– Scottish Parliament written question – answered at on 22 February 2011.
Question S3W-39310
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will confirm that the amount budgeted for distinction awards in the 2010-11 draft budget is £30 million in cash and £29.6 million in real terms and that this represents a 7.1% and 5.6% increase respectively on the amount budgeted in 2009-10.
I confirm that the draft budget for distinction awards for 2010-11 was £30 million. However, in March 2010, I accepted the recommendation of the Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Body that there should be no uplift in the value of the existing awards in 2010-11 and also announced that there would be no new awards for that year. This meant that only recyclable awards i.e. those becoming available through retirals, resignations, deaths and award holders leaving NHS Scotland for any other reason could be re-distributed. The budget for 2010-11 did not therefore increase, remaining at the 2009-10 level of £28 million and the number of awards was frozen at the 2009-10 level. The Scottish Advisory Committee on Distinction Awards has recently provided the funding reconciliation for 2010-11 which shows an actual spend of just over £27 million for 2010-11, indicating a £1 million saving in 2010-11. This additional saving is caused by award holders leaving the scheme due to retiral etc throughout the year and therefore not receiving a full year’s payment.
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