Chamber and committees

The outcomes of the feasibility study undertaken by Ernst & Young will published on the Scottish Government website shortly.

The study included interviews with commercial operators and vessel operators who shared commercially sensitive information. This information is being redacted from the study prior to its publication as a condition of their agreement to participate. Without the agreement to treat such information as commercially confidential, the quality of information and insight obtained by the project team would have been more difficult to secure.

The locational assessment of ports in the study consisted of 3 stages. Stage 1 was an assessment of minimum approach depths and current quayside depths. The key physical criteria to determine whether an existing quay could be developed on to an UDW port were current depth at the Quay of at least -9m chart datum (CD) and current approach depth of at least -9m CD. Significant increases to the channel depths would require extensive capital and maintenance dredging.

45 quaysides at 40 different locations were considered. Dundee was assessed in Stage 1 as having -9m depth at quayside and -6m depth in its approach channel. Although Dundee is suitable for a range of decommissioning works, because the approach depth was insufficient for those projects requiring a deep water port, it was therefore not assessed further than Stage 1, as the depth in approach channel did not meet the required criteria in this stage.

Dales Voe channel in Shetland provides water depths of -32m CD reducing to -20m at the centre of the channel adjacent to the quay. The proposed development of an extended quay and dredging would deliver the -24m required. Deep water is naturally present in the approach channels and near to the existing quay. By extending the quay, this deep water could be reached to allow for a vertical quay face with a berthing pocket of -24m CD extending in to a channel of the same depth or deeper.

The Scottish Government continues to provide ongoing support for organisations in Dundee and the wider region to seek market opportunities to benefit from oil and gas decommissioning.

We have provided support and grant funding to decommissioning projects in the Tay area through the Decommissioning Challenge Fund (DCF). For example, a grant of £582,010 was paid to Oilfield Machinery Limited for the refurbishment of a permanent heavy lift quayside crane at Dundee Port which will enhance Dundee’s position as a cost effective location for decommissioning. Dundeecom promotes the importance of nearby ports to its business model and through the DCF the Scottish Government has also made grant offers of £56,750 to Montrose Port Authority for infrastructure to support a new heavy lift pad, £60,597 to Fife Council for feasibility work relating to a decommissioning facility at Methill and £45,000 to the James Hutton Institute for research into chemical waste streams to inform the sector.

The DCF is currently open for a further round of funding and we have provided information to a number of prospective applicants from the Dundee area.

Professional regulation of the registered health professions is the statutory responsibility of eight independent, UK-wide regulatory bodies. Each of the regulators has established procedures for assessing applications for voluntary removal on individual merit, which must prioritise the duty to protect the public interest by removing, where appropriate, a practitioner’s legal right to continue practising.

With regard to the specific issue of the regulation of medical professionals, this is a matter for the General Medical Council (GMC). The Chief Medical Officer has been in discussions with the GMC as to how the issues referred to in the question could be addressed.

The Scottish Government expects all NHS Boards to provide high quality care that is safe, effective and person-centred.

A number of systems are already in place that focus on and emphasise the requirement for Boards to act swiftly and robustly when things go wrong.

The organisational duty of candour provisions of the Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc. & Care)(Scotland) Act 2016 and The Duty of Candour (Scotland) Regulations 2018 came into force on 1 April 2018.

Guidance has been produced which focuses on the implementation of the duty of candour procedure for all organisations that provide health services, care services or social work services in Scotland.

The purpose of the duty of candour provisions is to support the implementation of consistent responses across health and social care providers when there has been an unexpected event or incident that has resulted in death or harm, that is not related to the course of the condition for which the person is receiving care.

The duty of candour provisions reflect the Scottish Government’s commitment to place people at the heart of health and social care services in Scotland. When harm occurs the focus must be on personal contact with those affected; support and a process of review and action that is meaningful and informed by the principles of learning and continuous improvement.

The globally recognised Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP) is a unique national initiative that aims to improve the safety and reliability of healthcare and reduce avoidable harm, whenever care is delivered.

Since its introduction, there are significant examples of the SPSP interventions making a real difference to patients across Scotland’s acute hospitals such as reductions in: ventilator associated pneumonia incidents, C-Diff and SAB incidents, central line blood-stream infections and the average length of stay in Intensive Care Units.

The Scottish Morbidity and Mortality Review system, developed in partnership with the Medical Royal Colleges, enables NHS Boards to identify and review cases, linking with organisational and statutory review processes as required.

NHS Boards also participate in a number of national surgical audits that provide the means to identify variations in outcomes and ensure the necessary quality and safety monitoring actions are undertaken. Both form part of the governance and improvement support infrastructure in place nationally and in NHS Boards.

The national Adverse Event framework, developed by Healthcare Improvement Scotland in collaboration with NHS Boards, provides an overarching approach developed from best practice to support care providers effectively manage adverse events. In response to the recent Health and Sport Committee report on the governance of the NHS in Scotland the Scottish Government intends to review this Framework to ensure that it continues to be fit for purpose.

Service providers need to implement improvements identified and be able to demonstrate how these changes have been monitored and reported through relevant governance processes to provide assurance and public confidence that the necessary changes have resulted in improvements.

The process must be transparent and include all those involved in adverse events or unintended or unexpected incidents, including: service users, families and carers, and staff.

Professional regulation of the health professions is the statutory responsibility of eight independent, UK-wide regulatory bodies. Health Boards have mechanisms in place to ensure that the appropriate professional regulator is informed where concerns arise about a practitioner’s fitness to practise.

Following the BBC Disclosure programme ‘Harmed by my surgeon’, which was broadcast on 3 September and which focused on Professor Eljamel, former neurosurgeon at NHS Tayside, I have written to all NHS Boards in Scotland seeking assurance that processes are in place for Boards to detect and to respond to clusters of complaints about the same staff member and to clarify what arrangements are in place for ensuring timely decision making when the safety of practice of a Consultant is raising concern.

It is also important to ensure that staff are treated fairly in such situations. Leaders in the NHS and social care must make a clear, public, commitment to staff that their organisations fully support an open and fair culture and that if things go wrong, staff need to be treated fairly and supported when failures in the system are identified, if we are to improve service delivery.

The answer to S5O-02225 stated that it is the short courses de-prioritised by the Scottish Funding Council which were often around 5 hours in length and did not lead to recognised qualifications. 97.4% of learning hours were delivered on courses that led to a recognised qualification in 2016-17 – an 8.7 percentage point increase since 2006-07.

The Scottish Government attaches great value to short courses leading to employment or progression, with colleges making a vital contribution to the up-skilling and re-skilling Scotland’s workforce. That is why the majority of total enrolments at college are still on part-time courses - 73% in 2016-17.

Rail franchising and competition legislation are matters reserved to the UK Government. As a consequence, the UK Railways Act 1993 requires that rail franchise are let through open competition. The Scottish Government secured an amendment to that Act which allows Scottish or UK public sector organisations to bid for Scottish rail franchises. Funding for a bid is a commercial matter for each individual bidding organisation, whether that body is owned by the private or public sector. It is for these potential bidders to consider financing options, such as the use of available funds that exist within their organisation, or to secure a further loan or equity funding. There are no plans to reduce spend in other budget areas or to make further changes to tax policy in order to fund such costs.

The operation of relief at source, as with all income tax reliefs remains reserved and therefore a matter for HMRC and the UK Government. Income taxpayers in Scotland who are paying into a pension are treated in exactly the same as income taxpayers in the rest of the UK. Their pension contributions are grossed up so that the 20% basic rate tax paid on the contribution is also paid into their pension by HMRC. Intermediate rate income taxpayers can claim back the additional relief they are due from HMRC in exactly the same way as higher and additional rate income tax payers do in the rest of the UK or higher and top rate income taxpayers can in Scotland.

The operation of relief at source, as with all income tax reliefs remains reserved and therefore a matter for HMRC and the UK Government. Income taxpayers in Scotland who are paying into a pension are treated in exactly the same way as income taxpayers in the rest of the UK. Their pension contributions are grossed up so that the 20% basic rate tax paid on the contribution is also paid into their pension by HMRC. If the taxpayers marginal rate of income tax is higher than 20% they can claim back the additional relief they are due from HMRC.