Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not recognise the use of the term “separation” in the context of Scottish independence. Scottish independence would be based on new relationships to make our nation more successful and to improve the lives of the people who live in Scotland. Decisions on defence budgets in an independent Scotland would be subject to future consideration and approval by the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament.

General medical services budget allocations are subject to the outcome of UK negotiations which are currently ongoing.

The Scottish Government undertook a public consultation on proposals for integration of adult health and social care early this year, which included seeking views on new legislation. In addition, officials undertook a period of full and extensive engagement before and during the consultation process with health and social care professionals, carers, service users and their families. The Scottish Government will continue to work closely and constructively with all stakeholders throughout the development of the bill.

The Scottish Government does not recognise the use of the term “separation” in the context of Scottish independence. An independent Scotland will be based on new relationships to make our nation more successful and to improve the lives of the people who live in Scotland. Scotland already pays a proportionate share of defence costs. Decisions on the defence and security policies and establishment of an independent Scotland would be subject to future consideration and approval by an independent Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament.

The health resource budget is increasing significantly in cash terms by over half a billion pounds, or 5.2 per cent, over the next two year period which means that spend on day-to-day health services has been protected in real terms.

Territorial health boards who provide frontline point of care services will receive above inflation increases in 2013-14 and 2014-15 of 3.3 per cent and 3.1 per cent which represents real terms increases of 0.8 per cent and 0.6 per cent respectively.

In addition, the short to medium-term outlook will see capital resources under severe pressure given the significant real terms reduction in capital resources available to the Scottish Government over the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review period from 2011-12 to 2014-15. In response to this situation however, the Scottish Government has put in place arrangements to support a programme of £2.5 billion of revenue financed investment across Scotland to boost infrastructure investment. Of this total investment, £750 million is being directed towards projects within health as Non Profit Distributing (NPD) projects or via the hub initiative.

<>Three hundred and sixteen responses were received to the consultation on proposals on Integration of Adult Health and Social Care. The consultation ran from 8 May to 11 September 2012. The responses were published on the Scottish Government website on 12 October 2012: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/Recent.

<>I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-09805 on 22 October 2012. 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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The police investigation is still ongoing.

A breakdown of “Miscellaneous Other Services” as reported in Table 3.03 on page 30 of Draft Budget 2013-14 is provided in the following table.

 

	2013-14 (£ million)
Miscellaneous Board Allocations	36.3
Other services
Carers Strategy Implementation	5.4
Aberdeen Dental School	4.5
Investment Programme Support	4.0
Long Term Conditions	4.0
Community Care Section 10 Grants	3.2
Emergency Medical Retrieval Services / Unscheduled Care	3.1
Patient Focus and Public Involvement	2.9
Contaminated Blood Programme	2.4
Quality Strategy and Priority Groups	2.1
Integrated Resource Framework – Health and Social Care Integration	2.0
Wheelchair / Seating Services Improvement	1.8
Essential Medicines	1.8
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde – Lowmoss	1.6
Electronic Procurement Services	1.5
Centrally Managed Budgets	1.6
Alternative and Augmentative Communication	1.5
Sensory Impairment Strategy	1.5
Access to ECMO for residents of Scotland	1.5
Human Papillomavirus Vaccine	1.4
Primary Care Development Fund	1.3
Managed Clinical Networks	1.3
Scottish Health Survey	1.2
Coronary Heart Disease / Stroke	1.2
Joint Improvement Team	1.1
Adult Survivors - National Confidential Forum	1.0
Flexible Access to Healthcare	1.0
Unpaid Carers - Short Breaks	1.0
Scottish Diabetes Framework	1.0
Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011 – Treatment Time Guarantee.	1.0
Protection of Vulnerable Groups	1.0
	59.9
Provision for contracts and other services below £1 million	30.7
Total	126.9

Earlier this year, we extended the scope of demand-responsive community transport services included in the scheme. Those available to the general public and registered as local bus services were already eligible. This provision was extended from 1 April 2012 as a consequence of revised bus registration legislation allowing flexibly routed demand-responsive community transport services to be registered as local services. These typically are services where the route of each journey is determined according to passengers’ pre-booked travel requirements.

In light of the substantial and ongoing cuts to Scottish Government budgets, we have no plans to extend the National Concessionary Travel Scheme to include all demand-responsive community transport services.