Information on the levels of funding for each NHS board chronic pain service is not held centrally. Scottish Ministers have made it clear that we expect chronic pain services to be the delivered through existing funding provided to boards in their annual allocations. The detailed planning and delivery of services is a matter for individual NHS boards taking account of their resident populations and assessment of needs.

The Healthcare Improvement Scotland ‘Chronic pain Services in Scotland: Where are we now?’ report noted that there were some staff vacancies during the period of the data collection which may have had an impact on service delivery at the time of reporting. At the date of publication (28 April 2014) a number of these vacancies had been filled.

Staff vacancies are an on-going consideration for NHS boards across all services and well established processes are in place to ensure that identified vacancies are filled.

One of the recommendations of the Sensory Impairment Strategy is that local partnerships should audit service patterns on sensory impairment.

Funding is available to support the implementation of the strategy over the next two years.

An additional £2 million has been made available over two years for the implementation of the Sensory Impairment Strategy which was launched on 24 April 2014.

Implementation will be led by local partnerships and driven by local partnership leads with support from Scottish Government officials.

Outcome measures will be agreed to allow measurement and reporting of improvement.

£2 million over two years has been allocated to the implementation of the Sensory Impairment Strategy.

This information is not currently held at local authority level.

I also refer the member to the answer to question S4W-20941 on 8 May 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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-20941 on 8 May 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 recruitment and promotion of police officers is an operational matter for Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority.

Police Scotland has set out in its recently published Corporate Strategy, plans to diversify its workforce through the promotion of attractive, inclusive and responsible practices including exploring alternative, flexible recruitment options to build a more diverse workforce. Police Scotland also set out in its 2013 Equality and Diversity Report, that Police Scotland will continue its commitment to the principles of positive action in respect to recruitment, retention, progression and development in order to achieve an equitable work environment.

The recruitment of police officers is a matter for Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority.

Police Scotland has set out in its recently published Corporate Strategy, plans to diversify its workforce through the promotion of attractive, inclusive and responsible practices including exploring alternative, flexible recruitment options to build a more diverse workforce. Police Scotland also set out in its 2013 Equality and Diversity Report, that Police Scotland will continue its commitment to the principles of positive action in respect to recruitment, retention, progression and development in order to achieve an equitable work environment.