Chamber and committees

The number of children waiting for inpatient and day case treatment in a surgical speciality at the Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow on 31 December 2017 was 2,830.

I have made £50 million available to NHSScotland - with £11.2 million being made available to Greater Glasgow and Clyde. The Board have made available around £770,000 of this funding to address waiting times and waiting lists for paediatric surgical specialties such as ENT, general surgery and paediatric plastic surgery. The Boards have advised that the plan they have put in place should show significant improvements in the waits for paediatric surgical specialties by this summer.

The median and 90th percentile waits for inpatients and day cases in a surgical specialty at the Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow in the quarter ending 31 December 2017 was 79 days and 212 days respectively.

I have made £50 million available to NHSScotland - with £11.2 million being made available to Greater Glasgow and Clyde. The Board have made available around £770,000 of this funding to address long waits for paediatric surgical specialties such as ENT, general surgery, paediatric plastic surgery. The Board have indicated that they expect to see significant improvement in paediatric waiting times by the summer of this year. Officials continue to meet with the Board regularly to support improvement in waiting time performance.

Network Rail has advised that the transition process is underway for Carillion’s rail projects in Scotland and is expected to conclude in the forthcoming weeks. As part of this process, Network Rail has advised that the IEP Gauging Project, is now being delivered by Story Rail.

Network Rail has also advised that under the Joint Venture arrangements in place between Carillion Power Lines and SPL Power Lines, Carillion employees are in the process of moving from Carillion Power Lines to SPL Power Lines, with no impact on the delivery of the project.

Scottish Government does not hold information concerning the terms of employment used by Network Rail’s Contractors or their sub-contractors noting that Network Rail is a wholly owned subsidiary of the UK Government.

The UK benefits from a diverse supply of gas where the market is able to deliver gas in excess of the maximum demand. Gas storage provides around 10% of this demand over the winter period, October to March. The responsibility for ensuring there is enough gas lies with the gas supply market to meet its customer needs.

The Scottish Government will endeavour to lay the Annual Reports and Accounts of both Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise before the end of September each year.

Security of gas supply is a reserved matter and one in which the Scottish Government has no formal functions. The UK gas system is subject to regular assessments of security of supply through National Grid’s twice-yearly ‘Outlook’ publications, the biennial European gas risk assessment and other ad-hoc assessments.

The following link to a report published in October 2017 by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy provides a strategic assessment of Great Britain’s gas security of supply.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/651297/gas-security-supply-assessment.pdf

The Scottish Government works closely with National Grid – as well as with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Ofgem and Scotland’s gas distribution network operator – to ensure that the supplies of gas to Scottish consumers remain resilient, and that Scottish circumstances and priorities are taken fully into account.

The volume of gas required to meet consumers demands is a reserved matter and one which the Scottish Government has no formal functions. The responsibility for ensuring consumers demands are met is carried out by National Grid and the gas distribution network operator in Scotland under their Transportation Licence obligations.

The following link to SGN’s Long Term Development Statement provides information on the forecast annual and peak day demand for Scotland over the next 10 years from 2016-17.

https://sgn.co.uk/uploadedFiles/Marketing/Pages/Publications/Docs-Long-Term-Development-Statements/SGN-LTDS-2017.pdf

The Scottish Government works closely with National Grid – as well as with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Ofgem and Scotland’s gas distribution network operator – to ensure that the supplies of gas to Scottish consumers remain resilient, and that Scottish circumstances and priorities are taken fully into account.

The volume of gas required to meet consumers demands is a reserved matter and one which the Scottish Government has no formal functions. The responsibility for ensuring consumers demands are met is carried out by National Grid and the gas distribution network operator in Scotland under their Transportation Licence obligations.

The following link to SGN’s Long Term Development Statement provides information on the forecast annual and peak day demand for Scotland over the next 10 years from 2016-17.

https://sgn.co.uk/uploadedFiles/Marketing/Pages/Publications/Docs-Long-Term-Development-Statements/SGN-LTDS-2017.pdf

The Scottish Government works closely with National Grid – as well as with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Ofgem and Scotland’s gas distribution network operator – to ensure that the supplies of gas to Scottish consumers remain resilient, and that Scottish circumstances and priorities are taken fully into account.

The storage of gas in the UK is facilitated through commercially operated storage sites and is monitored by National Grid as part of its responsibility to ensure system balancing of supply and demand.

The following link to National Grid's, Gas Ten Year Statement for 2017 provides information on the availability of gas storage within the UK in Appendix 4.

https://www.nationalgrid.com/sites/default/files/documents/GTYS%202017_3.pdf

The Scottish Government works closely with National Grid – as well as with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Ofgem and Scotland’s gas distribution network operator – to ensure that the supplies of gas to Scottish consumers remain resilient, and that Scottish circumstances and priorities are taken fully into account.

The responsibility for gas balancing activities lies with National Grid where it provides relevant parties with information about potential or actual risks to the end-of-day National Transmission System physical system balance. There are a range of tools that National Grid use to ensure system balancing of supply and demand is met.

The Scottish Government is not aware of any industry shutdowns that have occurred recently to ensure that residential homes continue to receive gas supplies, where National Grid has instigated this action.

The Scottish Government works closely with National Grid – as well as with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Ofgem and Scotland’s gas distribution network operator – to ensure that the supplies of gas to Scottish consumers remain resilient, and that Scottish circumstances and priorities are taken fully into account.