Chamber and committees

The funding of local initiatives is a matter for Police Scotland, and it is appropriate that they review their commitments regularly alongside all priority and partnership activities.

Police Scotland have made no announcement about cutting their funding of this project. An options appraisal for funding is currently being developed by the Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP) and when complete, Police Scotland will consider this along with other partners, prior to agreeing the allocation of any funds beyond March 2015.

Since 2008, the Scottish Government has made a record investment of £278 million to tackle problem alcohol use to ADPs. In 2014-15 the three partnerships operating in Grampian area received over £3 million in funding through NHS Grampian.

This is an operational matter for Police Scotland.

A safe, secure and peaceful Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games was delivered through a mixed workforce of Police Scotland police officers, mutual aid police officers from elsewhere in the UK, military personnel, private safety stewards and private security guards. It is a matter for the Chief Constable to determine the operational deployment of Police Scotland officers.

HM Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland conducted assurance work to assess and validate the business as usual capacity and capability of Police Scotland for
non-games related policing activity throughout the games period. The conclusion was that there was confidence in the capacity of Police Scotland to ensure that there is no significant detrimental impact to routine policing activity over the period of the Commonwealth Games.

This extensive planning and preparation ensured that members of the public, visitors and athletes had a secure and enjoyable games experience, while day-to-day policing in communities across the rest of Scotland was maintained to the usual high standard to keep people safe.

This information is set out in the following table:

*This denotes operational staff only and does not include commanders and support services.

The Scottish Ambulance Service’s (SAS) resilience planning for the Commonwealth Games was based on the principle of business as usual and its resource modelling ensured that normal levels of services across the country were maintained.

These measures included the use of relief staff where demand dictated; the capping of annual leave from the end of November 2013; the remodelling of the service’s resource escalatory action planning plan to take into account games activity, predicted increase in demand and staff abstractions; and an increased management presence in high demand areas. These managers also responded to operational issues affecting resources such as increased turnaround times at hospitals.

SAS also ensured that the extraction of staff for Games duties was proportionate to resources available within divisions; and reached an agreement with the Fire and Rescue Services to utilise fire stations as tactical deployment points. There was also a negotiated position with the British Red Cross for their support in high demand areas, along with the greater use of Community Resilience Teams. The Ambulance Service also opened its National Command and Coordination Centre to monitor demand and performance; and brought forward their capital fleet programme to minimise the impact of vehicle abstraction for the Games.

SAS operated in ‘Games delivery mode’ from 13 July 2014 when the athletes’ village and training venues opened until the end of the Commonwealth Games on 3 August 2014. Throughout this period, all plans put in place for games and business as usual activities were robust and effective.

Through Skills Development Scotland (SDS), we have committed to establishing a robust, evidence based understanding of Scotland’s strategic workforce skills requirements. SDS has achieved this by developing sectoral Skills Investment Plans and Regional Skills Assessments in partnership with employers, local partners and industry. In this way, we are ensuring that our skills and education system remain closely aligned with the needs of employers, and regions, across Scotland as a whole.

SDS is aware of the specific skills challenges in the north east of Scotland and is working with Aberdeen City and Shire Economic Future and other local partners to address these issues. SDS will not only publish a Regional Skills Assessment for Aberdeen City and Shire later this year but is also committed to developing a regional skills strategy with Aberdeen City and Shire Economic Future.

In the four year period between 2009-10 and 2012-13 we invested £220 million on fuel poverty and energy efficiency programmes across Scotland, with an estimated net gain in household income of over £1 billion across the lifetime of the measures.

This included the installation of energy efficiency measures to over 4,900 homes across the north east in 2012-13 (the last year for which figures are available).

Our Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland (HEEPS), launched in April 2013, use Scottish Government funding to lever in additional investment to tackle fuel poverty. The budget in 2014-15 is £79 million, and in total we will spend around a quarter of a billion pounds over a three year period (2013-14 – 2015-16) on fuel poverty and energy efficiency.

On 4 June 2014 we announced £60 million of funding for our HEEPS: Area Based Schemes for 2014-15, distributed across all of Scotland’s local authorities. Of this, the following awards of grant were made in North East Scotland for the current year:

These grants will help people in areas with high levels of fuel poverty to install energy efficiency measures such as solid wall, cavity and loft insulation.

Ministers and senior officials regularly discuss a range of issues concerning the standard of patient care with representatives of NHS Grampian. This includes discussions with policy leads on key areas of performance.

Information on the number of cancelled GP appointments in NHS Grampian is not available centrally.

The programme for delivery of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route and Balmedie to Tipperty was discussed at regular meetings with all bidders, including Connect Roads, as part of the procurement process. Sections discussed for potential early delivery, with all bidders, were the Balmedie to Tipperty section and Craibstone junction at Aberdeen International Airport. Discussions will now continue with Connect Roads to determine locations where early benefits can be delivered.