Chamber and committees

Scottish Government and Councils promote relief entitlement to businesses in a variety of means including via their websites, by providing via trade bodies and by direct stakeholder engagement. In addition, I have recently confirmed that I will write to properties potentially eligible for the Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS), but which have not yet claimed, to encourage take up.

NRAC target funding shares are used to inform funding allocations to NHS Boards.

In 2017-18 NHS Territorial Boards have received additional funding of £50 million specifically to accelerate NRAC parity. This funding takes all Boards within 1% of NRAC parity.

In 2016-17 NHS Grampian’s resource budget increased by 6.6% and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s resource budget increased by 5.2%. The funding uplift for NHS Grampian included an additional £15 million to accelerate NRAC parity.

Population level is only one of a range of factors taken into account when calculating NRAC shares, which are used to inform allocations to NHS Boards. Other factors include, for example, relative deprivation.

The Scottish Government is working closely with the colleagues in NHS Grampian to support improvements around key performance targets.

The four hour A&E target is met on a regular basis with performance around, at or above 95%. In fact, performance for the year to September 2017 (October 2016 - September 2017) was 95.7%. The local teams continue to focus on implementation of the six essential actions, which is supported by Scottish Government investment of almost £700,000 this year (2017-18).

NHS Grampian has also received £4.9 million from the £50 million I announced at the end of May 2017. This funding is aimed to improve all parts of the patient pathway - outpatient consultation, diagnostic tests and inpatient and day case treatment.

We want to improve cancer care and treatment, which is one of the reasons we’re investing £100 million over the next five years through our Cancer Strategy. NHS Grampian’s performance is well below what we would expect and we are working with the Board to support implementation of its cancer improvement plan, which is closely monitored. This is supported by extra non-recurring investment of more than £400,000 this year (2017-18) 7 to drive improvements.

We also recently formed a Ministerial Cancer Performance Delivery Group to drive forward service redesign and improvement, this is backed by £1 million investment on top of almost £5 million already allocated to Health Boards.

We have made a strategic investment of £54 million running up until 2020 to improve mental health services. This has been designed as a comprehensive package and offers a new approach to improvement of mental health services. The package includes funding for capacity building within services, workforce recruitment and development through NES and funding for the mental health improvement team based within Health Improvement Scotland to deliver sustained improvements, and ensure services are designed and delivered in the most efficient way.

£23.5 million will be made available for 2017-18 to support the Primary Care Transformation Programme. This will provide IJBs, NHS Boards and their partners with flexibility and a real opportunity to think differently about new models of primary care both in and out of hours; and to integrate mental health as part of the wider health and social care system ensuring that people are provided with the most appropriate treatment, as quickly as possible, in the most appropriate setting, regardless of their condition. NHS Grampian received £1,821,933 this financial year.

There are a number of variables employed in the NRAC formula as indicators of need. The All-cause Standardised Mortality Ratio (SMR) for ages 0-74 is one of the indicators of need used in four of the six care programmes separately distinguished by the formula. The selection of indicators of need by the NHSScotland National Resource Allocation Committee and subsequently by the Technical Advisory Group on Resource Allocation (TAGRA), is by means of rigorous statistical testing. This ensures that the combination of indicators chosen, for each care programme, is that which best represents the variation in need for health services across small area populations in Scotland.

The most recent major review by TAGRA, of the Morbidity and Life Circumstances (MLC) adjustment for the Acute Care Programme, considered over 50 variables as candidates for indicators of need. However, despite making recommendations for other changes to the MLC adjustment, the review confirmed that the All-cause Standardised Mortality Ratio for ages 0-74 and the Limiting Long-term Illness Rate remain the most appropriate indicators of need for the acute MLC

The Scottish Government is taking forward a number of actions to support nursing recruitment and retention within Health Boards across Scotland. There are now over 3,000 more whole-time equivalent nursing and midwifery staff working in our NHS, as compared with 5 years ago.

In June 2017 we published Part 1 of the National Health and Social Care Workforce Plan to help address current workforce planning challenges. To support this, we are investing an additional £40 million to create an estimated 2,600 extra training places over the next 4 years, as part of a wider package to support recruitment and retention efforts.

Furthermore, we have committed some £450,000 in a return-to-practice scheme, which has successfully engaged some 310 former nurses and midwives and is supporting them back into work within NHSScotland.

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. This includes searching globally, where appropriate, to recruit at all levels.

We’ve delivered record levels of investment in our NHS under this Government, with over 3000 more whole-time equivalent nursing and midwifery staff in post, as compared with 5 years ago. Equally, we have increased NHS Grampian’s resource budget by over £315 million (since 2006-2007), which has supported the recruitment of over 800 staff, including clinical and nursing staff.

Nevertheless, we recognise that Health Boards in the North and North East of Scotland are facing acute workforce challenges. Through workforce planning activity we’re taking forward a number of actions to support recruitment in remote and rural areas. We’ve also increased overall nurse training places in the North of Scotland and we are actively encouraging those who have previously trained in, or worked for, our NHS to return and work in the health service.

Scotland's approach to tackling knife crime is based on a twin approach of education and diversion activity and robust enforcement measures. Along with the Scottish Government's on-going investment in the 'No Knives Better Lives' campaign, the Scottish Government recently increased the maximum custodial penalties for carrying a knife from 4 years to 5 years and is committed to working with the UK Government in seeking to address issues relating to the online sale of knives.

It is not expected that there will be any impact on tackling knife crime by extending the presumption against short sentences up to 12 months. Discretion will remain with the court to determine in any given case whether a custodial sentence is merited including for offences involving knives.

The information is provided in the following table.

Source: SG Criminal Proceedings Database

The Scottish Government has to set and deliver a balanced budget each year and is, therefore, unable to run a deficit. GERS does not report a budget deficit for Scotland.