News Story

The Scottish Government did not do “any work” before announcing its “back of a fag packet” plans to cut the number of NHS health boards from 14 to just two, the Public Service Reform Secretary has been told.

Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser challenged Ivan McKee on the Government’s plans to reform public services.

First Minister John Swinney has said he will transform the public sector as he grapples with a near £5 billion budget black hole by the end of the decade.

But speaking to Holyrood’s Public Service Reform Committee, Mr McKee refused to say how many jobs will be cut a figure unions put in the tens of thousands.

Mr Fraser said it appeared the Scottish Government had not done “very much” work on its key plans for NHS reform.

“It all sounds like you come up with this idea on the back of a fag packet and you haven’t actually done any work to back it up,” he said to Mr McKee.

“In terms of detail, there’s no modelling, there’s no detail, there are no targets for savings by department.”

The Public Service Reform Secretary said the Government still had to “work through the details” of its plans.

He told MSPs the shake-up of NHS health boards was designed primarily to improve access for patients, although he said there would be “significant financial savings”.

Pressed on how much money could be saved, Mr McKee said the Health Secretary was leading the work on NHS reforms, adding: “They’re going through a process at the moment to put the business case together for that.

“We had to signal the intent so that we didn’t go into a loop of talking about this forever.”

Mr McKee rejected Mr Fraser’s claim that the Government had not carried out enough work for its public service reforms.

He told MSPs: “Quite a bit of work has been done, but as I say, the detailed numbers will come forward as they work through the details on that.”

The minister said he made “no apology” for moving on with the reforms before all the details were known, saying: “The scale of this is that you will never know all the answers to everything.”