient access scheme, or includes multiple clinical studies in their submission, there is a slightly longer timeline required for assessment.