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Castlebeck Care (Teasdale) Limited provides four services in Scotland, three care homes which are registered with Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland, and an independent healthcare service which is registered with Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

The three care homes are: Ellen Mhor in Dundee, which currently has 11 residents; Ranaich House in Dunblane with 10 residents; and Trinity House in Lockerbie, with 13 residents. The independent health care service, Monroe House in Dundee, currently hosts 24 residents.

No complaints or concerns were received directly by the Scottish Government in respect of the Elsie Inglis Nursing Home.

For more information about the concerns raised in respect of the Elsie Inglis Nursing Home, I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-279 on 15 June 2011. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

All four services provided by Castlebeck were last inspected by the Care Commission whose regulatory functions for care services were taken over by Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (SCSWIS) on 1 April 2011.

Details of the dates of inspections and the gradings awarded are set out in the following table:

The Commission carried out a further follow up visit to Raniach House on 30 March 2011 where they noted that improvements were being made. SCSWIS are monitoring this service closely to ensure that improvements are made and sustained.

Any future inspections to Monroe House in Dundee will be undertaken by Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

NHSScotland’s National Planning Forum (NPF) commissioned a review of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) which was carried out between June 2010 and February 2011. This review was carried out by a subgroup made up of leading clinicians and experts with an interest in, or experience of cardiac service planning, and was supported by analysts from Healthcare Improvement Scotland (then NHS Quality Improvement Scotland) and staff from the Scottish Government Health Directorates.

The conclusion of the NPF, based on the evidence generated by the review, was that there was insufficient evidence, at this point in time, to support a recommendation that a TAVI service in Scotland should be established.

The NPF review found that the long term outcomes of TAVI are unknown, there is only limited evidence of clinical efficacy and no evidence of cost effectiveness. This position was endorsed by the review on the available clinical and cost effectiveness evidence carried out by the Scottish Health Technologies Group (SHTG) for the NPF and published in their 8 March 2011 Advice Statement.

At that time I asked that NHSScotland conduct a further assessment of TAVI by February 2012, or sooner should new material evidence be made available.

Further evidence on the use of TAVI has now been published and the NPF has asked the SHTG to begin a formal review. The NPF will agree a timescale for completion of this work when it next meets on 1 July.

Conventional aortic valve replacement surgery in appropriate cases remains a clinically proven and cost effective treatment for aortic stenosis.

(a) The Scottish Parliament Corporate Body advises on all ministerial and MSP salary matters and performs all necessary payroll administration, as required under the Scotland Act. The Scottish Government has no responsibility in this regard and consequently does not hold the information requested.

(b) The budget for the private offices in 2011-12 is £3,654,000 which is a reduction of £281,000 on the 2010-11 budget which was £3,935,000.

(c) The costs of the government car service in 2010-11 were £974,678 which is a reduction of £20,990 on 2009-10. We expect costs in 2011-12, despite the increase in ministers, to be around the same level.

Most pain clinics provide services to patients in an outpatient setting. Information about outpatient waiting times is collected centrally at speciality level only and does not differentiate between different types of clinics within the specialty. Consequently the information requested is not available centrally.

Most pain clinics provide services to patients in an outpatient setting. Information about outpatient waiting times is collected centrally at speciality level only and does not differentiate between different types of clinics within the specialty. Consequently the information requested is not available centrally.

There are no plans to change the monitoring arrangements. The Scottish Government has asked Information Services Division to continue with the Scottish Arthroplasty Project since the continued collection of information on the use of arthroplasty is a necessary part of our quality strategy at the present time.

There is emerging evidence on the use of transcatheter aortic valve implantation, and as agreed at the time of the original decision. I have asked for a further review to be carried out to assess whether this most up to date research provides more robust evidence about the clinical and cost effectiveness of the treatment.

The National Planning Forum has asked the Scottish Health Technologies Group to undertake a full analysis of the latest published research to enable further consideration of its current recommendation. The outcome of this will be announced due course.

Online planning guidance regarding onshore wind developments is available on the Scottish Government's website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/212607/0114118.pdf.

This does not address national parks or nature conservation areas specifically but does advise on the approach to be taken and issues to be addressed (including landscape and biodiversity) by Scottish ministers, planning authorities and developers in preparing policy or considering applications for planning consent. The Scottish Government's policy on wind farms can be found at paragraph 187-191 of Scottish Planning Policy, which is available on the Scottish Government's website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/02/03132605/12.

Scottish Natural Heritage are the Scottish Government’s advisors and statutory consultees on the impacts of windfarms on nature conservation areas. Further guidance on nature conservation areas is available in the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2010 which can be found at:

http://www.snh.gov.uk/protecting-scotlands-nature/protected-areas/.