16/01/2013 Reporting Scotland

Tonight, on Reporting Scotland: The row over waiting time guarantees -

eight months for some patients needing a bone scan. A health board

says it didnt know they were A million pounds of jewellery is

stolen from this Edinburgh shop - police hunt the thieves who were

armed with guns and an axe. Thousands of free travel tickets on

offer, as a new campaign urges us to explore the wonders of the

Scottish countryside. The sporting stars of the future -

but are there enough volunteers to Some don't like football or

basketball but when you join it, you find it is more fun and you

have things to do. Hundreds of people have been left

waiting up to eight months for bone scans on the NHS despite the

Scottish Government a's guarantee that no one should wait more than

18 weeks. Delays occurred when NHS Grampian believed, wrongly, scans

were not part of waiting time targets.

For more than a year, no one was supposed to have waited over 18

weeks for treatment on the NHS. More than 500 patients in the

north-east Scotland waiting to have important bone scans to see if they

have austere paresis, were told they would have to wait eight

months. When I asked NHS Grampian, why? I was told they were not

included in waiting targets. That is what they have told the health

minister who is under fire because health boards have been caught

fiddling their waiting time figures. The waiting time at target to

relate to new patients and new referrals. This is people already

in the system who have to come back for another scan. That is outside

the waiting time targets. Scottish waiting time targets to have more

get-out clauses than engage targets but I have waded through this 60

one-page guide and it clearly states that patients should wait

longer than 18 weeks for treatment, no matter how many scams they need.

For the problem arose because one of two scanners was damaged by

flood water. It has been replaced and NHS Grampian are trying to deal

with those waiting the longest. What has compounded anger is an

independent audit was only recently carried out. The peat that the

reason I am flabbergasted by this, is three weeks ago, we had the

Cabinet Secretary on the basis of an internal audit giving NHS

Grampian a clean bill of health. Now waiting time targets have got

shorter. Your GP if -- if your GP has referred to the treatment, you

should wait no longer than 18 weeks in total if it involves a test or a

scan. If you're waiting longer, start asking your doctor questions.

I have written a guide to waiting times on our website.

Two armed robbers have stolen more than �1 million worth of jewellery

from a city centre store in Edinburgh. The raid happened at

teatime last night in an area crowded with commuters. Rob Flett

joins me from outside the Rox store in George Street. It sounds like an

ordeal for staff. It was a terrifying ordeal for the

two young women inside the store last night. Fortunately, neither of

them was heard but they were very shocked to stop it was 24 hours ago

that the two men burst into the store has double of them with an

axe started smashing up display cabinets. The other man pulled out

a handgun and forced the women to open up a display window. Inside

the Cabinet were expensive items, some of them diamond rings,

engagement rings, with more than �100,000 each. The total haul was

worth more than a million pounds. Police in Edinburgh are described

this as an unusual crime. They have smashed Cabinet's, they presented a

handgun and an axe and made their escape on a motorcycle. They have

disposed of that motorcycle on Northumberland Street Lane. This

isn't the first time Rox has been targeted. That is right. At the end

of November last year, a delivery van was robbed in the centre of

Glasgow. �40,000 was stolen that time. As this rate -- at this rate

here, with �1 million stolen, the jewellery industry is describing it

as one of the worst robberies are to hit its. They are hoping the

sheer volume of people around here, he would have seen them make their

getaway, will generate some vital clues so they can trace the

culprits. Efforts are being made tonight to

restart production from eight North Sea oil and gas platforms after an

oil leak on an installation this set -- Shetland. Eight leak stopped

work at flowing and it accounts for A small oil -- a small oil leak

causing a big problem in the North Sea but relief tonight for the

operator. They will be up to stop the process of getting the majority

of the oil pumping again. -- start. That is important because every

hour the pipeline was shut, it was costing oil companies a quarter of

a million pounds. It is described as a small oil leak discovered on

Monday in the leg of the -- in the station. The oil is pumped to

Shetland. Eight other platforms servicing 27 different oil and gas

fields has now been halted. There is no indication when production,

estimated at around 90,000 barrels a day, will start again. The impact

on prices will be nothing. It is not a significant amount -- amount.

In terms of the value it is generating for the Exchequer and

the company's, it will have an impact on them. This is where the

oil comes ashore and there has been no environmental impact from the

square leak but there is concern. We have structures built in the

1970s. We maintain them to the highest standard. We are concerned.

The northern North Sea is an economy and we want it in pristine

condition. A specialist is now on board the rig to look at the source

of the leak. Whatever -- whatever they found -- whatever they find,

it is encouraging because the company has announced a will begin

the process of starting 80,000 barrels a day through the pipe --

through the pipeline. At least some progress tonight.

You are watching Reporting Scotland. Still to come: After mornings of

snow, we will have the full weather outlook. Also, how would you fancy

working in a work of art? A rare Charles Rennie MacIntyre house

comes on the market. In sport, plans to restructure the

Scottish football may be running into difficulties. We will catch up

with Andy Murray ahead of his next match at the Austrian Open tennis.

The House of Lords says tonight is set to approve the transfer of

power to the Scottish Parliament to hold the independence referendum.

MPs approved the measure yesterday but not all Peers are happy about

the deal struck between the UK and Scottish Command. We are passing

responsibility for the conduct of the referendum to a man who has

made it his life's work to destroy the United Kingdom. We are doing so

without knowing the question, without knowing the date of the

referendum, without knowing the walls are on expenses for the

conduct of the referendum and without knowing who is going to be

allowed to vote than the referendum. Let us crossed to the House of

Lords and David Porter. Michael Forsyth wasn't the only unhappy

person. There is thoughtful consideration over where we are in

the independence referendum process. Some strong words in the debate in

the chamber behind me which has been going on for three hours. One

like and some -- Alex Salmond... Them may well be a legal challenge

to the whole referendum itself. What the House of Lords are

concerned about is the timing of the referendum, the question that

will be used and who will vote? That said, despite the misgivings,

they will vote in favour or they will agree to the section 30 order.

When the Privy Council has approved it early next month, the

responsibility for holding and organising the independence

referendum were passed to the Scottish Government who will put a

Bill before the Scottish Parliament. It means there will be a referendum

on Scottish independence and that will come before the end of 2014.

15,000 ferry tickets are up for grabs as part of 2013's Year of

Natural Scotland celebrations. Cut- price coach tickets will also be

available. The aim is to encourage more Scots as well as visitors from

the rest of the UK and overseas to explore our mind turns, lochs and

glens. David Miller reports. -- mountain's. Scotland might surprise

you. Have no shortage of natural beauty. Stunning images of Scotland

seen around the world and this, the year of natural Scotland. The

campaign's most -- main focus will be on potential visitors here in

the UK. It will also target the North American and European markets.

It is costing �3.4 million but a visit Scotland is happening --

hoping it will bring a return of �68 million. 2013 will be a tough

year for tourism in Scotland. We need to focus on a theme that we

think will catch the imagination of Scots, young and old are to be

offered free train and ferry tickets. There will be cut price

coach fares also to encourage us to discover new parts of Scotland.

Above all, we want to make people happy. That is what you want from a

holiday. The Year of Natural Scotland 20 13, making the year

when we see is to take Scotland for granted. The tickets will be

released late next month. This year, the Year of Natural Scotland, a

surprise yourself. How much is too much? For a drug

that saves or prolongs a life? The NHS may become swamped by the

number of highly priced treatments for extremely rare diseases. One

drug given to a nine people a year in Scotland costs a quarter of a

million pounds for each patient Always a handful of people in

Scotland suffer from this blog disease, and with it this drug, she

would face the lingering death. me, this drug is a miracle. My

family had to face the possibility of me going in 10 years and of my

husband bringing up children on his own. An exceptional drug at an

exceptional price. At �250,000 per patient per year, it is the world's

most expensive drug. The makers say the ball enormous costs and risks

in needed along it. -- the development. More than 60 drugs are

licensed as orphan drugs in Europe. The prices of orphan drugs reflect

the price of research. The figure to get a medicine into market is �1

billion. The cost of that has to recover the cost of all those that

did not make it. If those that started in phase one, about one in

10 will come through. There are lots of orphan drugs and orphan

disease is still to be tackled. They will start swamping health

care across the board with these very expensive drugs. They will

have to then say, we cannot look at any of these. The Scottish

government is investing �21 million in a fund to deal with these.

And you can see Ken's full investigation - Life, Drugs and

Enormous Amounts of Money - tonight at 10:35 here on BBC One Scotland.

Although there's a year and a half to go until the Glasgow

Commonwealth games there are already worries about its legacy. A

report by MSPs is warning urgent action must be taken to ensure

there are enough volunteers to deal with an increased interest in sport

that will follow the event. Cameron Buttle reports.

This is the generation that must benefit from the glut all

Commonwealth Games. Experts say it has to be about much more than

medals. This is the Scotland Under 16 basketball squad and already

they are able to pass on their sporting expertise. There aren't

going to be any medals for Scotland in the 2014 games for basketball

because that will not be a Commonwealth sport until 2018. What

they're trying to ensure today is that there is a legacy after the

2014 games for all sports across Scotland. Last one is in! Another

one, one more or! Yes! To keep groups like this playing sport, you

need volunteers. Today's report says a urgent action is needed to

make sure they can deal with the increased interest in all sports

for 2014. The volunteers, the local heroes, are the people who can

transform someone's enthusiasm into participation in sport. There is

already one conductor basketball set to be showing some natural

talent. I don't really like football or basketball but when you

actually join it, you find out it is really fun and there are more

things to do. If you do not get bored so you say, can we go and do

basketball? They are already 100,000 volunteers and Sport

Scotland says it has schemes in place to Timor. -- train more. And

Newsnight Scotland at 11 over on BBC Two will be speaking to one of

Scotland's top athletics coaches about what he calls the Diseases of

Modernity and how parents can help cure it.

Let's round up some other stories from across Scotland this Wednesday.

The DVD rental firm Blockbuster is the latest UK High Street chain to

go into administration. In Scotland more than 300 jobs are at risk

across 66 stores. Blockbuster follows other chains, HMV and

Jessops, into recent administration. However retail sales overall saw a

recovery in the run-up to Christmas. The Scottish Retail Consortium says

sales increased last month - their best performance in nine months.

Further tests are to be carried out to find out what caused gearbox

failures on two North Sea helicopters. Some Super Pumas

remain grounded following last year's incidents. The manufacturer,

Eurocopter, says extensive testing has found a "most probable" root

cause of the failure and is carrying out further investigations.

A two-mile stretch of road on Rasaay has fallen into disrepair

according to locals. Parts of Calum's Road, hand-built by crofter

Calum Macleod in the '60s and '70s,- have worn down to the

foundation. Highland Council say the road is handled in the same way

as similar routes with low traffic volumes.

Primal Scream are to headline this year's Wickerman Festival in July.

The Scots band will top the bill on the first night of the Dumfries and

Galloway music festival as it celebrates its 12th year.

And there's more from the BBC across Scotland, and the latest

How would you fancy living in a home designed by Charles Rennie

Mackintosh? The Glasgow architect's style from a century ago has never

been more popular, even though he only completed a handful of

projects during his lifetime. Well, a rare house built more recently,

to a genuine Mackintosh design, is up for sale in the Highlands. Craig

Anderson went for a look around. The artist's cottager studio was

designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh for his wife and himself

in 1900. 20 years ago, enthusiasts that greet plans that created this

- the unique house with a timeless style. If you look at the drawings

he made and you see all his designs, you really can see that it would

have been like he designed it. the woodshed is in keeping with the

meticulous attention to detail. This is the real deal. I don't

think I have ever known anything like it. You think it is Glasgow

that has these hidden gems but we're quite delighted that it came

to market and it is very rare. Anyone interested in buying this

House would have to recognise that lot only is it a wonderful place to

live, but it's also become something of a tourist attraction.

You have a lot of people around the House and it is nice to have all

the people around. What we would love is to share this with other

people. Such rarity comes at a price but judging by Mackintosh's

enduring popularity, it is not going out off fashion any time soon.

Is it back to the drawing board for league reconstruction? Here's David

with the sport. Perhaps not quite. Plans to shake-

up Scottish football may have run into some difficulties. Last week

the Premier League said all 12 of its member clubs had agreed in

principle with proposals for league reconstruction. They involving

merging with the Scottish Football League to create a new three tier

system, with a Premiership of 12 teams, a championship of 12 and a

national league of 18. But as our Reporter Jane Lewis has discovered,

some SPL clubs have yet to be convinced.

One week ago, it was all smiles and Hampden as the three main bodies

running Scottish football announced plans for the way ahead. Change

seemed inevitable and there was an air of confidence among all parties.

It will be an ally in club majority required because you're speaking

about the new rule book, but as we said, we have 12 clubs who have in

principle up Ruud this way forward. The United Front from the country's

top flight? We have learned that some cheer when it still have

doubts. Beasant Mirren chairman has They are among the clubs who favour

a top league of 14. Mother well say they would also consider a top

Other clubs have told us they want more information before deciding on

the best option. Will we are going to be having an open night for our

fans soon and we will explain it from the point of view of Dundee

and of what we think of Scottish football, and if we agree to

disagree that is fine. I believe that the majority will see the

logic in it once it is explained. Tonight, the footballing bodies are

standing by their stance of having full support for these plans.

Hibernian's top scorer will be staying with the club till the end

of the season. Leigh Griffiths who's on loan from Wolverhampton

Wanderers has had his loan spell extended. He had been due to return

to Wolves at the end of this month. Griffiths who's scored 14 goals

this season is being investigated over sending tweets alleged to be

racist. Andy Murray is back in action at

the Australian Open tennis in the wee small hours of tomorrow morning.

The US Open champion will be up against Joao Sousa of Portugal

who's ranked 100th in the world. Murray is expecting the fierce

Australian heat to make it difficult for both of them. He won

the first round very quickly and convincingly so what will be

extremely hot on Thursday it at about 39 Celsius, so regardless of

who you are playing, it is going to be a tough day.

Colin Montgomerie says he's not too disappointed as losing out on the

captaincy of Europe's Ryder cup team to Ireland's Paul McGinley.

McGinley was chosen yesterday to lead Europe's golfers against the

United States at Gleneagles next year. Monty who captained the team

in 2010 was also in the running but he says he'll help McGinley however

he can. That's the sport for now. What did

I say there? I should stick to Wolves. The weather is notoriously

difficult to predict but how is Potentially some significance not

fall as the day progresses but we will keep you up-to-date on that

and we will be able to tell you more tomorrow. Bet will be a cold

one tonight but it is predominantly privacy evening were the widespread

frost in place. Potentially a few flurries of snow putting the end as

this on a lot of dry weather. -- emphasis. Later winds in land and

temperatures down to-two Celsius for many of us. It will be

particularly cold around Aberdeenshire. A cold and frosty

started the day tomorrow but there should be some sunshine coming

through and a little bit more in the way of clouds in the western

coastal areas. An increase in the went developing with thicker cloud

across western coastal areas producing some rain. Some sunshine

across eastern Scotland but the frost will not be laughing in many

places. Becker cloud across the at the Hebrides but really, every

where stays predominantly dry with some sunshine. -- Becker cloud. The

change comes hour way for Friday with the rain starting to show

across the south-west. Here is what is happening with that. The weather

front is sweeping across the UK bringing it outbreaks of snow

across many places but as that rain hats the call there, it is going to

cause some problems. It means the Met Office have already issued an

early warning for snow. It starts off dry and bright in the north but

then hits the a across the mainland then hits the a across the mainland

turning too small. Hundreds of people have been left waiting up to

eight months for bone scans on the NHS despite the Scottish

Government's guarantee that no-one should wait more than 18 weeks. NHS

Grampian had believed wrongly these scans were not part of waiting time

targets. A helicopter has crashed in central

London after colliding with a crane killing the pilot and one person on

the ground. 13 others were injured, one of them critically. The

accident, at rush hour this morning, created a fireball in the middle of

the street. Two thieves have escaped with

jewellery valued at �1 million after smashing glass display

cabinets with an axe during an armed raid at an Edinburgh shop.