Chamber and committees

All pregnant women in Scotland are already offered a screening test for Down’s syndrome. If the screening test shows that the chance of having a baby with Down’s is high, women then have the option of having an invasive diagnostic test. The proposed change recommended by the UK National Screening Committee (UKNSC) is for Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) to be offered to women who are deemed at higher risk following the current primary screen. NIPT is not diagnostic and an invasive diagnostic test will still be required to receive a definitive diagnosis.

For women who choose to have NIPT, this will add in an extra step in the screening programme. The impact of this, and the choices women make at different points in the pathway, is something that the UKNSC hope to gain a better understanding of through further research. A recommendation has therefore been made to evaluate the introduction of NIPT to Down’s syndrome screening. This will include scientific, ethical and user input to better understand the impact on women, their partners and the screening programme around the offer of NIPT or invasive testing following screening.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to ensuring that pregnant women in Scotland have access to high quality, safe and effective screening services and the Scottish Screening Committee is now looking at the use of NIPT as an additional screening test for Down’s syndrome in Scotland.

The Equality Act 2010 states that it is unlawful for a service provider to discriminate against a disabled person by direct or indirect discrimination, discrimination arising from a disability, failure to make reasonable adjustments, harassment, discrimination by association, victimisation or discriminatory advertisements. This legislation would prohibit discriminatory access arrangements.

The Scottish Government has no plans to seek amendments to the Equality Act 2010.

There are also specific pieces of legislation related to the licensing of taxis and private hire cars as covered in the answer to S5W-11728 on 25 October 2017. Further, the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh Regulations 1989 (SI 1989/830) exempt guide dogs from the general prohibition on taking animals into any of the four Royal Botanic Gardens.

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

Table 1, a copy of which has been placed in SPICE (Bib 59239) highlights data from NHS Education Scotland and Scottish Funding Council showing both the recommended and actual intakes to pre-registration nursing and midwifery programmes, broken down by institution from 2007 to 2015. Figures for 2016 have not been published yet.

The number of ground E terminations performed under the Abortion Act 1967 in each year since 1999 are presented in Table 1.

Grounds for abortion have been recorded on the ISD Abortion database since 1991. Data are included on previous years in the annual termination of pregnancy report, with some tables showing data going back to 1968. For example, data from 1968 are available on all terminations by gestational age and by age of woman.

Table 1. Number of Ground E terminations in Scotland from 1999 to 2016.

Source: Notifications (to the Chief Medical Officer for Scotland) of abortions performed under the Abortion Act 1967, ISD Scotland Ref: IR2017-01604

As a Government we are committed to promoting and protecting equality and human rights for disabled people enabling them to participate in and to make a full contribution to daily and public life, and we recognise the vital role which assistance dogs, including guide dogs, play in helping disabled people with practical tasks and in providing emotional support and independence.

Within Scotland taxis and private hire cars are licensed by Licensing Authorities (local authorities) under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982. The licences of both taxis and private hire cars should contain a prescribed condition that requires the driver to a) permit assistance dogs (as defined by The Taxi Drivers’ Licences (Carrying of Guide Dogs and Hearing Dogs) (Scotland) Regulation 2003), to accompany the disabled person on any journey and, b) not to make an additional charge for this. However a Notice of Exemption can be issued by the local authority to the driver, if there are medical grounds as to why the driver should be exempted from complying with this condition. Such notices should be displayed clearly on the vehicle so that potential customers can see this.

Where a customer has a complaint this should be directed to the local Licensing Authority, made up of locally elected councillors, who can seek a review of the licence.

The Scottish Government notes the announcement by Abbott of the decision to include the Freestyle Libre flash glucose monitoring system on the England and Wales drug tariff. NHS Scotland has yet to receive official notification. Once received, NHS Scotland will follow the established due process for consideration of inclusion on the Scottish Drug Tariff.

The Scottish Diabetes Group are reviewing the evidence base on the clinical effectiveness of flash glucose monitors and will advise on its use within Scotland.

The number of terminations after 24 weeks gestation (gestations of 24 weeks and over) from 1990 is displayed in Table 1.

The number of terminations of pregnancy in some individual years is very small. Disclosure control measures have been applied because of the sensitive nature of the data and also to reduce the risk of disclosing personally identifiable information.

Table1. Number of terminations of pregnancy performed after 24 weeks gestation, in Scotland, from 1990 to 2016.

Source: Notifications (to the Chief Medical Officer for Scotland) of abortions performed under the Abortion Act 1967, ISD Scotland.
Ref: IR2017-01603

Notes

Abortions in Scotland are carried out under the terms of the Abortion Act 1967. Doctors have a legal requirement to notify the Chief Medical Officer in Scotland of all abortions carried out in Scotland. Section 37(1)(d) of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 refers to those abortions performed under Ground E of the Abortion Act, that is, there is substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped.

ISD Statistical Disclosure Control Policy is available at the following link: http://www.isdscotland.org/About-ISD/Confidentiality/disclosure_protocol_v3.pdf.

The number of ground E abortions between 2005 and 2015 by (a) diagnosed condition and (b) gestational age is available in the following tables 1a and 1b.

Statistical disclosure control has been applied to both tables because of the sensitive nature of the data and to reduce the risk of disclosing personally identifiable information.

ISD Statistical Disclosure Control Policy is available at the following link: http://www.isdscotland.org/About-ISD/Confidentiality/disclosure_protocol_v3.pdf.

Table 1a

Number of ground E abortions by diagnosed condition (1); 2005 - 2015

 * Indicates values that have been suppressed due to the potential risk of disclosure.

Table 1b

Number of ground E abortions by gestational age; 2005 - 2015

Source: Notifications (to the Chief Medical Officer for Scotland) of abortions performed under the Abortion Act 1967, ISD Scotland

Assistance dogs should be accepted on all modes of travel, subject to one exception in the case of taxis and private hire cars for drivers with a medical exception certificate. Our Accessible Travel Framework commits us to take forward a number of work packages to improve accessibility. Transport Scotland is now actively supporting partners – disabled people’s organisations, transport providers and government – in this co-production process. Part of the work of the Framework involves ensuring training for transport staff about disability awareness is high-quality and this includes how to support people with assistance dogs.

VisitScotland works very closely with the Assistance Dog charities Canine Partners, Hearing Dogs for Deaf People and Guide Dogs Scotland, all of which are represented on the VisitScotland Accessible Tourism Steering group. VisitScotland is working with the Scottish Government to discuss a number of complaint cases concerning assistance dogs refused access to bars, hotels and restaurants. VisitScotland published a booklet on their web-site www.visitscotland.org/accessibletourism called "Take the Lead" which gives very clear advice and states that by law access should be granted except in exceptional circumstances. This booklet is distributed widely and it is also sent to those businesses who are the subject of an access complaint.

The Equality Act 2010 states that it is unlawful for a service provider to discriminate against a disabled person by direct or indirect discrimination, discrimination arising from a disability, failure to make reasonable adjustments, harassment, discrimination by association, victimisation or discriminatory advertisements. This legislation prohibits discriminatory access arrangements. The Equality and Human Rights Commission is the regulatory body responsible for enforcing the Equality Act 2010.

Providing formula milk to HIV-positive mothers is a form of HIV-prevention which lies within the remit of NHS health boards. Some boards do this in co-operation with third sector partners such as Waverley Care. Health Boards meet expenses for such measures from their Outcomes Framework allocation. The amount of spending on this would vary per board according to the local needs and circumstances. BHIVA guidelines are followed by Scottish healthcare professionals and boards at their professional discretion.