Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-15959

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 26 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the average annual funding is for NHS boards, broken down by per head of population, and how this compares with how much each receives.

Population level is only one of the factors taken into account by the Scottish Government when allocating funding to NHS Boards; other key factors include relative deprivation and need for healthcare of different Board areas. These factors are taken into account in the NRAC formula which is used when allocating funding to NHS Boards.

The Scottish Government has invested significantly in supporting the boards that are behind parity and, over a seven year period, has committed an additional £1.2 billion to those Boards that are below their NRAC parity levels.

In 2018-19 health resource budget will increase by over £400 million to £13.1 billion, with frontline NHS Boards receiving an additional 3.7% increase which includes £175 million to help deliver service improvements and reform in our NHS. All boards will be within 0.8 per cent of NRAC parity.

More information on the NRAC formula is available at: http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Finance/Resource-Allocation-Formula/ .

Question reference: S5W-15960

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 26 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has carried of the impact on local care services in areas in which the (a) NHS board and (b) local authority is awarded lower than the average national funding per head of population.

The position regarding the basis of funding for NHS Boards is set out in the response to question S5W-15959 on 26 April 2018.

Funding provided to Local Authorities by the Scottish Government is allocated using a needs-based formula which is discussed and agreed with COSLA on behalf of all 32 Local Authorities in Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s policy towards Local Authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of the revenue funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is the responsibility of individual Local Authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including funding for care services, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Question reference: S5W-15967

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 26 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of priority or blackspot areas for its R100 programme.

Telecommunications, including investment in and supporting of broadband infrastructure, is a matter reserved to the UK Government. Despite this, the Scottish Government is the only UK administration to have committed to delivering 100% superfast broadband access.

The R100 Intervention Area was determined through an Open Market Review (a detailed consultation with suppliers and a necessary part of the State Aid approval process), which identified premises that will not have superfast broadband access delivered, either commercially or via the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme.

Within this intervention area, we have taken the decision to focus the initial R100 procurement on more rural areas, incentivising suppliers to target the most difficult to reach premises.

Question reference: S5W-15958

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 26 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government to what extent reported funding and resource issues at NHS Grampian have contributed to (a) concerns regarding staff recruitment, retention and morale and (b) missed waiting times targets.

NHS Grampian will receive a resource budget uplift of 2.1% in 2018-19, the highest percentage uplift of any Territorial Board. This includes a‎ £5 million share of additional NRAC parity funding which takes the Board’s annual resource budget to £921 million and within 0.8% of parity.

The welfare of NHS staff is critically important; every health board is required to have policies in place and to comply with national policies on managing health at work, which includes activity to support staff wellbeing. The Health and Social Care Staff Experience Report 2017 indicated that an increasing number of staff are engaged and feel empowered in their roles.

The Scottish Government supports NHS Health Boards in their efforts to ensure that they have the right staff in place to meet the healthcare needs of the local population. Staffing levels within NHS Grampian have increased by nearly 8% under this Government, rising from 11,203.3 WTE as at September 2006 to 12,063.9 WTE as at December 2017. While there has been a slight decrease in NHS Grampian workforce, down 0.4%, in the last year, we are confident the steps we are taking to improve workforce planning arrangements will directly benefit NHS Grampian, its workforce and patients.

With regards to waiting times, in 2017-18 the Scottish Government made £50 million available to specifically reduce waiting times across NHSScotland – with £4.9 million made available to NHS Grampian. This additional funding is aimed at building up their capacity and making sure that all patients are seen and treated in a timely fashion.

Announced in November, the Access Collaborative will provide further support by looking at different ways patients can receive timely, accessible care and improve the way elective care services are provided and managed across the NHS in Scotland.

Officials continue to meet regularly with NHS Grampian to support improvement in waiting time performance.

Question reference: S5W-15968

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 26 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether easy-to-reach or remote and blackspot areas should be prioritised during the roll-out of its R100 programme, and what impact targeting easy-to-reach areas first would have on the delivery time for remote and blackspot areas.

Telecommunications, including investment in and supporting of broadband infrastructure, is a matter reserved to the UK Government. Despite this, the Scottish Government is the only UK administration to have committed to delivering 100% superfast broadband access.

We have taken the decision to target investment for the first phase of the R100 programme where it is needed most - in rural Scotland. We expect commercial suppliers to fill gaps in urban areas. Recent announcements of commercial investment by CityFibre, Virgin Media, BT and others indicate that this approach is the right one.

Furthermore, we have made delivery of gigabit infrastructure in challenging rural locations a requirement of the initial R100 procurement, with the scoring of bids also incentivising coverage for the hardest to reach properties – giving a higher weighting to bids that deliver access and higher speeds in remote rural areas.

We will announce initial deployment plans once contracts have been agreed, early in 2019.

Question reference: S5W-15966

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 26 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of homes in Aberdeenshire have access to at least 30mbps internet speeds; how this figure compares with the Scottish average, and how it plans to assess target areas for its R100 programme.

Using statistics provided by thinkbroadband – the same independent analysts used by the UK Government - Aberdeenshire superfast broadband coverage (at 30Mbps or more) has increased by 60.2 percentage points from 20.3% when the first DSSB cabinet went live in April 2014 to 80.5% in March 2018.

Crucially, we are not stopping there. Any home or business that cannot receive superfast broadband, either commercially or through DSSB will be included in the intervention area for the R100 programme.

Telecommunications, including investment in and supporting of broadband infrastructure, is a matter reserved to the UK Government. Despite this, the Scottish Government is the only UK administration to have committed to delivering 100% superfast broadband access.

Question reference: S5O-02036

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 April 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government when the education secretary last met the Director of Education and Children’s Services for Aberdeenshire Council.

Question reference: S5W-15961

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 25 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the average annual local authority (a) block grant and (b) total funding is, broken down by per head of population, and how this compares with how much each receives.

Please find the 2018-19 Block Grant per head and the 2018 19 total funding per head in the following table.

Local Authority	Population	2018-19 Block Grant £m	Block Grant Per Head £	2018-19 Total Funding £m	Total Funding Per Head £
Aberdeen City	229,840	320.6	1395	352.9	1536
Aberdeenshire	262,190	408.1	1557	453.0	1728
Angus	116,520	196.2	1684	213.4	1832
Argyll & Bute	87,130	191.7	2200	208.0	2388
Clackmannanshire	51,350	92.2	1795	100.8	1963
Dumfries & Galloway	149,520	278.7	1864	307.2	2055
Dundee City	148,270	286.6	1933	317.4	2141
East Ayrshire	122,200	220.0	1801	240.0	1964
East Dunbartonshire	107,540	180.5	1678	193.2	1796
East Lothian	104,090	167.9	1613	183.5	1762
East Renfrewshire	93,810	174.8	1863	184.6	1968
City of Edinburgh	507,170	701.3	1383	798.7	1575
Eilean Siar	26,900	93.9	3491	103.8	3860
Falkirk	159,380	271.1	1701	293.3	1840
Fife	370,330	617.7	1668	671.7	1814
Glasgow City	615,070	1205.6	1960	1384.3	2251
Highland	234,770	434.8	1852	485.9	2070
Inverclyde	79,160	160.0	2022	173.0	2185
Midlothian	88,610	153.6	1734	167.7	1893
Moray	96,070	154.9	1613	169.0	1759
North Ayrshire	135,890	265.4	1953	276.2	2033
North Lanarkshire	339,390	596.0	1756	646.8	1906
Orkney Islands	21,850	68.4	3132	81.0	3709
Perth & Kinross	150,680	242.4	1609	263.9	1751
Renfrewshire	175,930	301.4	1713	326.7	1857
Scottish Borders	114,350	201.1	1756	231.2	2019
Shetland Islands	23,200	80.3	3462	92.7	3996
South Ayrshire	112,470	195.9	1742	212.2	1886
South Lanarkshire	317,100	544.2	1716	587.9	1854
Stirling	93,750	162.9	1738	177.4	1893
West Dunbartonshire	89,860	182.5	2031	203.3	2262
West Lothian	180,130	306.1	1699	330.8	1837
Scotland Total	5,404,700	9456.7	1750	10431.6	1930

Question reference: S5W-15952

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Keith Brown on 24 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government by what date all sections of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route (AWPR) will be open to traffic.

In my statement to Parliament on 22 March 2018, I advised that it may be prudent to anticipate a late autumn 2018 date for the project opening.

Transport Scotland will continue to work with the contractor to establish whether any further measures can be implemented to ensure the project is not only delivered at the earliest opportunity but to identify if sections of new road can be opened in advance of the whole of the project.

Question reference: S5W-15246

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 21 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the report in the Press and Journal on 12 March 2018 that, due to recruitment difficulties, NHS Grampian is not administering sufficient chronic pain treatment; how the situation at NHS Grampian compares with the other NHS boards, and how it is supporting NHS Grampian in dealing with recruitment issues.

Scottish Government officials have been in correspondence with NHS Grampian over the last few months and have been advised of particular challenges within the Board in relation to delivering pain clinics. NHS Grampian has faced significant staff absences in the past year that has affected waiting times. However, recent recruitment has been successful and has enabled additional clinics to be offered.

NHS Grampian are currently carrying out a review of its elective care planning review, specifically in regard to the proposal for its chronic pain services. The review is due to be completed at the end of March 2018.

NHS Grampian were also given an extra funding of £4.9 million to help reduce waiting times across services, with it being up to the Board to decide where to invest this funding. We will continue to work with NHS Grampian to improve performance.

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