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Sir Cyril is undertaking a review of available evidence, it is not a consultation exercise. The strong evidence base for standardised packaging, as set out in the review by the Public Health Research Consortium and Stirling University, is publically available.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-19505 on 25 February 2014. 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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The tobacco industry has a history of challenging public health measures as it did, unsuccessfully, with the tobacco display ban. The Scottish Government is committed to achieving our vision of a tobacco-free Scotland by 2034. Scottish Ministers are clear that standardised packaging has a role in achieving this and on 28 January 2014 the Scottish Parliament agreed a Legislative Consent Motion allowing the Scottish Government to work with the UK Government to legislate on tobacco packaging.

The Independent Review of NHS Continuing Healthcare, led by Dr Ian Anderson, past president of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow has now concluded and reported to the government.

We are now considering this report and the recommendations and we will publish this report shortly and our response will follow soon after.

Practitioner Services, which has the responsibility for making recoveries for duplicate registration payments, will not be seeking to make recoveries from retired and deceased dentists.

Practitioner Services have applied to Scottish Ministers to exempt retired and deceased dentists from the recovery process. This exemption has been granted. On the advice of Practitioner Services the cost and effort of recovering these overpayments, in comparison to other groupings of dentists, does not warrant the recovery of overpayments from retired and deceased dentists.

While policies, frameworks and resources are provided by the Scottish Government, individual NHS boards are responsible for planning and funding services in their area and for securing the staff to deliver them. It is for NHS boards to determine their workforce requirements, including training, based on the clinical needs and service developments in their area.

In determining workforce requirements, NHS boards must take into account their role in providing an appropriate training environment in which postgraduate medical trainees can gain the skills, knowledge and experience they require in order to fulfil the requirements of postgraduate training programmes. Such standards and requirements of such programmes are developed by relevant Medical Royal Colleges, and approved and monitored by the General Medical Council. This includes neurological conditions such as Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP).

The commitment to introduce non time-limited registration was contained in the Action Plan for improving oral health and modernising NHS dental services in Scotland which was published in 2005. The Scottish Government met this commitment by introducing non time-limited registration in 2010. The basis for the policy change was to encourage the development of a longer term more stable relationship between a dentist and a patient that fits with the need to plan care on a long term basis and to monitor oral health over time.

In preparing for the introduction of non time-limited registration Practitioner Services were required to carry out appropriate system changes. As a consequence of this work a number of duplicate patient records were subsequently identified.

The presence of these duplicate registrations, and the requirement to make appropriate recoveries, were communicated in a letter of 21 July 2010 to the then Chair of the Scottish Dental Practice Committee of the British Dental Association Scotland.

Practitioner Services plan to commence recovery of overpayments of duplicate registrations from the February paid to March 2014 payment schedule for those dentists who have current list numbers in Scotland.

Since 2011-12, the Scottish Government has passed on in full the Barnett consequentials to the Health Budget in Scotland which by 2015-16 will exceed £1.3 billion in total. These have arisen from the Department of Health’s funding settlement from both the 2010 UK Comprehensive Spending Review and the 2013 UK Spending Round and are detailed in the following table:

Prior to 2011-12, Barnett consequentials accrued to the Scottish block as a whole and therefore the benefit to the health budget cannot be individually identified. However the following table details health’s resource budget from 2007-08 and clearly demonstrates the significant additional investment which has been made since 2007-08:

Note: care should be taken when making year-on-year comparisons as figures are subject to change through policy and accounting treatments adjustments e.g. in 2010-11 HM Treasury withdrew £125 million from the Scottish health budget (the associated expenditure was also removed to ensure a neutral effect) due to accounting treatment changes in relation to the cost of capital.

Practitioner Services have a legal duty to make the recovery of over-payments where that is appropriate.

The Scottish Government has accepted that a recovery process is required. However in order to mitigate the effect on practices the recovery of duplicate registrations is part of the funding package for 2013-14. This means that the money is recycled and not permanently lost to dental practices.