Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland Act 2023

Strategic planning

4 Duty to have a plan

(1) The Commissioner must—

(a) have a strategic plan, and

(b) make the latest version of the plan publicly available.

(2) A strategic plan is a document setting out, for the period of the plan (as defined in section 5(2)), the Commissioner’s—

(a) strategy for involving the public, and patients in particular, in the Commissioner’s work,

(b) objectives,

(c) proposals for achieving the objectives,

(d) timetable for doing so,

(e) estimate of the costs for doing so.

(3) The strategy referred to in subsection (2)(a) must, in particular, make provision about how the Commissioner will seek to raise awareness of—

(a) the Commissioner’s role, and

(b) the ways in which the public may communicate with the Commissioner.

(4) A strategic plan may include any other information the Commissioner considers appropriate.

(5) As soon as practicable after making a strategic plan, the Commissioner is to lay a copy of it before the Scottish Parliament.

5 Frequency of planning

(1) The Commissioner—

(a) may make a new strategic plan at any time (having complied with section 7),

(b) must seek to ensure that there is no gap between the period of one plan ending and that of its successor beginning.

(2) The period of a strategic plan—

(a) must not exceed 4 years,

(b) begins on the date that the plan states it begins,

(c) ends on the earlier of—

(i) the date that the plan states it ends, or

(ii) the date that the period of the plan’s successor begins.