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The Housing Benefit Reform Stakeholder Advisory Group was established in November 2010. Since then it has met seven times. The following organisations are members of the group:

Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers

Chartered Institute of Housing in Scotland

Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy

Citizens Advice Scotland

COSLA

Council for Mortgage Lenders

Housing Support Enabling Unit

Rights Advice Scotland

Scottish Association of Landlords

Scottish Council for Single Homeless

Scottish Federation of Housing Associations

Scottish Government

Scottish Landlords Association

Scottish Rural Property & Business Association

Scottish Rural Property and Business Association

Shelter Scotland

Tayside Region Tenant Organisation.

Meeting papers will be published on the Scottish Government website in due course.

Work on expanding collaborative procurement is ongoing, however, it is not possible to confirm at this time, given procurements have not yet concluded, the extent of potential savings or the timescales for achieving them.

In the field of construction there are a number of collaborative procurement initiatives underway which include the roll out of the hub initiative which will deliver a flexible financing and procurement route for community healthcare projects for NHSScotland and other public sector bodies. The benefits statement produced by the Scottish Future Trust identifies savings of £1.46 million in bid costs for the procurement of the five hub territories with further savings of £4.4 million achieved through reduced procurement times and reduced private sector returns. Frameworks Scotland is a strategic and flexible partnering or collaborative approach to the procurement of publicly funded construction work. Evidence collated on the first 10 completed projects indicates a saving in construction costs alone of £400 per square metre or £5.8 million when compared to traditional capital procurement approaches. These cost reductions increase the impact of the capital budget allocated to support NHSScotland.

On equipment, the national approach to the procurement of radiotherapy and imaging equipment will maximise value for money for the purchase of that equipment through national procurement exercises. Work has also commenced on “Accelerated procurement” which delivers value for money by extending the benefits of national procurement to good and services not already included in national contracts.

Although held in the name of Scottish Ministers, day-to-day management of NHSScotland property, including rationalisation and disposal of surplus assets is the responsibility of NHS boards. Boards are required to produce Property and Asset Management Strategies annually which set out their objectives with regard to the management of their assets including the rationalisation of estate and disposal of surplus assets.

The capital budget for NHSScotland as outlined in the Scottish Spending Review 2011 identifies the potential to generate up to £60 million of capital receipts from the disposal of surplus assets which would then be available for reinvestment in NHSScotland infrastructure.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-03873 on 15 November 2011. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-03873 on 15 November 2011. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The UK Government has not made sufficient information available to allow us to properly assess the overall effect of their reforms. The Supplementary Legislative Consent Memorandum, which we published on 1 November, sets this out along with the analysis we have carried out to date and we will continue to add to this work as more becomes known.

The Scottish Government will be providing £7.5 million for the Reducing Reoffending Change Fund over the current spending review period.

The Scottish Government will be providing £7.5 million for the Reducing Reoffending Change Fund over the current spending review period. This is in addition to resources for the support of community justice services provided by local authorities, and does not preclude supplementary funding by other sources. The Scottish Government is in the process of consulting stakeholders across Scotland on the Fund.

Day to day management of NHSScotland assets, including surplus assets, is delegated to NHS boards to undertake in line with mandatory requirements in the NHSScotland Property Transactions Handbook and guidance issued by Scottish Government.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-35975 on 23 September 2010, which stated that individual salary information for NHS staff is not held centrally. However, tables showing the numbers of staff earning £50,000 and over (in bands of £10,000) is available from health boards’ annual accounts which are published on health boards’ individual websites. The respective websites are listed at http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Over the four years of the Change Fund, the Scottish Government expects to see the proportion of funding allocated to preventative and anticipatory care increase.

Partnerships will be required to record this information in their Change Plans using Integrated Resource Framework mechanisms to analyse spend, activity and variation. Progress will be monitored over the course of the Change Fund lifecycle.