Funding for Grantown on Spey Medical Practice: FOI release

Information requested

1. By whom was the decision taken to pause funding of the refurbishment project?

2. What capital funding projects are scheduled for completion by NHS Highland in 2024/25 and what criteria have been used for giving these projects precedence over the Grantown project?

Response

1. As a result of the UK Government failing to inflation-proof its capital budget, latest forecasts show the Scottish Government’s block grant for capital is expected to reduce in real terms by 8.7% by 2027-28 – a cut of over £1.3 billion. Following this, the Scottish Government wrote to NHS Boards to pause new capital projects and any project development spend, otherwise the costs may need to be funded from local formula capital budgets, while we prepare a revised infrastructure investment pipeline that takes into account the difficult financial situation we are operating in. On receipt of that letter, NHS Highland took the decision to pause refurbishment of Grantown on Spey Medical Centre.

2. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for because the Scottish Government is not directly funding any capital projects in the NHS Highland area in 2024/25. NHS Highland may be funding capital projects from its own capital budget but the Scottish Government does not have that information.

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.