Questions and answers

Question reference: S4W-00862

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 24 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it expects the completion of the new Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Department for Clinical Neurosciences in Edinburgh to be delayed and, if so, what the reasons are for the delay.

NHS Lothian’s previously approved proposal was for a new Royal Hospital for Sick Children only using predominantly public funding and delivered via the Frameworks Scotland delivery model. In the meantime the UK Government has applied 36.5% cut in capital budgets in real terms over the comprehensive spending review period. In order to deliver the Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Department for Clinical Neurosciences projects together, however, Scottish Government are supporting NHS Lothian to conclude a revenue financed solution using the Scottish Government’s non-profit distribution model.

The board will inform Scottish Government of the project’s key milestones in the business case due for submission in November 2011.

Question reference: S4W-00864

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 24 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what the estimated cost is for the new Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Department for Clinical Neurosciences in Edinburgh.

NHS Lothian is working with technical and financial advisors to develop an integrated design solution for the Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Department for Clinical Neurosciences. This will inform an outline business case which is due for consideration in November 2011 and will include the estimated cost for the preferred option and form a basis for a competitive procurement to commence.

Question reference: S4W-00861

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 24 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it expects the completion of the new Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Department for Clinical Neurosciences in Edinburgh to be delayed and, if so, how long the delay will be.

NHS Lothian previously sought Scottish Government approval for a new Royal Hospital for Sick Children using predominantly public funding. The project now being supported by the Scottish Government also incorporates the reprovision of the Department of Clinical Neurosciences.

The timescales for the delivery of the combined Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Department for Clinical Neurosciences project need to take into account the development of an integrated design, planning approval for a revised project scope and completion of a competitive dialogue procurement with bidders in 2012 to support a non-profit distribution funding model. NHS Lothian will confirm the project’s key milestone dates within an outline business case due for submission to the Scottish Government in November 2011. All parties, NHS Lothian, Scottish Government and Scottish Futures Trust are working together to ensure that any delay is minimised.

Question reference: S4W-00863

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 24 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what the initial estimated cost was of the new Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Department for Clinical Neurosciences in Edinburgh when the project was first signed off by ministers.

NHS Lothian submitted an initial agreement for the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in April 2006. The initial agreement for the Department of Clinical Neuroscience was submitted by NHS Lothian in June 2008.

Scottish Government approved the original outline business case for the Royal Hospital for Sick Children as a stand alone project in August 2008. Upon a review of the options available the capital cost of developing the preferred way forward at the Little France site was estimated to be £147.6 million excluding enabling works.

An outline business case for the Department of Clinical Neuroscience has not been submitted to Scottish Government for approval.

Question reference: S4W-00859

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 24 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4W-00521 by Nicola Sturgeon on 14 June 2011, whether it will provide details of the support and advice received by NHS Lothian from Scottish Government officials and the Scottish Futures Trust.

Question reference: S4W-00522

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 14 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what support it will give NHS Lothian for the combined development of the new Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Department of Clinical Neurosciences in Edinburgh.

Question reference: S4W-00521

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 14 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Cities Strategy has had with the Scottish Futures Trust regarding the combined development of the new Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Department of Clinical Neurosciences in Edinburgh.

Question reference: S4W-00523

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 June 2011
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 14 June 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what financial assistance it will give NHS Lothian for the combined development of the new Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Department of Clinical Neurosciences in Edinburgh.

The Scottish Government's position on funding support for revenue financed projects was set out in a letter to NHS chief executives from the Director General Health and Social Care on 22 March 2011. That letter detailed those elements of unitary payments made under hub initiative Design Build Finance and Maintain projects and non-profit distributing projects that would attract Scottish Government revenue support. These arrangements state that 100% of the approved capital and financing elements, and 100% of special purpose vehicle costs and insurances would be covered by Scottish Government support. In addition, 50% of the charge relating to lifecycle maintenance will be supported. Funding support will be dependant on the approval of appropriate business cases by Scottish Government with technical and commercial input provided by the Scottish Futures Trust. In addition to support for elements of the unitary payments due, the Scottish Government will be providing capital support for those elements of enabling works and equipment contained within approved business cases.

Question reference: S3W-40532

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 21 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what the duration will be of the contracts for the Forestry Commission Scotland renewables contracts announced by the Minister for Environment and Climate Change on 22 February 2011.

Question reference: S3W-40564

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 21 March 2011

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average bursary award has been for (a) part-time and (b) full-time students at colleges and universities in Edinburgh and the Lothians region in each of the last five years, broken down by institution.

Bursary payments to Scottish students are paid out by Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) for full-time higher education (HE) students, and the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) allocates further funds for further education (FE) students. The most recent year where data collection for bursary payments is complete is 2009-10, so this answer contains data for academic sessions 2005-06 to 2009-10.

In these academic sessions, full-time Scottish students studying at HE level in Scotland are eligible to apply for Young Students'' Bursary (YSB). The bursary is income assessed, and is paid out to students who were under 25 before the first day of the first academic year of your course and have not been supporting themselves through earnings for at least three years. YSB is paid out instead of part of the maintenance loan, so it reduces the amount of loan that these students will be entitled to. Table 1 therefore shows the average YSB payments to full-time students for each institution in Edinburgh and Lothians, for 2005-06 to 2009-10.

Table 1: Average Bursary Payments to Full-Time Higher Education Students Studying at Institutions in Edinburgh and Lothians, 2005-06 to 2009-10 (£)

Edinburgh Institutions	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10
Queen Margaret University	1,910	1,916	1,954	1,985	2,136
Edinburgh''s Telford College	1,863	1,970	1,935	2,014	2,079
Edinburgh College of Art	1,913	1,894	1,963	1,910	2,040
Stevenson College	1,957	1,908	1,986	2,109	2,105
Edinburgh University	1,775	1,814	1,854	1,885	1,923
Napier University	1,880	1,939	1,983	2,008	2,088
Heriot-Watt University	1,790	1,865	1,930	1,965	2,049
Lothians institutions
Oatridge Agricultural College	1,842	1,821	1,856	1,773	1,912
West Lothian College	1,901	2,068	2,074	1,914	2,036
Jewel and Esk Valley College	2,008	2,001	2,075	2,021	2,077

Source: SAAS Management Information.

The Scottish Funding Council allocate money to college institutions in respect of students who are studying at further education level. These funds can be accessed by full-time students or part-time students on the basis of study, travel, or special educational needs. However, because institutions distribute the money as they see fit, the total number of students that benefited from these allocations of money was not available so it was not possible to calculate an average payment. Therefore, table 2 shows the total amounts allocated to each college in the Edinburgh and Lothians regions.

Table 2: Total Bursary Amounts Allocated by Scottish Funding Council to Colleges in Edinburgh and Lothians, 2005-06 to 2009-10

Edinburgh Colleges	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10
Edinburgh''s Telford College	£2,441,659	£2,746,050	£2,687,411	£2,961,324	£3,552,944
Stevenson College	£1,864,943	£2,097,509	£2,164,474	£2,638,576	£2,911,232
Lothians Colleges
Jewel and Esk College	£1,043,917	£1,389,652	£1,165,197	£1,450,441	£1,773,488
West Lothian College	£977,562	£1,079,000	£1,139,508	£1,231,406	£1,302,431
Oatridge College	£356,698	£414,281	£413,188	£512,470	£572,242

Source: Scottish Funding Council.

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