- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 May 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 4 June 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the letter from the Director-General Finance and Corporate Services to the Finance Committee of 30 April 2009 in which it is stated that, if the effects of capital acceleration were excluded from the Scottish Government’s Department Expenditure Limit budget for both 2009-10 and 2010-11, the growth in real terms between the two years would be 1.3%.
Answer
The Scottish Government''s position is that recalculating the Scottish budgets for 2009-10 and 2010-11 to exclude the effects of end-year flexibility (EYF) and capital acceleration does not alter the amount of money actually available to support public services. Using figures published by the Treasury itself in the Budget 2009 Red Book, the Scottish Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) budget was scheduled to rise in cash terms from £29.1 billion in 2009-10 to £29.3 billion in 2010-11. This cash terms increase of £200 million (rounded to the nearest £100 million) represents a real terms reduction of about 1% using Treasury''s published GDP deflator for 2010-11 of 1.5%.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 3 June 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many jobs will be (a) created and (b) sustained by the decision to accelerate capital investment.
Answer
The Scottish Government has brought forward approximately £350 million of capital spending from 2010-11 into 2008-09 and 2009-10.
Using the Scottish Government Input Output model of the Scottish economy, it is estimated that this expenditure will support approximately 5,100 jobs in the Scottish economy over this period. The number of jobs created relative to the number of jobs sustained will depend upon the individual employment decisions taken by companies benefiting from projects undertaken as a result of the capital acceleration.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 3 June 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it accepts that the “new definition of a baseline budget” that the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth referred to in evidence to the Finance Committee on 19 May 2009 (Official Report c. 1308), refers to the term “baseline” as set out in the UK Treasury’s Funding the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales and Northern Ireland Assembly: Statement of Funding Policy, which states at page 43 that spending changes are added to or subtracted from each country’s overall baseline.
Answer
Expenditure baselines are set by HM Treasury following spending reviews. Scottish baselines are set by applying changes, calculated by formula, consequential on changes to corresponding Whitehall Departments'' baselines. Baselines are set for a three-year period - following the 2007 Spending Review, baselines were set for the three years to 2010-11. These arrangements are confirmed in the Statement of Funding Policy to which the question refers.
Budgets for individual years can be adjusted without changing underlying expenditure baselines, for example to reflect draw-down of unspent end-year flexibility balances from previous years.
Baselines may be changed by Treasury between spending reviews - for example, the Chancellor''s pre-Budget Report in November 2008 announced a £129 million reduction in the Scottish baseline for 2010-11 as a formula consequential of reductions made to the Department of Health''s baseline. In addition, the UK Budget on 22 April announced a £392 million reduction in the Scottish baseline for the same year, as a formula consequential of so-called efficiency savings in Whitehall.
By definition, the Scottish Government cannot change its own expenditure baselines.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 3 June 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-22911 by Nicola Sturgeon on 6 May 2009, when the new chief executive of the Healthcare Environment Inspectorate will take up the post.
Answer
The Chief Inspector of the Healthcare Environment Inspectorate will take up post subject to formal completion of the appointment process and the period of notice which will be required by the successful candidate''s current employer. Negotiations are currently underway with the successful candidate''s current employer to secure as early a release date as possible.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 3 June 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-22940 by Nicola Sturgeon on 6 May 2009, how the Healthcare Environment Inspectorate (HEI) is independent of the Scottish Government given the answer to question S3W-22941 by Nicola Sturgeon on 6 May 2009, which states that HEI will be accountable to report to Scottish ministers through the board of NHS Quality Improvement Scotland.
Answer
As indicated in response to question S3W-22940, the Healthcare Environment Inspectorate (HEI) operates independently of the Scottish Government and NHS boards which it will inspect but for administrative purposes is based within NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (NHS QIS). The HEI will be accountable to Scottish ministers through the board of NHS QIS as a means of ensuring its reports and recommendations for improvement are taken forward and fully implemented.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 3 June 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many jobs in the (a) public and (b) private sector will be created or sustained by the decision to accelerate capital investment.
Answer
The Scottish Government has brought forward approximately £350 million of capital spending from 2010-11 into 2008-09 and 2009-10.
Using the Scottish Government Input Output model of the Scottish economy, it is estimated that this expenditure will support approximately 5,100 jobs in the Scottish economy during 2008-09 and 2009-10. Breakdowns by public and private sector are not available.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 May 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 2 June 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what improvements are being made to Scotland Performs to deal with data lag.
Answer
The Scotland Performs website brings together many different results from dozens of sources, all of which have differing requirements in terms of processing, quality assurance and publication. The data on Scotland Performs is at any time the most up-to-date there is available. Though some gaps and time lags have been unavoidable due to the move to focus on outcomes and the need to identify new performance measures to best support that, the position is improving all the time. In the past six months alone, 24 updates have been made to the website, some of them making data available for the very first time.
The data on Scotland Performs is produced under Official Statistics Standards, which are set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. This requires that data is published as soon as is practicably possible, whilst assuring the high standards of quality of Official Statistics. Statisticians within government are always striving to minimise data lag and, where these cannot be reduced further, to consider provisional or proxy sources to help give earlier information.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 May 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 2 June 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive when it will announce the allocation of Barnett consequentials arising from the UK Budget of £79 million in 2009-10 and £25 million in 2010-11.
Answer
Details of the allocation of the Barnett consequentials will be announced shortly, following discussions between Scottish ministers.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 May 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 2 June 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how it links spending decisions to its purpose and targets.
Answer
The government''s purpose of delivering sustainable economic growth and the targets described in the Government Economic Strategy are the key drivers of Scottish Government policy and spending decisions. This was clearly articulated in the Spending Review 2007 document and has been reaffirmed in subsequent budget documents. Further progress to demonstrate the linkages between expenditure and the government''s National Performance Framework will be reported to the Finance Committee during the next budget round.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 May 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 2 June 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what end-year flexibility (EYF) balances were accrued by March 2009 and what it anticipates its EYF balances will be by March 2010.
Answer
The Scottish Government''s end-year flexibility (EYF) balance was last published in HM Treasury''s Public Expenditure Outturn White Paper (PEOWP) issued in July 2008. This recorded a balance of £952 million. £313 million has been drawn down in 2008-09 and there is an agreement with HM Treasury to access a further £400 million in 2009-10 and £174 million in 2010-11. Any EYF generated in 2008-09 will be announced as part of my provisional outturn statement in late June and the total EYF balance will be next published by HM Treasury in July 2009.
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