Annual Reports
Buckingham Palace: The Royal Public Finances annual report, which includes details of public expenditure on property & travel, states that Head of State expenditure for 2008-09 at £41.5m (including VAT of £2.1m) has increased by 1.5% in real terms. Over the past eight years it has decreased in real terms by 1.3%.
Sir Alan Reid, Keeper of the Privy Purse, said: “The money provided by the taxpayer to enable The Queen to fulfil her role as Head of State, is equivalent to 69 pence per person in the country. This is the annual cost, not the daily, weekly or monthly cost and is lower in real terms than it was in 2001……………. Expenditure on Royal Travel has increased due principally to lower availability of aircraft from the RAF and the consequential increase in the use of commercial charter aircraft, often at short notice.
Head of State Expenditure is met from public funds in exchange for the surrender (by The Queen to the Government) of the revenue from the Crown Estate and other hereditary revenues. The Treasury’s gross receipts in respect of the Crown Estate were £211m in 2007-08.
FRAB: The Financial Reporting Advisory Board (FRAB) has published its 12th annual report, which highlights that ‘satisfactory progress has been made to date by government departments in implementing the Treasury’s trigger point strategy for the application of EU adopted international financial reporting standards, from 2009-10’.
The Board also reports that it has agreed the extension of its remit to include oversight of the Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting in the United Kingdom, with effect from 2010-2011, when local authorities complete the move to IFRS-based financial reporting.
DH: The GP Patient Survey, the biggest healthcare survey of its kind, found that overall satisfaction with surgeries was high at 91%, but there is still room for improvement in accessing GP services, especially getting through on the phone and being able to make appointments more than 48 hours in advance.
Patients were also able to feedback on their practice nurse for the first time this year with overwhelmingly positive results. The majority (92%) find it easy to see a practice nurse and rated them highly on a range of factors from listening to them and asking about their symptoms, to explaining treatment & involving patients in decisions about their care.
DH: The fourth annual set of local Health Profiles has been published. The Profiles provide a snapshot of health for each council area in England using key health measures, which enables comparison locally, regionally and in some cases over time. They are designed to help local councils and the NHS decide where to target action and resources in their area.
They have been used successfully for a variety of purposes including:
* informing Joint Strategic Needs Assessments & other strategic plans
* preparing briefings for senior officials at national, regional & local level
* supporting funding applications for third sector organisations
* identifying neighbourhood baseline data for inequalities target
ScotGov: Scotland has the talent and resilience to retain & reaffirm its position as a global financial centre, First Minister Alex Salmond told academics in Glasgow last week. In an address to The Institute for Advanced Studies at Strathclyde University, he said that ‘even in the current economic climate there were new opportunities that would reaffirm the competitive edge of Scotland's financial services industry’.
Last Month the Scottish Government and financial services industry published the annual report of joint industry advisory board FiSAB. It showed that Scotland continues to build the conditions necessary for future growth in financial services, while particular sectors - including insurance & fund management - continue to perform well.
