Chamber and committees

The following table shows the number of children under 1 year of age who have had teeth extracted:

Source: ISD Scotland

The table shows the number of children undergoing tooth extractions in primary care, secondary care, and as an out-patient, for financial year 2000-01 to 2015-16. Data is only available from the year 2000.

The data published by NHS ISD relates to new patient referrals.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-07758 on 30 March 2017 with regards to return appointments.

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 data collected shows the numbers of patients who have been seen at a pain clinic following initial referral. The nature of the appointment will be dependent on clinical assessment in discussion with the individual.

The Scottish Government was very concerned to learn of the proposed closure of the manufacturing operations at the Jabil Livingston site. We understand that this will be a very difficult time for the company’s employees and their families affected by the announcement. At the earliest opportunity, I spoke with the company to understand the reasons for this announcement and to offer the full support of the Scottish Government and our enterprise agencies, in exploring all possible avenues of support to help maintain these highly skilled manufacturing jobs in Livingston.

Scottish Enterprise is, at my instruction, continuing to engage with Jabil, on the Scottish Government’s behalf, and along with West Lothian Council met with the company on Monday 27 March to take forward early stage discussion about support for the Livingston site and its workforce.

If any redundancies proceed, and I would not wish to pre-judge the Consultation, through our initiative for responding to redundancy situations, Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE), we would then provide skills development and employability support to minimise the time that any individuals affected by redundancy might be out of work. I would want to stress that PACE has a strong track record in supporting individuals affected by potential redundancy.

Each economic shock is different and the task force approach is not always appropriate. We are always mindful of the wider economic context in these situations and undertake a co-ordinated plan of action together with the company and local stakeholders, which is tailored to each situation. That is what we are doing here and will continue to do to provide our full support to those affected. However, I have asked officials at the office of Chief Economic Advisors to assess the overall impact of proposed, aggregated job losses, on the local labour market and to assess the potential for those facing redundancy to be absorbed by alternative employment opportunities.

We are also continuing to work closely with partners in the region to deliver the West Lothian Economic Growth Plan. The Plan captures a range of interventions to support economic growth in the area over a five year period to 2017-18.

We have supported the delivery of the Plan with £12 million of additional resource which, along with existing budgets represents an overall package of financial support of £29 million to strengthen the West Lothian economy and to help it weather future economic challenges.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-08617 on 25 April 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

Dr Montgomery’s independent review on access to new medicines recognised that the Scottish Government has made significant reforms and investment to improve access to newly licensed medicines in recent years.

I announced in December that we will be taking forward the recommendations from the review. We are collaborating with a range of clinical experts, patient groups and other stakeholders to take forward, as quickly as possible, implementation of the new assessment and approval pathway for ultra-orphan medicines recommended by the review.

We continue to build on the improvements made by our previous reforms but we require drug manufacturers to make reforms too, so they bring forward medicines at a fair price.

Where a medicine is not accepted by the SMC for routine use in Scotland, NHS Boards do have systems in place where clinicians can request access to these medicines on an individual patient case by case basis.

We intend to publish the first annual report on the Mental Health Strategy 2017 – 2027 in Summer 2018.

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.

There are issues around the quality of the data on spending on additional support for learning at a local authority level. Work is on-going to improve the consistency of the data that is returned. However this means that making comparisons between local authorities and between years should be done with care.

Table 1 shows gross revenue expenditure on additional support for learning education 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 shows the percentage of total gross revenue expenditure on education by local authorities which is accounted for by spending on additional support for learning.

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

Table 3 shows the average per-pupil spending on additional support for learning by local authority. This data shows gross revenue expenditure on additional support for learning in primary, secondary and special education from the local financial returns, divided by the number of pupils identified as having additional support needs in the pupil census during that year.

Sources:

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

2. Pupil Census – published annually - for further details go to; http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/dspupcensus

This Scottish Government continues to work closely with its partners in the region to deliver the West Lothian Economic Growth Plan, which was agreed following the announcement in 2012 that the Halls of Broxburn plant would close with the loss of 1,700 jobs. The Plan sets out a range of interventions, including those that support manufacturing jobs and businesses, and contributes to inclusive economic growth in the West Lothian area and through this to National outcomes.

We have supported the delivery of the Plan with £12 million of additional resource which, along with existing budgets, represents an overall package of financial support of £29 million to strengthen the West Lothian economy. The independent 3 year evaluation of the 5 year Plan, completed in March 2016, demonstrated that interventions that formed part of the Plan had, at that time, supported the creation of 2,395 additional jobs and had specifically supported 450 former Halls employees with training to assist them in finding new employment.

Future activity will continue to develop the West Lothian business base with grants and investment explicitly linked to creating new jobs and to support a growing and more resilient economy, strengthening West Lothian businesses to make them more competitive. The Plan supports manufacturing companies through, for example, capacity building and diversification, and will continue to do so going forward.

In addition to that targeted support, our main economic development agency in the area, Scottish Enterprise, works with Scottish Development International, the investment and trade promotion agency of the Scottish Government, to promote West Lothian as an inward investment location. Scottish Enterprise currently account manages 93 companies in West Lothian; a high number of which are involved in manufacturing, and Scottish Enterprise works intensively with these 93 companies to support their growth ambitions. By way of example, the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service, an arm of our Enterprise agency activities, delivers specialist advice, one-to-one support and training for manufacturing businesses of all sizes in West Lothian. The Scottish Government is engaging with stakeholders to respond to potential impacts of potential job losses in both manufacturing companies and the potential loss of HMRC jobs.