HC Deb 04 February 1987 vol 109 cc711-2W
Mr. Meacher

asked 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 MacKay

Information 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. Meacher

asked 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 MacKay

Scottish 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 competitive 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.

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