Chamber and committees

With a total pay bill of circa £5.3 billion, it is estimated that a uniform 1% pay rise for all staff would cost in the region of £53 million.

<>Three hundred and sixteen responses were received to the consultation on proposals on Integration of Adult Health and Social Care. The consultation ran from 8 May to 11 September 2012. The responses were published on the Scottish Government website on 12 October 2012: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/Recent.

Dedicated Scottish Government teams focussing on defence matters were established in 2008, to support armed forces personnel and veterans in Scotland; and in 2010, to co-ordinate Scotland's response to the impacts of the UK Strategic Defence and Security Review and the subsequent UK Basing Review. The Scottish Government Defence Policy Unit was established in June 2011, bringing those teams together. The unit, which forms part of Resilience Division, currently comprises seven officials, who report to the Deputy First Minister and to the Minister for Transport and Veterans. Defence Policy Unit staff costs for the last financial year were £288,423.

The Scottish Government does not recognise the use of the term “separation” in the context of Scottish independence. An independent Scotland will be based on new relationships to make our nation more successful and to improve the lives of the people who live in Scotland. Scotland already pays a proportionate share of defence costs. Decisions on the defence and security policies and establishment of an independent Scotland would be subject to future consideration and approval by an independent Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament.

<>I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-09805 on 22 October 2012. 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 police investigation is still ongoing.

Earlier this year, we extended the scope of demand-responsive community transport services included in the scheme. Those available to the general public and registered as local bus services were already eligible. This provision was extended from 1 April 2012 as a consequence of revised bus registration legislation allowing flexibly routed demand-responsive community transport services to be registered as local services. These typically are services where the route of each journey is determined according to passengers’ pre-booked travel requirements.

In light of the substantial and ongoing cuts to Scottish Government budgets, we have no plans to extend the National Concessionary Travel Scheme to include all demand-responsive community transport services.

A breakdown of “Miscellaneous Other Services” as reported in Table 3.03 on page 30 of Draft Budget 2013-14 is provided in the following table.

 

	2013-14 (£ million)
Miscellaneous Board Allocations	36.3
Other services
Carers Strategy Implementation	5.4
Aberdeen Dental School	4.5
Investment Programme Support	4.0
Long Term Conditions	4.0
Community Care Section 10 Grants	3.2
Emergency Medical Retrieval Services / Unscheduled Care	3.1
Patient Focus and Public Involvement	2.9
Contaminated Blood Programme	2.4
Quality Strategy and Priority Groups	2.1
Integrated Resource Framework – Health and Social Care Integration	2.0
Wheelchair / Seating Services Improvement	1.8
Essential Medicines	1.8
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde – Lowmoss	1.6
Electronic Procurement Services	1.5
Centrally Managed Budgets	1.6
Alternative and Augmentative Communication	1.5
Sensory Impairment Strategy	1.5
Access to ECMO for residents of Scotland	1.5
Human Papillomavirus Vaccine	1.4
Primary Care Development Fund	1.3
Managed Clinical Networks	1.3
Scottish Health Survey	1.2
Coronary Heart Disease / Stroke	1.2
Joint Improvement Team	1.1
Adult Survivors - National Confidential Forum	1.0
Flexible Access to Healthcare	1.0
Unpaid Carers - Short Breaks	1.0
Scottish Diabetes Framework	1.0
Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011 – Treatment Time Guarantee.	1.0
Protection of Vulnerable Groups	1.0
	59.9
Provision for contracts and other services below £1 million	30.7
Total	126.9

<>A survey of community planning partnerships conducted in April this year found that the third sector is represented at the highest decision-making level in all 32 Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs). The results of the survey, which was carried out by the Improvement Service to inform the joint review of community planning carried out earlier this year by the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, can be found at http://www.improvementservice.org.uk/news-2012/may-2012/community-planning-survey-results-published/.

The Scottish Government contribution to the Early Years Change Fund is set out in the following table.

	2012-13 £ million	2013-14 £ million	2014-15 £ million	2015-16 £ million	Total £ million
Scottish Government	10.5	14.5	16.5	8.5	50

The Education and Lifelong Learning portfolio budget in total for 2012-13 as published in the Budget Bill is £2,699.9 million. The percentage of this spent on the Early Years Change Fund for 2012-13 is therefore 0.39%.

The remainder of the £272 million Early Years Change Fund is made up of contributions from local government and NHS Scotland. This fund represents a good starting point for all partners to consider how we can begin to direct more of our overall resource away from treating our problems to funding the solutions. Under the Fund we expect all partners to consider how they can support universal services to deliver better outcomes for children in their early years and families and to bring the totality of their resources to discussions on how we can best deliver the aspirations of the Early Years Framework.