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The Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 provides a range of safeguards which are both significant and effective, where those words are interpreted as having their ordinary meaning, in protecting the rights of people who receive mental health care and treatment.

The 2003 Act is based on rights and principles and makes provision to support patients in expressing their will and preferences. An important principle of Scottish mental health law is that any function should be carried out for the maximum benefit of the patient, with the minimum necessary restriction on the freedom of the patient and having regard to the views of the patient and of any carer. Under the 2003 Act, any service user has the right to support from an independent advocate, the right to appoint a named person to represent their interests and the right to make an advance statement setting out the treatment they would and would not like to receive when unwell.

The Mental Health (Scotland) Act 2015 strengthened support for decision making. During the passage of the 2015 Act, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was influential in making the decision to strengthen the provisions in the existing 2003 Act.

Education authorities and other agencies have duties under the Additional Support for Learning Act 2004 (as amended) to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils. Information on how many and the percentage of pupils with additional support needs in each local authority for 2017 is provided in the following table.

The information on hours of support provision is not held centrally.

Local surgeon led multidisciplinary outreach clinics are supported by the national cleft surgery service to ensure that the patient is seen by all the necessary clinical staff at one visit and not required to have multiple visits.

As the shortage in surgeon capacity remains these clinics are not currently operating at level they would be under a full capacity single surgical service. I

In order to ensure that all children with cleft lip and palate have been provided with the time appropriate surgery they require, multidisciplinary outreach clinics were not held in Highland and Fife in 2017. Instead, patients residing in Highland have been seen in clinics in either Grampian or Tayside, and those residents in Fife have been seen in Lothian or Tayside. These clinics are held fortnightly in Lothian and monthly in Grampian.

Arrangements for multi-disciplinary outreach clinics for the rest of the year will be confirmed once all consultant surgeon posts have been filled and the National Cleft Surgical Service is fully operational. NHS GG&C will commence recruitment for a third consultant surgeon shortly.

Locally delivered cleft services including orthodontics and speech and language therapy, remain the responsibility of local NHS Boards.

The Scottish Government expects clinicians working in this area to be familiar with the Royal College of Physicians’ guidelines; they provide a useful framework for the assessment and management of patients.

I understand the incomplete standard for waiting time targets that is used by NHS England relates to a census taken at the month end that measures the waiting times of patients on the waiting list for the referral to treatment standard. We already have a comprehensive suite of elective waiting times measures in Scotland and do not plan to add to these at this point in time.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-12475 on 21 November 2017. Vaccination is one of the services currently provided by GPs which will be reconfigured under the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding between Scottish Government, British Medical Association, Integration Authorities and NHS Boards. Integration Authorities will develop local Primary Care Improvement Plans in conjunction with NHS Boards, developing local solutions to delivering vaccination programmes that best suit them, their patients and their geography. The Vaccination Transformation Programme will phase the transition of the vaccination programmes over the next three years.

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 .

This information isn't held centrally. The annual published Social Care Statistics only relate to people with care packages in place.

The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) 122 guideline development group had input from all specialities involved in the care of patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE), including haematology, orthopaedics, pharmacy, anaesthetics, vascular and general surgery, radiology, obstetrics and gynaecology, general practice as well as lay representation. In addition SIGN also sought national independent expert referees to comment on interpretation of the evidence base supporting the recommendations. In future SIGN will take the same steps to ensure that the guideline development group is made up of representatives from all of the appropriate specialties.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an independent public body that provides national guidance and advice to improve health and social care in England. The Scottish Government is therefore unable to comment on the specialist input to the NICE guideline. Information on the development of NICE guidance can be found at:  https://www.nice.org.uk/about/what-we-do/our-programmes/nice-guidance

The Scottish Government’s reforms to Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) are helping both first-time buyers and home movers across Scotland to purchase a home. Between April 2015 and October 2017, LBTT kept over 25,000 house purchases out of tax by setting a nil rate threshold of £145,000 which was £20,000 more than the nil rate threshold for UK Stamp Duty Land Tax. From June 2018, the Scottish Government plans to introduce a new £175,000 LBTT relief for first-time buyers. This will take 80% of first-time buyers out of tax altogether and will benefit 12,000 first-time buyers each year by up to £600.

In addition to these measures, the Scottish Government is implementing a range of housing policies to assist first-time buyers in the Lothian parliamentary region and elsewhere in Scotland as outlined in the answers to questions S5W-15194 and S5W-15195 on 15 March 2018. 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 Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) 122 guideline regarding the prevention and management of venous thromboembolism (VTE) was published in 2010 and updated in 2014. SIGN is in the process of contacting the original guideline development group to establish the need for a new guideline. An outcome of the consultation may be that group members choose to submit a proposal for a new guideline which would go through SIGN’s usual decision-making process.