Chamber and committees

The funding provided is shown in the following table. Funding is provided at 30% of the total cost and is only available for retrofitting equipment that has been independently tested and conforms to specified air pollutant emissions standards. Although funding remains available for this purpose, local authorities have prioritised other actions for improving local air quality in recent years, thus there have been no recent requests for funding.

The responsibility for compliance with legislation is a specific responsibility of individual NHS boards. Our commitment is to help boards understand these requirements and to encourage the practical steps they must take to comply with the law.

Individuals can be treated for self-harm in a number of different settings, including hospital inpatient care or A&E attendances. Self-harm may also be managed in primary care or community settings; however, we do not currently have data on these attendances. Since 2007, the national source of A&E information has been Information Services Division’s A&E DataMart. Within the A&E DataMart, the facility exists to record attendances at accident and emergency departments due to self-harm. However, the fields which can be used to identify self-harm are all optional for completion by NHS boards and the level of recording is not sufficient for accurate national reporting of attendances due to self-harm.

Data on how many intensive home treatment teams have attended call-outs to patients requiring emergency mental health support in each year since 1999 is not provided to the Scottish Government as a matter of course.

Scottish building regulations require new non-domestic buildings, not just public sector-funded building projects, to be fitted with hearing enhancement systems, including induction loops. Amongst other things, the guidance supporting the regulations advises that they should be provided in auditoriums, meeting rooms over 60 square metres and at public service counters. Depending on the nature of conversion and alteration work being undertaken, these arrangements also apply to new work carried out in an existing non-domestic building.

Information on patients receiving electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is available from the Scottish ECT Accreditation Network (SEAN) database.

The SEAN annual report for 2015: http://www.sean.org.uk/docs/SEAN-Report-2015-web.pdf includes Figure 3.1 which shows, for 2014, the number and percentage of episodes by primary diagnosis. This includes patients who lacked capacity to consent to treatment as well as those with capacity to consent.

The Scottish Government provide an air quality grant scheme to support local authorities in retrofitting their vehicles with emissions reduction equipment. The forthcoming National Low Emission Framework (NLEF) will signpost diesel particle filter (DPF) retro-fitting as an option for all pre-Euro 5/V vehicles in relation to low emission zone criteria. Compulsory fitting of particle filters on all public sector vehicles is not being considered by the Scottish Government.

The use of nursing agency staff in Scotland is very low and represents 0.4 per cent of the total Nursing and Midwifery workforce in 2015-16, representing 276.7 whole time equivalent (WTE) out of a total capacity of 66,143.9 WTE nursing establishment. 99.6% of all care is delivered by staff on NHS contracts. The collection of agency costs began for year ending 31 March 2001. Information prior to this is not available.

Commitments to date from the additional £150 million investment to improve mental health include:£54.1 million to support delivery of the Local Delivery Plan (LDP) access standards for both Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and psychological therapies to further reduce waiting times. This comprises £24.7million to NHS boards to increase capacity to deliver services; £24.6million to support development of the mental health workforce to deliver evidence-based therapies; and £4.8million to deliver the Mental Health Access Improvement Support Programme. £10 million to support new ways of improving mental health in primary care settings.A £15 million Mental Health Innovation Fund to support better access to CAMHS and to develop innovative approaches to delivering mental health services.£1 million to support people with mental health problems to become more physically active. £4.2 million to support people in distress who turn to frontline services.We are considering the priorities for the remainder of the funding as part of the development of the new mental health strategy due to be published later this year.

The following tables show the number of patients who have received cataract operations in (a) an NHS and (b) a private hospital in each calendar year since 1999 broken down by NHS board of residence. NHS boards have taken steps to improve the completeness of data recording on activity carried out in the independent sector since 2011. Therefore interpreting trends in the independent sector from these statistics should be treated with caution.

Number of patients undergoing cataract operations in an NHS hospital each year, 1999 - 2015, broken down by health board of residence.

Source: SMR00 & SMR01, Information Services Division.

Source: SMR00 & SMR01, Information Services Division.

Number of patients undergoing cataract operations in a private hospital each year, 1999 - 2015, broken down by health board of residence.

Source: SMR00 & SMR01, Information Services Division.

Source: SMR00 & SMR01, Information Services Division.

- Indicates a 0

*Indicates values that have been suppressed due to the potential risk of disclosure and to help maintain patient confidentiality.