Chamber and committees

No income has been sought or received from third parties since the NHSScotland jobs website was introduced.

The NHSScotland jobs portal is not intended for advertising private sector vacancies. National Services Scotland is reviewing all organisations’ advertising accounts as part of its policy review.

The NHSScotland jobs portal is intended for advertising vacancies for posts that are delivering NHSScotland services.

The Scottish Government wrote to all NHS Boards on 6 June 2013 asking them to include information about the National Confidential Alert Line on the June and or July 2013 payslips. We have been advised by health boards that the information will be included on payslips in the following months:

June 2013: NHS Dumfries and Galloway; NHS Lothian; NHS Fife; NHS Lanarkshire; NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde; NHS Western Isles; The State Hospital Board for Scotland; The National Waiting Times Centre; NHS Health Scotland.

July 2013: NHS Tayside; NHS 24; NHS Education Scotland; NHS Healthcare Improvement Scotland; National Services Scotland.

June and July 2013: NHS Forth Valley; NHS Highland; NHS Borders; NHS Grampian; NHS Orkney; NHS Shetland; The Scottish Ambulance Service.

NHS Ayrshire and Arran provided information about the alert line on payslips issued in April 2013 and will include further information on payslips later this summer.

We will continue to engage with all Scottish health boards to make sure all NHSScotland employees are aware of this important resource.

Credit unions are eligible to apply for the Scottish Government third sector organisational support programmes and development funds and we encourage them to do so. We shall ensure that credit unions and their representative bodies are made aware of any new third sector funding as soon as it is available.

We are keen to do all that we can to support and promote credit unions, and recognise the valuable role they play in Scotland’s communities. Credit unions are encouraged to access our third sector organisational support programmes, including development funding which will be available later this year.

This is a matter for individual colleges as independent employers. The Scottish Government has repeatedly made clear to colleges our view that compulsory redundancies should be avoided.

The Scottish Funding Council collects information on the number of staff employed in the college sector. The latest available data is set out in the following table.

Staff headcount by type of staff, 2007-08 to 2010-11

Source: Scottish Funding Council.

The Scottish Government does not make estimates of this kind. It is for individual colleges, as independent employers, to plan and consider their staffing needs.

The Scottish Government has regular contact with the Department for Transport on rail issues including rail franchising. The Franchise Advisory Panel has no locus in the award of the rail franchises to be let by Scottish Ministers.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-15013 on 29 May 2013. 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.