Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-06959 on 22 February 2017. 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

The ferry services procurement policy review will consider in detail the legal, policy and financial implications relevant to the procurement of ferry services in the future. This will include consideration of whether it is possible to make a direct award to an in-house provider. However, as I made clear during the statement on 2 February, we cannot pre-judge the outcome of the review.

There will be no impact on work to improve access to (a) stations or (b) trains by applying the financial penalties held within the SQUIRE Investment Funds to the ScotRail fares initiative. £834,000 from the Investment Fund has already been allocated for station and rolling stock improvements. As there are not currently any initiatives or projects at the developmental stage to require funding, the balance of the fund, £2.06million, is currently unallocated.

The Franchise Agreement specifically states that such funds be directed towards "qualitative respects of the Franchise Services". Use of a proportion of these funds to the benefit of Scotrails valued, existing passenger base falls within the remit of the contract.

We are committed to the largest road investment programme that Scotland has ever seen. By the end of this financial year (2016-17), we will have spent over £8 billion on our Motorways and Trunk Road Network since 2007, to ensure the strategic road network is safe, available for use, efficient, well maintained and allows effective movement of people, goods and services around and to and from Scotland.

Many of our projects include necessary improvements to roads that become the responsibility of the Local Authority on completion of the scheme. The spend on these roads is not captured separately and is included in the overall investment for the project.

On-Going Schemes

Since 2007, the Scottish Government has invested in a number of major roads projects, including:

In addition, the Scottish Government continues to progress the design and development of a number of schemes including the A90/A937 Laurencekirk Junction Improvement (Aberdeenshire) and the A90/A96 Haudagain Junction Improvement (Aberdeen City).

A breakdown by road and local authority area is not possible for incomplete schemes as some of the investments are of a national nature (e.g. Forth Replacement Crossing) and others span a number of local authority areas. However, analysis of spend by year, since 2007-08 can be seen in the following table. 

Figures from 2011-12 onwards exclude Cost of Capital which was abolished. Cost of Capital Figures from 2007-08 to 2010-11 are £517.8m, £546.5m, £595.5m and £649.1m respectively.

[1] Figures taken from respective January Scottish Budget Bills.

Completed Schemes

The Scottish Government believes that the case for devolution is clear and has been set out in various reports, reviews and studies over recent years, including the Shaw Review and the more recent Reform Scotland report. The £100 million figure is informed by the overall scale of Network Rail’s funding and expenditure in Scotland – some £4.7 billion in the current CP5 control period. The opportunities for efficiencies will clearly be dependent on any model agreed, but include avoiding further unnecessary cost increases on major projects; reducing contributions to significant Network Rail corporate overheads; avoiding future contamination of higher costs from Network Rail’s poor financial and delivery performance in England; and further synergies in the management and development of the infrastructure of Network Rail and the operations and rolling stock of ScotRail.

In December 2016, the Scottish Government announced a £3 million fares initiative for 2017, which will include a free week of travel for monthly and annual Season ticket holders. Scottish Government officials agreed with ScotRail Alliance representatives the associated operational requirements and financial impacts, prior to its announcement by Derek Mackay MSP (Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Constitution) on 15 December 2016. In terms of budget implications, the funding will be provided by both Transport Scotland and ScotRail, with the majority of the costs likely to be met between April 2017 and March 2018.

The “Safer Pre and Post Employment Checks” Partnership Information Network (PIN) Policy, which covers secondary employment, places an obligation on boards, as employers, to record details of any secondary work activity undertaken by nurses. All secondary work must be agreed by the staff member’s line manager, including providing cover in other NHS boards.

Across the United Kingdom challenges exist in recruiting junior doctors, specifically within Psychiatry. This has resulted in an increased reliance by NHS Tayside upon locum staff to maintain its current profile of services for mental health. Workforce pressures has resulted in the introduction of a contingency plan to ensure that patient safety and safe and effective inpatient and crisis assessment services are in place across Tayside.

Service delivery in Tayside is the responsibility of NHS Tayside and the three local Health and Social Care Partnerships in Dundee, Perth and Kinross and Angus.

We would expect any proposals that would lead to service redesign to involve the Health Board to take into account of the existing Scottish Government guidance on public engagement as set out in CEL 4 (2010).

On 1 April 2016, mental health services in Tayside became fully devolved and delegated to each of its three Health and Social Care Partnerships for Angus, Dundee City and Perth and Kinross, with the latter being responsible for the delivery of all acute and in-patient mental health services on a hosted basis.

NHS Tayside is working in partnership with its Health and Social Care Partnerships to complete the Tayside Mental Health Service Redesign Transformation Programme to ensure that sustainable mental health services, based upon patient safety and improving quality of care, is in place across Tayside. The plan is expected to be completed shortly and will be subject to full stakeholder consultation. This will include consideration of the future of the Mulberry Unit in the provision of longer term health services within Tayside.

Scottish Ministers were made aware on 12 January 2017 that a contingency plan was to be implemented in the near future to ensure that patient safety and safe and effective inpatient and crisis assessment services are in place across Tayside, resulting in the closure of the Mulberry Unit, on a temporary basis.