Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government''s position is that recalculating the Scottish budgets for 2009-10 and 2010-11 to exclude the effects of end-year flexibility (EYF) and capital acceleration does not alter the amount of money actually available to support public services. Using figures published by the Treasury itself in the Budget 2009 Red Book, the Scottish Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) budget was scheduled to rise in cash terms from £29.1 billion in 2009-10 to £29.3 billion in 2010-11. This cash terms increase of £200 million (rounded to the nearest £100 million) represents a real terms reduction of about 1% using Treasury''s published GDP deflator for 2010-11 of 1.5%.

The Scottish Government has brought forward approximately £350 million of capital spending from 2010-11 into 2008-09 and 2009-10.

Using the Scottish Government Input Output model of the Scottish economy, it is estimated that this expenditure will support approximately 5,100 jobs in the Scottish economy over this period. The number of jobs created relative to the number of jobs sustained will depend upon the individual employment decisions taken by companies benefiting from projects undertaken as a result of the capital acceleration.

The Scottish Government has brought forward approximately £350 million of capital spending from 2010-11 into 2008-09 and 2009-10.

Using the Scottish Government Input Output model of the Scottish economy, it is estimated that this expenditure will support approximately 5,100 jobs in the Scottish economy during 2008-09 and 2009-10. Breakdowns by public and private sector are not available.

The Chief Inspector of the Healthcare Environment Inspectorate will take up post subject to formal completion of the appointment process and the period of notice which will be required by the successful candidate''s current employer. Negotiations are currently underway with the successful candidate''s current employer to secure as early a release date as possible.

As indicated in response to question S3W-22940, the Healthcare Environment Inspectorate (HEI) operates independently of the Scottish Government and NHS boards which it will inspect but for administrative purposes is based within NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (NHS QIS). The HEI will be accountable to Scottish ministers through the board of NHS QIS as a means of ensuring its reports and recommendations for improvement are taken forward and fully implemented.

Expenditure baselines are set by HM Treasury following spending reviews. Scottish baselines are set by applying changes, calculated by formula, consequential on changes to corresponding Whitehall Departments'' baselines. Baselines are set for a three-year period - following the 2007 Spending Review, baselines were set for the three years to 2010-11. These arrangements are confirmed in the Statement of Funding Policy to which the question refers.

Budgets for individual years can be adjusted without changing underlying expenditure baselines, for example to reflect draw-down of unspent end-year flexibility balances from previous years.

Baselines may be changed by Treasury between spending reviews - for example, the Chancellor''s pre-Budget Report in November 2008 announced a £129 million reduction in the Scottish baseline for 2010-11 as a formula consequential of reductions made to the Department of Health''s baseline. In addition, the UK Budget on 22 April announced a £392 million reduction in the Scottish baseline for the same year, as a formula consequential of so-called efficiency savings in Whitehall.

By definition, the Scottish Government cannot change its own expenditure baselines.

The Scotland Performs website shows the progress being made by government towards the National Outcomes and targets set out in the National Performance Framework. The Framework was fully integrated into the Spending Review 2007 and was articulated in the Spending Review 2007 document. It provides clarity for outcomes-focused government, aligning all government action and spending decisions behind a single unifying purpose. Essentially, it ensures that our spending decisions, and those of our partners, support the achievement of our shared ambitions. Scotland Performs is still developing and the picture it offers will build and become more sophisticated over time, enabling people to see and judge for themselves the progress we are making.

The government''s purpose of delivering sustainable economic growth and the targets described in the Government Economic Strategy are the key drivers of Scottish Government policy and spending decisions. This was clearly articulated in the Spending Review 2007 document and has been reaffirmed in subsequent budget documents. Further progress to demonstrate the linkages between expenditure and the government''s National Performance Framework will be reported to the Finance Committee during the next budget round.

The Scotland Performs website brings together many different results from dozens of sources, all of which have differing requirements in terms of processing, quality assurance and publication. The data on Scotland Performs is at any time the most up-to-date there is available. Though some gaps and time lags have been unavoidable due to the move to focus on outcomes and the need to identify new performance measures to best support that, the position is improving all the time. In the past six months alone, 24 updates have been made to the website, some of them making data available for the very first time.

The data on Scotland Performs is produced under Official Statistics Standards, which are set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. This requires that data is published as soon as is practicably possible, whilst assuring the high standards of quality of Official Statistics. Statisticians within government are always striving to minimise data lag and, where these cannot be reduced further, to consider provisional or proxy sources to help give earlier information.

The Scottish Government will honour any existing multi-year pay deals for government and public sector staff for whom it has responsibility.