Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-27336 on 30 September 2009. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-27339 on 30 September 2009. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

The £496 million reduction is made up by the three items included in the question.

Chapter one of the Spending Review 2007 document published in November 2007 set out the use of the £874 million of end-year flexibility (EYF) across the three years as £300/400/174 million. The last published EYF balance in July 2009 was £670 million which will reduce by the agreed drawdown of £400 million and £174 million in 2009-10 and 2010-11 respectively to leave a balance of £96 million. HM Treasury has agreed that this balance and any subsequent EYF generated in 2009-10 can be drawn down to offset the reduction of £128.6 million in the Scottish Government''s capital budget in 2010-11.

On 21 September 2009, the Healthcare Environment Inspectorate (HEI) published a list of the NHS boards who will have at least one announced inspection from HEI between September 2009 and September 2010. As detailed in the announcement, HEI will also undertake unannounced inspections during this period, however the programme for these will not be published.

The current work programme for the Healthcare Environment Inspectorate for the year September 2009 to September 2010 has 28 inspections planned, this includes both announced and unannounced inspections. However, there has been sufficient slack built into the work programme to undertake additional inspections and follow up inspections as and where required.

The inspection methodology and accompanying policies for Healthcare Environment Inspectorate (HEI) has been published on the QIS website:

http://www.nhshealthquality.org/nhsqis/6710.html.

The HEI work programme was developed using a risk-based approach and has 28 inspections planned for the year September 2009 to September 2010. Using ISD classification there are 47 acute hospitals within NHSScotland. The remaining acute hospitals not included within the first year''s work programme will be included within subsequent work programmes. As detailed within the Scottish Government consultation paper, every acute hospital will be visited at least once within any three year period.

An economic evaluation of the recent two day closure has not been undertaken. Transport Scotland estimated that the previous twelve day closure in 2007 had a national economic cost, measured in terms of the changes in transport costs, of around £300,000 in 2008 prices. Measured on the same basis and accounting for seasonal factors the likely cost of the two day closure will be in the range of £50,000 to £100,000.

This question was answered in the Chamber. The answer can be viewed in the Official Report using the following link:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor0924-01.htm

Traffic flows on the trunk road section of the A83 range from an Average Annual Daily Flow (AADF) of 5,027 vehicles per day between Arrochar and Tarbet to 2,805 vehicles per day at Castleton, north of Tarbert. It is not possible to quantify the volume of traffic that uses the entire A83 as the flow of traffic varies along the route.