Chamber and committees

NHS Scotland health boards prepare annual local delivery plans supported by a balanced financial plan for discussion and agreement with Scottish Government. Financial plans include a rolling five-year programme of capital expenditure. Draft Plans for 2011-12 have been received and the process for reaching agreement on each health board''s capital programme and hence individual health projects in 2011-12 is currently underway.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-40541 on 17 March 2011. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-40541 on 17 March 2011. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

a) In relation to capital projects which are legally committed could I please refer the member to my answer to question S3W-40462 on 22 March 2011.

b) There are no capital projects with approved final business cases which are not yet legally committed.

c) There are two capital projects for which have reached an Outline Business Case stage “ NHS Highland''s day surgery centre at Raigmore Hospital and NHS Lothian''s reprovision of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children.

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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

NHS Scotland health boards have prepared draft Local Delivery Plans for 2011-12 supported by financial plans for discussion and agreement with Scottish Government. When finalised these documents will provide details of which capital projects will be taken forward in 2011-12 broken down by (a) NHS board

Financial plans include a rolling five-year programme of capital expenditure and the process for reaching agreement on each health board''s capital programme and hence individual health projects is currently underway. When finalised these documents will provide details matching capital projects being taken forward in 2011-12 with (b) amount allocated

Revised capital planning arrangements are in place from 1 April 2011 as a result of guidance issued via CEL32 (2010). The formula based allocation is now made to support routine statutory compliance and equipment replacement only, with specific funding allocated to boards/special boards to support existing legal commitments in excess of delegated limits. Formula allocations for territorial and special health boards are therefore not directly comparable with those for previous years. Project specific funding in health will be supported by either wholly public funding through capital allocations or revenue finance when carried out through the hub initiative or NPD model or through a mixture of both.

I refer to the member to the answer to question S3W-37689 on 9 December 2010. The guidance referred to in that answer, which had been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 52181) made clear that progress against the target will be monitored as part of each board''s annual workforce plans and projections. Boards'' workforce plans and projections for 2010-11 were already in place when the target was announced on 16 October 2010. I would therefore expect progress against the target to begin to feature in boards'' workforce plans and projections for 2011-12 which will be available later this year.

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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

No. I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-40438 on 18 March 2011. The National Performance Management Committee has an important function to perform in ensuring that NHSScotland has a fit for purpose performance management system in place for its most senior managers.

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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

The number and timing of meetings of the National Performance Management Committee are determined by the business of that Committee and its formal Terms of Reference “ a copy has been placed in SPICe under Bib number 52071. There is no connection between that and the frequency with which any NHS board or other committees or groups might met.

The Scottish Public Sector Pay Policy for 2011-12 sets out the circumstances in which employers may wish to identify flexible working practices that reduce costs while maintaining headcount and services. These should be appropriate to workforce circumstances and need to be agreed between employers and staff representatives.

As part of its 2010 Spending Review, the government made a commitment to achieve savings on the direct costs of external scrutiny over the next four years. These will be delivered through: a reduction in administration and management costs as a result of the reduced set of scrutiny bodies which will be in place from this year; efficiencies required of all public sector organisations; changes to scrutiny activities to make them more proportionate, risk-based and better targeted; and more joint-working, co-ordination and sharing of knowledge between scrutiny bodies.

Both SCSWIS and HIS will contribute to these savings and are taking account of the planned reductions in the development of their inspection plans, business plans for 2011-12 and corporate plans for the next three years. These plans will be published by the new bodies after they are established on 1 April 2011.