The Scottish Government

« Previous | Contents | Next »

Listen

COVERING LETTER

Public Health and Wellbeing Directorate
Public Health and Substance Misuse Division

T: 0131-244 5662
F: 0131-244 2157
E: sean.doohan@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

Recipient List at Annex D

4 June 2008

Dear Consultee,

PUBLIC HEALTH ETC. (SCOTLAND) ACT
DESIGNATION OF COMPETENT PERSONS REGULATIONS 2008 (DRAFT)

This letter invites comments on draft regulations which set out the qualifications and other requirements of Health Board and Local Authority competent persons to carry out the functions assigned to them in the Public Health etc. (Scotland) Bill. The draft regulations are at Annex A, and a questionnaire for completion and return is at Annex B.

Background

The Public Health etc. (Scotland) Bill is currently under the scrutiny of the Scottish Parliament. The draft Bill can be viewed at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/03-PublicHealth/index.htm, where its progress can also be followed. Although the Bill has yet to finish its Parliamentary stages, we thought that it would be useful to let stakeholders have sight of our proposals at this time to help inform debate.

Under current arrangements, the standard of health professional competency to act under public health legislation derives primarily from a doctor filling a certain post in public health (usually a consultant in public health medicine) and / or meeting a competency standard as a Designated Medical Officer ( DMO). This title was created to carry out the functions requiring medical input in the Public Health (Scotland) Act 1897 and is used to refer to doctors, designated by the NHS Board and deemed suitably qualified to carry out legislative duties in health protection on behalf of the local authority. There is no equivalent "competency" standard for environmental health officers in local authorities.

The Public Health etc. (Scotland) Bill assigns functions to health boards and local authorities on a corporate basis, and provides for a limited transfer of functions from local authorities to health boards. The Bill defines the actions for which professional input is required (such as when powers are used to restrict personal liberty or impose obligations on individuals in relation to their premises), and provides that these functions must be carried out by 'competent persons'. In circumstances where personal liberty and property, for example, are being affected, it is right to ensure that the person recommending action has the necessary professional skills and expertise to do so.

Sections 3 and 5 of the Bill provide that health boards and local authorities must designate a sufficient number of competent persons for the purpose of exercising the public health functions assigned to them in the Bill, and that Scottish Ministers may prescribe the qualifications, experience and training of such competent persons in regulations. These draft regulations set out the proposed qualifications, experience and training required to carry out the functions set out in the Bill.

The content of the regulations was developed following deliberations of a working group of experts in public health including representation from Health Protection Scotland, British Medical Association, the Directors of Public Health Group, the Society of Chief Officers of Environmental Health, Consultants in Public Health Medicine, the Health Protection Nurse Specialist Network, the Scottish Affairs Committee of the Faculty for Public Health and the UK Public Health Register.

The draft regulations are attached at Annex A for your consideration. We have included at Annex B a list of questions on the regulations that consider practical issues, to seek feedback to ensure that the regulations will work in practice. We have also included, at Annex C, further information into the current arrangements of Designated Medical Officers and the fact that the regulatory body for public health is content for non-medical specialists to take on senior roles within the NHS. We believe that this is key to widening the category of persons who may be designated by health boards as competent persons. A recipient list is attached at Annex D, and further information is provided about the Scottish Government Consultation Process at Annex E, for information.

Responding to this consultation paper

We are inviting written responses to the regulations on the qualifications of the competent person by 4 SEPTEMBER 2008. Please respond using the attached questionnaire to:

e-mail: sean.doohan@scotland.gsi.gov.uk or

If you have any queries contact Sean Doohan on 0131 244 5662.

This consultation, and all other Scottish Government consultation exercises, can be viewed online on the consultation web pages of the Scottish Government website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations. You can telephone Freephone 0800 77 1234 to find out where your nearest public internet access point is.

The Scottish Government now has an email alert system for consultations (SEconsult: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations/seconsult.aspx). This system allows stakeholders, individuals and organisations to register and receive a weekly email containing details of all new consultations (including web links). SEconsult complements, but in no way replaces Scottish Government distribution lists, and is designed to allow stakeholders to keep up to date with all Scottish Government consultation activity, and therefore be alerted at the earliest opportunity to those of most interest. We would encourage you to register.

Handling your response

We need to know how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are happy for your response to be made public. Please complete and return the Respondent Information Form at the end of Annex B as this will ensure that we treat your response appropriately. If you ask for your response not to be published we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly.

All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Government is subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and would therefore have to consider any request made to it under the Act for information relating to responses made to this consultation exercise.

Next steps in the process

Where respondents have given permission for their response to be made public, these will be made available to the public in the Scottish Government Library by 2 October 2008. We will check all responses where agreement to publish has been given for any potentially defamatory material before logging them in the library or placing them on the website. You can make arrangements to view responses by contacting the SG Library on 0131 244 4565. Responses can be copied and sent to you, but a charge may be made for this service.

What happens next?

Following the closing date, all responses will be analysed and considered prior to finalising the regulations. We will inform stakeholders of the outcome of the consultation and the timetable for introduction of the regulations, pending enactment of the Public Health etc. (Scotland) Bill.

Comments and complaints

If you have any comments about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them to Sean Doohan, whose contact details are above.

Yours faithfully

Lucy Smith

Lucy Smith
Public Health Bill Team

« Previous | Contents | Next »