Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government provides policies, frameworks and resources to all NHS boards, including NHS Western Isles, in order that they can plan and deliver the services that meet the needs of their local population. In terms of NHS Western Isles budget, from 2014-15 to 2015-16, the board’s budget will increase by £1.7 million (2.7%) from £62.2 million to £63.9 million.

I have asked NHS Western Isles to write to you directly about the elective surgery carried out and Uist and Barra Hospital.

This information is not held centrally. The Scottish Government issued ‘Preparing for Winter Guidance’ to NHS boards on 23 September 2014, which advised boards to undertake detailed analysis and planning to effectively schedule elective activity based on forecast emergency and elective demand. Boards were also advised to ensure that this action specifically took into account the surge in activity in the first week in January. NHS boards signed off their winter plans by the end of November 2014.

Official statistics on the number of hospital beds relating to the quarters ending December 2014 and March 2015 will be published in March 2015 and June 2015 respectively.

The bed planning toolkit will be piloted across all NHS territorial boards from April 2015. This will support boards to develop a more consistent approach to bed planning over the short, medium and longer term to ensure that the right bed is available for the right patient at the right time.

Accurate data for the years prior to 2008-09 is not available.

Data taken from the Mental Welfare Commission shows the number of children and young people admitted to adult psychiatric wards since 2008:

Year	Number of children/young people admitted to adult psychiatric wards
2008-09	138
2009-10	147
2010-11	128
2011-12	115
2012-13	148
2013-14	179

Further information can be obtained from the following link:

http://www.mwcscot.org.uk/publications/statistical-monitoring-reports/

We expect Abellio ScotRail to save around 10 to 12 minutes on the Highland Main Line by taking advantage of the government’s infrastructure investment on this route and introducing refurbished intercity high speed train rolling stock by 2019. We expect Abellio ScotRail to reduce journey times for services on the Far North Line; this is dependent on the outcome of Network Rail and First ScotRail’s current review of line speeds on the route. The scale of journey time reduction will be available on the conclusion of this review.

Abellio ScotRail will be introducing high speed train rolling stock units during their franchise for Highland Main Line services and Class 158 diesel multiple units for the West Highland Line. These are types of trains which are new to these routes. The Far North Line will continue to be serviced by Class 158 diesel multiple units.

Abellio ScotRail will be introducing trains with upgrades to enhance the tourist experience on the Far North Line and the West Highland Line. Abellio ScotRail will be using Class 158 diesel multiple units on both routes and these will form part of the ‘Great Scenic Railways of Scotland’ product being introduced with the units being refurbished for this service.

Transport Scotland are meeting Abellio frequently to discuss a wide range of issues relevant to the delivery of the new ScotRail franchise, that will commence on 1 April 2015. The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring a continuously improving service for rail passengers, including services on the Highland Main Line and Far North Line. The new ScotRail franchise will bring popular high speed trains between Inverness and the central belt, increasing capacity, reducing journey times and improving on-train comfort. The new franchise will also deliver a scenic railway service on the Far North line.

This information is not held centrally. However, individual local authorities have an overview of school level vacancies. Local authorities are represented on the Teacher Workforce Planning Advisory Group and their evidence informs final guidance on intakes to initial teacher education.

The Scottish Government has recommended that initial teacher education (ITE) student intake targets for 2015-16 should be increased by 150 in the primary sector and by 100 in the secondary sector.

The Scottish Government’s advice to the Scottish Funding Council recommends that, from the planned additional ITE places in 2015-16, target intakes for the Professional Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) Primary course at the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) should be increased from 40 to 60. On the strength of this recommendation, UHI are planning to train teachers in each of the following six UHI colleges in 2015-16: Argyll, Inverness, Lews Castle, Moray, Orkney and Shetland.

It is also recommended that the remaining increase in the primary sector should be distributed between the Universities of Aberdeen, Dundee and the West of Scotland.

It is also recommended that eight of the secondary places should be allocated for the PGDE Secondary course that UHI is planning to introduce in 2015-16 in partnership with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, and that the remaining increase in the secondary sector be distributed proportionately across all the other universities that offer ITE courses, including Aberdeen.

The University of Aberdeen has been allocated additional places since 2014-15 and, with Scottish Government funding, is working with partner local authorities to train existing employees, such as classroom assistants, as primary teachers, through a part-time PGDE course on a distance learning basis. Highland Council already has a cohort following this route into teaching and Moray Council is due to join soon.

There are existing planning measures in place, both in terms of planning policy and through the notification direction, which help safeguard outdoor sports facilities from inappropriate development.

Scottish Planning Policy (SPP), published in 2014, sets out ministers’ clear position on the protection of outdoor sports facilities, that they should be safeguarded from development except in a limited number of prescribed circumstances, such as where the proposed development is ancillary to the use as sports facility, only involves a minor part of the sports facility and would not affect its use for sport and training, or where if the facility to be lost would be replaced by a new facility of comparable or greater value. Through SPP, ministers expect local authorities to identify and protect open space in their local development plans.

Ministers also have a scrutiny role, and have set out in the Town and Country Planning (Notification of Applications) (Scotland) Direction 2009 details of the types of applications which require to be notified to them. This includes development which is likely to a) result in the loss of an outdoor sports facility; b) prejudice the existing use of an outdoor sports facility for that purpose; or c) prevent the use of land, which was last used as an outdoor sports facility, from being used again for that purpose, to which sportscotland has objected or has recommended conditions which the planning authority does not intend to attach to the planning permission.