Chamber and committees

The eight projects listed on 2 February 2015 (S4W-24246) were those projects due to reach financial close in the financial year 2014-15.

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.

Information relating to the estimated annual unitary payment charges paid by public sector bodies in Scotland to private sector consortiums for services agreed over the length of non-profit distributing, hub and public-private partnership/private finance initiative contracts is available by way of the Scottish Government website: www.gov.scot/Topics/Government/Finance/18232/12308

The board of the hub design-build-finance-maintain project companies has always been privately controlled with strong public sector representation. The revised structure seeks to reinforce that position under the new Eurostat guidance.

Our Lady and St Patricks High School and the North West Edinburgh Partnership Centre projects have each had project specific issues to resolve as well as further consideration of the implications of the review by the Office of National Statistics of the classification of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route. Until these projects reach financial close it is too early to confirm what any cost impact would be.

The Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary and Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route projects have not incurred any delay as a result of Eurostat issues and are all contracted to be completed within earlier cost estimates.

The non-profit distributing model is a form of public-private partnership that has been designed to deliver better value for money to the public sector and the taxpayer than previous public-private partnership/private finance initiative deals. This has always been the case.

Legal advice was provided by Pinsent Masons to the Scottish Futures Trust and the hub programme public bodies on a confidential basis.

Soft services, such as cleaning, catering etc, have always been excluded from all non-profit distributing and hub design-build-finance-maintain projects to increase flexibility and learn lessons from the past. There will be no change in any revised structure.

Any cost to projects of delay associated with changes to Eurostat guidance has yet to be agreed. To date the Scottish Government has allocated a total of £4.5 million of capital funding through the Scottish Futures Trust to the six local authorities with the most imminent projects to enable them to continue to progress their projects.

The Office for National Statistics has reviewed the classification of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route and the wider implications of that review are being considered by the Scottish Government and the Scottish Futures Trust.

These were published by Scottish Futures Trust and the participating public authorities in the Official Journal of the European Union on 17 June 2015.