§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will give the total cash-releasing cost improvements advanced by each health board in each year from 1979 to the latest available date.
§ Mr. John MacKayInformation on cash-releasing cost improvements has been sought from health boards only since 1985–86. The cash-releasing cost improvements achieved in 1985–86 and boards' estimates for 1986–87 are as follows.
£'000 Health Board 1985–86 1986–87 Argyll and Clyde 515 1,666 Ayrshire and Arran 805 1,115 Borders 144 269 Dumfries and Galloway 344 407 Fife 394 296 Forth Valley 421 496 Grampian 589 500 Greater Glasgow 1,670 5,520 Highland 334 577 Lanarkshire 1,570 1,927 Lothian 2,894 4,200 Orkney 38 — Shetland 45 74 Tayside 1,274 1,374 Western Isles 45 109 TOTAL 11,082 18,530 Boards are permitted to retain the sums released by cost improvements.
§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will give the total cash released through the competitive tendering process by each health board, giving category of service and total, for each year from 1979 to the latest available date.
§ Mr. John MacKayScottish health boards and the Common Services Agency were first asked in 1983 to test the cost-effectiveness of their domestic, catering and laundry services by putting them out to tender. They have been asked to adopt a programme of competitive712W tendering which should be completed by April 1988. Boards' latest estimates of savings directly attributable to competitive tendering are given below. In addition significant savings have been made by efforts to improve the efficiency of the relevant in-house services.
Health board 1985–86 £000
1986–871 £000
Argyll and Clyde — — Ayrshire and Arran Domestic 52 — Catering 9 — 61 Borders Domestic — 41 Dumfries and Galloway — — Fife Domestic 11 — Catering 8 — 19 Forth Valley Domestic 8 — Grampian — — Greater Glasgow — — Highland — — Lanarkshire Domestic — 29 Lothian — — Tayside Domestic 91 47 Catering 27 51 118 98 Common Services Agency Domestic 10 — Catering 8 — 18 ALL BOARDS Domestic 172 117 Catering 52 51 224 168 1 To December 1986. The three island health boards—Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles—were exempted from seeking tenders because of size and geography.