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NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde as the procuring authority are responsible for this process.

The evaluation of the bids was undertaken by a team with the appropriate skills, relevant knowledge and expertise to undertake the review and evaluation of technical and commercial submissions on a complex healthcare project. The board''s team comprised technical, legal, financial, clinical and non-clinical representatives with a total of 36 people being involved. The evaluation scoring of the bids was by consensus against compliance with the board''s requirements set out in their Invitation To Participate in Dialogue documentation.

Four groups undertook selective evaluation of each of the bids against the board''s requirements in the areas of:

Design

Logistics

Laboratories

Commercial.

The evaluation process was over viewed by the commercial team which acted in a governance capacity to ensure due process was complied with and scoring activities were applied fairly across all bids. The overall procurement process was overseen by the board''s head of procurement.

The bid was not the highest one received but was the most economically advantageous tender representing best value for money all in accordance with the evaluation process previously notified to all those submitting tenders.

The total funding requirement associated with the provision of the new adult and children''s hospitals and laboratory project, as identified within the outline business case (January 2008), is £841.7 million. The associated construction cost of the three buildings based on the preferred bidders target price is circa £670 million including VAT, and is within the capital allowance in the outline business case.

Brookfield is based in London and as a result of winning this contract the company will now be opening a Scottish office. The award of the New Southern General Hospital contract provides Brookfield with a sustainable base upon which to grow both its construction and investment businesses in Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-28882 on 19 November 2009. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

In relation to future single outcome agreements, it is a matter for each community planning partnership to derive its local outcomes from a profile of the social, economic and environmental conditions of the area.

Moreover, the Carers Strategy for Scotland, to be published in the first half of 2010, is being developed in partnership with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA).

There are no planned changes to the current arrangements. NHS boards will continue to plan on the basis of ensuring appropriate lay representation at every level.

In addition to the concordat funding, as part of the overall local government settlement, the Scottish Government allocated an additional £1.37 million in 2009-10 and a further £2.82 million in 2010-11 to enable local authorities to deliver an extra 10,000 respite weeks by March 2011.

Within the Scottish budget, a total of £9 million has been allocated to NHS boards and to the Scottish Ambulance Service over a three year period from 2008-09 to 2010-11. The breakdown of funding is £1 million in 2008-09, £3 million in 2009-10 and £5 million in 2010-11.

The funding is for the provision of information and training to help carers develop the knowledge and skills that they need to continue caring effectively, while looking after their own health. Boards must have regard to minimum standards set out in guidance. Reports from health boards on progress in 2008-09 are being considered with a view to holding a good practice/learning event in early 2010.

We have encouraged health boards to post their original Carer Information Strategy plans, as approved, on their websites.

Under the terms of the concordat, the additional 10,000 respite weeks are to be provided Scotland-wide, with no specific allocation of weeks to each local authority.

For the purposes of the concordat commitment in relation to the additional 10,000 respite weeks, the Scottish Government, COSLA and ADSW agreed that local authorities would use the Audit Scotland definition of respite. This covers overnight respite in a care home, other overnight respite not in a care home, day centre respite and other daytime respite, by categories of children 0-17 with disabilities, adults aged 18 to 64 and older people aged 65+.

The Guidance on Short Breaks (Respite) issued jointly by the Scottish Government and COSLA provides a broad definition of short breaks (respite) including befriending schemes where volunteers provide short breaks.