Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government revenue funded NPD/hub programme continues to completion with all projects now contracted. Forty six contracts are in their operational phase and five contracts are currently in their construction phase. As a result of changes to the European classification rules, the models no longer give us additionality of investment and no further projects will be contracted using these delivery routes.

(a) Our Medium Term Financial Strategy document published on 30 May 2019 signalled that we had developed a new approach to revenue finance. This approach includes the adoption of the Mutual Investment Model (MIM) which is a profit sharing form of public-private revenue finance developed by the Welsh Government and which has received a private classification from Eurostat. MIM will be potentially available for future Scottish Government projects or those delivered by its agencies and Non-Departmental Public Bodies alongside a range of other approaches. These include capital grant, capital borrowing, financial transactions and other forms of finance.

(b) Profits in NPD projects are capped. Any surplus in the company after paying project costs and the private sector fixed return will be returned to the public sector. To date, no surpluses have been identified to be returned to the public sector.

Any woman who is eligible for cervical screening and who has a mesh implant will be invited on the same basis as any other eligible woman.

Guidelines indicate that, during the consultation, those undertaking the smear test are encouraged to ask if there is anything that the patient is concerned about, and to discuss whether or not there is anything that can be done to make the examination easier.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. As the member was informed in response to S5W-17809, on 11 September 2018, NHS Information Services Division (ISD) confirmed that routine health data records hernia operations, bladder operations, etc., using prosthetic implants, not those specifically using mesh implants. Furthermore, ISD confirmed that reported complications or problems following surgery cannot accurately be established from routine health data because readmissions are recorded according to the symptom reported, not the underlying cause.

However, as reported by the Scottish Health Technologies Group in its recent study , ISD recorded 70 procedures to remove prosthetic material from previous repairs of an inguinal hernia in the five year period from 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2018. It further reports that this equates to 0.3 per cent of all inguinal hernia mesh repairs performed in Scotland over the same time period.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Handover was late February 2019; staff costs for six months, March to August 2019 is a total of £834,000.

Area Expenditure:

• Domestics - £298,000
• Catering - £114,000
• Logistics - £421,000

NHS Lothian have confirmed while the new building remains closed many of these staff, with their agreement, are still working in the current RHSC or on other sites; this has all been done with staff partnership and will be kept under review.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-27042 on 3 February 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Last year the Scottish Government asked the Scottish Health Technologies Group (SHTG) to undertake an assessment of the evidence on the use of surgical mesh for elective repair of primary inguinal hernia in male patients, comparing such repairs with those carried out without surgical mesh (for example, suture repair). In particular, the SHTG was asked to consider safety and patient aspects relating to mesh repair of inguinal hernias.

The SHTG published its report last week, and it can be viewed here . Health Boards are expected to give consideration to the SHTG's findings.

Officials will now consult the Chief Scientist's Office on whether any further research into hernia repair is required and, separately, will approach Healthcare Improvement Scotland to ask that it considers whether a guideline on clinical care, including using recently published international studies, would be helpful for NHS Scotland.

A list of organisations proscribed by the Home Secretary as terrorist organisations under the Terrorism Act 2000 (the 2000 Act) is available at www.gov.uk/government/publications/proscribed-terror-groups-or-organisations--2. There are currently 75 organisations so proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000 and a further 14 proscribed under previous legislation.

There is no separate Police Scotland list of terrorist organisations.

The constraints and tight limits on Scottish Government capital borrowing under the Fiscal Framework make revenue finance a necessity to build the infrastructure we need. Were broader borrowing powers available to the Scottish Government, as with the comparator sovereign nations identified in the question, we could revisit consideration of the best tools and approaches to deploy.

The Scottish Government are continually seeking ways to deliver the best value for the public purse, which is why we introduced Growth Accelerators, and together with Cosla, a new mechanism to finance new schools. We are always open to engaging with relevant stakeholders on improving investment models that would deliver best value.

The Scottish Government together with the Scottish Futures Trust have been encouraging procuring authorities to assess whether they can realise savings from existing public private partnership contracts. This includes re-scoping services and optimising risk transfer.

The Scottish Government commission a review each year from public bodies including local authorities, on the latest estimated unitary payment charges relating to their public private partnerships contracts. The repayment of these charges and the management of the contracts however, is the responsibility of those public bodies that awarded the contracts.

Local authorities are entitled to use all resources available to them including their existing borrowing powers and support from the Scottish Government. It is however up to local authorities to decide how they wish to borrow and any commitments made by them are based on what they deem to be prudent and affordable.