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The Chief Inspector of the Healthcare Environment Inspectorate will take up post subject to formal completion of the appointment process and the period of notice which will be required by the successful candidate''s current employer. Negotiations are currently underway with the successful candidate''s current employer to secure as early a release date as possible.

As indicated in response to question S3W-22940, the Healthcare Environment Inspectorate (HEI) operates independently of the Scottish Government and NHS boards which it will inspect but for administrative purposes is based within NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (NHS QIS). The HEI will be accountable to Scottish ministers through the board of NHS QIS as a means of ensuring its reports and recommendations for improvement are taken forward and fully implemented.

Expenditure baselines are set by HM Treasury following spending reviews. Scottish baselines are set by applying changes, calculated by formula, consequential on changes to corresponding Whitehall Departments'' baselines. Baselines are set for a three-year period - following the 2007 Spending Review, baselines were set for the three years to 2010-11. These arrangements are confirmed in the Statement of Funding Policy to which the question refers.

Budgets for individual years can be adjusted without changing underlying expenditure baselines, for example to reflect draw-down of unspent end-year flexibility balances from previous years.

Baselines may be changed by Treasury between spending reviews - for example, the Chancellor''s pre-Budget Report in November 2008 announced a £129 million reduction in the Scottish baseline for 2010-11 as a formula consequential of reductions made to the Department of Health''s baseline. In addition, the UK Budget on 22 April announced a £392 million reduction in the Scottish baseline for the same year, as a formula consequential of so-called efficiency savings in Whitehall.

By definition, the Scottish Government cannot change its own expenditure baselines.

The Scottish Government has brought forward approximately £350 million of capital spending from 2010-11 into 2008-09 and 2009-10.

Using the Scottish Government Input Output model of the Scottish economy, it is estimated that this expenditure will support approximately 5,100 jobs in the Scottish economy over this period. The number of jobs created relative to the number of jobs sustained will depend upon the individual employment decisions taken by companies benefiting from projects undertaken as a result of the capital acceleration.

The government''s purpose of delivering sustainable economic growth and the targets described in the Government Economic Strategy are the key drivers of Scottish Government policy and spending decisions. This was clearly articulated in the Spending Review 2007 document and has been reaffirmed in subsequent budget documents. Further progress to demonstrate the linkages between expenditure and the government''s National Performance Framework will be reported to the Finance Committee during the next budget round.

The Scotland Performs website shows the progress being made by government towards the National Outcomes and targets set out in the National Performance Framework. The Framework was fully integrated into the Spending Review 2007 and was articulated in the Spending Review 2007 document. It provides clarity for outcomes-focused government, aligning all government action and spending decisions behind a single unifying purpose. Essentially, it ensures that our spending decisions, and those of our partners, support the achievement of our shared ambitions. Scotland Performs is still developing and the picture it offers will build and become more sophisticated over time, enabling people to see and judge for themselves the progress we are making.

The Scottish Government will honour any existing multi-year pay deals for government and public sector staff for whom it has responsibility.

We are working together with the Equality and Budget Advisory Group on how the budget processes can take equality issues into account. We are continuing to raise awareness about the need to mainstream equality both into policies and budgets, seeking to improve the information on equality issues in the government''s budget, and looking into possible ways of reporting on progress of equality proofing the budget. To support successful delivery on our purpose and outcomes and to meet our public sector equality duties, we expect policies and activities to be subject to the equality impact assessment process.

During the debate on the economy on 30 April 2009, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth confirmed that a carbon assessment of expenditure would be published with the 2010-11 budget proposals, making it available for parliamentary scrutiny at the same time. This intention was reflected in motion S3M-4004 passed at the end of that debate, and work is currently on-going to deliver that assessment. Some policy areas such as transport already include carbon as part of their appraisal of proposals, and we are continuing to develop an assessment method which can be applied more widely across government at the level of plans, policies and projects.

The Scottish Government''s end-year flexibility (EYF) balance was last published in HM Treasury''s Public Expenditure Outturn White Paper (PEOWP) issued in July 2008. This recorded a balance of £952 million. £313 million has been drawn down in 2008-09 and there is an agreement with HM Treasury to access a further £400 million in 2009-10 and £174 million in 2010-11. Any EYF generated in 2008-09 will be announced as part of my provisional outturn statement in late June and the total EYF balance will be next published by HM Treasury in July 2009.

Details of the allocation of the Barnett consequentials will be announced shortly, following discussions between Scottish ministers.