Chamber and committees

The Scottish Governmentis concerned that the provisions relating to land attachment, contained in the Bankruptcyand Diligence etc. (Scotland) Act 2007, should not have the unintendedconsequence of homelessness for a relatively small debt.

The Scottish Governmentis considering how to best achieve the exemption of the main dwelling house fromland attachment within the wider context of the implementation of diligence reform.

The Bankruptcy andDiligence etc. (Scotland) Act 2007 contains provisions outlining a scheme whichwill allow debtors with low income and low assets, who are often unable to obtaindebt relief under the current rules, to apply for their own bankruptcy.

On behalf of the Scottish Government, the Accountant inBankruptcy conducted a consultation exercise to seek views on how the scheme shouldwork. I am grateful to all who took the time to contribute.

Having consideredthe responses, I am pleased to announce that I intend to lay regulations beforeParliament in January to allow this new route into bankruptcy to become availablefrom April 2008.

The information requestedfor 2002 is given in table 5.3 of Civil Judicial Statistics 2002, which canbe found at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2004/02/18897/33079.

The number of applicationsfor conjoined arrestment orders made and granted in the sheriff courts, 2003 to2006, is provided in the following table.

	2003	2004	2005	2006
Applications made	1,660	1,873	2,071	1,588
Applications granted	1,184	1,452	1,544	1,170

Notes:

1. The data are managementinformation statistics which have not been subjected to the same quality assurancestandards as statistics produced by the Government Statistical Service. In addition,there are general concerns surrounding the accuracy of some of the civil judicialstatistics collected by the Scottish Government. Therefore, the data should be usedwith caution and it should be appreciated that firm conclusions cannot be drawnfrom the data provided.

2. Action is beingtaken to improve the accuracy and reliability of the civil judicial statistics collectedby the Scottish Government.

3. An applicationfor a conjoined arrestment order which has been granted may not necessarily resultin an earnings arrestment being carried out.

4. Applications grantedin one year may have been lodged in a preceding year.

It is believed thatsome of the data contained within the Civil Judicial Statistics publicationcontain significant inaccuracies and as a result the publication has been suspendedwhilst these inaccuracies are investigated. The latest available publication containsdata for 2002.

The Scottish Court Service, the main provider of the data concerned, isworking with Justice Analytical Services to improve the accuracy and level of detailof the civil judicial statistics it collects. This work includes changes to theconfiguration and use of electronic systems for case management and data capturethroughout the civil courts, which will be in place by April 2008. However, the quality of the data for 2003 to the present is notof an acceptable standard for the statistics to be made publicly available withina statistical publication.

Data from 2003 onwardscontinue to be collected, however,and are available upon request, subject to the amount of work required to providethe requested information.

A notice has beenplaced on the Scottish Government’s website giving further details on the suspension of the Civil JudicialStatistics publication. This notice can be found under the Civil Judicial Statisticssection at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/Publications.

Based on current financialplans it is not expected that transitional funding will be required beyond 2009-10.We will continue to work closely with both NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Highland on all aspects of financialplanning.

The Arbuthnott Formulais the result of multiplying a series of indices, and as such there is no specificshare of the budget allocated for deprivation. The formula includes adjustmentsfor the “needs” of the population - based on indices for the age-sex profile andmorbidity and life circumstances of the health boards population. The resultingindex is used along with an index of unavoidable excess costs of delivering servicesto remote and rural areas to determine how much more (or less) resource eachboard requires compared with its basic population share.

The Arbuthnott Formulais the result of multiplying a series of indices together, and as such there isno specific share of the budget allocated for rurality. The formula includes anadjustment for the unavoidable excess costs of delivering services to remote andrural areas. This resulting index is used along with indices for the age-sex profileand morbidity and life circumstances of the health boards’ populations to determinehow much more (or less) resource each board requires compared with its basic populationshare.

Currently the fundingfor Hospital and Community Health Services and GP Prescribing is distributed viathe Arbuthnott Formula. The formula assesses each health board’s relative need forfunding, using information about its population size and characteristics that influencethe need for health care, and costs of delivery, in terms of hospital services,community services and GP prescribing. The main drivers of the formula are:

share of the Scottishpopulation living in the board area;

age structure of thepopulation and relative number of males and females;

morbidity and lifecircumstances (MLC), and

unavoidable excesscosts of delivering health care in different geographical areas.

An index is calculatedfor each element of the formula for each care programme in such a way that it compareseach board’s position with the national average. By calculating each index in thisway, the values can then be multiplied by the population share to determine howmuch more (or less) resource each board requires compared with its basic populationshare due to age-sex, MLC and unavoidable excess costs.

In terms of disadvantagedcommunities, the MLC index is used alongside the age sex index to determine thehealth care “needs” of a health board’s population. The MLC index directs resourcestowards health boards with higher premature death rates and greater socio-economicdeprivation.

The excess costs indextakes account of the costs of supplying health services in remote and rural areasby giving greater weight to those health boards with more sparsely distributed populations.

The report raisessome very important issues which must be considered within the context of the currentSpending Review. I am currently studying the report and its recommendations carefully,and have sent it to the Convener of the Health and Sport Committee asking that committeeto let me have its views by the end of November. I have also sent the report tothe chairs and chief executives of health boards.

If any adjustmentsare made in health boards’ relative funding based on National Resource Allocation Committee’s (NRAC) report, I have confirmed that noboard would receive less funding than it does at present and any changes would bephased in over a number of years as has been the practice under both the previousSHARE and Arbuthnott formulae.

The earliest any proposedrevisions to the formula could be implemented is 2009-10.

The details of NRAC’sassessment of the impact of moving from Arbuthnott to NRAC are set out in table7.8 on page 85 of chapter 7 of the NRAC Final Report, a copy of which is availablein the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 43807). If all NRAC’sproposed changes to the Formula were implemented then this would result in the redistributionof £81.9 million (or 1.2%) of the total HCHS budget. This relatively small percentagefigure includes some significant changes for individual health boards.