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Capital resources are not specifically allocated to individual health boards or NHS Trusts for the provision or replacement of medical equipment.

Expenditure on medical equipment in 1994-95 was £48.895 million. The figure of £102.201 million in the Scottish Health Statistics 1999 publication was incorrect. I have written separately to the member to inform him of this.

Capital investment in the NHS in Scotland has increased from £136 million in 1998-99 to £179 million in 2000-01, rising further to £194 million in 2001-02. These figures exclude any additional capital provision which may be allocated from the extra resources for health in Scotland following the Budget 2000 announcement.

The following table sets out the capital provision and actual expenditure from 1994-95.

Hospital and Community Health Service - Capital Expenditure (net)

	Provision £000	Capital Expenditure (Non-Equipment) £000	Capital Expenditure (Equipment) £000	Capital to Revenue Transfers* £000	Total Capital Expenditure £000
1994-95	202,000	112,297	48,895	-	161,192
1995-96	202,000	165,877	40,565	14,066	220,508
1996-97	173,000	119,198	32,580	33,530	185,308
1997-98	136,000	76,185	18,454	38,963	133,602
1998-99	136,000	53,091	25,022	37,270	115,383
1999-2000**	156,000	113,043		40,679	153,722

* Capital to revenue transfers are mainly made to meet the costs of minor projects

and non-added value elements of schemes. In 1999-2000 nearly £7 million was also transferred to provide revenue support to assist NHS Trusts to meet their financial targets. Similar amounts were transferred in 1997-98 and 1998-99. From 2000-01 onward all capital, including capital receipts, must be spent on capital items.

** The 1999-2000 expenditure figures are unaudited and therefore there is no

available split between equipment and on-equipment expenditure.

In addition, a further £41.3 million will be invested over the next three years through the Capital Modernisation Programme, including £12.5 million to purchase linear accelerators.

No specific allocation is given to individual health boards or NHS Trusts for the provision or replacement of medical equipment. Health boards and NHS Trusts must reach decisions on local priorities and then plan how to fund those priorities, including the provision of equipment. Trusts can use both capital and revenue resources to meet equipment costs.

The capital expenditure on the provision of medical equipment for 1994-95 to 1998-99 is shown in the following table calculated at constant 1998-99 prices:

Health Boards	1994-95 Expenditure £000	1995-96 Expenditure £000	1996-97 Expenditure £000	1997-98 Expenditure £000	1998-99 Expenditure £000
Argyll & Clyde	5,893	3,439	1,541	1,209	1,671
Ayr & Arran	2,204	2,432	1,244	1,623	2,433
Borders	619	928	681	166	456
Dumfries & Galloway	1,401	709	1,533	491	579
Fife	1,356	1,868	877	788	951
Forth Valley	2,043	1,018	1,284	696	555
Grampian	4,069	4,462	5,439	1,346	4,161
Greater Glasgow	13,556	11,672	8,536	3,154	3,547
Highland	2,695	1,284	2,185	749	747
Lanarkshire	6,263	4,954	3,518	1,719	3,823
Lothian	8,054	6,102	2,832	3,412	2,559
Orkney	255	232	194	167	266
Shetland	493	13	25	127	53
Tayside	5,829	4,725	4,088	2,470	3,050
Western Isles	398	614	610	944	171
Total	55,129	44,453	34,588	19,061	25,022

This information is not collected centrally.

The Scottish Executive employs a wide variety of methods to spread good practice, including the development of specialty networks; support for local and national education meetings, facilitation initiatives and conferences; the publication and distribution of key reports identifying quality improvements and the development of websites and newsletters to facilitate access to information.

Examples include the Scottish Design Network, which provides a forum for the exchange of ideas and information in support of changing the way services are delivered; the regular conferences, annual national symposium and new website developed by the Clinical Resource and Audit Group (CRAG) to share best practice in clinical effectiveness (www.show.scot.nhs.uk/crag) and NHS way ahead, the newsletter for the National Health Service in Scotland.

The Executive and the local enterprise company have been in discussion with Rolls Royce about its plans for the Hillington site. I am pleased to say that the number of redundancies now likely has fallen to 87 and may be even further reduced as a result of new orders. We will remain in close contact with the company to discuss its plans for the future.

The Scottish Executive has increased capital investment in the NHS in Scotland from £136 million two years ago to £179 million this year. We will increase investment to at least £194 million next year - a rise of over 40% in just three years.In addition, we anticipate £171 million will be invested this year through PPP is estimated for the current year and we have committed a further £41 million to the NHS from the Capital Modernisation Fund.

The table below shows the cumulative percentage increase in the unweighted average house price in Scotland, the weighted average house price (which takes account of the sizes of the property sold), and the Retail Price Index for the period since the introduction of the council tax in 1993.

	Retail Price Index	Unweighted Average House Price	Weighted Average House Price
Cumulative % Increase (1993-99)	18.4%	20.1%	36.1%

The Scottish Executive expects health boards to carry out effective public consultation on proposals for significant service changes and developments. The Executive welcomes the fact that Greater Glasgow Health Board is actively seeking to improve their arrangements for public consultation. It is for the GGHB to decide what advice it needs to commission to assist it in that process.

Mental illness is equated with the specialties of General Psychiatry, Adolescent Psychiatry, Child Psychiatry and Geriatric Psychiatry.The information available from health boards regarding expenditure on mental illness treatment is provided on the basis of patient category i.e. in-patient; outpatient; day-patient and community. In answering this question, secondary mental health services has been interpreted to mean hospital-based services, i.e. in-patient, outpatient, and day-patient categories only.The following table presents the aggregate expenditure on this group of patients for the periods 1996-97 until 1998-99 expressed in terms of 1998-99 prices.

Hospital Based Expenditure on Mental Health Services
Year	Expenditure in terms of 1998-99 Prices(£ million)	% of Total HCH
1996-97	380	12.6%
1997-98	377	12.2%
1998-99	376	12.1%

Source: Scottish Health Service Costs.

In 1995-96 health boards did not consistently identify the costs of Community Psychiatric Teams. It is therefore not possible to provide meaningful comparative figures for this period.

Expenditure figures for 1999-2000 are not yet available, and health boards will not be in a position to provide forecasted expenditure for 2000-01 until later this year.

There has been a steady reduction in the real terms expenditure on hospital-based treatment commensurate with the increase in community based health spend as part of the Executive's Modernisation agenda to provide support for Mental Health patients in the community. This additional support is provided not only by the NHS in Scotland, but extends to care in the community provided by local authorities.