Chamber and committees

<>The Societal Cost of Alcohol Misuse in Scotland for 2007, which was published in January 2010, can be found on the Scottish Government’s website via the following link http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/12/29122804/0. This is the most recent publication on estimating the annual cost of alcohol misuse in Scotland and uses a cost of illness approach. The study includes estimates of the relevant direct, indirect and intangible costs associated with alcohol misuse, and covers the following categories: health care, social care, crime, productive capacity of the Scottish economy, wider social costs.

The total cost to the health service in Scotland for 2007 is estimated to be in the range of £143.6 million to £392.8 million annually with a midpoint estimate of £267.8 million.

Section 5 in the study provides further detail on the costs to healthcare services.

The Scottish Government’s priorities for reducing health problems caused by alcohol misuse are set out in Changing Scotland's Relationship with Alcohol: A Framework for Action which is available on the following link

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/03/04144703/0.

This Framework details a broad approach which focuses on education, diversionary activity, support for families and communities, and preventive public health measures such as alcohol brief interventions. There are 41 measures in the Framework, including legislative measures such as minimum unit pricing. We believe this wider package will help to create the cultural shift required to change our relationship with alcohol.

In February 2012 we published a progress report on our Framework for Action. This outlines the progress that we have made against each of these measures and outlines some of our future programmes of work and the next steps that we are taking in our fight against alcohol misuse in Scotland. This is available at

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0038/00388540.pdf.

Scottish Government action to help mitigate housing benefit changes is set out at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/16342/hbreform/sg

This includes: work with COSLA and wider stakeholders to seek influence DWP’s policies; extensive analysis to promote understanding of the reforms and their implications; and £160,000 funding for support, training and guidance to help local authorities and social landlords prepare for the changes.

We have also invested more widely to protect households affected by welfare reforms in 2013-14. We are providing an additional £9.2 million funding for the Scottish Welfare Fund (the devolved Social Fund). We and our partners in local government will commit a total of £40 million to ensure that vulnerable people in Scotland currently receiving Council Tax Benefit are protected from the 10% cut in funding imposed by the UK Government for Council Tax successor arrangements. We are also providing a £5.4 million funding package for advice and support services which will go to directly towards helping people and families in Scotland better understand and cope with these changes.

The Department for Work and Pensions reports the following amounts of housing benefit were paid to Scottish landlords during 2011-12:

Local Authorities: £674 million

Housing Associations: £608 million

Private Landlords: £446 million

The source for this information can be found at the following website address:

http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd4/h_tables_budget_2012_300812.xls.

No, the Scottish Government has not advised NHS Forth Valley to amend how it recorded periods of social unavailability.

All NHS boards were advised last year through new guidance that as of 1 October 2012 ‘social unavailability’ was being scrapped and replaced with “patient advised unavailability”, bringing the system into line with the Patient Rights (Scotland) Act. It is for boards to ensure they apply Scottish Government guidance accurately.

The internal audits on the management of waiting times at Forth Valley published on 20 December 2012 stated that it found no instances of inappropriate behaviour or pressure on staff to hide breached or manipulate data. Overall, patient records reviewed were accurate; however, improvements were identified surrounding some aspects of system operation and control, particularly in relation to the usage of different patient administrations systems for in-patients and out-patients.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-12454 on 5 February 2013. 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 information on the number of patients with a period of social unavailability on 30 June 2011 and 30 June 2012 (latest available published data) by NHS Board is provided in the following table. Official waiting times statistics for 31 December 2012 is due to be published by ISD Scotland on 26 February 2013.

Monthly Social Unavailability as at Census date

NHS Board	June 2011	June 2012
Ayrshire and Arran	703	775
Borders	308	236
Dumfries and Galloway	493	321
Fife	543	402
Forth Valley	1,915	511
Grampian	7,128	6,949
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	12,244	5,492
Highland	814	761
Lanarkshire	2,148	1,466
Lothian	12,585	1,790
Orkney	82	52
Shetland	275	109
Tayside	2,175	1,652
Western Isles	74	58
GJNH	148	81
Scotland	42,149	20,883

Source: ISD Scotland.

The Independent Evaluation of the Health Board Elections carried out by the London School of Economics reported that the costs associated with introducing elections to all Scottish health boards would be in the region of £12 million, dependent upon the model used.

The Scottish Government will take this information in to account as it considers the independent evaluation on health board elections and alternative pilots.

Each local authority has been given an allocation of funding as part of a three year programme to support transformation in adult social care and children’s services for self-directed support. The following table details the amounts allocated to each local authority for transformation funding 2012 to 2015.

The Scottish Government has not been prescriptive in setting the proportion of transformation funding that should be spent on transitional or “bridging” costs and this will vary between local authorities.

Local Authority	2012-13 *	2013-14	2014-15
Aberdeen City	£251,440	£426,000	£225,560
Aberdeenshire	£259,360	£445,740	£236,560
Angus	£176,640	£268,080	£152,520
Argyll and Bute	£161,680	£235,180	£136,680
Clackmannanshire	£113,280	£131,780	£88,720
Dumfries and Galloway	£219,760	£359,260	£195,640
Dundee City	£212,720	£343,280	£186,840
East Ayrshire	£177,960	£269,960	£152,520
East Dunbartonshire	£155,520	£222,020	£130,960
East Lothian	£155,080	£222,020	£130,960
East Renfrewshire	£146,720	£204,160	£122,160
Edinburgh, City of	£477,160	£909,160	£452,160
Eilean Siar	£100,960	£104,520	£75,520
Falkirk	£195,560	£307,560	£170,560
Fife	£383,880	£710,820	£360,200
Glasgow City	£604,760	£1,168,600	£567,440
Highland	£258,920	£446,680	£237,000
Inverclyde	£151,120	£211,680	£125,240
Midlothian	£140,120	£190,060	£115,560
Moray	£148,480	£207,920	£123,920
North Ayrshire	£194,680	£305,680	£169,240
North Lanarkshire	£324,480	£583,920	£299,920
Orkney Islands	£91,280	£84,780	£66,280
Perth and Kinross	£211,840	£344,220	£188,600
Renfrewshire	£214,480	£347,980	£189,480
Scottish Borders	£175,760	£265,260	£150,760
Shetland Islands	£92,600	£87,600	£68,040
South Ayrshire	£185,880	£286,880	£160,880
South Lanarkshire	£329,760	£596,140	£306,520
Stirling	£146,720	£204,160	£122,160
West Dunbartonshire	£154,200	£217,320	£127,440
West Lothian	£186,320	£290,640	£163,960

*This includes £25,000 awarded to each local authority, specifically to enable children’s services teams to engage in SDS implementation.