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In their response to the 2013 Review of Scottish Public Sector Procurement in Construction, the Scottish Ministers decided, at that time, not to accept the recommendation that the Government should appoint a Chief Construction Adviser, though it was also made clear they retained the option to revisit that decision should circumstances change.

However, since that decision was taken, a number of significant and high profile issues have emerged within the construction sector. Therefore, I have asked officials to look again at this proposal and develop a series of options for me to consider. As part of this consideration I will wish to hear views from a wide range of interests and, in this regard, the Convener of the Cross Party Group on Construction has already raised the matter with me. I am due to meet her shortly.

Individual public bodies are responsible for their own procurement decisions and contract management and monitoring activity.

Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015 require public bodies to include contract conditions, relating to the performance of the contract, as reasonably necessary to ensure compliance with environmental, social and employment law.

Scottish Procurement Policy Note 09/2016 provided model contract clauses to provide for termination in these circumstances and the Scottish Government’s standard terms and conditions were updated and are available at:

https://www.gov.scot/Topics/Government/Procurement/buyer-information/standardformsanddocs/SGtsandcs.

The outsourcing of some diagnostic imaging reporting allows NHS Boards to maintain service capacity and meet rising demand.

The following table details external agency usage in 2017-18 for radiology reporting services. NHS Borders, Lothian, Western Isles and Golden Jubilee National Hospital are not currently using any external agencies for this purpose.

Individual public bodies are responsible for their own procurement activity and effective contract management and monitoring should be undertaken to ensure that relevant Fair Work practices, including the Living Wage, continue to be applied throughout the duration of contracts.

The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 requires public bodies with an annual regulated procurement spend of £5 million or more to produce a procurement strategy setting out, amongst other things, a statement of their general policy on the payment of a living wage to people involved in delivering public contracts. Public bodies must also publish a report outlining whether their procurement activities complied with the strategy and where they did not, how they intend to ensure compliance in the future.

Public bodies with an April to March financial which year were expected to produce and publish their first report at the end July 2018, and those whose financial year runs from August to July are expected to publish their report by the end of November 2018.

With reference to the answer provided for S5W-17659, it is the responsibility of NHS boards to regularly review spending decisions to ensure they deliver fit for purpose services which respond to the needs of their local population. This includes decisions about the number of places available in forensic units.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-17753 on 2 August 2018. 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.

At this time in the national trainee recruitment cycle, NHS Education for Scotland advise that there are projected to be 6 trainee vacancies in placements rotating through Inverclyde Royal and 5 trainee vacancies at the Royal Alexandra. As is usual practice, any vacancies in trainee posts (with associated funding) are returned to NHS Boards for local recruitment action, which may be through offering career development-style fellowships through offering career development-style fellowships or sourcing locum cover.

Each NHS Board must plan on the basis of providing safe and sustainable services for patients and will have a range of options available to them where rota gaps exist following national trainee recruitment. The Scottish Government continues to support NHSScotland Boards through initiatives like the International Medical Training Fellowships scheme, improving the quality of training programmes through roll-out of the Professional Compliance Assessment tool, and we stand ready to assist Greater Glasgow and Clyde in its efforts to address trainee vacancies.

No; all three hospitals continue to hold training accreditation and NHS Education for Scotland (NES) continues to place trainee doctors in these hospitals. NES officials continue to work collaboratively with Greater Glasgow & Clyde Health Board to improve the educational quality of medical training, and the supervision of trainees, in certain sites across the Board area.

The number of trainee doctor posts within individual locations and units depends fundamentally on the extent to which a location can (a) meet the General Medical Council(GMC) training standards and (b) deliver all or part of an approved curriculum. These are known as training programmes which may require an individual trainee to undertake several different postings during which they will rotate within and across hospital sites, participating on rotas as appropriate to their training and experience.

In Scotland, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) has operational responsibility for the recruitment and monitoring of trainee doctors in GMC-approved training programmes, which it organises in collaboration with NHSScotland Boards, and is done so at a national or regional level and not specifically by posts within individual hospitals.

With the new training year commencing on 1 August 2018, NES advise that the current headcount of trainees commencing or continuing training across the 3 sites mentioned is 241. Of these, 58 will be placed at Inverclyde and 183 at Royal Alexandra Hospital (which includes rotation in a small number of specialties to the Vale of Leven). There is a round of recruitment yet to complete however NES project that after all rounds of recruitment are finalised, there will be 6 vacancies in placements rotating through Inverclyde Royal and 5 at the Royal Alexandra. Any remaining vacancies, with funding, will be passed to the NHS Boards for local recruitment.

This information is not available centrally. Funding for mental health services, including forensic mental health services and the provision of NHS forensic units, will continue to be drawn from the overall funds allocated to NHS Scotland by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government sets the national direction of policy on mental health and provides funding to agencies, including NHS Boards and local authorities, to support implementation of policy. However, the management of local actions in implementing national policy, and decisions on local spending priorities, including how much is spent on the provision of NHS forensic units are the responsibility of relevant local agencies.