Health Board Funding Allocation: FOI release

Information requested

1. How health board funding allocation is decided upon before being put into the government’s planned budget, in general.
2. The methodology used by officials in recommending to ministers how much funding should be allocated to different health boards, and how much each should be changed annually, in general.
3. The answers to 1 & 2, specifically for the 2024-25 budget.
4. Copies of all correspondence between health boards and Scottish Government officials relating to health board funding allocation in the 2024-25 budget, from January 1st 2023 to present date.
5. Copies of all correspondence between Scottish Government officials and Scottish Ministers relating to health board funding allocation in the 2024-25 budget, from January 1st 2023 topresent date.

Response

The answer to your question is:

"How health board funding allocation is decided upon before being put into the government’s planned budget, in general"

Health Board funding allocations are determined via review of the prior year baseline allocations and applying a number of adjustments to arrive at an updated value for Health Boards. These adjustments include; inflationary uplifts, incorporating prior years recurring allocation funding, and recent pay uplifts.

"The methodology used by officials in recommending to ministers how much funding should be allocated to different health boards, and how much each should be changed annually, in general".

Health Board funding is then guided through use of the NRAC formula. The formula is an objective measure of the need for health care services across Scotland. It considers the population share of each Board adjusted for the age/sex composition of the population, the relative health needs due to morbidity and life circumstances, and the excess cost of delivering healthcare to rural and remote areas.

The formula is not designed to establish the budgets of individual Boards but rather provides a basis for distribution of the national health budget in a way that takes into account local need.

The approach taken by the Scottish Government has been to move Boards towards parity gradually over a number of years. Currently, Health Boards sit no further than 0.6% away from parity. Adjustments are made to their budget to ensure this threshold is achieved. For 2024/25 these adjustments are noted below.

"The answers to 1 & 2, specifically for the 2024-25 budget"

For the overall health board funding allocation, please see Document 1, Attachment 1.
For the NRAC adjustment please see the table below.

	NRAC Parity Adjustment (£m)
Ayrshire and Arran	0.2
Borders	1.5
Fife	7.2
Forth Valley	2.1
Grampian	2.2
Lanarkshire	6.9
Lothian	10.2
Orkney	0.8
Total	31.1

"Copies of all correspondence between health boards and Scottish Government officials relating to health board funding allocation in the 2024-25 budget, from January 1st 2023 to present date"

"Copies of all correspondence between Scottish Government officials and Scottish Ministers relating to health board funding allocation in the 2024-25 budget, from January 1st 2023 to present date"

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested in the attachments to this document.

Exemptions under section 30(b) – free and frank provision of advice or exchange of views and section 38(1)(b) - the personal data of a third party of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested.

An exemption under section 30(b)(i) of FOISA (free and frank provision of advice) applies to some of the information requested. This exemption applies because disclosure would, or would be likely to, inhibit substantially the free and frank provision of advice. This exemption recognises the need for officials to have a private space within which to provide free and frank advice to Ministers before the Scottish Government reaches a settled public view.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in allowing a private space within which officials can provide full and frank advice to Ministers, as part of the process of exploring and refining the Government’s health board funding allocation. Premature disclosure is likely to undermine the full and frank discussion of issues between Ministers and officials, which in turn will undermine the quality of the policy making process, which would not be in the public interest.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (the personal data of a third party) applies to personal information of third parties.

[OUT OF SCOPE] has been used to remove general conversation within documents that has no relation or subsequent value to fulfilling the request. General email greetings and conversation between staff on off topic subjects are considered out of scope and removed.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202400403844 - Information released - Attachment 1-2

File type

81 page PDF

File size

2.8 MB